Last Night

Nothing beats playing bass when you have a solid drummer, and two solid drummers, that's what I had last night.

Acoustic Bass Guitars

I was at the Twelfth Fret on Saturday and they had a Larrivee acoustic bass guitar (ABG). I tried it out and I must say that it had an okay sound. That's the thing with ABGs though, the best of them can generate a decent sound, but nothing spectacular to my ears. I don't really see an opportunity to use in one at most gigs where I'd regularly use an electric bass. The suggestion I've had is that they might be good for acoustic-type gigs, but tonally, I think my fretless works best for that. I suppose they look better for acoustic gigs, but that's a silly reason to get a particular instrument. You might wish to use one in some kind of setting where everyone is unplugged, but an unplugged acoustic guitar will drown out most unplugged acoustic basses.

Additionally, you have to be far more worried about the conditions to which an ABG is subjected. If it's got a solid top, you'd better be mindful of temperature and humidity. It's also bulkier. And being hollow, it's just asking for feedback when you (inevitably) plug it in.

So while this Larrivee I saw is undoubtedly a nice bass, I'm not sure that I could find a reason to have such a beast in my collection.

Another Shopping Trip

After going downtown on some unrelated errands I decided to stroll down to Songbird and look at some of the stuff they had there. It was a good choice because, despite them not have much in the bass department that tickled my fancy for some time, today they had some good selections. The first thing that caught my eye was a Les Godfrey Dragonetti. It had a nice sound, almost like a Precision, but with the pickup closer to the bridge (who knows, maybe this is what the Precision Elites sounded like with both pickups on). They also had a USA Lakland 55-94 fretless. It was cherry burst and unlined, a good look if you ask me. The third bass that caught my eye was a bit of a surprise, it was a Peavey Cirrus 5. I had tried a Cirrus 5 on one previous occasion and was somewhat underwhelmed by it. The pickups were kind of dull and uninspired and overall it left me thinking, "meh." That said, I figured I might as well give this one a go too. I was surprised, it had a nice, fairly modern growl. It was something between a contemporary Jazz bass and a Stingray, not a bad sound in my estimation. It was voiced in such a way that everything was nice and clear, thus making chords, double-stops, and harmonics all joys to play. Anyway, right now I hope that all these basses will cancel each other out and I'll end up not wanting any of them... So I can afford school, heh.

Stingray 5 at Cosmo

I played another one of these the other day. This one was quite nice sounding and reasonably priced. The kicker though was that it had one hell of a ding in it and it didn't have a case (it was used). That said, there was much that went in its favour. It was an ash body with a one piece maple neck and fretboard which is a very bright combination. It's a nice antidote in that sense to the alder, mahogany, and basswood bodies and rosewood 'boards that dominate my collection right now. Everything that I have right now does an excellent job of sounding warm and thuddy. (Is "thuddy" a useful descriptor?) I can pull out some nice mid-rangey growl from my Jazz, but that's about the most agressive I can be without engaging the Big Muff. A Stingray would be in another category in that regard. The ash-maple combination would have nice highs, either for a useful slap tone (Jay is laughing at that right now) or perhaps a more agressive, overdriven pick tone. In general, I could make things sound more "modern" I think. At the same time, ash can be bloody heavy and I've noticed that Ernie Ball is one of the worst offenders in the category of heavy-ass ash basses. I've picked up more than a few 'Rays that had a weight that was frankly astonishing and painful. Nothing over a half-hour gigging with these, thank you. This bass however, I noticed was surprisingly light. A nice change.

Geddy Lee

The other night we were listening to the radio and YYZ by Rush came on. Man, that's the most enjoyable Rush for me simply because it's all instrumental. They are all gifted musicians, but man, I just cannot get over Geddy Lee's voice.

Introducing...

...The Roan (aka Jay). In case you didn't see, his first post is here. I asked Jay to come on board because while he too could fit the "average bass player" description, he's probably about as different from me as two players of the same instrument can be. In terms of technique and musical interests, while we definitely have some overlap, there is also quite a bit of stuff that we don't have in common. I think that's going to be good for this blog because we can cover more ground that way. So stay tuned...

