Tom Warrington Fretless P-bass

[Don Kasper]

Came across this YouTube video of a 1977 TV appearance - poor quality video but terrific playing. Now I'm gonna have to build a fretless P-bass

The pianist, Barry Keiner, was 19 at the time of this 1977 appearance(!) He passed away in 1986, of an overdose.
Tom Warrington is still in Los Angeles, still a fantastic musician, (mostly upright bass these days, I believe), and still a very funny cat.
He was teaching at U.N. Las Vegas until last year, I believe.
Thanks.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Tom Warrington is still in Los Angeles, still a fantastic musician, (mostly upright bass these days, I believe), and still a very funny cat.
He was teaching at U.N. Las Vegas until last year, I believe.

Good to hear. I studied arranging with Tom when he was teaching at Berklee...which would have been right around the time this Buddy Rich video was shot. Really sharp cat; I remember he had an incredibly comprehensive grasp of music that extended way beyond just being the bass player. He was an inspiration.

 

[Bob_Ross]

what was the amp he was using? It looked like a Peavey kilo- or sessionbass.

It reminded me of either an Earth or an SG Systems.

 

[Don Kasper]

Yeah - "sharp" is an understatement. Tom holds a Masters Degree in Composition from the Univ. of Illinois.
He hears it ALL!
I met him around this time in Rochester, NY, as well. He needed a water pump for his van, and I recommended a local shop to him, as I recall(!)
He was on/off the road with Buddy R., and would play with pianist Barry K., around town, in between tours.
A truly Great Cat, on many levels.
Thanks.

 

[CryingBass]

Tom Warrington must be one of the most underrated bassists out there for jazz / electric bass. There's a whole gig's worth of him playing fretless with Buddy Rich which i posted a while ago, i think he's an upright player so he nails the jazz vibe exceptionally well. Definitely a huge inspiration for me.

I'm not sure what he's playing through there but in other clips it's an SVT, and the musicality, tone and technique are amazing. Wish there was a proper recording somewhere, i've searched for his stuff and it's all upright (although it still kicks ass).

Buddy would not tolerate anything less, eh?

 

[Don Kasper]

My favorite Buddy Rich joke:

A saxophonist in Buddy's band calls the Manager for itinerary details for an upcoming tour and asks "What time does the bus leave?"
The Manager says - "I'm sorry, Buddy Rich died last night, and the tour has been cancelled."
The saxophonist calls back a week later, asking the same question...
The Manager repeats himself - " I'm sorry, Buddy died last week, and the tour has been cancelled."
The saxophonist calls every week for the next month, asking the same question, and gets the same answer.
Finally, the Manager says - "Look, you call every week, and ask the same question, and I give you the same answer: BUDDY. RICH. IS. DEAD. Why do you keep calling?"
The saxophonist replies "I guess I just like hearing it again..."

 

[Manticore]

Thank you for that. And my opinion? Natural body, no pickguard and unlined maple board.

 

[Lo-E]

Love that joke. I've heard it applied to a lot of different people.
Tony Levin has some interesting things to say about Buddy Rich in his book. Not scathing, but he doesn't paint a very nice picture of him.

Warrington's great. I'm pretty sure this is the first I've been made aware of him.

I got my '78 mocha P fretless from a friend who kept pawning it and finally begged me to buy it from him because he felt it deserved better. I told him he could always reverse the deal, no questions asked, but he's never asked for it back despite being in much better financial shape in recent years. He asked for a ridiculously low price, which I tripled and I still got it very cheap. It's a wonderful bass with a sound that fits very comfortably into a lot of different situations.

My vote: ebonol board, natural body stained just a little darker, black hardware, tort or black guard. Load a passive Bartolini P pickup in there - the old type with the warmer mids - and standard vol/tone. You'll be totally set.

 

[bassliner50]

Anyone feel free remind me what an idiot I was to trade the fretless P with plain rosewood board I bought new in '79. Lighter color body than the one Tom Warrington is playing but still a real beauty. I will be regretting that trade until the end of time.

If we learn from our mistakes, that is productive.

 

[Paul New]

I've always been fascinated by this kind of playing. Aside from listening to a lot of this kind of music, what does a bassist need to study and be expert at to walk the bass like this guy does. I mean, I can handle much simpler walking blues stuff (much much simpler), but this is on a whole different level. I assume lots of modal practice.

This is a life-long study. It's all about connecting chords, or key centers, in a melodic way and with perfect time. If you're serious, you will need a teacher. Meanwhile Ed Friedland's book "Walking Bass Lines" is a good place to start.

 

[AndyPanda]

Unlined! Keep the tort. If anything, I would stain the bass a more "walnutty" color. I love darker wood bodies with tort and dark fingerboards. Probably because I'm mainly an upright player.

Well I am just experimenting to see how it looks and tried your suggestion of a darker stain to the body and unlined neck (no tort at this point though).

BTW, it plays just fantastic with the Barden pickup and Roto 77 flats (I have a new set of TI jazz flats to try as well but it sounds awesome as it is).

 

[AndyPanda]

here it is with the tort guard just balanced to see how it looks. This particular tort was super cheap photo type tort just for experimenting with. I'd want to get a better tort if I decided to go tort. What do you say? Tort or no?

 

[sing-modulator]

TORT TORT TORT TORT TORT

 

[AndyPanda]

TORT TORT TORT TORT TORT

Would you go with that same shade tort?

 

[sing-modulator]

It would be cool to have a little darker brown/yellow tort instead

 

[jhb138]

I like it guard-less, myself.

 

[AndyPanda]

I like it guard-less, myself.

I'm leaning guardless - just because I like to save weight (notice I used plastic knobs instead of brass or chrome). The pickguard adds about 1/4-1/3 pound. I'm even inclined to put ultralight tuners on it and I could get it down to 8 pounds or maybe even under.

I wouldn't have guessed I'd like the darker stain - but I happened to have this stain on hand and gave it a try just to see. And I am really liking it so far.

 

[Copperhead]

Buddy would not tolerate anything less, eh?

I've always found it interesting that Rich, being rooted in the old school big band era, and reputed to be a ( fill in the blank ) of the highest order, had no problem accepting progressive music and younger musicians, as well as electric instruments.

 

[Leo Smith]

Reviving this thread just to share this Buddy Rich band video from 1978 with Tom on bass. I'm listening to it while reading this thread and looking up other things about Tom.



In the mid-90s as a new player, I worked through his two books (co-written with Steve Houghton) called "Essential Styles for the Drummer and Bassist". Good for easy reading as well as play-along experimentation.