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Tic Tac Bass Examples?
- Thread starter turf3
- Start date
Harold Bradley is doing the tic tac thing on a Fender VI here.
Easier to hear the effect on this Elvis song.
Probably can find examples of it on most country songs from a majority of the 50s and 60s.
Easier to hear the effect on this Elvis song.
Probably can find examples of it on most country songs from a majority of the 50s and 60s.
From what I have read, record producers of Nashville Country and Western music in the late 1950's wanted some extra edge on top of the upright bass in their recordings:
Here were the general tic-tac bass guidelines:
1) Danelectro six-string bass, Fender Bass VI, or similar short scale bass or A-a / B-b baritone
2) Flatwound strings
3) Flat pick playing
4) Double each note with the upright bass
5) Foam or palm mute
Here is a good example of the sound:
Here it is being simulated with a single Danelectro Longhorn 4-string:
If you put on headphones you can clearly hear the doubling up (electric bass and upright bass) on this one:
In addition, you mentioned you may find yourself "in a two bass situation". If can get a short scale six-string bass (E-e) you will find that it adapts well to it even outside of the tic-tac style.
Here were the general tic-tac bass guidelines:
1) Danelectro six-string bass, Fender Bass VI, or similar short scale bass or A-a / B-b baritone
2) Flatwound strings
3) Flat pick playing
4) Double each note with the upright bass
5) Foam or palm mute
Here is a good example of the sound:
Here it is being simulated with a single Danelectro Longhorn 4-string:
If you put on headphones you can clearly hear the doubling up (electric bass and upright bass) on this one:
In addition, you mentioned you may find yourself "in a two bass situation". If can get a short scale six-string bass (E-e) you will find that it adapts well to it even outside of the tic-tac style.
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So, at the "friends playing tunes in the living room" level, would a four string short scale bass, flatwound strings, all the bass rolled off and all the treble boosted, played with a pick, be a reasonable facsimile? I think I'm going to find myself playing in a situation with another upright player; two uprights ain't gonna cut it. But adding that "click" to the front end might be something of interest.
I'd be willing to put $150 into a used short scale bass and some strings to try it out, but I don't think I would want to put $500+ into one of the six stringers, plus learning how to play it.
I'd be willing to put $150 into a used short scale bass and some strings to try it out, but I don't think I would want to put $500+ into one of the six stringers, plus learning how to play it.
Yes - that would be a reasonable assumption. Especially if you can get your hands on a Danelectro or something similar. Note how that guy in the second video is coming up with a very good simulation of the desired sound.
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You can use flats if you want, but rounds will get you closer to the original sound. And you don't need to roll off all the bass or boost the treble. Just use the bridge pickup and a pick. You might add some reverb as well. It was common for the Bass VI part to be recorded through a guitar amp.
The real reason for tic tac bass was that the speakers most people used for listening to the radio didn't reproduce bass very well. Not unlike people listening on phones or laptop speakers today. So if you only had upright on a song it couldn't be heard in cars, or if someone was listening on a hand-held transistor radio. By doubling the same notes with a much twangier instrument the bass part would be audible.
Producers could also effectively EQ the bass by mixing in more or less of the upright and VI tracks. And compress them separately. Exactly like people still do today by mixing a DI with a mic'd speaker track.
Yes - but try out the bass first. Some that have humbuckers like Gibsons/Epiphones might have a hard time getting that tone. A Fender/Squier short scale might be a good one to test out for this.
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I agree with everything you say here, but I'm skeptical of how well roundwounds would give the proper simulation since they weren't really in use during the heyday of the tic-tac sounds. I believe that roundwounds would be better for getting that Duane Eddy type of sound.
Rounds were the normal strings used on Dano 4 and 6 string basses and Fender Bass VI's. That's part of why they were used instead of long scale 4 strings prior to 1966.
The baritone guitar, picked and palm-muted, with a lot of reverb. I had a Danelectro Hodad baritone that could nail the tic tac.
