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Steve Swallow's basses?

#41
Steve Swallow sounds good no matter what instrument he plays. He's a real musician. Personally, I liked the sound he got on a Fender P when he was in his earlier days on electric bass and playing more straight ahead jazz. But, that's my preference in music.
 
#42
From the interview with Steve in the current issue of 'Bass Player':

"Steve Swallow’s one-of-a-kind Citron bass is the product of an exceptionally collaborative process, and both Swallow and builder Harvey Citron are quick to admit that it’s a continual work in progress. Swallow’s current instrument is his sixth Citron. Designed to maximize the bass’s acoustic properties, it is completely hollow except for the upper bout, which contains its stock EMG preamp. The six EMG piezo transducers feed three separate buffers, each with a trim pot for adjusting each pickup’s relative gain. The bass and treble EQ controls are in the cavity, and are permanently set for maximum bass boost and treble cut. The bass has a 36" scale, high action, and unusually narrow string spacing.

Swallow uses stock La Bella roundwounds (tuned EADGC) and custom copper picks.

Citron recently introduced a similar model with a more
conventional string spacing. Look for a review in an upcoming issue of Bass Player."
 
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#43
62 BASS,

Which records have SS on PBass? I have much of his/Carla's more recent stuff, but I would love to hear him on more straight ahead things with a P. I don't love his current tone, but I think his musicality and compositional ability more than make up for his tone, which isn't bad--just not my favorite. It's funny, I have read on this board (maybe this thread?) that he doesn't have chops, but I think the greatest chops is the ability to place the right note in the right place with a great feel. Much harder to do this than all the lightning fast masturbating...wait a minute, I'm ranting off topic.

Jmal
 
#44
jmal said:
62 BASS,

Which records have SS on PBass? I have much of his/Carla's more recent stuff, but I would love to hear him on more straight ahead things with a P. I don't love his current tone, but I think his musicality and compositional ability more than make up for his tone, which isn't bad--just not my favorite. It's funny, I have read on this board (maybe this thread?) that he doesn't have chops, but I think the greatest chops is the ability to place the right note in the right place with a great feel. Much harder to do this than all the lightning fast masturbating...wait a minute, I'm ranting off topic.

Jmal
Click to expand...

Sorry to take so long to answer Jmall.

I can't recall the names of the early albums that Swallow played on. I had a couple in vinyl back in the 60s and don't have anything of his now. But, if you do a search you should be able to find something from that era that showcases the tone he got on P bass.

I agree with you about his musicality and soloing. That's the key-the guy is a real musician, not just a wanker.
 
#49
I picked up the new trio release with him, Scofield and Bill Stewart. It's VERY good. His playing is phenomenal throughout. His walking lines are very melodic and logical and all of his solos have something to say, not just a flurry of notes. Chops are a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. I'll take a melodically gifted player over fireworks any day.
His tone...it's interesting. I like it in increments. When soloing up on the neck it sounds great, when holding down the low end it can be a bit too balloon-y for me at times.
 
#50
jmal said:
Which records have SS on PBass? I have much of his/Carla's more recent stuff, but I would love to hear him on more straight ahead things with a P.
Click to expand...
I saw him playing a Fender in the early 1980's. I believe it was a P bass with an added J pickup, and the pickups were early Bartolinis. Swallow was playing with Gary Burton's group, and they had just released Easy as Pie, which is not available on CD. He was probably using that same bass on the stuff with John Scofield and Adam Nussbaum (like Shinola), and on his own album Home.

I loved his sound on that bass.
 
#53
David Benyahia said:
Steve was certainly still using the Gibson in '74 (there used a be a vid of the Gary Burton band on Youtube). He was certainly using the Precision on those early Scofield trio discs - I linked a pic on the first page of this thread.
Click to expand...
I think he was using the Gibson into 1977. I listened to Gary Burton's Times Square recently, and came to the conclusion that it was the EB-2. That was recorded in '77.

BTW, Times Square is a fine album, a little more straight-ahead than most of Burton's ECM recordings. Tiger Okoshi on trumpet and Roy Haynes on drums.
 
#54
Hey, thanks for that link- it's cool to see my old bass in action. When I got it, it didn't have the bridge pickup and I'm trying to remember, but I think a piece of plastic was covering the hole. I never was able to ascertain what kind of funky custom pickup was in the neck, but as you can hear, it was quite mid- rangey (though that offset the natural Gibson boominess nicely, and he had left the bass boost circuit in line). I used Labella flats on it and it sounded like the Yardbirds. The cover on the pickup was quite abused and scratched when I got it. It looks black in the video and when I had it, there was black around the edges, but the middle had been scratched down to bare aluminum (or something similar). As I said, it really was a great bass- it just had a bad sense of direction. Landing problems.
 
#59
On the topic of Steve Swallow's basses, the current issue of 'Bass Player' has a review of the new Citron AE5 Swallow model (same spec as Steve's bass, but with wider string spacing).

Review and photos here:
Invalid Link Removed


Now Harvey Citron just needs to update his website (hasn't been done in years).
 
#60
A couple of nice albums that feature steve swallow are also:
-Quiet,shinola,out like a light,en route by john scofield,
-three guys by koniz/motian/swallow,
-tin pan aliens,trio,(both by jonas johansen, steve swallow,hans ulrik)
-a bums tale by ohad talmor( he has done some arrangements of ss tunes),
-twin falls ( duett album with deidre rodman),
-a bunch of carla bley albums( I am not a CB fan at all,but ss plays on the albums),
-old new times ( mirabassi/taylor/swallow),
-fly away little bird(jimmy guifre),
-life of a trio(two albums,saturday and sunday-jimmy guifre)
-uncharted land(NHOP)
-we three-three for all(liebman,nussbaum,swallow)
-childhood is forever(steve kuhn
-bobby prevites bump( b.previte)
-unity( ernie watts)
-grey( swallow/puschnig/elias./lewis)
-flight of the blue jay,monk and powell,reincarnation of a lovebird(paul motian-electric bebop band)

I think thats all the ones i have sitting here( not mentioning the swallow solo records and carla bleys)
Hope the titles are accurate as I dont have them infront of me...:-)

My current favourites are realbook,a bums tale,shinola/out like a light,quiet and the trio records-trio,we three.This however changes on a daily basis with a bums tale and we three as well as real book having lived in my favourites drawer for a while.
 
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