How the Fender Bass Changed the World-Copiar Word-Copiar-Copiar
How the Fender Bass Changed the World-Copiar Word-Copiar-Copiar
HOW
by Marcus Miller
a BASS book
SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1223 05890 89
How the
ENDER BA
Changed the World
*
Dedication
To James Jamerson,
«
Acknowledgments
A inspiração inicial para este livro veio quando Nicky Orta e MattBonelli
me convidaram para dar uma palestra na Jazz Bass Conference de 1993 em
Miami, Flórida. Sem saber sobre o que falar, comecei a considerar a história
amplamente não registrada do baixo elétrico. O esboço que desenvolvi para
aquela palestra foi posteriormente expandido em uma série de colunas da
revista Bass Player publicadas em 1998; elas se tornaram o ponto de partida
para este livro.
Na maior parte , este é um livro de análise e opinião , não de história
primária, então sou grato a todos os escritores cujo trabalho duro contribuiu
para meu conhecimento de instrumentos musicais e dos músicos que os
tocam . Eles estão todos listados em Fontes , mas devo agradecimentos
especiais a Chris Jisi, Richard R. Smith ,Mikael Jansson , Allan Slutsky e
Tom Wheeler . Agradecimentos especiais também a Christian Fabian , que
me contatou com a história do encontro de Leo Fender em 1952 com Lionel
Hampton , e Dan Lakin da Lakland Basses , que me ouviu dar uma breve
palestra sobre o baixo elétrico em um evento de feira comercial e disse: "Ei,
Jim, por que você não escreve um livro?" E, claro, devo muito à equipe da
Bass Player , passada e presente , e ao pessoal da Backbeat Books ,
especialmente Matt Kelsey e Dorothy Cox.
Como historiador do baixo, devo reconhecer toda a ajuda que recebi do
meu colega Tony Bacon. Trocamos informações sobre o baixo elétrico por
anos , e nosso diálogo contínuo melhorou muito minha compreensão do
desenvolvimento do instrumento. Também tivemos alguns jantares italianos
memoráveis juntos no improvável local de Frank Furt, Alemanha . Tony é
infalivelmente espirituoso e gentil, e sou grato a ele de muitas maneiras.
Muito obrigado a Tom Wheeler , Chris Jisi e minha esposa , Susan
Strahosky ,por lerem o manuscrito e oferecerem dezenas de boas sugestões
para melhorar o material. Estremeço ao pensar no que este livro poderia ter
sem a orientação deles. Também sou grato a Richard Johnston, por
ser um editor tão habilidoso e razoável; a Paul Haggard, que foi o
melhor diretor de arte possível para o projeto; e à equipe de produção da
Backbeat Books que juntou tudo, especialmente Amanda Johnson e Gary
Montalvo.
Acima de tudo, quero agradecer a Susan e nossos filhos, Miles e Nadia,
por demonstrarem muita paciência e compreensão durante as muitas
noites, fins de semana e feriados em que trabalhei neste livro.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Marcus Miller 11
Overture 13
Finale 180
Sources 183
Index 189
Foreword by Marcus Miller
Em 1971, o baixo era o instrumento mais legal da música . Todos os caras
legais tocavam um. Larry Graham tocou um com Sly & the Family Stone, e
Jermaine Jackson tocou um com o Jackson 5. Se você quisesse ser legal
como esses caras , deveria tocar baixo . Uma banda popular até se batizou
com o nome do baixista . Qual era o nome dele? "Kool", claro! No início e
meados dos anos 70, bandas como Kool & the Gang , Sly & the Family
Stone e o Jackson 5 criaram músicas que incendiaram o mundo — e cada
música tinha uma linha de baixo carregava a música e ficava sua cabeça o
a
tempo todo. Isaac Hayes até revolucionou o mundo cinematográfico naquele
ano com seu "Theme from Shaft", que tinha a linha de baixo mais legal de
todos os tempos.
12 ■ Foreword
Tony, and Ferg all decided the same thing: "We're gonna play bass!" We
any other kind of bass existed. As long as we'd been aware of music (six
or seven whole years!), the bass had been played on a bass guitar. Sure,
we'd seen the acoustic bass standing in the orchestra room at school, but
olds, "bass" meant "bass guitar," the coolest instrument in the band.
Little did we know that the instrument we were so drawn to was really
a baby, not much older than us. It's amazing that in the short time
between when the instrument first appeared on records in the early 1950s
and when I decided to play it in 1971, the bass guitar literally took over.
Yeah, the electric guitar turned a lot of heads in those same years, but the
bass guitar was the instrument that let you know the '50s were over and
In this book, Jim Roberts tells the story of the electric bass guitar. After
coming of age. The '60s and 70s were amazing years for the bass guitar.
It was a new instrument and there were no rules. The piano is, what, 300
years old? There aren't many new ways to play a piano. You might think
you've discovered something new, but there's a good chance some Aus¬
trian cat figured it out on harpsichord a couple hundred years ago. But
the bass guitar—it really was a new instrument. Cats were free to discover
its possibilities. They strummed it, plucked it, thumped it—whatever. And
Check out the story of the bass guitar, the coolest instrument in the
band!
13
Overture
When radio repairman and inveterate tinkerer Leo Fender invented the
told Tom Wheeler: "We needed to free the bass player from the big dog¬
house, the acoustic bass. That thing was usually confined to the back of
the band, and the bass player couldn't get up to the mike to sing.
instrument with frets that would make doubling on bass easier for them."
14 ■ Overture
Leo Fender did not invent the electric bass. The credit for that goes to
Lloyd Loar, who conceived of an amplified "stick" bass in the 1920s. Leo
Fender did not even invent the electric bass guitar, although he has often
been credited with doing so. It now seems clear that Paul Tutmarc had the
electric bass in the mid 1930s. His instrument did not gain much accept¬
What Leo Fender did do was invent the first commercially successful
electric bass guitar, which was introduced in 1951. Its acceptance was by
impressive new instruments that were either ignored or, at best, played
Neither does anybody else.) A few new inventions became popular and
but these have been the exceptions. Leo Fender's Precision Bass is, with¬
When I first started to gather material for this book, my working title
was "How the Electric Bass Changed the World." But as I learned more
work of Loar and Tutmarc—I realized it was the Fender bass that had trig¬
musical instrument that has had such a singular impact. So, to be accu¬
from the truth. Our relationship is one of journalist and subject (and also
Fullerton, California, as it
ments made by the Fender company to include other basses Leo Fender
designed. The most important of these is the Music Man StingRay Bass,
which Leo created (with some help from Forrest White) in the 1970s, after
he had sold the Fender company to CBS. Leo also designed some good
basses at G&L, his last company, before his death in 1991. These "post-
tried to show how all of this is connected, because I believe that focusing
on either the instruments alone or the musicians who played them ulti¬
As I write this, the Fender bass is about to celebrate its 50th anniver¬
sary. While its musical capabilities are generally accepted today, its role as
other modern instrument, the Fender bass transformed the sound of pop¬
ular music—and, in doing so, had an effect that reverberated beyond the
We think of the bass guitar as a new instrument and the double bass (the
the electric bass as the primary example of the bass guitar family. There
were some antecedents, but the electric bass as we know it traces its direct
lineage back to the Fender Precision Bass of 1951. It's a mere babe, as
from the late 1400s, and the earliest known illustration dates to 1516.
These early basses were members of the viol family. Viols have fretted fin¬
gerboards and bodies with sloping shoulders; violins, which came along
a little later, are fretless and have a different body shape, with rounded
For instance, the word violone sometimes refers specifically to a bass viol
but was loosely applied to just about any stringed bass instrument.)
As noted, viols have frets. These are pieces of gut tied around the fin¬
gerboard at the lowest five to seven half-steps. Most of the early bass
viols had six strings, so the true origin of the fretted 6-string bass can be
traced back several centuries. (And you probably thought it was Anthony
A bass viol from 1701.
Jackson's idea.)
Notice that this beautiful
The early stringed basses came in all sizes, from ones so large they
6-string instrument has
required two men to play them to chamber instruments not much big¬ frets, which were pieces of
ger than a cello. Regardless of the instrument's size, finding adequate gut tied around the finger¬
strings was a major problem. The oversize gut strings required to play board to provide more
low E were criticized for being slack and indistinct. The problem was precise intonation.
used dozens of different tunings. We know that some of the early bass
viols were tuned GCFADG while others were tuned DGCEAD. Tunings of
DADFttB, FADFttA, and lots of others. Bach's music has markings for
CGDA like a cello, but an octave lower) and the contrabass da Gamba
lar in the eighteenth century, they were tuned ADG, GDG, GDA, or maybe
even CGC. The 4-string tuned EADG did not become the standard orches¬
tra bass until early in the twentieth century. There were many other tun¬
an old instrument. But consider this: the antecedents of the modern bass
instruments can be divided into two general groups, vertical basses and
vertical bass. The electric bass guitar is a horizontal bass (unless it's being
played by Bill Wyman or Fieldy), and there are other horizontal bass
bass lutes.
itive form as far back as the ninth century, and it was at the height of its
popularity in the sixteenth century, when the earliest bass viols were
Lon<? Before Leo ■ 19
being built. Lutes and guitars have much in common, including a hollow
referred to the makers of lutes. Even so, a lute is not a guitar—but it does¬
n't require a huge leap to think of the bass lutes of the Renaissance as
forerunners of the modern bass guitar. It's also interesting to note that the
lute was a vehicle for songs and other "popular music," and lute music
In the middle of the sixteenth century, the desire for stronger bass
the theorbo and the chitarrone. These bass lutes had larger bodies and
longer strings than standard lutes. As you can see in the photo on page
20, some of them had an extra set of bass strings, played open, that were
bass strings were more than five feet long. These huge lutes, it's safe to
assume, must have sounded as impressive in the lower register as the bass
Planyavsky cites a 1623 text that says: "The large body [of the theorbo]
double bass strings." This is a clear indication that the theorbo was capa¬
ble of producing notes deep in the lower register and that it functioned
mentioned the theorbo and the chitarrone, spelling the latter ghitaron.
This spelling suggests a kinship to the guitarron, the large acoustic bass
A seventeenth-century
thought of as an ancestor
example of "tic-tac" bass (see Chapter 6), with the bass lute providing
punch while the bass viol, with its thick gut strings, filled out the bottom.
All of this suggests that the history of the bass guitar, if stretched to
include other horizontal basses, goes back a lot further than we might
have thought. We could even conclude that the horizontal and vertical
allel over the past 500 years—so perhaps we should think of the double
bass and the bass guitar as "cousins" rather than "father and son."
acoustic bass instruments continued into the early twentieth century. But
size "mando-basses" to
one in a semi-horizontal
made in so many different shapes and sizes: builders have been trying to Loar on the far left.)
make them louder. Instrument designers from the fifteenth century right
The first half of the twentieth century was a particularly fertile period
better bass. One particularly loony idea was offered by a German inven¬
amplified instruments. His bass had a solid body, with a bridge that rested
looked like the ones found on early phonographs; the horn amplified the
cross between an acoustic family. Gibson, Vega, and other manufacturers offered these fretted bass
guitar and an upright bass, instruments, which supplied the low end in the mandolin orchestras that
as the company's sales litera¬ were popular in the early 1900s.
ture made clear: "This beauti¬
One of the most interesting instruments in this respect was the Regal
ful instrument combines the
Bassoguitar. Introduced in the early 1930s, it was a gigantic acoustic gui¬
vast depth and resonance of
tar that stood over five feet tall (not including the 10" endpin) and was
the double bass with the
played vertically. It had a flat fingerboard, like a guitar's, but the 42" scale
brilliant tonal quality of the
finest guitar!" length of an upright acoustic bass. The frets were filed flush with the fin¬
gerboard, making the Bassoguitar what would now be called a lined fret-
lust Before Leo ■ 23
less. It didn't have much of an impact on the music scene, although one
The Dobro company
was played (and endorsed) by Israel Crosby in the Fletcher Henderson offered a fretted bass
The Dobro company offered a similar instrument that was an oversize resonator guitar. This 1931
version of its metal-resonator guitars. Like the Regal, it was so big it had promo photo shows one
tar, this instrument was a huge hollow-body guitar equipped with an end-
pin for vertical playing. But, unlike the Regal, the Gibson had a magnetic
■ Chapter 2
Electric Sticks
While some builders were creating oversize
endpin). One of them was used by Wally company, Vivi-Tone, to market the bass and
Kamin in the Les Paul Trio. his other electric instruments. There is no evi¬
horseshoe-magnet pickup.
endpin-to-amp connection
ended in 1940.
26 ■ Chapter 2
{25}
ZOOM, ZOOM,
fi Ft—
dg> K ct;
&L-=-&
w ■..c ;
The majestic beauty of this Bass stands unrivalled by the most expensive imports, No. 240KAY
The top is of spruce and the back of grained curly maple carefully selected and fully
swelled. It has a maple neck and ebonized fingerboard and trimmings. It is extremely No. 240KAY—-Orchestra Model Bass
Viol .$120.00
durable, fully guaranteed and highly recommended for orchestra or school work, where
quality, durability, and price are the prime considerations. This instrument can be bowed No. 261K—Leather Carrying Strap.. 3.25
No. 241K—Bass Viol Canvas Weather¬
as well as picked and slapped.
proof Bag (equipped with pockets
for bow and strings) . 10.75
An Oahu Course of Bass Lessons has No. 321K—Bass Viol Stand. Made
been written for the new student. Write of brass and steel, heavily nickel-
for information to Dept. C-25 of the Oahu plated. Adjustable to pitch and
Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio. angle, permitting Bass to be held
on stand in correct position. Folds
compactly . 15.00
Its wood body is only 6 inches wide; Neck and fingerboard are regulation size; Pull plate
machine heads; Volume and Tone controls conveniently located on side of body. Body
is attached to a plate which slips into a bracket on a heavily-nickel-plated floor stand and
is then adjustable for height and tilt. Only a second is required to attach or remove the
instrument from its stand; Included is a weatherproof bag with pockets for stand and bow;
Gut, metal wound or, in fact, any type of
strings may be used.
The 18-watt amplifier used with this
Bass is supplied with special rubber
mounting to handle the heavy bass vibra¬
tions and is recommended for perfect re¬
sponse and clarity of tone.
