I wouldn't think that "session legends" would always use a P bass. I know whether it be a live gig or or a session, depending upon the music, I might be playing one of 3 or 4 different basses I regularly play.
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Why do the session legends all use P basses? (SBL Video Discussion)
- Thread starter citizenchris099
- Start date
I wouldn't think that "session legends" would always use a P bass. I know whether it be a live gig or or a session, depending upon the music, I might be playing one of 3 or 4 different basses I regularly play.
I can't believe this thread. Maybe it's because I love my Fender "P". Or maybe it's because I've done some mixing, and understand how various instruments fit into a mix, and how that has pretty much nothing to do with what you bring to a gig?
It is entertaining though... ~reaches for more popcorn~ ...
It is entertaining though... ~reaches for more popcorn~ ...
I was really surprised by the ignorance and incompetence of the local public aswell
This thread just shows it all
I think the difference is that a lot of us here think we're Beethoven, rather than the seventh cellist.
When he first got it he was pissed because he asked for a p bass and fender sent him a prototype j bass to try.
But when she was doing a lot of sessions she wasn't playing that Ibanez bass. Funny enough though, she sounds like her on that bass too.
He was angry about playing the p bass at first too, he considered himself a upright player.
Thanks Paul Ill for chiming in, I have enjoyed your interviews on Bobby owsinski's podcast, and you've done way more recording work than I'll ever do.
My only session in a major studio was done with my 5 string reverend, and they were ok with it, but the flats I had on it were requested to be changed to rounds for the next session the following day to fit that particular music better by both the producer and engineer. They were changed by the next day as requested. There were other times rounds were requested of me and I obliged there too. If it made what the person producing the session envisioned able to happen, then it's not my business to tell them otherwise. Then there were times that there was more opportunity for discussion, but I knew who had the final say and it wasn't me.
0.47 onward. When a producer asks for something, you go get it!
What? How the heck did Adam Clayton get on THAT list of players. Sure he might play a jazz bass, but come on....
Sorry but that's just too much common sense and too reasonable a point of view for this forum. I'd rather be like the other posters that call the producers lazy or imply they are incompetent.
Laugh-out-loud...
And every P Bass had fairly heavy gauge flat wound strings. Not only that, it was a real point of pride how old the strings were. If they became too dirty, guys would boil them, and put them right back on. This was often mentioned in magazines like Downbeat at the time.
Elevator etiquette. You don't know what's going on in their heads.
Some people get nervous in elevators. The music calms their nerves. I'll take a session recording elevator music any ol' time. As long as the check doesn't bounce.
PS: Haven't done a session in decades.
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I owe you an apology if I failed to read the prior postings as carefully as I should have. Of course, many many great bass lines and recordings have been made using the Jazz Bass. In your example, though, whoever the producer was wisely didn't say anything regarding the Jazz Bass. Not that he couldn't have. It would have been a foolish thing to do. But as has been pointed out, record producers have been known to destroy artists material. I've seen it happen and heard of it happening even more.
No matter how much we love music, no matter how much we love bass. Once we start being paid, what we love becomes work, and I know of no work where you only get to do what you love. Whether it is playing songs you don't like, or whether it means leaving the house on a cold night when you would rather snuggle with your significant other. Being a working musician means do you have to sometimes do what you have to do, instead of what you want to do. Is it a surprise that sometimes doing what you have to do may include playing a P-bass ?
[QUOTE="alaskaleftybass, post: 22145890
You just can't get THAT SOUND out of any other bass if that's what you're looking for. To play devil's advocate against myself, one of my favorite albums of all time is Boz Scaggs Down Two Then Left. That is all Jazz bass, and it has impeccable tone on every track.
[/QUOTE]
Are you sure about that? Sounds like a '62 p bass with flats and the tone way up.
You just can't get THAT SOUND out of any other bass if that's what you're looking for. To play devil's advocate against myself, one of my favorite albums of all time is Boz Scaggs Down Two Then Left. That is all Jazz bass, and it has impeccable tone on every track.
[/QUOTE]
Are you sure about that? Sounds like a '62 p bass with flats and the tone way up.
Everyone here is right depending on his/her perspective. Music recording falls in between two extreme situations :
I -a producer wants to make money (hence spending as little as possible) with music that will please as many people as possible. Art has little to do in this.
II -an artist (or band) has a project, it doesn't matter if it pleases people (hopefully it will because everyone has to eat at the end of the day).
Of course these situations are extremes and recorded music falls in between these two types at various degrees. I can't help thinking we're more towards type I than, say, in the 70's (which were not my days I have to say).
