Hey guys,
First post here so I’m not sure if this is in the right thread. Anyway, I’ve been going back and listening to all of my recordings of Scott LaFaro (especially the two Village Vanguard live albums). One thing I’m always struck by is how even though he plays quite fast, he has this incredible tone that is very full and booming.
I was wondering how one can achieve a tone similar to his on the album. How much of this has to do with bass setup, right hand technique, strings, amplification, etc.
Thanks for the help!
If you read interviews with Barrie Kolstein (son of Sam Kolstein, who was Scott's luthier), he gives a lot of insight as to what Scott was working with. He *probably* played only gut strings, since he died in 1961, a time when steel wouldn't have been used by most jazz guys yet. Barrie affirms that Scott had
very low action, especially for the time, on his bass. This makes sense as well, since a combination of gut strings and low action would have meant that his instrument probably had very little tension and easy to play, and explains a lot of his unprecedented technical achievements. Since being restored by Barrie, we can hear that his bass had a lot of natural projection to it even with low action (check out Phil Palombi's videos), which explains how he could still compete sonically with such an easy setup, since low tension strings + low action generally results in a small sound, regardless of technique.
As hard as it is to say, while Scott definitely had an incredible technique on the bass (in both the left and right hands), a critical part of his sound on those recordings was the nature of his instrument himself. Trying to copy Scott's setup with an average or even good-sounding bass won't get you what you're looking for, because the ease of play might be there, but the sound probably just won't project in the way that he was able to.
My suggestion always would be to just shoot for a medium, versatile setup (6-8mm on the G, with quality pizz-oriented strings), and work on
how you play rather than
what you're playing on. The key to a strong sound, for me at least, has been playing with one finger pointed straight downward so that the tip of my finger is just barely below the edge of the fingerboard. I try to pull the string with both hand muscle and the weight of my arm. People will say it's important to practice without an amplifier, but you should also force yourself to PLAY with other people without one, because guys like Scott, along with Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Garrison, etc. all got their individual, high-quality sounds from this, since amplifiers didn't exist when they came up as bass players.
You'd be surprised at the difference between your sound behind the bass and in front of it once you try playing only acoustically. And when you do plug in, the sound will be so much better in terms of quality, since most of it will be coming from your instrument, with only a little help from the amplifier. Since doing this, I've found that the amplifier has gone from a crutch that I relied on for everyone else to hear me, to a tool that just helps me hear myself in situations where I couldn't hear myself, but with most of the sound still coming from the instrument itself. I think this kind of practice will help you find a bass sound that you're satisfied with as well.
) but the in my opinion the important question is: why do you want to sound like Scott LaFaro? Why don't you try to get your own sound, your "voice"? As Christian McBride often says: "Your sound is your signature!" 