13
featuring the Rickenbacker bass. It may not have been a hit, but it was
Tutmarc's Seattle-based vertically. But the idea of a horizontally played electric bass guitar had to
to an even more radical instrument. Years later, Paul s son, Bud Tutmarc,
told Mikael Jansson that his father's compassion for bass players spurred
the idea: "My dad, being a bandleader and a traveling musician, always
felt sorry for the string bass player. The instrument was so large that once
the bassist put it in his car, there was only enough room left for him to
drive. The other band members would travel together and have much
enjoyment, while the bass player was always alone. That is the actual idea
In 1935, Paul Tutmarc had another bright idea, one that would free
up even more space in the bass player's car. Why not build a really small
electric bass that could be played horizontally like a guitar? This idea
became the Audiovox Model 736 Electronic Bass, which was a truly star¬
pickup. The scale length was 30V2" (close to the short-scale standard that
Gibson and other bass manufacturers later favored), and the instrument
had a mirror-steel pickguard and a metal bridge. Tutmarc built his steel
lust Before Leo ■ 29
guitars from black walnut, and he used the same wood for the bass. List Electronic Bass and its
Seattle. Introduced in
About 100 Audiovox Model 736 basses were made, and their distribu¬
1936, the Model 736 was
tion was apparently limited to the Seattle area. In 1947, Bud Tutmarc
the first solid-body electric
revived the idea with a similar instrument he called the Serenader Electric
bass guitar designed to be
String Bass, but that didn't catch on either. (One of Bud's innovations was
played in a horizontal posi¬
the unusual choice of purpleheart wood for the fingerboard. This exotic tion. Unfortunately, it was
hardwood has only recently come into common use in guitarmaking. The ahead of its time and had
impact.
The big question is, of course: Did Leo Fender know about the Tut¬
speculated that Leo may have at least seen some of the Audiovox ads.
Richard R. Smith, the author of Fender: The Sound Heard 'round the World—
30 ■ Chapter 2
the definitive work on Leo Fender—doesn't think so. Smith, who inter¬
viewed Leo extensively over a period of years, said: "He never told me
about it, although Leo and [Fender co-worker] Don Randall were aware of
the Rickenbacker Electro standup and the Gibson Mando Bass. This
whole case is probably just parallel evolution, like bats and birds. They
736 and the original Fender Precision Bass, and the different specifica¬
lution" explanation. But we must give Paul Tutmarc credit for conceiving
a horizontally played electric bass guitar and building what now appears
primeval instruments).
attaching a long neck and crude pickup, and he used this "Frankenstein
Clearly, the idea of a fretted electric bass that could be played hori¬
zontally like a guitar was a good one. Somebody just had to build one that
If Leo Fender wanted to "free the bass March 24, 1953 C. L. FENDER De*. 169,062
GUITAR
player from the big doghouse," he also Filed Not. 21. 1952
fretted bass."
BY -f*
and friends. After hearing the guitarists'
PTTOBNBVS
tion. Leo had already built and marketed the Broadcaster guitar, later The design patent for the
how long, to make the neck was one of the more challenging engineering try to steal his idea.
32 ■ Chapters
a bolt-on maple neck. The dent, to come up with a 34" scale length. But George Fullerton, who
chrome covers concealed a worked with Leo for many years, said it was more a matter of trial and
single-coil pickup and a error: "We tried some shorter scales like 30" and 32", but they didn't seem
two-saddle bridge equipped
to get the resonance we needed. We may have even tried something like
with a string mute.
a 36" scale, but when we got to that length the distance between the frets
However they did it, 34" was an uncannily accurate choice. It has
proven to be the standard for 4-strings ever since. It also fit nicely
between the 25 V2" scale of the Telecaster guitar and the 40-42" scale
Leo chose the name "Precision Bass" largely because the instrument
A Bass Is Born ■ 33
was fretted and therefore had more precise intonation than an upright
with its fretless fingerboard. Smith says the name also refers to the "pre¬
cise" (focused) tone of the instrument and the accuracy of the Fender fac¬
tory's machines, which were more precise than traditional guitar builders'
hand tools.
flatwound steel strings from the V.C. Squier company.) Because the body
was so large, Leo gave it cutaways for better balance, creating a shape that
foreshadowed his 1953 design for the Stratocaster guitar. The pickup was a
simple single-coil design, with one polepiece directly below each string.
There were two knurled control knobs: volume and tone. Anticipating that
musicians would pluck the strings with their thumb, Leo included a finger
rest mounted below the strings on the large black-plastic pickguard. The
bridge had two saddles made of pressed fiber. Chrome covers concealed
both the pickup, and the bridge. These were not merely decorative: the
pickup cover provided electronic shielding, and the bridge cover con¬
Fender knew that if his odd new instrument were going to be accepted,
it would have to serve the same function as "the big doghouse." Even
dards, they still sustained longer than the gut strings players used on
uprights. That's why Leo included a mute to deaden the sound and pro¬
The second part of the equation was the amplifier. Leo Fender knew
that the Rickenbacker upright electric bass had been sold with a com¬
panion amp, and he quickly determined that his standard guitar amps
could not handle the low frequencies his new bass generated. So he set to
34 ■ Chapter 3
work creating a new amp, which became the first Fender Bassman. Espe¬
cially designed for bass reproduction," the Bassman had a single Jensen
15" speaker and a 26-watt tube amp with enough power to produce a rea¬
Not many people have heard what the original Precision Bass
sounded like when it was introduced, but one person who has is guitar
and bass designer Rich Lasner. "I took an original P-Bass, with flatwound
strings as it would have been delivered and set up to the specs that they
used, with the mute in the cover," he told me. "I played it through an
original Bassman amp at medium volume and listened to what it was sup¬
posed to sound like. It's the loudest upright bass you ever heard."
Surging Undertow
Fender introduced the Precision Bass late in 1951, to little fanfare. Many
in the music industry loooked upon Leo's solid-body electric guitars with
skepticism, and they saw his strange bass contraption as further proof he
was crazy.
Leo Fender had thought his bass would be looked upon favorably by gui¬
musicians showed any interest in it. One exception was Joel Price, who
reportedly bought the first Precision Bass sent to Nashville and played it
at the Grand Ole Opry in 1952. While Leo may have noted that event
with some satisfaction, it's safe to assume he didn't think one of his new
basses would be publicized for its use in a well-known jazz group. But life
is full of surprises.
people booed him, because he was a Hamp off the now ba&» u* Billy May and tho Johnnie Ray*.
New instruments
jazz bassist playing this electric bass.
only heard one. And then the picture became clearer. Sitting next to the
guitarist was someone who was holding what looked like a guitar at first
Fender offered the Preci¬ glance, but on closer inspection revealed a long, fretted neck and a pecu¬
sion Bass with a matching
liarly shaped body, with electric controls and a wire running to a
Bassman amplifier. The
speaker."
combination produced a
What Down Beat called a "Hamp-lified fiddle" was a Fender Precision
bass sound that was close
Bass. Lionel Hampton had gotten one of the first production models and
to that of an upright—
but louder. decided it was just the thing he needed to draw attention to his band. Roy
I
ing" power to the bottom end would
207 OAK STREET SANTA ANA, CALIF. me the Fender and told me he wanted
A Bass Is Born ■ 37
this electric instrument sound in the band," Monk later told Mike New¬ ing in the Lionel Hampton
man of Guitar Player. "The electric bass was considered a bastard instru¬ band helped to publicize
The new Fender basses turned up in a few other places. Early Fender
ads featured Shifte Henry, a New York bassist who played with jazz and
jump bands, praising his new P-Bass as "the most." But Leo Fender's quest
✓ ’ v
to free bassists from the doghouse wasn't going to be easy. Most of them
were nob about to adopt this "bastard instrument" (an attitude that pre-
38 ■ Chapter 3
"jailhouse Rock.")
vails, to some extent, in jazz to this day). And the guitarists Leo was try¬
ing to help didn't jump at the chance to play the new instrument, either.
But that didn't matter. The Precision Bass would soon assume a promi¬
nent role in another style of music that would push it into the fore¬
stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next
Or, perhaps, a Fender Precision Bass stirring the low end in the
For one thing, electric guitars had been around since the 1930s.
magnetic pickups followed within a few years, and Fes Paul created
1951, the electric guitar and the guitar amp had benefited from numerous
technological improvements for nearly 20 years, but rock & roll was just
The prototypical rock & roll bands usually featured one or two elec¬
tric guitars, a drum set, and an upright bass. (Keyboards were unusual,
Butterflies 8 Basses ■ 41
played in the slap style employed by bassists such as Bill Black, who electric guitar and the
backed Elvis Presley). As Elvis showed, you could get pretty "gone" with drum kit were available to
this instrumentation, but there was still a need for an instrument that musicians, but the birth of
pickup were set to a Precision Bass in Louis Jordan's popular jump band. It made a big dif¬
would receive more wide¬ genre. Without it, rock & roll might never have moved beyond the crude
spread acceptance among (if captivating) sound of the young Elvis on "That's All Right" or Chuck
American popular music. In 1951, tastes were changing: the big bands
were dying out and small groups were ascendant. Jump tunes—which
more popular, and the climate was right for a strong new sound in the
rhythm section.
If we pull back and look at the wider picture, we see that the Ameri¬
can public was enjoying the domestic calm (and renewed production of
were tense. The United States was engaged in a nerve-racking Cold War
with the Soviet Union and Communist China. Schoolchildren held drills
and covering their heads with their hands. In 1952, army general Dwight
in the background.
Rockwell painting on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, and the cin¬
ema was dominated by overblown Hollywood epics like The Ten Com¬
mandments. Fashion was defined by the man in the gray flannel suit
(and his wife in her housedress). Television was showing some promise
recording studios, the upright bass still reigned supreme—but that was
about to change.
44 Chapter /,
song, but one thing is clear: the bass players on all of the early rock & roll Precision Bass. The new
recordings were using uprights. Whether it was Bill Haley on "Rock version featured a
(A humbucking pickup
cancels electromagnetic
& blues bands, and a film clip of a Fender bassist backing a young Jerry
Lee Lewis on "Great Balls of Fire" appears in the documentary The Golden
Age of Rock & Roll. But Jerry Lee was the exception, even among rockers.
ment, and he worked hard trying to convince his bassist, Bill Black, to use
a Fender bass. In Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Peter
Guralnick described the 1957 recording of the Jailhouse Rock movie sound-
lail Break ■ 47
bass down, slid it across the floor, and stormed out of the studio, while upright, Bill Black brought
featured role. And the fact Elvis himself played the part makes it that
monumental RCA box set Elvis: The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete
50's Masters.)
Bill Black eventually became more comfortable with his Fender bass,
ment to .the ears of millions of Elvis fans. (Most of whom, admittedly, were
48 ■ Chapters
not focusing on the bass player.) "Jailhouse Rock/' with Black on P-Bass,
was the No. 3 Pop song of 1957, and it probably deserves credit as the first
the movie, where Black was seen playing—or at least holding—his Fender
bass in the famous dance scene that has been called the first music video.
Bill Black has received little credit for his role as one of the pioneers
of the electric bass, but it's worth noting that his post-Elvis group, the
Bill Black Combo, had a 1959 instrumental hit called "Smokie, Part 2."
Stuff/Capitol.) The tune went to No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 17 on
Bass.
more readily than it was in mainstream pop. In his book The Death of
impact of the Fender bass on '50s R&B: "The electric bass forever altered
the relationship between the rhythm section, the horns, and the other
melodic instruments. To Quincy Jones, who at the time was splitting his
arranging skills between big band, jazz, and pop, 'It really changed the
sound of music because it ate up so much space. Its sound was imposing
tion. You couldn't just have it playing 4/4 lines because it had too much
personality. Before the electric bass and the electric guitar, the rhythm
section was the support section, backing up the horns and the piano.
But when they were introduced, everything upstairs had to take a back
seat. The rhythm section became the stars. All because of this techno¬
logical development. The old style didn't work anymore and it created a
new language.'"
lail Break ■ 49
range that would become identified with rhythm & blues. Moreover R&B
the increased use of the electric bass in the '50s, would turn this country's
ears around."
One of the musicians who accepted the "new technology" of the
Fender bass—after some initial reluctance—was the Chicago blues gui¬
tarist Dave Myers. Since the early 1950s, Dave had teamed with his
brother Louis in a popular group called the Four Aces. Louis played lead
guitar while Dave backed him using a style that combined chords with
bass lines played low on the E string. In 1958, Dave Myers encountered a
Precision Bass on a visit to a music store, where "this fellow named Harry"
encouraged him to give it a try. "I looked at that thing in that freak case,"
Myers told Bill Milkowski, "and it looked like some antique in a coffin or
something! I asked Harry what it was. 'A bass? There's a bass over there.'
I was pointing to an upright in the back. He said, 'No, no, no—this is the
same. It's just something you have to get used to.' I said I didn't think I
could ever play it. The strings were too big."
Harry eventually convinced Myers to take the P-Bass home with him.
His first attempt at playing it wasn't successful—he immediately blew the
speakers in his guitar amp. He borrowed another amp and tried again,
with the same result. "Finally, the Fender peoples came out to my house
to check the bass," recalled Myers. "They asked me what did I think of it.
I told 'em it had done blown up two amplifiers for me, so they came back
about a month later with an amplifier called a Bassman. That's when I
really got a load of this thing. I hooked that amp up, and boy, did the
sound come out beautiful. Man, when I heard that I knew good and well.
The sound was so deep and beautiful, it was amazing. And it was twice as
loud as an acoustic."
Myers immediately began to play his Precision Bass on gigs in
Chicago and throughout the Midwest. It electrified audiences. ("They
would be standing up on their chairs and going wild. That's when I knew
I really had something going with that Fender bass.") With Dave Myers
leading the way, the Chicago blues groups began to adopt Fender basses,
lail Break ■ 51
nated the scene. "Word got around in Chicago," said Myers, "and the
club owners in the big joints began saying, 'What's the use of hiring 18
or 25 pieces when four pieces can do the job?' And they dropped the big
band like a hot potato. That damn Fender Precision Bass knocked them
It was a sign of things to come. But this was well before the civil rights
movement, and the divide between black and white music remained deep
blues band with a Fender bassist or dig the "imposing" sound of a P-Bass
on an R&B record, but white teenagers were still hearing mostly acoustic
/
bass on the pop tunes that dominated the mainstream airwaves. "Jail-
house Rock" had made its mark, though—and the tide was turning.
Chapter 6: Ride the Wild Bass
Soon after Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" hit the charts, another impor¬
tant electric-bass advance occurred during the sessions for Duane Eddy's
tures two bassists; as Tony Bacon explained in The Bass Book: "Jimmy Sim¬
mons plays double bass to give depth and tone to the bass line, while
Buddy Wheeler plays the same notes on electric bass guitar, adding a per¬
cussive, attacking edge." Duane Eddy has confirmed that Wheeler was
playing a Fender bass; this song is probably the first example of the two-
upright part, another electric bass became the preferred axe for tic-tac: the
For the tic-tac sound, the percussive attack of the Dano 6-string was
used to double the thump of an upright, creating a bass part that was
both deep and well defined. While heard occasionally on rock & roll
Bass Player, the tic-tac Dano, usually played by Harold Bradley, was "an
basses on the market in the mid to late '50s. These included Kay, which
offered a bargain-basement model for folks who found the original Preci-
Ride the Wild Bass ■ 53
employ neck-through-body
sion Bass a bit too pricey at $199.50, and Gibson, with their violin-bodied
first electric bass, the Model 4000, showed up in music stores in 1957.
