Over the past few months I’ve been toying with the idea of acquiring a custom bass instrument for myself. I am pretty pleased with my 5 string, and I’ll probably keep it since it’s a Tony Levin signature model. But I think it’s possible to put something together that would be sort of an ultimate fretted bass for my needs.
Rehearsing with The Preons is always fun. Everybody shows up in a good mood, and we usually wind up spinning out some improvised sections within our songs. Last night we rolled through our usual live set (although in a random order) along with some of the new material we’re preparing for the next recording. Based on discussions last night, it appears we’ll be heading into the recording studio in March to begin laying down new tracks. This will coincide with the release party for the current CD “Starshine In The Devil Woods”. While I don’t appear on this release, I really like the music and am pleased at how well we play this material live. The previous bassist did an excellent job of composing lyrical melodic lines, and it’s given me a great foundation for understanding the style of the band.
Another change from last night was that I forgot to bring my custom earplugs *doh!* and wasn’t sure I wanted to stand right next to the drum set during rehearsal. So I moved out into the main part of the room with Josh and Brad. To my surprise, it actually sounds very good out there and is much easier to hear my vocals in the monitors. Since the volume level is lower in this part of the room, I’m thinking I might just permanently migrate. Sorry Janey. I’ll come visit your side of the room once in a while.
The more we work on new material, I come to realize how much I would like to get a six-string (or maybe eight-string) bass. I really want the extended range of such an instrument, and may need to pursue a custom construction to get a satisfactory configuration. Some of the bass necks and bodies available from Warmoth are probably adaptable to an 8 string setup. They seem to enjoy custom projects, so when I get ready to actually consider such a purchase I might approach them for an estimate.
As I wrote in my post “The Bass Gods Smileth“, I recently acquired an Ashdown MAG 300 bass head. It’s a great bass amp and I’m really happy with it. The only minor concern was that it was missing a knob. No big deal really, since I figured I could just order one from the manufacturer. I contacted Ashdown via email and received a very quick reply. Impressive, since they’re located in Essex, UK. I explained my situation and the service manager said he would just mail me the knob. From the UK. For free. And he did! That is amazing customer support. I’m impressed with this kind of policy. It seems most companies have lost the ability to recognize the long-term value of solid customer service. It makes the difference between being a loyal customer and being a shopper.
I’ve done a lot of shopping this holiday season, and most of the customer service I’ve experienced has been deplorable. Cashiers carrying on cell phone conversations while working at the register. Disinterested / aloof salespeople, ignoring obvious customer support opportunities in the store and clearly telegraphing their annoyance at being on the job. And no authority… there is a near-total lack of empowerment to make good customer support decisions. It doesn’t matter how much the managers care or how hard they work if the line employees don’t internalize these values as well, and that won’t happen if those employees don’t feel like they’re invested in the outcome. Simply put, there are businesses on the “naughty” list and I won’t be in much of a hurry to return to them. And there are some businesses like Ashdown, who make the “nice” list. I’m officially a loyal customer.
During the past month I’ve been putting in about 2 hours per day of practice. A lot of it has been guitar practice in preparation for tomorrow night’s 80s Invasion gig in Seattle, but I’ve also been working on my bass parts for The Preons. It’s interesting because these are three different instruments:
These instruments are all pretty different and require different techniques. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover that my practice time on any of them seems to improve my playing on all of them. I’ve also noticed that my pitch detection and concept time-to-execution is much improved. There might be something to that old thing about practice…
One of my new approaches to practicing is to work on parts much more slowly than before. I am attempting to keep my tempo very controlled until I can execute the parts flawlessly, then I’ll develop speed. My guitar teacher in college told me “practice doesn’t make perfect. practice makes permanent.” It makes sense. Once errors are practiced repeatedly, they are much more difficult to address. So I’m putting in some miles with my instruments, getting ready for upcoming gigs and hoping to break through to the next level of my playing. Meedly meedly.
I don’t know what I did to appease the bass gods. It might be the practicing I’ve been doing, or maybe just my recent whining about the desperate need for a better amp. Either way, good fortune has visited upon me and I’m mightily pleased. Last night I purchased an Ashdown half-stack consisting of a MAG300R head and a MAG410T cabinet. This setup produces a huge fundamental bass tone with clarity and authority. I’ve been looking at Ashdown amps for months and trying to decide how I could possibly afford to purchase this rig.
I was lucky to find such a great deal on this amp. It’s used, but in great condition. It’ll be a welcome improvement over my previous amp, which will now be relegated to the practice space. Actually, having my old amp sitting in our practice room will save me the back-breaking work of hauling it up and down the stairs. Amazingly, this 4×10 cabinet still fits into my trunk, so I’ll be able to haul it myself. It actually might weigh less than my old amp. I came home from work tonight and cranked it up in the garage just for fun. So far, I’m delighted with this amp and can’t wait until our next gig. Hooray for awesome tone!
A few years ago, OLP introduced the Tony Levin model bass. I was intrigued by Tony’s comments about the planning and design of this instrument, and was in the market for an affordable fretted 5 string so I ordered one from a local dealer. In the two years I’ve owned it, I’m happy to report I’ve really enjoyed this instrument. It has been solidly performing on all my gigs with The Preons, and sounds great on my various recording projects. This is the only fretted bass I currently own; my other basses are a fretless Warwick Corvette and a fretless P-Bass.