I'm a hobbyist, don't play bass for a living, never put a foot in a studio and never will because it's not of my goals. So I believe people when they say the P-bass is a must. This is not breaking news. On the other hand, plenty of music I listen to (these days mostly jazz, funk and some old R&B) is presumably not recorded with a P-bass. I say presumably, because I admit that I focus more on the player's style than it's gear.
I -a producer wants to make money (hence spending as little as possible) with music that will please as many people as possible. Art has little to do in this.
II -an artist (or band) has a project, it doesn't matter if it pleases people (hopefully it will because everyone has to eat at the end of the day).
Of course these situations are extremes and recorded music falls in between these two types at various degrees. I can't help thinking we're more towards type I than, say, in the 70's (which were not my days I have to say).
I'm a hobbyist, don't play bass for a living, never put a foot in a studio and never will because it's not of my goals. So I believe people when they say the P-bass is a must. This is not breaking news. On the other hand, plenty of music I listen to (these days mostly jazz, funk and some old R&B) is presumably not recorded with a P-bass. I say presumably, because I admit that I focus more on the player's style than it's gear.
Maybe 30+ years ago. There are so many more options today....
I personally can say that there really isn't a bass I don't like, I just like some better than others. I can say that a p bass absolutely does not work well for church and worship music, at least where I'm playing. Too aggressive and clanky with my playing style. The warm, neutral generic tone is what we're after.
I personally can say that there really isn't a bass I don't like, I just like some better than others. I can say that a p bass absolutely does not work well for church and worship music, at least where I'm playing. Too aggressive and clanky with my playing style. The warm, neutral generic tone is what we're after.
Maybe you should check the discographies for Marcus and Nathan. Marcus was one of the first call session bassists in New York along with Franciso Cetano and Will Lee in the '70s and '80s and has recorded with Luther Vandross, Lonnie Liston Smith, Lenny White, and Aretha Franklin to name a few. Nathan got his start with Barry White and has recorded with Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Anita Baker, Daft Punk and many others.
Marcus with Luther Vandross:
Nathan East with Daft Punk:
They weren't hired just for their virtuosity.
poor Adam....he plays a very simple part in one hit single (and preserving a lot of space in the song that is supposed to border a melancholy feel) and a few other songs and he is eternally chastised for it........ I guess nobody wants to remember that he does have some decent basslines with movement, like "Two Hearts Beat As One".....
There are people here with way more experience in the studio than I have. There is something to be said about the social role of producer vs hired musician.
In the few sessions I've done, the producer is the king, and us musicians are there to make that producer's vision happen. If the producer wants a precision bass with flats on the track, I'll reach for it and happily use it because that person is paying me to make their art happen - to me, that's still a crazy concept - I'm being paid to make art. So many of my artist friends are in the "starving artist" category, and here I am with four or five strings making money to play what other people want me to play. Sometimes those other people can even play bass reasonably well.
It's humbling. Especially if you're like me, and not part of "the studio scene" and you're not well known, or trusted.
I've also had producers and engineers rave about my Lakland 55-02 sound, but only if I use a trick. That trick was to run the blend pot all the way over to the neck pickup. They seem to love that gooey, low-mid super-big round tone. I don't think anyone I've played in the studio for cared much for the sound of the other pickups on tracks, except for the art-rock band I was in years ago - but I was in that art-rock band, not a session player.
I learned that little neck-pickup trick from Dave Swift.
But I still always carry a Precision (actually a Fender FSR PJ but I never use the bridge pickup on it) with flats to every session and always take it out of the case FIRST as the producer/engineer is watching me... ;-)
How many people here have been paid to play on a session at a studio that charges by the hour?
In the few sessions I've done, the producer is the king, and us musicians are there to make that producer's vision happen. If the producer wants a precision bass with flats on the track, I'll reach for it and happily use it because that person is paying me to make their art happen - to me, that's still a crazy concept - I'm being paid to make art. So many of my artist friends are in the "starving artist" category, and here I am with four or five strings making money to play what other people want me to play. Sometimes those other people can even play bass reasonably well.
It's humbling. Especially if you're like me, and not part of "the studio scene" and you're not well known, or trusted.
I've also had producers and engineers rave about my Lakland 55-02 sound, but only if I use a trick. That trick was to run the blend pot all the way over to the neck pickup. They seem to love that gooey, low-mid super-big round tone. I don't think anyone I've played in the studio for cared much for the sound of the other pickups on tracks, except for the art-rock band I was in years ago - but I was in that art-rock band, not a session player.
I learned that little neck-pickup trick from Dave Swift.
But I still always carry a Precision (actually a Fender FSR PJ but I never use the bridge pickup on it) with flats to every session and always take it out of the case FIRST as the producer/engineer is watching me... ;-)
How many people here have been paid to play on a session at a studio that charges by the hour?