Roger's Idea
What set the Rickenbacker Model 4000 apart, even more than its distinc¬
Before the Rick 4000, electric basses had been assembled from sepa¬
rate necks and bodies. Fender used the bolt-on approach, while other
companies preferred to glue the neck to the body. But when Roger Ross-
meisl sat down to design his first electric bass, neither method appealed
United States in the early '50s, originally to work for Gibson in Kalama¬
to build in Germany and solid-bodies that would compete with the new
The idea of building a guitar with a neck that ran the full length of
the body did not originate with Rossmeisl. Steel guitars were one-piece
sion of one of its Hawaiian guitars as early as 1939. The best-known pre-
fornia luthier Paul Bigsby built for Merle Travis in 1947 or '48. (This was
a highly influential guitar, with a body shape that would reappear almost
unchanged in the Gibson Fes Paul and a peghead design that showed up
was the high degree of craftsmanship it required. With separate necks and
of a neck-through has less margin for error. Rossmeisl also saw practical
neck with two double metal adjusting rods" and noted that "the fact that
the tailpiece, bridge, nut, and patent [tuning] heads are mounted on the
advantages in the early product literature. This isn't too surprising; sus¬
tain was not a design goal in an era when the indistinct thump of a gut¬
string upright was considered the ideal bass tone. And the crude ampli¬
fiers of the 1950s were not yet ready for the demands of high-fidelity bass
Surf's Up
The Rickenbacker 4000's innovative design would eventually prove to be
influential, but in the late '50s the Fender Precision Bass led the way. In
fact, the term "Fender bass" was used generically for years to describe any
lumped all electric bassists together under the heading "Fender bass."
As the 1950s drew to a close, the low end was getting more and more
attention. Quite a few hit songs from that era were based on twangy licks
the low E string of a standard electric guitar. That's what Eddie Cochran
as a song with electric bass. Not true—but clearly lots of low-end presence
didn't hurt.
56 ■ Chapter 6
CONCERT
THIS IS TH£ MACH BOYS' FIRST "UVF* ALBUM HER! ARE THE GREAT SONGS. THE UNBEUEVABlE EXCITEMENT
OF AN ACTUAl BEACH BOYS CONCERT BEFORE THOUSANDS OF SHOUTING. SCREAMING BEACH BOYS FANS!
Bass a big boost on the immortal
style in which a Fender In a 1997 article in Vintage Guitar magazine, Peter Stuart Kohman
bass was an absolute wrote: "The surf/instrumental rock genres of the early 1960s were crucial
requirement. And it didn't proving grounds for the still-newfangled electric bass, and many of the
hurt that Brian Wilson of
seminal records in these two interrelated styles are also showcases for the
the Beach Boys usually
Fender bass sound. You can't really imagine surf music without a Fender
appeared onstage with a
bass—this is not true of any earlier rock & roll style. During this era, the
white Precision Bass.
bass guitar went from optional to essential equipment and set up the elec¬
tric bass for its dominant role in the British Invasion, folk rock, and all
Kohman goes on to point out that the bassists in budding surf bands
tro instruments, but it was a sign of success to have a shiny new Fender
bass, usually in a custom color like Candy Apple Red or Fake Placid Blue.
The musicians who played these flashy Fenders approached them like gui¬
tars rather than uprights, playing downstrokes with a flatpick and going
for a tighter, more focused sound than the thud of an acoustic bass. The
ary impact of the Fender bass in the late 1950s. In a 1989 Guitar Player
interview, he evaluated the evolution of rock & roll rhythm: "It suddenly
changed in '58, '59, '60, until it was all over by the early '60s. The drum¬
mers were starting to play eight to the bar, and I thought at first maybe
they were just going for more power. Then I realized that, no, it was
because of the bass, the advent of reliable electric bass guitar. The tradi¬
tional double bass went bye-bye, this thing that's taller than most guys
that play the goddamn thing [laughs]. The guitar players were being rele¬
gated to bass. If you didn't even have a bass, you could tune down a gui¬
tar and play four strings; once you had an actual bass, it was much louder
than an acoustic pumping eight to the bar. And the natural inclination of
the drummer is then to pick up on what the new bass is doing, because
Much louder. That was the key. The Fender bass gave bass players a
new, assertive identity in rock & roll. They could take a more prominent
role in the music and use different bass patterns—and this would have a
As the "new bass" was gaining its foothold, the U.S. was moving into
and vigorous, and he launched the space program that would send Amer¬
icans to the moon by the end of the decade. Jacqueline Kennedy, the First
Lady, brought a new sense of style and grace to the White House. The
country was infatuated with Jack and Jackie, and few Americans were
Despite the continuing Cold Wap the future seemed brighter with
JFK in charge. The Billboard Top 40 was still more schlock than rock—
the No. 1 song of 1960 was "Theme from 'A Summer Place"' by Percy
Never"), Roy Orbison ("Only the Lonely"), Jackie Wilson ("Night"), and
Duane Eddy ("Because They're Young") indicated a big new sound was
making waves.
60
in 1963 as a last-minute
Garfunkel's "Homeward
Bound."
In the recording studios of the early 1960s, the dominance of the upright
was slipping. The use of tic-tac, with an electric bass doubling the acoustic
ognizing the popularity of the Dano bass, Leo Fender came up with his
cially if it was being played by studio ace Carol Kaye. She explained why
to G. Brown: "1 played with a pick, and my sound accidentally put the
Carol 8 joe ■ 61
second instrument—and
of sessions. In 1974, he
could get a deep bass sound or add a bit of 'click' with the pick, enough
to make it sound like a Dano at times. That changed the whole thing. The
producers started to figure, 'Instead of three bassists, we can hire that one
Kaye was a Los Angeles guitarist who had picked up a Precision Bass
in 1963 when the contracted bassist didn't show up for a Capitol Records
session. She soon realized that a guitarist who doubled on Fender bass
could get more work, just as Leo Fender had hoped when he created the
✓
Precision Bass.
Kaye is quick to note that the Fender bass had been used on sessions
62 ■ Chapter/
the three-knob
arrangementl.
CAR LEASING *j
m it
Published by V.I.P. Car Leasing Corp. Max Bennett was another L.A.
8701 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles 48, Calif
Telephone: OL 5-9391 studio musician who adopted
OCTOBER J 965
Joltin' Joe
Joe Osborn was another key figure in the burgeoning Fender bass revolu¬
tion. Like Carol Kaye, Osborn was a guitarist who had switched to bass,
so playing his Fender bass with a pick came naturally to him—and it gave
"Roy Buchanan and I were playing guitar in Bob Luhman's band at the
66 ■ Chapter 7
an electric bass and Roy started playing it, since Bob liked the way I played
his country licks. Later, Bob added a female vocalist who sang a lot of pop
standards; I didn't know all the chords, so I told Roy he'd have to come
back to guitar. I went down to the local music store and bought a Precision
Bass. The next night, I was the bass player—same amp, same settings, same
Osborn didn't think much of it at the time, but his approach gave him
bass, played with the pick, had its own frequency space. Instead of com¬
peting with the kick drum at the very bottom, there was more of a blend.
Plus it held up on any kind of record—even if the bass was EQ'd different,
there was an attitude about it, a certain tone that you couldn't lose."
steady work as the bassist in Ricky Nelson's band, where he was intro¬
duced to a new Fender model. "We were going on an Australian tour with
recalled. "I asked for a Concert, which was their biggest amp, and a bass,
thinking they made only the Precision. When they sent the Jazz Bass
instead I was pretty annoyed, but I fell in love with it because the thin¬
Leo Fender had decided to keep the Precision as his only bass during
every important way from its '51 predecessor, yet it still carried the same
name.) In 1959, Leo finally changed his mind, probably with some prod¬
The Fender Jazz Bass was developed in 1959 and introduced the fol¬
intended to send the message that this new instrument was a "high-end"
model for advanced players with jazz technique, because it had a slim
Carol l loe ■ 67
neck that was narrow at the nut: only l7/i6" compared to l3/4" on a Pre¬
much bigger neck than the P-Bass. The Jazz Bass also had a more elabo¬
out, it would not be used by any notable jazz players for quite a few
Osborn.
Armed with his new Jazz Bass, Osborn quickly built a reputation as an
innovative player who always got a great sound on tape. By 1963 he was
a top L.A. session man, and he would contribute his distinctive tone and
creative fills to a long string of hit songs by the Mamas & the Papas ("Cal-
McKenzie ("San Francisco"), and many others. Joe also has the dubious
Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn took a leading role in transforming the way
popular music sounded. Rock & roll was coming of age, and the Fender
bass was the catalyst in an explosive reaction between that nascent musi¬
cal style and the lives of a generation just reaching their teen years at the
starting to send their low-end messages from California, the full range of
playing on a series of hit records in the early '60s assured that this new
instrument, barely ten years old, would play a huge role in the years to
come.
68
year in the early '50s, with a gradual increase to annual production of per¬
from the upright. But the instrument was awaiting its first virtuoso—the
player who would expand the range of creative possibilities and firmly
establish the position of the electric bass in the musical world. He would
Jamerson was a bass player, not a guitarist. After dabbling with the
learner, and before long he was playing jazz on the upright and trying
ers, including Motown's Berry Gordy, and James began to get calls for
session work.
Jamerson started to work for Motown in 1959. He played his early ses¬
sions on the upright, but his approach was dramatically different from
that of the era's other bassists. Allan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky, the author of the
described his impact: "Although his early Motown bass work was
nowhere near the mature late-'60s style that would ultimately evolve in
St. lames ■ 71
masterpieces like 'Bernadette' and 'I Was Made to Love Her,' James was
quickly setting himself apart from most of the bassists in the R&B indus¬
try. Gone were the stagnant two-beat, root-fifth patterns and post-'Under
the Boardwalk' cliched bass lines that occupied the bottom end of most
R&B releases. Jamerson had modified them or replaced them with chro¬
matic passing tones, Ray Brown-style walking bass lines, and syncopated
A friend and fellow bassist, Horace "Chili" Ruth, had urged him to try
the Fender well enough to try it in the studio. Although Motown's stu¬
released in 1962.
The first track where you can hear Jamerson's unique style begin to
emerge is Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy," which was released in April
1963. (It went to No. 2 on the R&B charts and No. 10 on the Pop charts.)
The tune begins with a walking bass intro over handclaps, and the bass
line under the verse is a standard blues pattern. Although simple, it's
played with great feel, and there are subtle embellishments and accents
that give the groove life and energy. For the final chorus, Jamerson
returns to the walking line, playing it with a relaxed, infectious swing and
tossing in surprising cross-string rakes and melodic fills. The entire part
him increasing freedom to shape his parts. He took full advantage of the
opportunity, and by the mid '60s Jamerson had elevated pop bass playing
doing groundbreaking
and "Hip-Hug-Her."
contemporary hip-hop.
Just about any Atlantic break from the bass lines Jamerson
Records soul session from was playing in '64 and early '65 on tunes like 'Dancing in the Street' and
the late '60s that didn't 'Stop! In the Name of Love' to '66 and '67 masterpieces like 'Reach Out'
have Chuck Rainey or and 'I'm Wondering.' Out of nowhere, James started playing almost as if
Tommy Cogbill on bass fea¬
he was the featured soloist."
tured the impeccable
Slutsky's book has transcriptions of 50 Jamerson bass lines, almost all
grooves of Jerry Jemmott
of which are amazingly creative, even by contemporary standards. In a
on his '65 Jazz Bass. Jerry's
work graced classic albums chapter called "An Appreciation of the Style," Anthony Jackson offers a
by Wilson Pickett, Aretha detailed analysis of three songs, showing how Jamerson used unusual
Franklin, King Curtis, B.B. melodic and rhythmic devices to make his lines strong and distinctive.
King, and many others. In
While influenced by Jamerson's knowledge of jazz, many of these ideas
a 1984 interview, Jaco Pas-
would be difficult to execute on the upright. They are truly electric bass
torius said, "He was my
lines, and they demonstrate the expressive capabilities of the instrument.
idol, making the sounds I
"Perhaps the key word that sums up [Jamerson's] techniques," wrote Jack-
wanted to make."
son, "is unpredictability. It was impossible to foresee what he would
St. lames 75
Simon.
play." In contrast to the formulaic bass playing in pop music before then,
Jamerson's work was a revelation.
And, because it was a vital component of a long string of hit records,
Jamerson's playing reached the ears (and feet) of millions. It helped to
break down the line that supposedly separated "Pop" (white) music from
"R&B" (black) music. It is not an exaggeration to say that the immense
popularity of Motown changed the course of American popular music
and, in doing so, had a huge impact on the development of an entire gen¬
eration. Certainly, there were many reasons for Motown's success—from
Smokey Robinson's voice to Berry Gordy's business savvy—but much
credit must go to James Jamerson and his '62 Precision Bass (known as
"The Funk Machine"), as well as his colleagues in the great rhythm sec¬
tion known collectively as the Funk Brothers.
It is hugely ironic—and there were many ironies in Jamerson's life—
that all of this happened without anyone knowing who this great bass
player was. (Motown, like many other labels of that era, did not list the
backing musicians on its records.) James finally received a credit in 1971,
on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, a landmark album that broke all of
and embittered in 1983. Years later, his Motown colleague Smokey Robin¬
son paid tribute to him, saying: "He's really the father of the modern-day
bass player. He had the purest fingering—all his notes were pure and true.
he was doing, you could hear the whole note. That was a big part of his
Although he was known for many years only as "the Motown bass
player (or the Tamla bass player," as the label was named on U.K.
releases), Jamerson was highly influential among his fellow bassists. Now
that we know his name, he has taken on the status of a patron saint—a
showed the way to those who followed, and who shared his gift in a self¬
James Jamerson. He
eventually contributed to
mid-'60s Precision.
there was a young English musician who listened closely and began to
seek his own distinctive electric bass approach. While he was different in
just about every important way from "the Tamla bass player," this left-
rock & roll band whose popularity has never been exceeded—and whose
If James Jamerson was the first player to reveal that the electric bass had
unique creative possibilities, then Paul McCartney made sure everyone got
the message. Thanks to his position as the bassist in the most popular
group in the history of rock & roll, Paul had a platform for making a state¬
In 1961, the Beatles were a fledgling quintet with Stu Sutcliffe on bass.