The Tony Levin model is based on a 5 string Music Man Stingray, but this model has a slightly narrower neck profile. OLP produces these instruments in China under license from Ernie Ball / Music Man. It’s not a Stingray, but it’s a decent instrument and is a very good value. To get an appreciably better bass, you’d need to spend a lot more than the $349 suggested list price (a 5 string Stingray is priced at about $1,000 more than the OLP version). In my limited email interactions with OLP, they’ve been responsive and helpful. One a scale of 1 to 10, this instrument rates an 8.5 from me. It’s a great balance of value and features.
I have always gravitated toward interesting musicians who deliver a compelling, well-crafted groove. One of my favorite musicians is Tony Levin, and he always seems to be at the center of music I’m listening to. It’s largely due to Tony’s playing that I bought a Chapman Stick. My first attempts at transcribing bass parts were a result of hearing Tony’s recordings with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson. I consider myself blessed that I have been able to spend time with him and chat over an espresso. Heck, I’ve even loaded his gear down a couple of flights of stairs… guesss that makes me a fan / friend / roadie / guy.
Tony recently sent me a pre-release copy of his forthcoming CD Stick Man. I own all of his solo releases along with a large number of his band releases (I don’t make any attempt to collect everything he’s recorded… the man’s discography is immense). The upcoming release is a bold and musically adventuresome recording, and it’s become my favorite CD of the year. Among Tony’s gifts is the ability to always create an interesting tone and a well-crafted bass line.
Based on the CD title you can guess that Tony plays a lot of Chapman Stick on these tracks. It’s sometimes difficult to determine the bass from Stick tones. There is some very interesting processing on these instruments, and I hear a little of Tony’s classical training showing up in these sounds. Overall, it holds together cohesively as an album, which is every bit as important as the individual songs. I’m also intrigued by the vocals on this CD and look forward to hearing the material played live.
This release is stellar. Get out there and love this CD immediately!
Last week during a team lunch expedition I lobbied my co-workers to make a quick side trip to a CD store in West Seattle. They were kind enough to agree, and I picked up two discs that I had been wanting. One was the latest Tool release (review forthcoming), and the other was a double CD titled The Essential Jaco Pastorius. As a student of the instrument, I’m interested in analyzing Jaco’s approach to bass, and obviously his contribution to – and influence on – modern fretless bass cannot be overlooked. Most musicians hold him in reverence as the Jimi Hendrix of fretless bass.
I was aware of Jaco in the 1980s because my jazz musician buddies were always talking about him. My perception of his work was that he was brilliantly inventive, technically virtuosic, and determined to be up front in the band. Having the benefit of a few decades since those first listenings, my assessment of his playing is still very much the same. I think he was very interesting and complete as a stylist. But I’m not a fan of the music he played. The tracks with Weather Report seem a bit cheesy, both in the 80s new-wave-jazz-rock instrument tones, and in the actual compositions themselves. I enjoy his playing with Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny and of course with Herbie Hancock. There is a strong sense of drive in his playing that adds a new dimension to the music around it. He definitely has a strong lead melodic sense, which was (and still is) a departure from the traditional role of the bassist.
Studying Jaco is good for my musical education, and for my increasing understanding of the modern bass repertoire. However, the net effect is that I have an even greater appreciation for Mick Karn. Jaco is technically a much more adept and well-known bassist, but Mick’s playing resonates with me in a much deeper way.
Last night I had my first official bass lesson. It took some research and calling around to find a teacher, but I am quite satisfied with my first lesson, and this seems like it will be a good fit for my needs. We spent an hour playing through some material and talking about my objectives. My teacher was well prepared and had put together some material for me to work on, including scale / arpeggio exercises and an accompaniment CD to practice against.
In terms of mechanical diagnostics, I was pleasantly surprised that my right and left hand techniques were deemed pretty decent. Thus far I have been using the same basic right hand techniques that I learned while studying classical guitar; in terms of finger style, this is the “rest stroke” and the “free stroke”. For thumb techniques I use a fairly standard approach that I derived from observation of Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Larry Graham, and Booty Collins. I had more confidence in my left hand, since my guitar technique is more directly transferable to bass. One of my challenges on fretless will be to develop accurate muscle memory for finger position.
The real challenge in working on bass is determining the direction I’d like to go. Without a doubt, I’m interested in studying the styles of Tony Levin, Mick Karn, Bill Laswell and Bootsy Collins. These are the players who are most directly responsible for my interest in playing bass. In the process of analyzing these greats, I’ll probably explore some related artists. Beyond that, I am interested in developing sufficient chops that I could confidently sit in on jazz gigs. Good heavens… I’m thinking I want to be a jazz bassist… it’s just a matter of time before I get a beret and start smoking a pipe.
The search for an instrument teacher can be time-consuming. I suppose if I was a beginning student it would be a lot easier. As a reasonably experienced guitarist who is learning to play bass, the challenge is finding a teacher who (1) doesn’t regard this as a strange move and (2) can deliver some guidance in the right direction.
Today I contacted a local teacher to set up an initial meeting. This is the third bass instructor to be “interviewed”. To speed things up I’ve declared my bass influences; one of the absolute requirements for any instructor is that he has to appreciate Tony Levin and Mick Karn. This is what I mean by “in the right direction”… I want a teacher who is willing to help me analyze and internalize the individual style of the musicians that I like.
Most fretless players / teachers get all hung up on Jaco Pastorius, and they assume that anyone with a fretless bass should swim those jazzy seas. I do recognize that he was a brilliant player, but honestly I’ve never heard anything by him that really moved me. Maybe it’s my world-music leanings. At any rate, I’m cautiously optimistic that I will begin lessons next week, and that is exciting.