Post-Gig

Well, everyone says that we played well, so that was encouraging. The monitor situation was interesting because I think my amp was driving the room and so I had a hard time hearing anything in the monitors whilst I was playing. It was cool to have that much stage volume though, because I could feel the amp vibrating my sandals. Sweet.

Gig Coming Up

This Saturday (Aug. 20th) at the Fox & Fiddle at 535 Danforth Ave in Toronto.

Amplifiers

I don't need a new amp right now, but if I did, I'd probably pick up a Traynor YBA200. I played through one if these day and I love the tone. In the meantime, I'm content to stick with my trusty Ashdown though.

Switching Back & Forth

Having played the fretless a bit now, I find it's curious to go between a fretted and a fretless now. The way I'm finding I like to approach the fretless is definitely different from how I tend to approach the fretted basses I've played. On both instruments I still sound like myself, but it's definitely a variation I hear on the fretless.

Stop Looking at the Internet...

...and practice your instrument instead, that's what I'm going to do now.

Losing the Precision Sound

I've talked to a few different people about this, and they've agreed that there's something about new Fender Precisions. More specifically, there is something missing - the classic Precision mid-range honk. It's there, but it seems weakened. My theory is that, in the last ten years or so, Fender has witnessed the rise in a desire for mid-scooped tones. Nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing, but that's not what the Precision is for. So it seems that they've castrated those classic Precision mids, and in exchange, all you get is a wussy sound bass. Now, you could say I'm biased, because I like a strong mids presence, but I know what decent mid-scoop tone sounds like too. I actually really enjoyed playing a Thumb fretless I saw in Long & McQuade once. The thing with the Precision is that it's just never going to be a Thumb, it's the wrong pickups, the wrong wood, the wrong everything. So instead, you're left with a wimpy-sounding Precision, yuck.

More Fretless Thoughts

In some weird way, my fretless is about the funkiest bass I own. Everything else sounds good, but in a very rock sort of way. This one is funky, maybe it's the pickups. Anyway it's interesting, you don't think of fretless as funky, at least I don't.

The Fretless Debuts!

Some backstory:
In 2002 the guitar tech at Long & McQuade tipped me off about a fretless Fender Jazz that was about to go on sale for cheap. Made in Japan, a later investigation into serial numbers would date its construction to 1989. At the time though, all I knew was that it was a used Made in Japan (MIJ) fretless that was going to go on the floor for $175 or thereabouts. Having always wanted to try fretless, I thought this to be my chance to do so at a very affordable price.

Bringing the bass home, I found out how truly disgusting the finish was, it was sticky with little bits of fur or shag carpet or something clinging to all parts of it. The prior owner must have dumped some kind of solvent on it. Or glue. To this day, I don't know exactly what it was, but even holding the bass was gross. I was getting the hang of playing fretless, but this situation could not persist, I needed to refinish this thing. The refinishing become my new project.

Fast-forward nearly three years: OK, I didn't say it was a time-sensitive project... I finally stripped the finish and redid it with gunstock oil. Along the way, I also picked up a set of lightly used Bartolini pickups for it. All in all, despite the leisurely pace of the project, it turned out fairly well I'd say. That said, one big test remained, play the damn thing in front of others to show that me owning a fretless isn't just a waste of ten pounds of wood.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to last night, where I jammed with a couple guitarists from my work. Apparently I can actually play this thing! Thrilling to say the least! Admittedly, my intonation was brutal at times, but it seems like I can actually do this, which is encouraging. I used to look at fretlesses and think there was no way I could pull that off. but lo and behold, it looks like I may just be able to do this!

Welcome!

My other blog, More Notes from Underground is sort of a personal journal on all kinds of political, artistic, literary and even religious thoughts. This blog though is something where I want to focus on one particular passion of mine, and that is playing bass. I was thinking today and I felt the title "Average Bass Player" appropriate, because that's where I feel I'm at. I've been playing ten years now (wow, hard to believe) and I'd say I'm solid but certainly not brilliant on the instrument. I've played in a number of different settings from potsmoke-filled living rooms to 1,000-seat church sanctuaries. I have done a fair number of things, but I still have a lot of musical goals I want to fulfill. So that's my story, more to follow...