Bass Guitars!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 1 Mar 2012 11:51 am

Rich Peterson wrote:the best tuba imitation I got was a Super Reverb with very old tubes

This was cheaper ($100):

Jack Aldrich · Post by **Jack Aldrich** » 1 Mar 2012 12:12 pm

It has always amazed me that so many steelers play, or have played bass. I still have my 67 PBass, and I'll never sell it. I still have my Ampeg V115B, a furry wonder. When I got serious bout steel and started gigging on it, I sold my Kay acoustic bass, because you've got do play the darn thing a couple of times a week to keep your calluses up. Otherwise, it'll eat you alive - blister city, - JACK

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 1 Mar 2012 1:20 pm

John Aldrich wrote:It has always amazed me that so many steelers play, or have played bass. I still have my 67 PBass, and I'll never sell it. I still have my Ampeg V115B, a furry wonder. When I got serious bout steel and started gigging on it, I sold my Kay acoustic bass, because you've got do play the darn thing a couple of times a week to keep your calluses up. Otherwise, it'll eat you alive - blister city, - JACK

Those darn upright basses!Why,you can't even play one with a pick,let alone play any "lead bass".

Jim Snowman Mitchell · Post by **Jim Snowman Mitchell** » 1 Mar 2012 7:05 pm

Peavey Dyna-bass hands down

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 1 Mar 2012 9:42 pm

----------5 string bass (3rd neck)----------

----------6-string bass----------

----------7-string bass----------

----------8-string bass----------

Dennis Lee · Post by **Dennis Lee** » 2 Mar 2012 6:27 am

You guys have overwhelmed me! I started this thread to get some working ideas about guitars once again, and true to form, my Pedal Steel/Steel community has not let me down. This thread has taken on a life of its own. Unbelievable! You all are the greatest!

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 2 Mar 2012 7:35 am

I forgot to mention that before I bought my Fender Precision bass in 1955, I put bass strings on one of the necks on my T-8 Stringmaster. One of necks on a Stringmaster is set up for bass strings with wider nut grooves and larger holes in the tuners. Those above pictures reminded me.

Chas,
What's with the vertical wires?

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 2 Mar 2012 9:11 am

Chas that's just SICK bro......but I freakin love it. u gotta post a sound byte or 2 of that bad boy being spanked...errrr played I mean.....Stormy

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 2 Mar 2012 10:24 am

Chas has some amazing creations. I'd love to hear some of these instruments in various situations.

How about the Guild rubber band bass? Anybody play one of those Ashbory thangs?

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 2 Mar 2012 10:45 am

Chas,
What's with the vertical wires?

Erv, they make "complicated" pitched tones. They can be struck with hammered dulcimer hammers or bowed with a violin bow. I say complicated because, it's like a door chime or an orchestra bell, where the tube is suspended from near the top and struck at the top which causes a transverse vibration, up and down the tube, as well as the "normal" vibration. The more complicated vibration makes a more "complicated" sound.

Here, because they're all welded to the same plates, when I hit one, it's "prominent" and all the others contribute "a little" to the overall sound. It's not the kind of instrument for playing Steel Guitar Rag, it's much better for musical textures.

Storm, the 1st clip is from a performance at Amoeba and not my best moment, but you get an idea of what it sounds like. I'm playing into a looper. Because of time restrictions, I had to cut the bowing of the rods and go right to the "melody".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ9pV3eM68E

The 2nd cut is what the bass neck sounds like when it's over-driven, a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plk8H9f69Rs

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 2 Mar 2012 11:09 am

Erv Niehaus wrote:I forgot to mention that before I bought my Fender Precision bass in 1955, I put bass strings on one of the necks on my T-8 Stringmaster. One of necks on a Stringmaster is set up for bass strings with wider nut grooves and larger holes in the tuners. Those above pictures reminded me.

Chas,
What's with the vertical wires?

Erv, how did you enlarge the tuner holes?

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 2 Mar 2012 11:46 am

Chas,
Very interesting.