John, George, and Paul all played guitar. After Sutcliffe quit the band to
focus on his painting (a bad career move, to be sure), Paul was drafted to
All You Need Is Bass 79
quickly and soon discovered that he rather enjoyed his new instrument.
"I'd always liked bass," McCartney told Tony Bacon, "[and] then I started
bassist" in this saga who didn't play a bass made by Fender. One reason
Paul refused to go into debt to buy one. He was also left-handed. Left-
handed production basses were rare in the early '60s, and most right-
handed models looked and felt odd when flipped over and restrung for
didn't look so stupid. And once I bought it, I fell in love with it." The
Hofner became Paul's signature instrument, and he used the axe now
after another, the Beatles captured the hearts and minds of an entire
in the early 1960s, all you have to do is glance at the Billboard charts
for 1963 and 1964 (see charts, page 84). A year after music lovers had
"Dominique," they were bowled over by "I Want to Hold Your Hand
and "Can't Buy Me Love"—and the Beatles had seven more songs in the
Top 40 of 1964. The syrupy pop confections of the late 1950s had been
bass. And rock & roll was more than entertainment—it was becoming
80 ■ Chapter 9
Rickenbacker presented
natural.
a social force that united its fans and gave them a new system of shared
A Style Is Born
Paul McCartney's early bass work was solid if unremarkable, but by early
1964 the influence of James Jamerson began to show in lines that were
the best places to trace this development is on Live at the BBC, a two-CD
you can hear Paul moving away from the simple bass patterns he had
learned from early R&B and country music and beginning to develop the
takes some effort to trace the evolution of McCartney's style. On the ear-
All You Need Is Bass ■ 81
liest cuts, such as "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" (January 1963), the
fifth patterns broken up by the simplest of fills. Even so, you can tell he
has a good feel for bass playing, and the other instrumental parts, even at
this point, seem to hinge on his lines. Within a few months, Paul's lines
more original material. The BBC version of "I Saw Her Standing There"
and has terrific rhythmic vitality. And on a January 1964 cover of 'Johnny
/
song, becoming more and more complex without ever losing the groove
tles recorded at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, on February 28, 1964. The
since Paul is singing the lead vocal), and the bass line just drives the band.
It's essentially the same part McCartney had played on the studio version
of the song (recorded six months earlier), but his performance on this live
track is much more confident and prominent in the mix. It was a sure
In addition to having a great ear and a sure sense of rhythm, Paul was
a bass line. "As time went on, I began to realize you didn't have to play
just the root notes," he explained. "If [the chords were] C, F, and G, then
it was normally C, F, and G that I played. But I started to realize you could
took it beyond that. I thought, Well, if you can do that, what else could
you do, how much further could you take it? You might even be able to
McCartney's creative gift, up on the spot. That opening six-note phrase against the descending
he was a reliable bass chords in 'Michelle'—that was like, oh, a great moment in my life. I think
player who always seemed I had enough musical experience after years of playing, so it was just in
to find the right feel for
me. I realized I could do that." Paul's experience as a lead guitarist, lim¬
each song. Small in stature,
ited though it was, was undoubtedly helpful, and his best bass lines com¬
Wyman favored short-scale
bine the traditional support function of bass with the freedom and lyri¬
basses, including the
cism of great lead-guitar lines.
Fender Mustang. Fender
introduced the budget- McCartney was given a left-handed Rickenbacker 400IS in 1965,
priced Mustang in 1966 as and he began to use that bass along with his trusty Hofner. By the time
an alternative to the long- Sgt. Pepper was recorded in 1967, the Rick had become his primary instru¬
scale Precision and Jazz
ment. By then, his playing had progressed to the point where he felt con¬
models.
fident enough to try some radical experiments. "I was thinking that
All You Need Is Bass ■ 83
maybe I could even run a little tune through the chords that doesn't exist
On 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds/ for example, you could easily have
it, and that became my thing. It's really only a way of getting from C to
F or whatever, but you get there in an interesting way. So once I got over
the fact that I was lumbered with bass, I did get quite proud to be a bass
player. It was all very exciting.... As it went on and got into that melodic
In fact, if you had to chose a single recording that proved the electric
bass had reached maturity, then Sgt. Pepper would be it. The music on that
classic album simply would not have worked without Paul McCartney's
sound of his bass front and center. As Abbey Road engineer Geoff Emer-
ick later explained to Howard Massey, the bass on Sgt. Pepper was isolated
on its own track and recorded simply by miking the bass amp rather than
using direct input (DI) or a mix of amp plus DI. "Although he changed
from the Hofner to the Rickenbacker at around that time, I don't think it
was so much the bass guitar he used," said Emerick. "I think it was hav¬
ing the mike on figure 8 [pickup pattern]. With the studio empty, you
could actually hear a little bit of the room ambience around the bass,
which seemed to help... The other thing I used to do when I was mix-
that the last instrument that you bring in is the bass. So, at least through
Pepper, everything was mixed without hearing the bass. I used to bring
everything to -2 on the VU meter and then bring the bass in and make it
go to 0, so it meant the bass was 2dB louder than anything on the record;
improved recording technology), had given the bass the dominant role
84 ■ Chapter 9
on the most important rock recording of the 1960s. Sixteen years after
Leo Fender had decided he wanted to free bass players from "the big dog¬
Mountains, more than 400,000 of their spiritual heirs gathered at the tapped to play bass in Led
Woodstock Festival to stake their claim as a new generation and a new Zeppelin, John Paul Jones
for decades, but the "new bass," which changed the way rhythm sections he had purchased in 1963.
86 ■ Chapterio
played (and collected) piece of the puzzle. Without it, there would have been no Beatles, no
attaching a Precision Bass of Elvis's spiritual heirs, the British band that had once been known as
neck to a Gibson Thunder- the High Numbers put on a powerful show featuring many of the songs
bird Bass body. from their recently released rock opera, Tommy. Holding it all together,
and playing bass in a highly original and unusual style, was John
Entwistle.
As Chris Jisi has noted, John is "hardly a proper bassist at all; more
accurately, Entwistle is one of the first bass guitarists to play the instru-
The Bi^ Boin? ■ 87
ROUNDWOUND
FLATWOUND
and sonic vision, the spare setting of his three-piece [plus vocalist] always sion Bass were steel
and Keith Moon's bombastic drumming. "What I didn't realize was that no flatwound could
that I'd set quite a task for myself," he told Jisi, "because you can't play match—and they changed
in volume."
^Entwistle's other problem was strings. In 1965, when he set out to
bright a sound as possible. His first choice was a Danelectro bass. "We did
three takes/' John recalled, "all of which were faster, more trebly, and
more complex than the final one, and I kept breaking strings. You could¬
n't get replacements, so I had to keep buying Danelectros. When the store
finally ran out of them, I bought a Fender Jazz Bass, put on LaBella
new set had worked well enough on "My Generation," they simply
bass string.
The Bi<j Boin^ ■ 89
making had not progressed sufficiently to produce an E string that pos¬ When Jimi Hendrix asked
sessed the clarity and power of the other three. guitarist Noel Redding to
that the intestines of sheep could be used to make better-sounding strings. "which was a Jazz Bass,
According to legend, this happened in Italy during the Middle Ages; Rotosounds, and Marshalls,
when gut strands are woven like rope into "catlines." The problem with included "Foxy Lady,"
making bass strings this way is that you need a lot of mass to produce low "Purple Haze," "Manic
notes and still maintain a workable string tension, so the strings must be Depression," and "The
solution to this dilemma was discovered around 1650, with the develop¬
ment of the overwound string. Someone figured out that you could
increase the mass of a gut string by winding metal wire over the outside;
for basses, this yielded a thinner string with a more musical tone than
that of a thick, all-gut string. Overwound strings were soon adopted for
many instruments, and they paved the way for the establishment of the
tury, but the basic design concept remains the same: a core string (usually
made of gut, nylon, silk, or steel) is wrapped with one or more layers of
metal wire. The materials, the dimensions of the wire, the winding ten¬
sion, and other factors can be varied to produce different musical results.
The strings used today on many uprights have a final wind of flat
metal tape, which produces a smooth playing surface that responds well
to the bow. The first strings designed for the electric bass followed this
for the prototype electric basses did not exist because there were no
instruments to put them on.... Leo had to take gut strings [for upright
bass] and wrap them with small-gauge iron wire for his first units. He said
this was a heck of a job. Of course, after the bass proved successful, he had
V.C. Squier make the strings for him." (Squier was a string-manufacturing
The early Fender bass strings were heavy-gauge flatwounds that were
tone was dull and one-dimensional. There was little change to this basic
design during the 1950s and early 1960s. Then, in 1963, an English string-
maker named James How had a better idea: the roundwound bass string.
Rather than putting on a final winding of flat metal tape, he used round
The new Rotosound "Swing Bass" strings were exactly what John
Entwistle was looking for, and he became one of the company's most
visited the Rotosound factory and had them make me sets until they
came up with what I was looking for.") Armed with the crisper, brighter
tone of Rotosounds, Entwistle was able to push his sound even more to
bassists.
One of the players who was heavily influenced by the "big boing" of
John Entwistle's sound was Chris Squire. He had co-founded the British
progressive band Yes in 1968 and was looking for a different way to play
bass, a style that would make the bass equally as important as the other
instruments in the band. "I had always played with a pick because I hated
the dull, boomy tone most bassists had," Squire told Chris Jisi. "John was
using a pick [the first time I saw him]—and his massive cutting sound and
response—Squire took the "lead bass" concept to new heights. When the
where a pair of American bass players were helping to define the "San
Francisco Sound" as they rewrote the rules for rock bass playing.
✓
92
Chapter n: U Giants
overdriven chords, and thunderous low-end bursts, Jack was the Air¬
Casady started his career as a guitarist, emulating such early rock &
roll heroes as Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, and Buddy Holly. After encoun¬
covering that he could get more work as a bassist than a guitarist (one of
Fender Jazz Bass. In 1965, he took the J-Bass with him when he left Wash¬
electronics designed to
frequency response.
Like Paul McCartney and John Entwistle, Casady believed the bass
should play a prominent role in rock music. "The nature of the bass," he
has explained, "is to work with and support the other instruments in a
dialogue." For Casady, that meant playing strong melodic lines that were
often the focal point of the songs, much as McCartney's lines on Sgt. Pep¬
per had been. Jack's playing on the first two Airplane albums, Jefferson
Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow, hinted at this approach, but it
was his work on After Bathing at Baxter's, Crown of Creation, and the live
tour-de-force, Bless Its Pointed Little Head, that established him as a major
painting with huge swatches of deep chords, limning the landscape with
points of gigantic scale. And yet, at the same time, you hear a stunning
delicacy, an intimacy with the instrument and the music with which
market.
point where it could offer him the power and clarity he needed to fully
express his ideas. The first key to Casady's thundering late-'60s tone was
a different instrument. He had used the Jazz Bass on the first two Airplane
Starfire bass. "I noticed that the Fender didn't distort well," Casady
explained, "but when I played overdriven chords and moved up the neck
Because it sang so well but lacked in the low end, due to its short scale, I
cation with Casady. He explained: "It had separate tube amps for the
Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead had a totally original concept of how an electric bass should sound
and how it should be played. Like Jack Casady, he was assisted by the wizards of Alembic in his
Big Bottom
In addition to demonstrating what a creative player he was, the huge bass
sound of Jack Casady showed how far bass amplification had advanced
since 1951, when Leo Fender introduced the first Bassman amp. Before
of the primitive "stick" basses of the 1930s were sold with companion
amplifiers, but these units were underpowered and their speakers ill-
breaking Model 736 Electronic Bass had a Model 936 amplifier to go with
The slow acceptance of the Fender bass in the 1950s was due, at least
Bassman worked fairly well at low volumes but was prone to speaker fail¬
ures (which is one reason why Leo Fender kept tinkering with the design
of the P-Bass pickup, looking for a way to soften the attack transient). An
improved version was introduced in the mid '50s, with more power and
a 4x10 speaker configuration. It was one of the keys to Joe Osborn's great
studio sound but was still too weak for loud rock & roll performances.
amplifier offered 50 watts of power, and the 2x12 cabinet held heavy-duty
speakers that could handle the attack of notes played on electric bass. As
David Hicks noted in Bass Player, "all of a sudden, you could hear the bass
guitar, without a lot of buzz or distortion. At the time, it was the ultimate
in bass gear."
Bass amps continued to get larger and more powerful throughout the
'60s, The Beatles used 100-watt Vox amplifiers on their 1965 U.S. tour,
with Paul McCartney's bass booming out of a "massive" (for the time)
98 ■ Chapter ti
speaker cabinet with one 12" and one 15" speaker. Vox later licensed the
tle amps that sent an 240 watts of “peak power" into 4x12 cabinets. The
Acoustic 360 had a 200-watt rms solid-state power amp mounted in the
bottom of a huge folded-horn enclosure with a single 18" speaker. The sep¬
arate head was a preamp, with such unusual features as a built-in fuzztone
and a variamp control that was, in effect, a crude parametric equalizer. The
cabinet design was something of a problem for bass players because it pro¬
jected the sound so well it was hard to hear onstage. It was also a chore
to move around. (In addition to being a powerful social force, rock & roll
also may have inspired the invention of the van.) Despite its shortcom¬
ings, the Acoustic 360 was the first high-quality amplifier to offer bass
players the volume they needed to keep up with Marshall guitar amps.
Fender followed suit with the 400 PS, another bulky two-piece stack
with a folded-horn cabinet loaded with a single 18. The power amp was
weighed nearly 100 pounds. Bass players were getting a stronger sound,
Ampeg, under the leadership of bassist Everett Hull, had been one of
in the late 1940s. The product that launched the company was a micro¬
phone that could be installed inside a bass through the endpin (or peg)
amps, including one with 40 watts of power and two 15" speakers. Then,
in 1960, the company introduced the famous B-15 Portaflex, the great¬
bass amp called the SVT. Introduced in 1969, it offered tons of power and
an innovative cabinet design that proved to be the best solution for stage
sound. The 300-watt rms tube head was designed to drive two large
closed-box cabinets, each loaded with eight 10" speakers. Ampeg's engi¬
together could not only move enough air to get a good bass sound but
would respond more quickly (have better "transient response") and offer
many 2x10 and 4x10 cabinets available today. Original SVT amps are still
So, by 1970, the volume problem had largely been solved: well-made,
high-powered amps and good electric bass guitars were available to any
bass player (or, at least, to any bass player who could afford them). The
Sound Refinement
Jack Casady's use of the Versatone amp pointed to another important
electronics before the amp. Casady was using the Versatone as a separate
presence and bite that would have been impossible before then. While
Casady was conducting his research, another group of San Francisco musi¬
approach to its music, combining elements of folk songs and early rock
with psychedelicized jams inspired by the free jazz of John Coltrane and
Ornette Coleman. Their bassist was Phil Lesh, a trumpet player who had
100 ■ Chapter ii
Lesh's Guild Starfire was a focal point for Alembic's research. In search
experiments and installed active electronics—the first time that had ever
batteries.) Wickersham also modified Jack Casady's Guild bass, which was
reduce the high-frequency loss that occurs when signals travel from pas¬
The next logical step for Alembic was designing and building a bass
that embodied all of their ideas about both woodworking and electronics.