Just to add to the fine examples given above, the guitarist in the Drifting Cowboys (Hank Williams's band) was an early tic-tac-er with a standard electric guitar. Listen to "Jambalaya" or "Setting the Woods on Fire." The guitar is hitting, muted, the root bass notes on 1 and 2-note chords on 2.
Just to add to the fine examples given above, the guitarist in the Drifting Cowboys (Hank Williams's band) was an early tic-tac-er with a standard electric guitar. Listen to "Jambalaya" or "Setting the Woods on Fire." The guitar is hitting, muted, the root bass notes on 1 and 2-note chords on 2.
It's hard to determine when Danelectro switched to installing stock roundwound strings as stated in the famous John Entwistle story regarding the recording of "My Generation", but I do believe the original UB-2 (mid 1950's) may have used flats:
Danelectro's UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses
However, you may still be correct about them using rounds all the way from the beginning since, if I recall correctly, the necks were not well reinforced and rounds would have, of course, provided less tension.
EDIT: I just found a link from Duane Eddy, and he seems to confirm that rounds were used on the Danelectro UB-2, so I guess my original beliefs were wrong:
Duane Eddy: Sultan of Twang
Here he is discussing his new "tic tac twang" guitar from Gretsch:
The Fender Bass VI, however, is a different story.
The original Fender Bass VI that was released in 1961 was strung with flats. I know this because a fiend of mine owns a 1961 Fender Bass VI that still has the original strings on it. He also has an original package of strings from that era.
I myself bought one of the last production Fender Bass VI models back in 1974 (I stupidly sold it a few years later). It arrived to the store strung with Fender flats. When I bought a 2006 Custom Shop Bass VI, it arrived with rounds and Jaguar bridge that never really worked properly, so I swapped it out for a Staytrem custom bridge. I used the rounds on it for quite a few years, but they never really had that tic-tac sound. As I mentioned earlier they sounded more like a deep throated guitar, much like this good example of a Fender Bass VI strung with rounds:
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So this old thread was the most recent one I found from a quick search… so here’s a 2025 update, I noticed a popular trending tune lately in TikTok videos that has a perfect example of tic-tac bass going on…
“Pretty Little Baby”, by Connie Francis, 1962
In my earbuds the upright bass is panned hard right, the tic-tac bass hard left. The tic-tac here is a prime example of the sound and style, a little bit busier but never really conflicting with the upright part. I transcribed them both for fun.
“Pretty Little Baby”, by Connie Francis, 1962
In my earbuds the upright bass is panned hard right, the tic-tac bass hard left. The tic-tac here is a prime example of the sound and style, a little bit busier but never really conflicting with the upright part. I transcribed them both for fun.
Also, just about every Patsy Cline hit song (and also the lesser known ones) features quintessential tic-tac bass, and frequently in hard panned stereo (idk if it’s like that in original releases or maybe more so in remasters). I spent some time studying the Patsy tunes when I played bass in a production of “Always… Patsy Cline”, essentially a staged theater production presenting all the hits along with the barest threads of a story…
The bass book for the show is scored for a single bass, and sorta splits the difference between the approaches of the upright bass parts and the tic-tac parts. I only played upright bass in the show, and made a point of leaning into that upright bass (Bob Moore’s parts) sound (plain gut G and D strings), and less so the tic-tac. As a result, I had to edit some of my parts to make them sound more appropriate and not too busy. Would have been fun to have a dedicated tic-tac player in the band, but I guess it wasn’t in the budget for the production (and they’d have to really rewrite the bass book, and produce a whole separate tic-tac book).
The bass book for the show is scored for a single bass, and sorta splits the difference between the approaches of the upright bass parts and the tic-tac parts. I only played upright bass in the show, and made a point of leaning into that upright bass (Bob Moore’s parts) sound (plain gut G and D strings), and less so the tic-tac. As a result, I had to edit some of my parts to make them sound more appropriate and not too busy. Would have been fun to have a dedicated tic-tac player in the band, but I guess it wasn’t in the budget for the production (and they’d have to really rewrite the bass book, and produce a whole separate tic-tac book).