Mike,
The holes came already enlarged from Leo Fender.
If you have a multi-neck Stringmaster one of the necks will have larger string slots in the neck and the larger holes in the tuners.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 2 Mar 2012 2:40 pm

Erv Niehaus wrote:Chas,
Very interesting.

Mike,
The holes came already enlarged from Leo Fender.
If you have a multi-neck Stringmaster one of the necks will have larger string slots in the neck and the larger holes in the tuners.

I have an earlier Custom T-8 and wanted to do a bass neck but, unfortunately, the holes in the shaft won't accommodate anything heavier than around .060.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 3 Mar 2012 2:09 am

'65 Fender Bass V - built-in Motown sound.

But I might not get a lot of deep sleep tonite thinking/dreaning about Erv's '55!

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 3 Mar 2012 7:57 am

Ron,
Sleep well, all it is is wood and wire.

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 3 Mar 2012 8:42 am

Ron Whitfield wrote:'65 Fender Bass V - built-in Motown sound.

But I might not get a lot of deep sleep tonite thinking/dreaning about Erv's '55!

Ron-
An early 5-string with the short neck? Rare indeed!Can you put up some pics?

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 3 Mar 2012 8:56 am

Those mid-'60's Fender 5 strings were very cool basses, except that they sort of got the 5th string concept backwards, adding a high C string, rather than a low B.
The neck was shorter, 15 frets, but they were the same scale length as a P or J bass.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 3 Mar 2012 4:20 pm

I had a Jazz bass that I got new in high school in 1973. It sat in the closet for years until about four years ago when I got back into playing bass and started playing some on a few steel shows. I was never crazy about that Jazz bass and when I found out what it was worth I sent that son of a gun down the road and got these two.

My "go to" bass generally is a Peavey Cirrus Bubinga (sp) wood 34" scale that rings until tomorrow. For a pure western swing or 4/4 shuffle gig I really like my fretless Godin strung up with black tape wounds. Sometimes I think it sounds more like an upright that some uprights and has an added advantage that you can store it under the bed.

I also have a 62 Precision Reissue and a Godin passive Freeway but they don't see daylight often.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 3 Mar 2012 5:53 pm

Yup, fretless P-bass will do everything I want. I also made a short-scale five-string out of some Warmoth wood, just had them leave the side dots off, I put them on myself with Milliput casting epoxy and mounted the bridge 3.5" higher.

And a few years later Warmoth is now selling a downsize Jazz bass-style body that will match up with either the 30" or 32" scale necks they're selling for it. And Fender's got some short ones out too. Also (Jerry) the "Landing" short-scale basses have a really good reputation - just a bassic*, solid instrument - heavier strings and slightly higher action, it'll work fine.

*(urp)

The odd thing to me is how far ahead bass players were with onboard pre-amps, bi-amp systems, rack this and 1000-watt that - but most bass sounds work pretty good! Or at least, you don't see the overt tone-neurosis other players go through.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 3 Mar 2012 6:51 pm

Interesting David. Do you use the standard tuning with a low B on your short scale? All my inquiries about short 5's came back with replies that they would not articulate that low note clearly.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 3 Mar 2012 8:12 pm

There was an article about Owen Biddle in Bass Player magazine a while back. He doesn't seem to have a problem articulating the low string on a 30"scale. It ain't country though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS8s-9_Kaj0

BTW, the basses I mentioned above are in a friend's car heading to Dallas ahead of me. Tonight I was rehearsing some tunes and re-confirmed that the Fender and Godin don't hold up compared to my favorites.

