What strings for Reggae ? Flats ?

[bass12]

Hey Funky40... cool that you live in Switzerland, what a beautiful country! I went to Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden, Switzerland back in 1970-71. Churwalden is a small cow-farming village/ski area about 15-20 minutes outside Chur along the road to the Julier Pass. From looking at pictures of Churwalden online it appears that there has been little change since the time I lived there. Spent a week in Zurich as part of the program I was attending, nice city, loved the cathedral with the Chagall stained-glass windows. We also spent a couple of weeks outside of Geneva and I have also traveled through the south of Switzerland and spent time in St. Moritz. It is such a geographically diverse county... have always wanted to go back.

Good luck working on your reggae chops. I started doing the same during the initial lockdown. I have quite a bit few classic 70s reggae LPs in my collection but tend to gravitate toward the more rootsy artists like Ras Michael and Burning Spear. Also am very fond of the vocal trios like the Mighty Diamonds, Culture etc. Great music! Not sure if this is helpful but one of the guys in the Alembic club plays with Musical Youth, he plays long scale Alembic basses strung with round wounds and tends to roll off all the high end at the bass using the built in low-pass filters.

I’m with you on the vocal trios (The Heptones probably being my favourite). I backed the Mighty Diamonds a couple of times and that was a lot of fun (The Heptones’ “Party Time” was actually part of their set).

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Get a huge pile of records and woodshed.
The reggae feel is INCREDIBLY difficult to "get". Imo, if you ain't born into it, you'll always sounds like an outsider.
Family Man had a jazz bass with rounds.

Less gear more practice.

 

[bass12]

Get a huge pile of records and woodshed.
The reggae feel is INCREDIBLY difficult to "get". Imo, if you ain't born into it, you'll always sounds like an outsider.
Family Man had a jazz bass with rounds.

Less gear more practice.

Born into what exactly? None of the original reggae bassists grew up listening to reggae and most of the best-known guys have their own styles. If you have ears, discipline and respect for the music you’ll be fine.

 

[bikemusic]

Family Man had a jazz bass with rounds.

Yes, Family Man (Aston Barrett) had a Jazz with rounds. He also had a Hofner, which he gave to Robbie Shakespeare later.
From the Jamaica Observer: "Barrett became famous as bass player for The Wailers and Bob Marley's right-hand man in that band. He never forgot his protege, even giving him the Hofner bass Shakespeare played on Concrete Jungle, from The Wailers' Catch A Fire album."

 

[GIBrat51]

Heya,

i like to try some Reggae,
and just can´t get into that feel correctly.
I had some listening and i´d guess they use flats, right ?
Mandatory to use flats for reggae ?


i use a *very* modern setup Bass. NO P-Bass or so. (30-32" short- / multi- scale)
Nord BigBlades with East EQ/pre, semi-custom 4 Band. Nickelplated strings
Gives a *very* clear sounding sound.

To Note: NO Amp for me !
homeuse only ! I have a good tube-pre incl. onboard EQ. / also good headphones !

since Pyramid is for me in good reach to order, would i go with Pyramid flats.
just need the thumbs up from here, hehe.

sum up:
1. Flats, right ?
2. mandatory ?
edit: 3. do the flats need to be more "middly" or more "thumby" ?

Some people will insist that you have to use flat wound strings. Others will insist that you have to use old, almost worn out round wounds. Others will insist on tape wounds, or ground wounds, or roller wounds... just about kind of bass string. And, even among professional Reggae players, there is no real consensus. So, what do I recommend? Since I've played bass guitars with flat wounds for over 50 years now, and all but 3 of my 23 basses wear flats? You can probably guess what I would recommend - for me. But, for you? Use whatever kind of strings you really like to use. I've never heard of any "mandatory" strings, or hard and fast rules, for reggae...

 

[Funky40]

I've never heard of any "mandatory" strings, or hard and fast rules, for reggae...

yeah, it was probably not about rules rather than if it would help me.

i still have health issues. I can´t just play Bass as i like......
i need to keep play time low. So there´s also that.
......and i often grab a Bass while watching TV/Netflix.....and just would play unplugged

I should prepare me some Reggae loops, or Reggae drums.
/ reminder to myself !

 

[Selim]

Almost all of the Jamaican reggae bass players I know use rounds. Fams and Robbie S (rip) are the notable exceptions.

 

[KJMO]

There is reggae with synth bass (some of the london dub?). I would think you could get an awesome dub sound with an analog mono like a behringer model D, or their new Taurus clone. For me, when my fingers can't take guitar any longer, I can still play keyboard bass no prob, so if you have health issues, keyboard might be a nice change.

 

[Selim]

Get a huge pile of records and woodshed.
The reggae feel is INCREDIBLY difficult to "get". Imo, if you ain't born into it, you'll always sounds like an outsider.

You don’t have to be from the place where a music comes from in order to be able to play that music — BUT — you DO have to know where that music comes from and understand why that culture/environment produces the music that it does. That plus your love for that music and then you pay your dues and then that music becomes a part of you and nothing or nobody can take it away from you. You might not be an innovator in that music but you you can play it.