"We postulated that the strings should be isolated from the body of the
where the string energy is coupled to the plates [vibrating surfaces] to pro¬
energy back into the string rather than losing it to the body. So we placed
a mass block under the bridge, which has the desired effect. Further, the
open string compared to the metal of a fret, so a brass nut was fitted. And
we felt that better support for the string would be provided by a stiff neck
extending through the body, so losses from friction at the neck joint
would be eliminated."
The first Alembic bass was a truly revolutionary instrument and the
most important new bass design since Leo Fender had created the Preci¬
with the Rickenbacker 4000 and added laminated hardwoods, brass hard¬
Casady used it for several years until it was dropped on a concrete floor,
Before the first Alembic bass, electric bass guitars had been utilitarian
still quite plain when compared to guitar makers' finest efforts. But Alem¬
bic's team changed everything. Not only did they bring a much more sci¬
instruments that were often works of art. The Alembic legacy is much in
evidence today; a display of basses at any large music store will have
In the same way, the influence of Casady and Lesh stretched far
beyond the San Francisco scene. Their success in elevating bass playing to
a new level of artistry enhanced the impact of the Airplane and the Dead,
inspiring not only their fellow bassists but the many young adherents
who were finding that "language of their own" in rock music. In the late
S.F. Giants I 103
'60s, the United States was a country in turmoil, bitterly divided by con¬
troversies over political power, civil rights, and the Vietnam War. For the
youth, rock was a rallying point in their struggle to influence the future
ment." While many bands offered anthems for this crusade, the Jefferson
Airplane might have summed it up best on their 1969 song "We Can Be
Together," which urged the young to band together, tear down the walls
of oppression, and forge "a new continent of earth and fire." And it was
As Casady and Lesh strove for sonic refinement in the United States,
electric bass. Like Lesh, he was classically trained; like Casady, he saw the
unique vision to his music that challenged just about every established
Jack Bruce believed the bass guitar was a new instrument that required a
new approach. Bruce had been playing jazz on upright when he was
introduced to the electric bass, and he had an instant affinity for the
smaller instrument: "I fell in love with it," he said in a 1993 interview. "I
independently and played at night in dance bands. But he soon grew dis¬
against him (he was the son of a factory worker) and at the school's strict
Bruce was at first a "jazz purist" who played only upright and looked
askance at the developing rock scene. His outlook began to change after
a stint with the English bluesman Alexis Korner, and he took notice of the
bass guitar in 1962 after hearing a bassist named Roy Babbington play
one. Soon after that, Jack was hired for a session with the Jamaican gui¬
tarist Ernest Ranglin—and told to bring along a bass guitar. "So I went to
Bruce. "It had those nylon tapewound strings that kind of went 'boink.'"
started to listen more closely to recordings that featured it. "I began to
began to see the possibilities of the bass guitar. It wasn't limited to play¬
ing root notes four to the bar,- it could actually be a melody instrument_
lack It Up ■ 105
which it very much was in the hands of James." Equipped with a Japan¬
ese-made Top 20 bass guitar that was "pretty monstrous/' Jack started to
work out his ideas for the instrument, applying both upright technique
While Bruce was woodshedding on the electric bass, he was still per¬
McLaughlin quit the band, Jack saw an opportunity to apply the bass gui¬
tar in a new way. He purchased a Fender Bass VI and began to play it with
the group, trying to cover both the guitar and bass functions with his parts.
those days, I was trying to find different sounds and different approaches
to the bass guitar." The Bass VI, with its 30" scale, triple-pickup configura¬
tion, and tremolo bar, was a long way from a standard Fender bass—and
Bruce's experimental parts were a long way from standard bass playing. As
can be heard on the Graham Bond album The Sound of 65, Jack s lines
were creative if not yet fully formed. His "busy" playing eventually both¬
ered Ginger Baker so much that he got Bruce fired from the band.
"I was at a low point," recalled Jack, and I thought, Well, that s it. 111
probably give it up now and get a job in a factory." And then he got a call
from Marvin Gaye, who was in town to do a television show. Gaye hired
Bruce for the TV gig and offered him a spot in his road band. Although
Jack turned down the touring job, his confidence was restored and less
than a year later he was invited to join a new band called Cream, with
guitarist Eric Clapton...and Ginger Baker. (Clapton, not knowing the his¬
tory between Bruce and Baker, had told Ginger that he thought Jack
The three musicians first got together to play in June 1966, and Bruce
plucked the strings with his ever matched Bruce's enthusiasm), he never lost his grounding in the
fingers. Bruce used the instrument's essential support function. That "crossover" nature of his
Bass VI for several years in playing makes it so fascinating—and is one reason it was so influential.
the late '60s and played it
For bassists, Bruce's work in Cream was a sign that good bass playing and
on Fresh Cream.
a high degree of creative freedom were not mutually exclusive. It was a
call to liberation.
ways its de facto leader. Despite a huge following that hailed him as "God,"
would labor for months over a single composition. Baker was an accom¬
plished drummer but hardly suited for the task of fronting the band. That
left Jack Bruce to not only play bass but also be the lead vocalist and pri¬
mary songwriter (along with his partner, lyricist Pete Brown). Because he
lack I! Up ■ 107
a bassist.
the instrument I brought with me," he explained. "It had been severely Jack Bruce bought a
painted by some Dutch artists called The Fool. They painted all these psy¬ secondhand Gibson EB-3 in
"I found a Gibson EB-3 secondhand in a London music shop and imme¬
diately liked it a lot. It had an extremely wide neck. I went to the Gibson
factory years later and told them about this instrument, and they said,
'Oh, no, it couldn't be; we never made one like that.' The neck was either
a mistake or something they tried and forgot about. It wasn t the greatest
apparently to make it more These days, well-known musicians routinely endorse instruments in
attractive to guitarists— return for getting them for little or nothing, so it's interesting that Jack
but was equipped with an
Bruce went shopping for his own bass—and bought it used. It's also inter¬
extendable endpin for
esting that it was a Gibson bass. Gibson is one of the oldest and most
vertical playing, like an
respected names in the guitar business, but the history of their electric
upright bass. Only 546
basses is largely a saga of missed opportunities.
were made before Gibson
dropped the model in As we saw in Chapter 2, Lloyd Loar was the first person to think of
1958. It was briefly reintro¬ applying electricity to the problem of getting more volume from a stringed
duced in 1970. bass instrument. He presented his ideas to Gibson's management in the
1920s, but was turned down. Fifteen years later, someone at the company
lack It Up 109
came even closer to getting a jump on the bass business with the Gibson
Electric Bass Guitar of 1938-40. Only two of these instruments were built,
Gibson's second electric
however, and Gibson never exploited the idea. It wasn't until after the
bass model, the EB-2, was
Fender Precision Bass had appeared on the market that Gibson once again
introduced in 1958. Setting
turned its attention to the idea of building an electric bass.
a trend that would define
The Gibson Electric Bass was introduced in 1953. It had a shorter scale many of the company's
(30V2") than the Fender Precision, which should have made it even more bass models over the years,
appealing to guitarists. But its body was violin-shaped, and it came this semi-hollow instru¬
style with rear-facing keys. The overall impression was one of design con-
was renamed the EB-1 but soon dropped from the company's line.) This
Gibson's bass offerings over the years: it was essentially a guitar body with
a bass neck attached. The EB-2 was the partner of the ES-335 and shared
the guitar's semi-hollow body design. Like the Electric Bass/EB-1, it had a
3OV2" scale length and a single pickup mounted at the end of the neck.
The tuners were again the banjo-style units, suggesting that Gibson was
building its new bass model simply by grafting necks from the Electric
Bass/EB-1 onto ES guitar bodies. This may have been efficient for the fac¬
tory, but it showed that Gibson was not giving much thought to design¬
though the numeric designation is a zero, but it's usually spoken as the
sequence that went from one to two to zero is anybody's guess. Once
again this bass was a "partner" instrument, the guitar in question being
the Les Paul Jr. Two years later, its body shape was modified to match the
newly introduced SG guitar, and a two-pickup version called the EB-3 was
added to the line. Thanks to its use by Jack Bruce in Cream, the EB-3 had
a brief period of popularity in the late '60s and early '70s, but it was dis¬
continued in 1979.
had a 34" scale length that matched the Fender basses—and it blasted out
a powerful, biting tone that got the attention of top players like John
Entwistle. By 1965, though, Gibson had altered the body (going from the
the neck to the body. The Thunderbird, in various flavors, has gone in
and out of production ever since, and it is still a favorite with many heavy
metal and hard rock bassists.
market. He found his EB-3 perfectly suitable for Cream, especially since it
was easy to play while he was singing. He used it to record Disraeli Gears
in May 1967, and the change in his sound was quite apparent. With fel¬
low bassist Felix Pappalardi producing and his role as the primary vocal¬
ist and songwriter firmly established, Jack was front and center through¬
out the album that launched Cream to superstardom. His bass playing
was strikingly bold: more and more, his parts were functioning as coun¬
termelodies to Clapton's guitar lines, and they were filled with string
lack It Up ■ 111
had become fat and brash, with the characteristic edge of distortion that
Beginning with Disraeli Gears and carrying through Wheels of Fire and
Goodbye (and the subsequent releases of live material from Cream's 1968
with the conventions of rock and R&B bass playing, Jack simply discarded
them for a new approach that owed as much to his study of J.S. Bach and
Charles Mingus as it did to any of his electric bass predecessors. Seen from
At the beginning of the '60s, the Fender bass had gained only a small
Thanks to the brilliant and influential ideas of James Jamerson and Paul
John Entwistle, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, and Jack Bruce carried this cru¬
sade forward, forging new styles that made the bass an equal voice—and
making their groups that much more popular and powerful. The music
of the leading rock bands became the soundtrack for the social changes
that were driven forward by the generation that came of age in the late
'60s. While some of the ideals may seem naive today, the impact of those
1970s after the end of the Vietnam War bore little resemblance to the
fueled by the Fender bass and its descendants—had helped to power the
revolution.
Something else was happening in the late '60s, too. The influence of
the Fender bass was beginning to reach beyond rock and have an impact
the key players in this movement, and his far-reaching influence was based
When Leo Fender designed the Precision Bass, he assumed players would
pluck the strings with their thumbs; that's why the early- P-Basses have a
finger rest on the G-string side of the body. If you put the fingernails of
your right hand against this rest, your thumb will be in position over the
strings about midway between the pickup cover and the end of the neck.
Many of the early electric bassists did indeed use this right-hand tech¬
playing the upright with his fingers, said: "The downstroke came to me
naturally, and I would just strike the string that way. I had no examples
or influences."
When guitarists such as Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn began to adopt
the Fender bass, they held onto their flatpicks. This gave their attack a
click" that was advantageous in the studio, especially since the record¬
ing gear of the time did not have the sophisticated equalization that
would later help bassists get a good sound regardless of their right-hand
technique.
By the early 1960s, many bassists had started to use another right-
hand technique: positioning the hand above the strings and using their
fingertips to pull the strings. (Noticing this, Fender eventually made the
finger rest into a thumb rest by moving it to a position near the lowest
string.) This technique was similar to the pizzicato style many jazz
bassists use, plucking the strings with one or two right-hand fingers.
middle fingers. (Later, some bassists would use three or even four fingers
Bass did not require much damping by the player, because the notes were as a solo artist. Slapping is
dead—that is, they did not have much sustain. When bassists began to just one element of his
/
complex technique, which
remove the mute and play with a pick or their fingers, they discovered
includes a variety of pats
fuzz pedals.
114 ■ Chapter 13
that the strings would sometimes ring longer than they wanted them to,
unwanted sounds that often clashed with the note being struck, causing
muddy and indistinct tone. (The problem is especially acute with a bright
tone. As John Entwistle said, "You can't play sloppily.... I had to clean it
up and find a fluid way of damping the notes so they didn't blur into
each other.")
ways, using either their right- or left-hand fingers or the heel of the right
hand to damp the strings not being played. Many bassists have developed
learned how to position their hands to produce a clean sound. (For gui¬
tarists who double on bass, this can be one of the hardest aspects of bass
Slapping
By the late 1960s, most Fender bassists were using either their fingers or
a pick to strike the strings. And then a young musician named Farry Gra¬
ham had a different idea.
Tike many of the great musical innovations, Graham's new bass tech¬
phone as well as guitar. By the time he was 15, he was working in a group
led by his mother, who sang and played piano. "We had a trio," Graham
organ with bass footpedals. I started playing the footpedals while I sang
Ihumbslin^ers ■ 115
and played the guitar, and it sounded great. Then one night the organ
broke down, and we sounded kind of empty without the bottom end. The
next day I rented a St. George solid-body bass from a store called Music
It turned out they couldn't get the necessary parts anymore, so I was
learn the normal right-hand technique, with two fingers over the top."
Graham faced another crisis when the drummer departed. "That was
when I started to thump the strings with my thumb to make up for not
having a bass drum. And I also plucked the strings with my index finger
to fill in the snare backbeat. Over time, I got it down pretty good, but I
such 70s funk hits as "I'll Larry Graham's new style came to the attention of a wide audience
Be Good to You" and after he joined Sly & the Family Stone and played on such hit albums as
"Strawberry Letter 23." Dance to the Music (1968) and Stand! (1969). These recordings are impor¬
Johnson has called slapping
tant not only because of Graham's bass innovations but because of their
"a matter of natural
social impact. Sly Stone's band was unique, even in the "peace and love"
evolution for me," noting
environment of the late '60s: it brought together male and female musi¬
that he developed the
cians of different races and ethnic backgrounds to play music that
technique before he heard
Larry Graham. blended elements of R&B and rock in songs that often had strong social
and political messages. Once again, the Fender bass was playing a promi¬
nent role in driving home music that was intended to be a force for pos¬
itive change. (Little did Sly suspect that "Everyday People" would later
showing up in the work of other influential funk bass players like Bootsy
Thumbslin^ers 117
Clarke.
percussive sound with The drummer in Corea's group was Lenny White, who showed Larry
Return To Forever and on his Graham's new bass technique to Clarke. "Lenny didn't really know what
1974 solo album dazzled
he was doing on bass," recalled Stanley, "but he had great rhythm. Since
listeners and set a new
I learned from him, my slapping was a little different." Clarke soon
standard for bass
became renowned for his ability to apply the new technique to complex
players. Clarke is known for
jazz compositions. "Chick wrote tunes in A\>, C#, everything. I didn't get
using a wide array of
Alembic basses, in a chance to slap in E until I did my solo stuff, and that was like a release—
ever, but in 1973 he found out about a new kind of bass guitar that was
better suited to his needs. "We were playing at a club in San Francisco,
and this guy came up to me and said my playing was great but my sound
was atrocious. It was Rick Turner, who was with Alembic. He had a bass
with him, so I tried it out. It was like a new bass player was born that
Thumbslin^ers ■ 119
a bass, sound quite like that, nor had anyone ever heard such a dazzling
array of runs, slaps, strums, pops, chords, and assorted other techniques,
School Days followed two years later, and by then Clarke had firmly
able that another musician could play the electric bass with such a distinc¬
ley Clarke demonstrated his greatness than another brash young musician
came along, Fender Jazz Bass in hand, proclaiming himself the greatest.
distinguished by fluid
Hide Love."
