One That Got Away

I had been eyeing this used Stingray 5 at Long & McQuade for a while. Today, before I had a chance to do anything about it, I found out it had been sold. It sounded nice and I think it was a good deal. What I've noticed though is that, if you wait, there will be others. There are a number of great gear deals that I've seen but missed out on ultimately. The only one I still wish I had bought was a 1970s Precision with a Jazz neck. Since it was a Frankenbass it was only $700 - way less than either a Precision or a Jazz from that period sells for today. I would really have like to have that bass. It was cheap because it was useless to collectors, but it had a great sound and it was a joy to play. That SR5 was a nice bass, but nothing to this other one.

My Project Bass

I know I've mentioned this before, but to my knowledge, I've never shared any pictorals. The back story is that this is an '89 Fender Jazz fretless that, when I bought it was stock except for a white pearloid pickguard that I believe was aftermarket. The black finish on the body was ruined by some unknown solvent-animal hair combination (I should have taken "before" pictures, it was as bad as it sounds). Anyway, I stripped off the paint and refinished it with gunstock oil. I chose gunstock oil because it is easy to apply and therefore ideal for beginners such as myself. I was able to pick up some nice pickups and, recently, a pickguard from Talkbass. That's the story, now here are the pics:

Just the body:


And the whole shebang:

Four versus Five

All the basses I own are four-strings. I don't own a lot of basses, but I do own several. From time to time either myself or someone else will wonder why I don't have at least one five-string. I have seen many posts on Talkbass where people try to argue objectively for anything from four strings to seven strings and beyond. I always say that I use fours because typically that's what works for the music I play. If I played prog rock or fusion, that would change maybe. All the same I wonder sometimes about a five.

This feeling strikes me especially when playing in D or Eb, for obvious reasons. But outside of that, I wonder what I'm missing. The thing that appeals to me is that tonally, I like the sound of notes played further up the neck. Playing a low E at the fifth, F# at the 7th, that's what appeals to me too.

Not Using a Pick is Self-Limiting

I'm sorry to read that The Roan is fearful of exploring new sonic experiences. That's right, it seems that there is a fundamental fear of a couple different things here. One, that Jay might somehow be compared to Mark Hoppus. I'm not sure how exactly that would transpire, because I don't recall anyone asking me whether I was hanging out with Mark Hoppus when I was, in fact, hanging out with Jay.

The other fear seems to be that bass "will remain stuck in the eyes of most people as the guitars[sic] fat brother" if one plays it with a pick. Unfortunately, if we were worried about this then I guess fingerstyle playing is out too, isn't it Django? The reality is that both guitar and bass have been, and continue to be, played with a variety of techniques. The bass guitar was originally built by Leo Fender (and others) as something that would be part of the electric guitar family of instruments. Why do you think Fender put pickguards on the Precision right from the start in 1951? He assumed that pick-playing was a possibility. Playing with a pick was not invented in 1974 by DeeDee Ramone. Think of the broader family of stringed instruments. Do violinists say to cellists, or double bassists, "Only we are to play arco!" No. That would be insane. There is nothing wrong with multiple instruments being played with a similar technique.

As to pick playing not cutting through, I have never had that problem. I find it very easy to switch from pick to fingerstyle and back. Jay points out that the tone of a pick can imitated by a variety of pedals or equalizer changes. While I don't concede that these necessarily replicated a proper pic tone, even if they did, all of these options would be more expensive than a $1 pick. MXR micro amp? $100+. Boss GEB-7? Maybe $80 used if you look around. Even if you have an amp with a footswitchable EQ, you'd need to buy the footswitch to do that. Even that would be another $25-40 even used. So even if you thought you had the sound, you would have to spend a lot of money.

In short, it's time to end the anti-pick prejudice - it's self-limiting.

Pro et Contra 1: Slap Bass is Overrated

Sure The Roan and I share this nice little blog. But that sure doesn't mean that we agree on everything. So we were talking about it, and we decided it was time to present our opinions on issues out there in the world of bass playing. To start, I will explain why slap is overrated wankery and Jay will offer a rebuttal (I hope). Here we go:

There was a picture in the paper the other day of some guy who had run a marathon while juggling. This is something that undoubtedly require many hours or practice and preparation. The man who did this must have had all kinds of coordination as well as endurance. In short, it was impressive that he could do this sort of thing at all.

On the other hand, I don't think I'd very much enjoy watching some guy juggle and run for three hours. A couple minutes of it would be interesting viewing, but beyond that, I wouldn't need to see the whole marathon. And that's how I feel about slap. Like juggling while running a marathon, slap bass is an impressive accomplishment - but is either one worthwhile beyond the technical precision and the novelty? Many slap players have spent hours mastering the technique. Hearing a lightning fast double-thumb line, the listener has to respect the player. All the same though, I have to suggest that slap bass is not all it's cracked up to be by its proponents.

Slap bass gets lost in the mix very easily. It seems that to do slap and be heard, one needs to employ some kind of boost. That's the first problem, when you're showing off to grade tens in Long & McQuade, it may sound cool. But in a band setting, it's just getting lost. Remember, bass playing is not a competitive sport, it's part of a creative process. If you want to serve that creative process, you'd better be prepared to do what's needed for the music. It doesn't seem like slapping is needed in actual songs quite as much as it is needed for showing off in music stores.

Now what about funk? Or jazz fusion? Yes, more so than in other genres you can justify slapping in these two. At the same time though, there are all kinds of examples of great fingerstyle players in both genres. How often is a player going use this technique in other genres? There are all kinds of things that might make for a better player that might be worth trying. Again, music is an art form, and as a musician, your first job is to participate in creating art. Often times though, the slap riff is more of an incongruous intrusion than a tasteful addition.

In short, I think slapping is an interesting novelty. A bassist can pull out something like Higher Ground and the band can have fun jamming along. But, excepting fusion (which, the last time I checked, is not the most popular genre) how often is this technique really used? Not very often at all it seems. The time spent learning how to master slap might better be spent studying things like theory to learn how to create something other than a percussive assault.