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Reggae bass

#22
Double Agent said:
I love a good Jazz, but I don't think it would be beefy enough for deep dub/reggae tones. Too much high mids.

I would get a Precision w/flats for that. Roll the tone knob back about halfway and you are thumpin'.
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+1.

I am a Jazz guy (I have 4 Fender Jazz basses and play them 95% of the time) but for me the best bass by far for Reggae is a Precision with flats. I agree about rolling the tone back to about 5 also. Maybe even 3.

I play a 1974 P live for only 3 songs (r&b and reggae) and it always sounds great.:bassist:
 
#23
Aston Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare managed alright with a Jazz...

Rolling off the tone on a P still sounds great, but I find rolling off more than a third on a J just sucks all the interesting tone out of it. I prefer to roll off bridge PUP most of the way and use flats to avoid too much high end.

I think a big mistake a lot of new reggae players make is to boost the lows too much, getting a lot of boom and mud instead of a big clean ruling tone. Get your sound at the bass and use a lot of power and speakerage to get your sound out front and to let the band sit on top of.
 
#24
Late seventies Tele with the mudbucker for dub stuff. A gibson EB3 (switch in the second position if I remeber correctly) rocks for that as well. I think a jazz will work ok but if I were doing that kinda music I would get one of the two I mentioned.
 
#25
The bass is unimportant, really. I've seen reggae bassists use a ton of different basses. If they can get a great dub sound out of a Steinberger, then they can get a great sound out of anything.
 
#26
alfredpunkjazz said:
I think that the other guy is talking about the plucking technique... nothing to do with a pick, but more in the hand, your fingers...
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exactly, i wasn't talking about using a pick......just talking about which hand

Like has been said before, the bass is almost a mute point.......it's all in your technique.
 
#28
JimmyM said:
The bass is unimportant, really. I've seen reggae bassists use a ton of different basses. If they can get a great dub sound out of a Steinberger, then they can get a great sound out of anything.
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I agree with you 100% and I have even played reggae on my Bongo 5 with new EB Super Slinkys. Sounded fine.

But would you recommend a Steinberger to someone asking what you thought was a good bass to buy to play reggae? I wouldn't.
 
#30
I have been playing reggae bass since 1973 & have opened for most big name reggae bands you could name. Many use a Jazz. The most famous two bassists in reggae-Aston & Robbie both use a Jazz strung with flats. You can certainly get a dub sound out of a Jazz OR a Pbass. That being said, I use an Elrick 5 string onstage. In the studio anything goes & I have used a Fender Jazz, a Modulus Jazz, a Spector 5, a '78 fretless P, a Squire Jazz, the Elrick 5, a Heartfield 5, a Carvin LB75F & even a Peavey Foundation. Play up near the neck pickup, listen to Family Man & Robbie & Val Douglas & most of all: find the finest herbs you can get & you and the drummer on the same page.
 
#31
Moe Monsarrat said:
I have been playing reggae bass since 1973 & have opened for most big name reggae bands you could name. Many use a Jazz. The most famous two bassists in reggae-Aston & Robbie both use a Jazz strung with flats. You can certainly get a dub sound out of a Jazz OR a Pbass. That being said, I use an Elrick 5 string onstage. In the studio anything goes & I have used a Fender Jazz, a Modulus Jazz, a Spector 5, a '78 fretless P, a Squire Jazz, the Elrick 5, a Heartfield 5, a Carvin LB75F & even a Peavey Foundation. Play up near the neck pickup, listen to Family Man & Robbie & Val Douglas & most of all: find the finest herbs you can get & you and the drummer on the same page.
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Man, I'd love to hear some stories from you about playing with the masters. Can you tell me more about Val Douglas? I've heard his name before (in connection with Niney, and Bunny Lee, maybe?) but I can't place him. edited to add: I just remembered- he plays on that incredible and rare thing, a real reggae 'album', called 'Sarge', behind Delroy Wilson. What a musicianly workout: that's an album for people who don't necessarily get into Reggae but love what a bass can do.

There's some great footage of Lloyd Parkes playing an EBO outdoors, backing up U-Roy and Dennis brown, from the incredible 'Heartland Reggae' film, but it's pretty rare to see them in that setting- more often Rivolis, like the Black Ark house bass, or hollowbody Gibsons if at all.

A Steinberger L2 (way warmer than the XL2, I've owned both and even A/b'd them)with the LaBella DB flats sounds great live in a reggae setting- I've heard Bagga and Robbie Shakespeare play them live and it was kicking.

Anyway, it's not the basses, it's the spaces that take you places.
 
#33
Baird6869 said:
I agree with you 100% and I have even played reggae on my Bongo 5 with new EB Super Slinkys. Sounded fine.

But would you recommend a Steinberger to someone asking what you thought was a good bass to buy to play reggae? I wouldn't.
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I don't think it matters, although never played one checkt his out, i think he gets a real nice tone!

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augustus pablo & soul syndicate band :) :bassist: :bassist: :bassist: :hyper:
 
#34
I love playing reggae & dub and like others have said the right touch and the proper irie frame of mind ;) are more important than gear. When you're doing it right you're not playing reggae, reggae's playing you. A lot of the classic tunes were recorded on a shoestring budget by people living in poverty and using whatever was at hand.

I worked in a kitchen with an Antiguan Rasta for about 9 years. At the beginning I didn't really like reggae. After hearing the same songs over and over again--Come Again, Selecta!--it really grew on me.

I've gone to a lot of reggae shows and heard bassists get great sounds from Fender P & J basses, Ibanez Soundgears, Steinbergers, StingRays, Modulus etc.

At the big festivals the acts all share the same backline (usually Ampegs) and nearly all the bassists I've seen (besides big-name oldtimers like Fully Fullwood) play 5 strings.
 
#36
JimmyM said:
The bass is unimportant, really. I've seen reggae bassists use a ton of different basses. If they can get a great dub sound out of a Steinberger, then they can get a great sound out of anything.
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What he said. More vital to that classic reggae bass sound are flatwound strings (and even that might not matter a whole lot to some players) and a lack of high end.
 

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