121
he had crowned himself the World's Greatest Bass Player. It was an incred¬ model he got from a friend,
snare drum properly. At the age of 15, he picked up an electric bass to sub
for another local player. He took to the instrument quickly, and accord-
ing to his brother Rory had become "the best bass player in the entire
Jazz Bass. According to a number of sources, this was a used '60 J-Bass he
got from his friend and fellow bassist Bob Bobbing. Bill Milkowski quotes
Jaco as saying he replaced the "stack knob" controls on this bass with the
Las Olas Brass. This show seem to have enough punch" with the original wiring.
was at Teen Town, which This is an interesting story, although there are photographs of Jaco
Jaco said was "a place I that tell a slightly different tale. One of these appeared in the September
used to go dance when I
'97 issue of Bass Player with the caption "Future Jazz Great: The day Jaco
was 13." It later inspired
got his first J-Bass, in Oakland Park, Florida." In this color snapshot, a
one of his compositions for
teenage Jaco is shown standing in the yard of a typical South Florida
Weather Report.
home, proudly holding what appears to be a brand-new sunburst Jazz
Bass, complete with the chrome covers over the pickup and bridge. The
the bass was not made before late 1966. On the next page, there is a black
& white photo of Jaco onstage with the Las Olas Brass, "circa 1967," play¬
ing what looks like the same bass.
The World’s Greatest Bass Player ■ 123
a '62, was to become the "Bass of Doom," which he used to record much found in later J-Basses
of his most famous music. In an act that probably would have horrified because he felt this gave
a pair of pliers, prying them out with a butter knife.) To protect the fin¬
coated the wood with several layers of marine epoxy. This produced a
smooth, hard surface that gave the bass a unique "singing" quality.
"I have a fretless bass, so it's virtually like I'm playing a wood bass,"
Jaco said. "In other words, the strings go into the wood on the neck, but
being that it's a bass guitar, it gets that bright sound and direct sound. It's
124 ■ Chapter u.
just legitimate vibrato. That's it—there are no tricks. It's all in the hands.
It's like I'm the first guy to be using a fretless and really get down and play
it. Because nobody can play it—they cannot play it in tune. I play in tune
Imprecision Bass
Jaco was not the first musician to use a fretless electric bass—that honor
that he was the first to really "get down and play it" consistently and with
good intonation. Before Jaco, the fretless was little more than a footnote
in the story of the electric bass; after Jaco, it became an entire chapter.
The World’s Greatest Bass Player 125
bridge.
126 ■ Chapter 14
Fender pickups.
shaped body with two /-holes that went entirely through it. Thanks to its
unusual bridge-mounted diaphragm pickup, it could use gut strings to
better simulate acoustic-bass sound (at least in theory). The AUB-1 and its
fretted partner, the AEB-1, didn't put a noticeable dent in Fender bass
sales, although a few players found them interesting. One was Rick Danko
of The Band, who used an Ampeg fretless during the recording of Cahoots
and Rock of Ages.
Fender first offered a fretless Precision Bass in 1970. There's a certain
degree of irony to this, given that the Precision name was derived from
the instrument's fretted fingerboard. (Forrest White reported: "I asked Feo
The World’s Greatest Bass Player ■ 127
how he came up with the name Precision Bass. He said, 'It was simple. If
a player noted the right fret, the tone was right on—a precision result.'")
The fretless P-Bass sold modestly; early owners included Freebo, who did
some nice work with one on several early Bonnie Raitt albums, and Sting
of the Police.
even at the height of Jaco's popularity. This was a sign of how out of
touch the company had become by the mid 70s. Not only had quality
control slipped, but the important advisory role musicians played in the
pre-CBS era had largely vanished. Product decisions were based on the
bottom line, not the music scene. Fortunately, this trend was reversed in
/
the 1980s, when a group of Fender executives led by Bill Schultz pur¬
chased the company and took important steps to restore product quality
recent years has included several fretless Jazz Basses, one of which is a spe¬
cial "Jaco Pastorius Relic Jazz Bass" made by the Fender Custom Shop.
Acoustic 360 amp, was the tool Jaco needed to realize his creative vision.
Many of his early gigs were with R&B bands, where he perfected a per¬
Carlos Garcia and studio ace Jerry Jemmott—that gave the music incred¬
(which involve using an extended finger like a capo and picking behind
it). This gave Jaco a tremendously extended range to work with, tran¬
scending the supposed limitations of the bass. He got the most from the
melodic lines filled with slides and expressive vibrato. He found the
most effective double-stops and used them to fill out his parts. Taking a
mic accuracy.
In 1975, Jaco auditioned—solo—for Bobby Colomby, who was the
drummer with Blood, Sweat & Tears and had a production deal with Epic
Records. Colomby described the event to Bill Milkowski: "So Jaco plugs in
his bass and starts playing. As I sat there listening, my eyes started bug¬
ging out and my hair was standing on end. I couldn't believe it. He was¬
n't kidding—he was the greatest bass player in the world! I had heard
what he was doing on the bass. He was definitely coming out of the James
Jamerson and Jerry Jemmott style of playing, but he went well beyond
their scope. He was doing things on the bass that I had never heard any¬
truly a phenomenon."
Thanks to Colomby's enthusiastic endorsement, Jaco got a solo deal
with Epic. The LP that resulted, titled simply Jaco Pastorius, was recorded
in late 1975 and released in 1976. It is the single most important and influ¬
proved that a bass player could function effectively as the lead voice and
the foundation—and do them both at the same time. It sent an entire gen¬
eration of bassists scurrying to their practice rooms. (Dave LaRue said, "I
was at Berklee when Jaco's first solo album came out. Everybody in the
bass department threw up their hands and said, Okay, let s start over. )
M6st of all, Jaco Pastorius—released 25 years after Leo Fender had intro¬
duced his new instrument—proved the Fender bass had truly come of age.
130 ■ Chapter 14
Jaco's career took off after his solo album was recorded. He played
with Pat Metheny on the guitarist's stunning debut, Bright Size Life. He
was invited to join Weather Report and immediately made a strong con¬
group's finest work on such recordings as Heavy Weather, Mr. Gone, Night
Passage, and the potent live album 8:30, which showcased his solo fea¬
ture, "Slang." From 1976 to 1980, not only did Jaco light a fire under
"Teen Town," and "Three Views of a Secret." During this period, he was
Mitchell on four albums, including Hejira, which has some of his fresh¬
est and most lyrical playing. Jaco went on the road with Mitchell's all-
star band in 1979 and is a powerful presence on the Shadows and Light
And then, like a meteor, Jaco tumbled from the heavens. Over¬
drug and alcohol abuse, he fell apart. The years from 1980 until his
The World’s Greatest Bass Player ■ 131
death in 1987 were marked by a great deal of turmoil and very little
good music.
Despite his tragic decline, Jaco Pastorius forever changed the way the
a Bass Player interview: "You have to separate electric bass playing into
two periods: Before Jaco and After Jaco. Most of us who thought we had
our acts together in the early '70s were faced with a serious decision the
first time we heard him: give up the instrument or try to figure out what
the hell he was doing. I don't believe any other individual has so totally
"Jaco clones" were everywhere. But there were a few individuals who had
quite different ideas about bass playing. One was a New York studio
bassist who had been trying for several years to make a fundamental
✓
132
are Fodera/Jackson
Jackson's lap).
"contrabass guitar." Session bassist Anthony Jackson had ordered the new
instrument, which had six strings rather than four. One of the extra
strings was tuned to B, a fourth below a 4-string's open E; the other was
Jackson had begun to play bass in 1965 at the age of 13, and by 1970 he
was already getting studio work. He backed singer Billy Paul on the hit "Me
Battleships i B Strings ■ 133
and Mrs. Jones" and shortly afterward received a writer's credit for his bass the first bassist to play a
line on the O'Jay's "For the Love of Money." Jackson created that unforget¬ 5-string electric bass tuned
records by jazz organist Jimmy Smith. While listening to a bass line Smith muting technique based on
played on his footpedals, Jackson heard a note that was below the range placing his thumb between
larger intervals were a problem. "A little common sense, combined with a
son told Chris Jisi. "I raised the nut, readjusted the truss rod, and did much
two whole-steps."
Jackson played sessions with his Fender bass tuned this way, includ¬
ing the ones that produced the memorable Chaka Khan albums Naughty
(1979) and What Cha' Gonna Do For Me (1980). As good as they were, the
downward, he never considered the idea of adding just one string: "As the
had six strings from the beginning. The only reason it had four was
but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training."
Carl Thompson's reaction was: "Crazy guy! Six strings, low B—what are
you talkin' about?" But he built one anyway. The first instrument was
delivered to Jackson early in 1975. It had a 34" scale length, like a Fender
bass, and it worked reasonably well, although Jackson disliked its tight
bass—this time with a 44" scale length that was "impractical to finger"—
Jackson set out to find another builder who would construct a 6-string bass
with wider string spacing. "It's solely to duplicate the string spacing on my
Fender 4-string," he explained, "which I've owned since 1972 and feel very
son had put together from a Precision neck and a Jazz body. Because he
Ken Smith was the next builder to tackle Jackson's project. He con¬
structed two 6-strings, both with 34" scale lengths. The first instrument
was completed in 1981, and Jackson used it for three years even though
Battleships S B Strings ■ 135
he felt the string spacing was, once again, too tight. Smith's second
which matched that of "Career Girl." While its wide neck looked
made in the shop of Vinnie Fodera, who had been an assistant to Ken
Smith. The first Fodera/Jackson contrabass, with a 36" scale length, was
built in 1986. More versions have followed (as of this writing, Anthony is
using his ninth Fodera instrument), and most of the 6-string basses cur¬
rently available feature the wide string spacing Jackson had advocated
/
from the beginning.
made the most sense, others thought that five strings might be enough.
Jimmy Johnson was probably the first bassist to use a bass with just the
his father played: "The idea came from my dad, because [some] orchestral
basses have extensions that let you go down to low C. They have a
machine just for that, and I started talking to my dad about how I could
long E string. (Phil Kubicki revived this concept in the 1980s; see Chap¬
ter 18.) Johnson then settled on the idea of adding a B string. He knew
ordered one. After it arrived, he modified the nut and bridge to accept the
string, and most of the other early 5's that followed it, had relatively tight
136 ■ Chapter is
spacing. This made it hard for Fender players to adapt; luthiers took
notice, and the spacing has slowly been moved out over the years. On a
Precision Bass, the string spacing at the bridge (measured from the center
Leo Fender may have set the standard for string spacing, but the com¬
made by Modulus
Enter Graphite
Graphite, a company
The addition of one or two
founded by San Francisco
strings—especially the heavy-
bassist and aerospace
gauge B string, which can be as big
engineer Geoff Gould.
as .142 (compared to a .105 E
referred to as "graphite."
Battleships 8 B Strings 137
ect at the time, and many of the many 5- and 6-string basses
parts we were using were made are now built with a 35"
'<We were able to get Stanley Clarke to try it out during the soundcheck
before a'Return To Forever concert," said Gould. "It was an ideal situation,
138 ■ Chapter is
because Stanley was using an Alembic bass that was virtually the same in
every respect except the neck. The difference in sound was striking."
at the January 1977 NAMM trade show, the annual gathering of musical
on. There was considerable skepticism but also considerable interest, from
both bassists and the R&D department of one major manufacturer. (After
show bass, and word soon began to spread about this new material.
Over the next few years, Gould began to produce Fender replacement
necks and to build graphite necks for several customers, as well as offer¬
ing his own basses under the Modulus Graphite name. Furniture-
1979. Bassists like Tony Levin, Geddy Lee, and Sting latched onto them,
but the fad proved short-lived. Steinberger eventually sold his company
to Gibson and in recent years has focused on upright electric basses that
In recent years, builders have used graphite bars to stiffen the necks on
posites with traditional materials are becoming more and more common.
The emerging bass technology of the 1970s was a rite of passage for
ments appeared, and the advent of 5- and 6-string basses meant bassists
had more choices than ever. What had been a nearly linear development
Battleships 8 B Strings ■ 139
graphite instrument,
super-heavy construction
dynamic sound."
many directions.
