Recently joined a Prince tribute band....

[DWBass]

Prince was a huge Larry Graham fan and at some point insisted his bassists play 4 string Fenders or Fender like basses. Synth bass and octave pedals are used for songs lower than E. I've basically gone back to playing 4 strings. I do play my 5 but only on jazz gigs and when singers lower song keys a lot. Around here, 5's and 6's seem to be a 'thing'. I started playing 5's out of necessity in smooth jazz and gospel bands. I play mostly old school music these days.

 

[Rev J]

Then there is this:



I forgot how FUnky that was.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[superheavyfunk]

I

Then there is this:



I forgot how FUnky that was.

C/S,
Rev J

I wish there was more footage of him working in the studio... I've got so many questions! The best answers were on Prince.org but that place is a mess.

 

[Rev J]

It's funny to me from a production and musicological standpoint "Batdance" is a fascinating track. There are elements of kind of Preindustrial music, musique concrete, African Drumming, and straight up FUnk.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Prince was a huge Larry Graham fan and at some point insisted his bassists play 4 string Fenders or Fender like basses. Synth bass and octave pedals are used for songs lower than E. I've basically gone back to playing 4 strings. I do play my 5 but only on jazz gigs and when singers lower song keys a lot. Around here, 5's and 6's seem to be a 'thing'. I started playing 5's out of necessity in smooth jazz and gospel bands. I play mostly old school music these days.

I'm back to 4 strings as well. Easier for me to play and that's what I grew up listening to. To me, the funk is all about 4 strings.
The tone and feel is different. Some like it, some don't even notice it.

I tune my 4's F U N K. When I played 5's I tuned. F U N K Y. There is a difference !!
Lol

Seriously , all of my favorite bassist are 4 string player. Good enough for them, good enough for me. If I were interested in playing Urban Gospel or modern country pop I would play a 5 string . But like you, I prefer old school style music.

 

[malthumb]

Prince was a huge Larry Graham fan and at some point insisted his bassists play 4 string Fenders or Fender like basses. Synth bass and octave pedals are used for songs lower than E. I've basically gone back to playing 4 strings. I do play my 5 but only on jazz gigs and when singers lower song keys a lot. Around here, 5's and 6's seem to be a 'thing'. I started playing 5's out of necessity in smooth jazz and gospel bands. I play mostly old school music these days.

I hear you. I am playing more 4-string these days, but I have so many really nice 5-string basses that I doubt I'll ever get to playing more 4 than 5. My '78 Stingray and '79 Sabre get a lot of play time, but my Deluxe P5 with Sadowsky pre is ridiculously good and my Alembic 5 is an Alembic 5, so I have a lot of difficult (but all good) choices to make. The Stingray and Sabre do make the decisions tougher, though because they just feel natural and sound great.

 

[songwriter21]

Soooooo, we finally landed our singer.

 

[Rev J]

Did he bring pancakes?

C/S,
Rev J

 

[wintremute]

Prince did use a jazz a whole lot but he also said that his "Eye" Thumb was the best bass in the world and he used it extensively throughout the 90's. His bassist in the NPG also used warwicks exclusively. Rhonda used active basses (jazz and a stingray) during the Musicology tour, and Ida used her Sandberg for 3rdEyeGirl and the HitNRun tours. I think, in the end, theres just a few key points to playing Prince basslines:

1) 4 string only (Prince called 5 strings wierd mutants. Lol.)

2) punchy, active preamp

3) no overplaying, or ghost notes. He was very deliberate with note choice.

Listening to and learning Prince literally my whole life is the biggest reason why im even in this game today. I'm so glad that so many new folks have learned to love his music! I only wish that it could have happened before he died.

Any chance we could get some tabs of some of his songs?

 

[Savage_Dreams]

If "Most Beautiful" is a keyboard, well then I stand corrected! Still, no fours for me.

while its true prince favored 4 strings, and did make comments about 5's, sonny t played 5 strings, and even though prince is supposed to have played everything on Most Beautiful Girl, there were 5 strings around. it would be false to say there were no 5 string basses on prince music.