Lynn Kasdorf · Post by **Lynn Kasdorf** » 4 Mar 2012 6:12 am

Ok- I give up- what the heck are these things with the rods sticking up in the air? I've been around the block a few times, but this is a new one for me!
LK

chas smith wrote:----------5 string bass (3rd neck)----------

----------6-string bass----------

----------7-string bass----------

----------8-string bass----------

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 4 Mar 2012 4:15 pm

I originally set up my five-string 30.5" scale as a "tenor" bass (dumb name) - EADG with a high C. I've played duos with a few singer/songwriter types and just play solos on the bass. I just had a trigger finger scare and I think the wide neck's doing it, so I've set it up to play as a four-string, with an extra low E as a thumbrest - EEADG. If you watch and listen to five-string low B guys, they play that string at best maybe 5% of the time. Even with the 35" and 36" scale ones, it doesn't sound too good.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 4 Mar 2012 6:48 pm

Lynn, A lot of the kind of music I'm involved with falls into the "art" category and the rods are used to make, what I consider to be, "melodic textures".

Erv asked the same question, and this was what I posted as an answer:

Chas,
What's with the vertical wires?

Erv, they make "complicated" pitched tones. They can be struck with hammered dulcimer hammers or bowed with a violin bow. I say complicated because, it's like a door chime or an orchestra bell, where the tube is suspended from near the top and struck at the top which causes a transverse vibration, up and down the tube, as well as the "normal" vibration. The more complicated vibration makes a more "complicated" sound.

Here, because they're all welded to the same plates, when I hit one, it's "prominent" and all the others contribute "a little" to the overall sound. It's not the kind of instrument for playing Steel Guitar Rag, it's much better for musical textures.

Storm, the 1st clip is from a performance at Amoeba and not my best moment, but you get an idea of what it sounds like. I'm playing into a looper. Because of time restrictions, I had to cut the bowing of the rods and go right to the "melody".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ9pV3eM68E

The 2nd cut is what the bass neck sounds like when it's over-driven, a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plk8H9f69Rs

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 12 Mar 2012 2:07 am

Here's my Bass story and I'm stickin' to it...

Back in the 90's, I kinda dropped out of the local music scene, I was invited to play Bass in Church..I thought , what the heck...why not. I had a mid 80's P-Bass. I had no idea what was in front of me.

I sat behind and to the left of the gal on Grand Piano. As many know, worship songs and hymns are written in many keys and they are not 3 chord songs. Eb and Ab are the keys of choice. For 6 years I did 3 services each week and also had a band rehearsal and Choir rehearsal as well. this was not a small thing I said yes to.

Ok, I am now addicted to the Bass but my P bass was missing something, it just didn't have that round wound tone I was seeking, I didn't sound like Lee Sklar or Abe Laboriel. The worship leader expected the Bass( me) to be dominant,driving..this was full pentecostal and everything that went with it.

After 5 years and probably 4 Basses, Fender, Music Man etc...I ended up with a Fender 62 RI Stack Knob J-Bass..I was playing a Music Man at the time and thought that it was the answer, it was until I came across this Instrument.

1996, I was in NYC with my wife and daughter, we went over to Manny's Music on 48th street where I use to hang out as a kid...big mistake..we were looking at all the photo's on the wall...amazing history right there..then I walked into the Bass room...there was this Black JBass hanging..I asked about it..The guy said you don't want me to take it down...I asked why..he said,because you will not put it back. He was right. I plugged it in and it had a percussive growl under the 5th fret that I had not heard in years. yes..say hello to Visa... When we got home I sold 2 other basses . I plugged this baby into my Hartke 350 watt 4x10 half stack and never looked back.

1962 Fender RI Stack Knob J-Bass with an E Extender, that's how I played in Eb...Low E tuned down, A,D, G normal..I can't believe I did that.. The Bass came with a case full of case candy that I never opened including the PUP covers.

I will never forget the experience and music education I got from sitting behind that extremely talented gal on the grand piano for that 6 year period, that was quite the musical education. I believe my entire outlook and philosophy on music changed from that experience. Notes were never the same after that.

I did one more year on the J Bass in church before it all went belly up, you know, church stuff gone bad., make that real bad....I went back to the local music scene played Bass with a few bands in town for a couple of years and then back to the Pedal Steel and Telecaster as well... But now I was approaching music from a totally different perspective.

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