Appropriately, this took place during a time of transition in American
society. After the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1973, the coun¬
try turned inward. The social unrest of the '60s was replaced by a focus
Born to Run (with Gary Tallent pounding away on a Danelectro bass); the
startling special effects in Star Wars amazed moviegoers; and a new musi-
✓
cal genre was in ascendance. The good news: in this style, the bass line
an oasis in the desert of doxically—as music designed to make you dance, dance, dance—was to
disco. His playing on Chic's turn the pop audience into one big happy family."
early 70s hits—especially If disco had a redeeming quality, it was its strong emphasis on
"Good Times"—continues
rhythm. Many of the most popular disco songs were little more than
to be recycled by samplers
arranged bass lines, and the best of these came from Chic, who had huge
and sequencers. The band
hits with "Le Freak" and "Good Times" in the late 1970s. Chic was led by
made a strong comback in
guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards, who got a thick but
1992 on Chic-ism, four
years before Edwards's well-defined sound from his Music Man StingRay and Ampeg amps. "I
untimely death at love the fat, smooth sound of Jamerson," Edwards explained to Don
the age of 43. Snowden, "but I also like to hear the notes I'm playing and the little
Dance, Dance, Dance ■ 141
three-chord songs, cranked-up amps, blistering tempos—and topped it all really play—and he used a
off with a healthy dose of anger. The bass playing was crude, and the Precision Bass.
which reflected the genre's emphasis on the basics. Usually slung down
around the bassist's knees and attacked with a flatpick, the punk P-Bass
the Sex Pistols. When the band was formed in 1975 ("manufactured"
McLaren), Glen Matlock was the bass player. Matlock had some experience
Carlton Barrett, were the A more sophisticated alternative to disco came from Jamaica. For
rhythm section for the those who longed for the everybody-get-together days of the late '60s,
Wailers. Their seamless reggae offered a common bond and inspiring (if sometimes mysterious)
grooves set the standard
messages. Influenced by both calypso and American R&B, reggae had
for the reggae rhythm sec¬
developed into a well-defined style by the early 70s, and its popularity
tions that followed.
surged after the Wailers released Burniri in 1973. Reggae's unusual start-
and-stop bass patterns gave the music much of its hypnotic power. Aston
"Family Man" Barrett of the Wailers was one of the founding fathers of
the style; armed with a Fender Jazz Bass, he had a huge, deep sound, and
Family Man perform. "I went to that person and said, 'You have to teach
Dance, Dance, Dance ■ 143
teamed up on an incredible
number of recordings,
classic recordings.
me how to play this thing/" Shakespeare recalled. "About two days later,
instrument for me/ because bass guitar is what makes the song." Shake¬
and Bob Dylan. He began his career playing a Fender Jazz Bass and used
choice to Don Snowden: "I like a bass that sounds like a bass, deep but
clean, have a lot of balls in it. I can get a Fender Jazz sound, a Fender Pre¬
favorite PRS bass was a discontinued model, although the company got
the same time, it's supposed to interact with the drummer, the guitarist,
the keyboards, and the singer, and leave enough space for percussion. If
not clash. If you take away all the instruments and the bass alone is there,
Hybrids
The most profound musical developments of the 1970s occurred in what
music greater than the sum of its parts. In all of these, the Fender bass was
a crucial catalyst.
In pop music, the most interesting hybrid group was the Police.
Formed in 1977, the band combined the energy of punk rock with the
ciently upsetting to be banned by the BBC.) The central figure of the band
ter known as Sting. Originally a guitarist, he had picked up the bass when
his observation of Paul McCartney and Jack Bruce led him to conclude
quickly learned that being the bassist gave him a great deal of control
sophistication of reggae. In
there's a power shift toward the bass and away from the guitar, Sting
The way bass is used in reggae, and particularly dub [which features deep,
Oakley's favorite
instrument was
he had modified by
sounded great.
making him one of the first prominent bassists to perform regularly with
Fenders. He favored a '62 Jazz Bass for several years, until he came across
a battered '54 Precision. "I rescued it from the orphanage about ten years
ago and fell in love with its dilapidated appearance," he recalled. "There's
no finish on it; it's just a wreck. Something about that really appeals to
absorb and retain energy—it sounds mystical, but I really believe it."
Of all the hybrids, the most important was probably a style called
"fusion"—the cross between jazz and rock (although it was closer to jazz
and funk in some cases). One of the things that distinguished this style
Dance, Dance, Dance ■ 147
consequent increase in
ensemble volume.
Bob Dylan ("Like a Rolling Stone") and the team of Mike Bloomfield and Little Feat, which combined
After Bitches Brew, Miles Davis remained committed to working with 1973. (His predecessor, Roy
himself dropped out of the music scene in 1975. When he returned six ell George in 1979; they
years later, he hired one of the best musicians ever to play a Fender bass- re-formed in 1988, with
key early role in establishing the electric bass in this new genre. He was
148 ■ Chapter 16
In the late '60s, the versa¬ modified Telecaster Bass that had four Bartolini Hi-A
tile Harvey Brooks used a pickups (one for each string, with an amp to match).
In 1970, Brooks was invited on Herbie Hancock's 1973 Head Hunters album (especially on their big hit,
by Miles Davis to be the "Chameleon") was as funky as fusion ever got. And we can't consider
Fender bassist on the fusion pioneers without mentioning Percy Jones of Brand X, who
seminal fusion album
deserves considerable credit for forging a unique style on a '74 Precision
Bitches Brew.
fretless before he ever heard Jaco. Rick Laird of the original Mahavishnu
Orchestra, on a Jazz Bass, also did yeoman service; his steady, structural
bass lines often seemed to be the only thing holding the music together
had a more featured role and soloed frequently. He played a Fender bass
fretiess.
Swallow's first electric bass was a Gibson EB-2. He later played several jazz bassist when he tried
Fender and Fender-like basses (some of them semi-hollow) before obtain¬ out an electric bass in
Pastorius, Swallow has been an effective champion of the electric bass, heavily influenced by his
especially among jazz musicians. By playing it so well for so long, he has study of R&B vocalists such
✓
as Marvin Caye and
proven its worth.
Freddie Jackson.
150
ing a rich, clear tone that his electric basses had gained widespread acceptance and altered the
records exceptionally well. course of popular music. They were in use in just about every genre of
In addition to his work American music, from country to rock to R&B to jazz, and virtuosos like
with Miles Davis, he is best
James Jamerson and Jaco Pastorius had clearly demonstrated their cre¬
known for his solo albums
ative potential.
The Sun Don't Lie, Tales, and
There were more virtuosos on the way. One was a young musician
Live & More.
who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Jamaica, Queens: Marcus
Miller. Initially schooled on the clarinet, he quickly mastered several
Miles Ahead 151
was it an improvement?
original designs.
?iI | }
152 ■ Chapter 17
several Sadowskys.
homemade custom
P-Bass.
154 ■ Chapter 17
group Elements.
Miles Ahead ■ 155
CBS Studios in New York, Miller got the nod to join the group; he played cian since the 1980s, Will
a key role on Davis's "comeback" album, The Man with the Horn, and a has played on well over
While many mid-'70s Fender basses were mediocre instruments, noted for years on David Letter-
more for their heavy wood and thick finishes than playing ease or good man's late-night TV show.
sound, Miller's bass was clearly the exception. On the surface, it appeared
neck, but it had been modified by Roger Sadowsky to improve its tone.
The stock bridge was replaced by heavier Badass model, and a Stars Gui¬
from the early '80s. It was nature Jazz Bass that replicated the modifications.)
available in short-scale and Miller's style combines the thumb-style playing of Larry Graham—
long-scale versions, which Marcus prefers to call "thumping," as Larry did—with the harmonic
although few bass players
sophistication of Jaco Pastorius. Miller is noted for the clarity of his sound.
cared for either.
"I strike the strings right in front of the chrome neck-pickup cover, not at
the bottom of the neck where you get all the overtones," he told Chris Jisi.
"A lot of times I don't pluck [i.e., pop] at all. That developed during my
jingle days, because I found that using my thumb was the best way to hear
the bass coming out of a tiny TV speaker. Plus, if you use two alternating
Shortly after Miller left the Miles Davis band, his spot was taken by
Darryl Jones. (Tom Barney was the interim bassist and played on one
Miles Ahead ■ 157
he released a critically
In 1981, Chicago native Steve Rodby facility to play challenging music. Those
succeeded Mark Egan in the Pat
two, in turn, allowed me to appreciate Jaco,
Metheny Group. Although the major¬
Modulus 5-string.
the time, my reaction to Jaco was: This isn't a bass player—this is a musi¬
After his stint with Miles, Jones joined Sting's post-Police "jazz band,"
where Sting eschewed bass to focus on his singing. Jones played on The
Dream of the Blue Turtles and Bring On the Night and toured with the band.
After various sessions and tours with Madonna and Peter Gabriel, he got
a call to audition for the Rolling Stones. In 1994, he was asked to accom¬
pany the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band as a sideman (only Mick,
Keith, Charlie, and Woody are Stones). Unsurprisingly, Jones has favored
vintage Fender basses for the Stones gig, including '65 and '66 Jazz Basses
including a pair of Sadowsky 4-strings and an Ernie Ball Music Man Ster¬
by the Fender bass from the 1950s to the 1990s. Imagine that Bill Black
had announced in 1958 he was leaving Elvis Presley to play his Precision
Bass with Miles Davis. It would have been laughable. Or, even more
slap his bass with Elvis—not only ridiculous but unthinkable, given the
racial climate of the time. Yet few people thought there was anything
unusual about Darryl Jones working with both Miles Davis and the
the time he was 13 to focus on electric bass. (We can imagine what his
MINUTEMEN
larity in the late '80s. His inality and freedom, it was a revelation. He opened my ears to improvi¬
style combines the slapping sation and exploration, which changed my approach permanently. I
of funk with the raw power wanted to find notes that other people didn't play, like Jack did."
of punk and heavy metal,
Berlin's search for those notes led him to the Berklee College of Music,
often delivered on a Music
where he moved quickly from student to teacher. After two years at
Man StingRay at excruciat¬
Berklee, he teamed up with drummer Carmine Appice, guitarist Ray
ing volume.
Gomez, and keyboardist Steve Hill in a mid-'70s fusion band. More jazz-
John McLaughlin, and Larry Coryell. Then, in 1977, Berlin joined a band
led by former Yes drummer Bill Bruford. They recorded three albums that
became cult classics, including one, Gradually Going Tornado, that show¬
cased Berlin's amazing facility on his modified Precision Bass. Jeff's career
Miles Ahead ■ 161
SRV tjig included an Olympic white '62 Jazz Bass and '57
peaked in the mid '80s with the release of two solo albums, Champion and
Pump It! The former included Berlin's version of "Dixie," the first of his
Cream's "Crossroads," which made it clear he could play just about any¬
Jeff Berlin's work has always swung back and forth between rock and
jazz (not to mention Latin music and several other styles), and his record¬
ings have featured musicians from bands ranging from Journey to Chick
mentions a wide range of players who have influenced his bass style, from
things with his fingers that guys with picks just couldn't do." Like Berlin,
range of influences and then transcending them by finding his own orig¬
inal voice. A voice that, in Sheehan's case, has usually been expressed at
considerable volume.
his unique sound. He emerged in the late '70s with the Buffalo-based
band Talas, where the spotlight was on Billy's dazzling speed, harmonics,
vocalist David Lee Roth and got a chance to showcase his chops in
onstage duels with guitarist Steve Vai. After he split from Roth in 1987,
Sheehan put together Mr. Big, a hard rock outfit in which he had more
Studio ace Lee Sklar has played on dozens of hit records and is
well known for his stints with James Taylor and Phil Collins. Lee's
tee. His "Number One" sion. Because of his admiration for the "super deep" tone Yardbirds'
bass is a '69 or 70 Pre¬ bassist Paul Samwell-Smith got from his Gibson bass, Sheehan added a
cision that has been refin¬ Gibson EB-0 pickup in the neck position. Not knowing how to connect
ished several times. Prais¬
two pickups to one output jack, he simply added a second jack. He
ing Precisions, Harris said:
replaced the Precision's neck with one from a '68 Telecaster Bass (which
"I really like the roundness
had the same peghead shape as the original '51 P-Bass). The stock pickup
on their bottom end. I can
get a lot of top, real lows, was yanked in favor of a DiMarzio Model P. A Schaller bridge and Schaller
the midrange, and every¬ tuning machines replaced the worn-out originals. The upper frets were
thing—really solid." scalloped to facilitate string bends. Stove bolts attached a heavy-duty
strap to the body. With a few more refinements and a couple of decals,
Because of the two output jacks, Billy connected his bass to two amps,
one for the low end from the EB-0 pickup and one for the brighter sound
of the P-style pickup. At one point he developed this into a massive rig
and huge subwoofers that reach down to the bottom of the human hear¬
that drops the E string down a half- or whole-step. (Yamaha later offered best work was on Ray
lower-priced Attitude basses that had the same basic design but fewer Barretto's Rican/Struction
Novello and former P-Funk drummer Dennis Chambers. The trio's wide-
open, improvisational style is far from the hard rock bombast of the David
Lee Roth band and Mr. Big, yet Sheehan's style and sound fit perfectly.
The most versatile '80s bassist of them all was Will Lee. The son of an
trying piano and then drums, he settled on electric bass. His first bass was
a cheap Xapanese instrument, but he took the money from his gigs with
166 ■ Chapter 17
a surf band to buy a white Precision. Will quickly mastered the instru¬
ment, and by the time he was 18 he had landed a job with a New York
Lee soon made a name for himself as a smart, versatile player (and
singer), and by the early '80s he was one of the busiest session players in
New York, cutting dozens of jingles and recording albums with everyone
from the Bee Gees to the Brecker Brothers. Although much of his session
music, Lee is one of the most potent groove players of all time. "My basic
holding down grooves." Will's knack for doing just that, often with only
Everything)" from Donny Hathaway Live), but Lee's talent in this area is
son and the other early R&B greats, mixed in the melodic genius of
After using (and tinkering with) his white P-Bass for several years, Lee
moved on to Jazz Basses and then to Sadowsky J-style basses. His well-
worn black Sadowsky has an ash body, maple neck, and stock pickups
from an early-'60s Jazz Bass ("the relationship between pickups and wood
is essential, and the old Fenders just sounded better"). His sunburst TV-
show bass is much the same, except for a maple top on the body. He
always leaves the chrome pickup cover on his basses, finding it a useful
Jeff Berlin, Billy Sheehan, and Will Lee made the 1980s an exciting era for
tially extensions of the radical ideas of the '60s and 70s. The big question,
✓
168
4 ffl
political power.
create a new bass model, many white teenagers embraced rap as well as rock). Concertgoers turned
called the Urge. The idea, out in droves to see Garth Brooks, whose "modern country" bridged the
according to Hamm, was to gap between traditional country and the energy of rock. Jazz turned in on
build a modern-sounding
itself, focusing on its history (and the upright bass). The Rolling Stones and
bass with the "vintage
Pink Floyd had hugely successful tours—and Michael Jackson married
look" of the classic
Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie.
Fender models.
In 1990, a new magazine called Bass Player began regular publication.
(A spinoff of Guitar Player, it had been tested with "special edition" issues
in 1988 and 1989.) Its appearance confirmed the importance of the electric
bass in modern music, and the magazine quickly developed a loyal follow¬
ing.
Forward Into the Past ■ 169
✓
170 ■ Chapter 18
Bass Player arrived just in time to chronicle two distinct strands in the
ongoing story of the Fender bass. The first was the emergence of several
new virtuosos who picked up where Jaco left off and made a case for the
electric bass as a featured instrument. One of these master players was Stu¬
art Hamm, a Berklee-trained bassist known for his work with guitarists
Steve Vai and Joe Satriani as well as his solo efforts. Hamm—who had
all aspects of modern bass technique, from the most basic fingerstyle
tapping. In concert, he was famous for his solo version of Vince Guaraldi's
"Linus and Lucy," which demonstrated how piano-like the electric bass
could be.
