Me and the bass guitar at the moment.
Decisions, decisions
My bass and I are tight now, but we weren’t always. I never really “got” the bass until recently. I still don’t completely get it or anything, but I do get it enough to love it these days. It’s the low-end, it’s a lot of interest, and it’s a handy writing tool. I’ve had the good fortune of jamming with a few amazing bass players. Where they don’t play reveals how clever they are, so when they do play, you tend to listen up. Sometimes the best bass guitar is the one you don’t notice, but you still enjoyed the song. Sometimes a steady bass on the one drives a rhythm like nothing else. It all simply depends on what you decide to do with the thing in your hands.
Low-end interest
Obviously, folks want low-end from bass. Forever, I didn’t really care about making the low-end interesting. I just thought it had to fill out that band of the spectrum of frequencies. I guess I still think that. But I also think, “why not make it interesting?”
Historically, a lot of lower frequencies in popular music have a function-over-style approach. The bass might be on the spot, but it’s often indistinguishable from the rhythm section. Fortunately, for the style of album I’m on now, there’s a little room in the spectrum of frequencies for me to allot some articulation and character to the bass. The bass will not just be felt, it will be heard. I think it’s more interesting..
A Writing Tool
I have discovered the bass to be an indispensable writing tool, and I am not even that great at it. I might write a progression on acoustic guitar, but I might not. I might write a bass line and start singing. I might be stuck on a song on keys or guitar, but the bass being so direct and uncomplicated helps me hit those notes you don’t expect but sound so right. I might find that root, then go learn that chord. With guitar, I can lock myself in. When I feel that, I reach for bass to escape. Sometimes I may be hunting for a zany bridge or breakdown, time to grab a bass. The final song might not even feature bass, but for writing, I still find it very useful to get me out of the corners I paint myself in.
My basses
I have three basses at the moment. I have an Epiphone Jack Casady hollow-body. It has a gorgeous sound if you let the mids out a little bit. You can really hear the hollowness. A lot of hollow-body basses like the Gibson Midtown I used to have don’t seem to have bonus character like the Jack Casady does. The Jack Casady, you can tell it’s a hollow-body instrument. Most hollow-body basses, you can’t.
I have a Peavey Axcelerator – 2 we just inherited. This bass is from the mid-90’s and is All-American made. This bass features a TEK-2 bridge. This bridge is made similar to how a piano works. There’s a big board the fingers from the bridge run to in the middle of the bass. Each string has its own pedestal. This prevents ‘crosstalk’ from string to string on the bridge, but the main thing it does for me that I am wild about is the sustain. You very much get a piano thunk on the low notes with the sustain pedal down sensation. I’ve never gotten tired of that my whole life. It’s every note on this thing. 2 VFL humbuckers seal the deal there. It’s a very solid bass, not very expensive. I will do an entry about the best affordable gear out there soon. This will be in it.
My fretless bass is a custom jobby from the bench of bkbirge. It has dual lipstick Jerry Jones pickups, an Audere preamp system, a jazz body, and a custom headstock. I play this one most often just playing bass by itself. I find the no-fret sensation useful in writing. It feels more like drawing than coloring. That’s what I want: writing tunes. I recommend fretless, also recommend lipsticks from old Danelectros, and also recommend preamps. That bass is an amazing piece of gear. One of my favorite instruments ever.
Fun things to try while recording bass
I find two signals most helpful so far. I have a line running to the board, and a line running to an amp. The concept is I record extra mids from the amp, use a nice clean signal from the board. I make the amp signal wet with the effects I want. I use my ribbon on the amp; it likes the mids. So mixing time, I just bring up the mids track with effects up where it sits right, usually just below the clean track. This gives me the character and articulation I spoke of earlier, but sacrificing no thud. It’s also quick as I am imprinting with effects. So, mixing time, looking at a couple of faders, done.
One of the concepts that helps me play bass is thinking about the low end in history with tubas, trombones, pianos, marimbas, and whatever else. I always learn something by trying to imitate those things. For example, we have a ragtime-feeling song on the record I am working on. My fretless is essentially the trombone in that one. The slides!
I would not have thought this next one to be fun, but I tried it and it sure is! Try putting mics on your electric or hollow-body bass instead of the amp. Just slam the mic up on it. On my hollow body and my fretless, I get acoustic character bringing that into the clean track. I find it very nice for small arrangements that merit it. Mic’ing an electric bass, there you go.
Going forward
I have worked with many wonderful bass players who have helped me learn and develop as a musician. I would say, if I learned a lot from them, chances are they played bass. I want to help someday too. So I will play these basses on our stuff from now on. I am the bass on the album coming Christmas, my bass coming-out party for Kintners’ songs.
Kelly Kintner Editor, Producer