Early in his career, Hamm played Kubicki Factor basses almost exclu¬
basses. They featured an intermediate scale length of 32" and slim necks
perfect for the high-speed virtuosity of a player like Hamm. Yet their sound
string; by flipping a lever, the bassist could play two additional fretted
new bass that, he explained, "combined some of the things I like about my
especially the warm, round sound and that great vintage look." What
emerged from their collaboration was dubbed the Urge. It had a 32" scale
tion. Visually, the bass was less radical than the Kubicki and had the "vin¬
tage look" Hamm craved.
Forward Into the Past ■ 171
The Urge proved ideal for Stuart Hamm but less so for other bassists—
the scale length was the main problem—so in 2000 Fender offered a revised
version called the Urge II. The new bass had a standard 34" scale and a sim¬
noted that "you can clearly see the Precision and Jazz influence on the Urge
II" and went on to conclude that it "takes elements of history's most pop¬
ular basses and successfully combines them into a great-playing and great¬
sounding package."
Victor Wooten was another '90s virtuoso whose playing spanned the
full range of bass technique, along with a few ideas he picked up from
banjo players. Wooten burst onto the scene early in the decade as a mem¬
ber of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. This unique ensemble, whose instru¬
mental music combined elements of bluegrass, jazz, rock, R&B, and just
about every other style its members had heard, was the perfect setting for
Stanley Jordan. Wooten added the final ingredient while killing time on
around with the banjo," he explained. "I'd play my regular bass patterns,
but because the banjo is tuned differently, it would sound like some really
outside stuff."
Wooten eventually integrated this "outside stuff" into his bass style,
and downstrokes with his right-hand thumb and left-hand hammers and
accuracy and an apparent ease that belies the years of work behind the
to amaze listeners with his work with the Flecktones, in his "Bass Extremes"
Wooten, like Hamm, usually plays a 4-string. His basses are made by
Fodera, and he owns several different fretted and fretless instruments based
172 ■ Chapter i8
Wooten developed a
originality. In addition to
✓
174 ■ Chapter i8
owned a Fender I've never had that sound. The bass really reminded me of
The most radical bass virtuoso of the 1990s was Michael Manring. Tike
Hamm and Wooten, he had mastered the entire encyclopedia of bass tech¬
nique, but Manring extended these devices into new sonic territory with
his use of alternative tunings, ranging from simple £-string drops to such
of his solo pieces requires "12 to 16 basic tunings and maybe a hundred tun¬
shot machines and a special bridge that allows further retuning by flipping
ized instruments. In addition to the Hyperbass, Manring's arsenal includes 1993 album, Counterparts.
Legacy Elite and Sonus basses. (Zon described the latter model, which fea¬
tures a slim graphite neck, as a "Jazz Bass for the '90s.") In spite of all of his
understand the full range of the instrument's capabilities, which are limit¬
less: "Ta me, electric bass is so special, so beautiful in any context. I really
176 ■ Chapter 18
believe that someday electric bass will be looked at as a really high art
form."
the ascendance of grunge and other forms of back-to-basics rock, the orig¬
sic models such as the '57 Precision and the '62 Jazz—and the bass players
Forward Into the Past 177
features.
A cruise through the pages of Bass Player during the mid to late '90s
confirmed this trend. In issue after issue, young bassists were either pic¬
tured with Fender basses or quoted as using them as their main perform¬
Victor Wooten.
"I bought the bass and started playing it onstage. The sound was amazing;
was a hunk of wood and you had to make it work." Many of his compatri¬
Fender basses.
Perhaps even more telling were the veteran players who had moved (or
moved back) to Fender basses. Geddy Lee of Rush, known for his "high
old Jazz Bass to record the album Counterparts. Pino Palladino adopted a '63
Jimmy Earl, a devoted 6-stringer, began to play his '65 Jazz Bass again. Stu¬
dio ace Randy Jackson dropped his modern 5-strings for a Fender-style bass
made by Mike Lull. And Gene Perez kicked up the sound of Masters At
J-Bass sound.
Jaco Pastorius in the 1990s—and perhaps bass playing has matured to the
point that there never will be again—but as the 50th anniversary of the Pre¬
ence. Not every great player used a Fender or Fender-like bass, but Leo
all of the electric bass guitars on the market today. Just about every bass
player, it seems, still has to consider the Precision Bass or Jazz Bass at some
point in his or her career, and then decide whether to embrace the original
with 14 well-known bass makers, Michael Tobias opened the session by ask¬
ing: "Is the Fender bass still the standard?" The builders all had different
reactions to the question, but in the end one conclusion was inescapable:
the instruments of Leo Fender had had a profound and enduring impact.
Finale
Jacques Attali. "Instruments play a key part in his larger effort to theo¬
rize the role of music as a prophetic social force/' writes Waksman, "one
power. In the first chapter of his book, Noise, Attali outlines his inquiry
music to embody and, indeed, herald the social order." Waksman goes
Leo Fender might have been befuddled by all this talk about over
arching beliefs, but he knew his electric bass was important. In 1994,
former Fender executive Forrest White, who had worked closely with
Leo during the company's glory years, wrote: "Today the Precision Bass
is the most widely used electric bass throughout the world. I personally
and as such has served as a tool of "social and cultural (as well as aes¬
Bass was greeted with little enthusiasm and gained limited acceptance
at first. Only a few P-Basses were sold in the early 1950s, but the market
improve) the instrument. By 1960, Leo Fender had created a new model,
the Jazz Bass, and other companies such as Gibson, Rickenbacker, and
During the 1960s, the primordial sound of early rock & roll was tran-
formed into something much more potent and influential. The power
and Paul McCartney, was critical in this transformation. And rock music
musical instrument, but the line of causality is clear: without the Fender
bass, rock music as we now know it was simply not possible. (Remem¬
was because of the bass.") Rock was a powerful unifying force in the
culture. In the 1970s, the influence of music featuring the Fender bass
ity. When Jaco's first solo album was released in 1976, Leo Fender's
cal expression.
By the late '70s and early '80s, the importance of the electric bass
like the Steinberger bass, owed little to Leo Fender's designs. Nonethe¬
less, the influence of the original Precision Bass runs through the his¬
tory of the electric bass like the theme of a great symphony. It is a ref¬
of prime importance. Even for the players who eventually chose not to
that Patrick Dahlheimer chose one in 1998, when there were so many
changing, Fender basses have remained a constant. Their sound has for¬
ever altered the way popular music is written and played, and that
music has had a profound effect on the everyday lives of countless peo¬
Sources
articles that touched upon the history of the electric bass, and I began to
books, liner notes, videos, radio programs, and the World Wide Web. I
also interviewed and spoke informally with many musicians and music
lowing articles and books were helpful in preparing this book, and many
Articles
Ashton, Adrian. "Bring It on Home: The John
Paul Jones Interview." Bass Player,
November 1994.
Hicks, David. "Vintage Volume: The Great Bass Amps of the '60s." Bass Player, July/Aug
1992.
Isola, Gregory. "Little Feat's Kenny Gradney." Bass Player, December 1995.
Jansson, Mikael. "I Go Pogo: A Brief History of the Electric Upright Bass." 1994 Bass
Buyer's Guide (Bass Player special issue).
_and Scott Malandrone. "Jurassic Basses: Was There Electric Bass Before Leo?" Bass
Player, July 1997.
_. "Totally Weird Basses: The Stroh Bass." Bass Player, September 1999.
Jisi, Chris. "The Anthony Jackson Interview." Bass Player, Spring 1990 and Summer 1990.
___ with Anthony Jackson. "Joe Osborn: The Saga of a Studio Pioneer." Bass Player,
May/June 1992.
Sources ■ 185
_. "New York Soul Stew: The Legendary Jerry Jemmott." Bass Player, October 1999.
Johnston, Richard. "David Hungate: Studio Ace." Bass Player, March 1992.
Kohman, Peter Stuart. "Surf Bass: Out of the Doghouse." Vintage Guitar, May 1997.
Leigh, Bill. "Flecktone Alone: Victor Wooten Arrives as a Solo Artist." Bass Player, Febru¬
ary 1998.
_. "Billy Sheehan: Bare Bones Bass with Mr. Big." Bass Player, April 1996.
_. "Fender Stu Hamm Urge II" (product review). Bass Player, June 2000.
Martin, Bill. "Chris Squire: Creating a New Dimension." Bass Player, November 1994.
_. "Victor Wooten: Bass Ace of the Flecktones." Bass Player, Jan/Feb 1991.
Murphy, Bill. "Bass Culture: Dub Reggae's Low-End Legacy." Bass Player, November 1996
Newman, Mike. "Monk Montgomery: The First Man to Record on Bass Guitar." Guitar
Player, September 1977.
_. "Good Times, Bad Times: Bill Wyman Chronicles the Rise of the Rolling Stones."
Bass Player, May/June 1991.
_. "Stuart Hamm: He's Got the Urge." Bass Player, July/Aug 1991.
_and Chris Jisi. "Free-Floating Fretless: Mark Egan." Bass Player, Jan/Feb 1992.
_. "Dancing in the Dark: An Interview with Steve Swallow." Bass Player, May/June
1992.
Sievert, Jon. "Michael Rhodes" (Tommy Cogbill sidebar). Bass Player, September 1992.
Sklarevski, Alexis. "Lee Sklar: Interview with a Studio Legend." Bass Player, Jan/Feb 1992.
_. "The Fender Precision Bass—A Classic: 1952-1964." Bass Player, Spring 1990.
Teagle, John. "Fender Myth Debunked! (Part I)." Vintage Guitar, March 1999.
Books
Bacon, Tony. The Ultimate Guitar Book. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
_and Paul Day. The Pender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars. San Fran
cisco: GPI/Miller Freeman, 1992.
_and Barry Moorhouse. The Bass Book: A Complete Illustrated History of Bass Guitars.
San Francisco: GPI/Miller Freeman, 1995.
Blasquiz, Klaus. The Pender Bass. Milwaukee: Hal Feonard Publishing, 1990.
Dr. Licks (Allan Slutsky). Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Times of
Legendary Bassist James Jamerson. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1989.
George, Nelson. The Death of Rhythm & Blues. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1989.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Viking, 1987.
Gruhn, George and Walter Carter. Electric Guitars & Basses: A Photographic History. San
Francisco: Miller Freeman, 1994.
Guralnick, Peter. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. Boston: Little, Brown &
Company, 1994.
Hopkins, Gregg and Bill Moore. Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound. Milwaukee: Hal
Leonard Publishing, 1999.
Massey, Howard. Behind the Glass: Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits. San
Francisco: Miller Freeman, 2000.
Milkowski, Bill. Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life ofjaco Pastorius. San Francisco:
Miller Freeman, 1995.
Mulhern, Tom, ed. Bass Heroes: 30 Great Bass Players. San Francisco: GPI/Miller Freeman,
1993.
Nichols, Geoff. The Drum Book: A Histoiy of the Rock Drum Kit. San Francisco: Miller Free¬
man, 1997.
Planyavsky, Alfred. The Baroque Double Bass Violone. Lanham, MD & London: Scarecrow
Press, 1998.
400 PS, 98 Berlin, Jeff, 152, 153, 159- 159, 162 Fender: The Sound Heard Hamm, Stuart, 168, 169-
5- string electric bass, 133, 162, 167 Crosby, Israel, 23 'round the World, 29-30, 171, 174
135-136 Berry, Chuck, 42, 92 Cross, Tim, 177 31 'Hamp-lified fiddle,' 35, 36
6- string electric bass, 132- Bigsby, Paul, 54 Cuevas, Sal, 165 Fenderbirds, 86 Hampton, Lionel, 34-37
135 Bill Black Combo, 48 Curtis, King, 74 Fieldy, 18 Hancock, Herbie, 148, 152
'79 Ibanez Musician fret¬ Billboard Magazine, 43, 59, Fifth Dimension, 67 Harris, Richard, 67
less, 146 79 Dahlheimer, Patrick, 173,
Firebird, 110 Harris, Steve, 164
Black, Bill, 41, 46-48, 159 178, 182
Acoustic 360, 98, 99, 124 Flack, Roberta, 70 Harrison, George, 78
Blood, Sweat & Tears, 129 Dan, Steely, 70
Acoustic Control Flatwound strings, 87, 90 Hathaway, Donny, 70
Bloomfield, Mike, 147, 148 Danelectro 6 string (Dano Flea, 160 Havens, Richie, 147
Company, 98 6-string), 52, 53, 60, 61,
Bobbing, Bob, 122 Fleetwood Mac, 138 Hawkins, Roger, 75
Alembic, 93, 96, 100, 101- 64
Bogert, Tim, 152, 162 Fodera, Vinnie, 135 Hayes, Isaac, 11
102, 118-119, 133, 137, D'Angelo, 178
Boiled in Lead, 178 Fodera/Jackson contrabass, Hayzlett, Elizabeth Nagel,
138 Daniel, Nathan, 53
Booker T. & the MGs, 72, 135 32
Allen, Mark & his Orches¬ Danko, Rick, 126
73 Four Aces, 50 Henderson, Fletcher, 23
tra, 26 Davis, Miles, 147, 150,
Bradley, Harold, 52 Frankenstein bass, 30 Henderson, Michael, 147
All-graphite Status 152, 155, 156, 159
Brand New Heavies, 177 Franklin, Aretha, 70, 72, Henderson, Scott, 161
Buzzard, 86 Dobro company, 23
Brand X, 148 74 Hendrix, Jimi, 89, 129, 148
Allman Brothers Band, Doe, John, 177
Brecker Brothers, 166 Freebo, 127 Henley, Don, 128
146, 174 'doghouse' bass, 13, 41
Broadcaster guitar, 31 Freeman, Matt, 177 Henri, Shifte, 37, 38
Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Doors, 148
Brooks, Garth, 168 fretless bass, 123-127 Hicks, David, 97
63 Double Trouble, 161
Brooks, Harvey, 147, 148 Fudge, 152 High Numbers, 86
Ament, Jeff, 177 Dreams, 166
Brothers Johnson, 116 Fullerton, George, 32, 150 Hill, Steve, 160
Ampeg AUB-1 "horizontal Drummond, Tim, 73
Brown, G., 60 Funk Brothers, 75 Hipshot Xtender key, 165
bass,” 125, 126 Dunbar, Sly, 143
Brown, James, 73, 113 Funk Machine, 69, 75 Hofner [500/1 bass], 78,
Ampeg Company, 98, 99 Dunn, Duck, 72
Brown, Pete, 106 79, 82
Ampeg SVT, 95 , Dylan, Bob, 143, 147, 148 G&L L-2000 bass, 150, 151
Brown, Ray, 68, 71 Holdsworth, Allan, 160
Appice, Carmine, 152, 160 G&L, 15, 150
Bruce, Jack, 102, 104-107, Earl, Jimmy, 178 Hole, 177
Aquarium Rescue Unit, Gabriel, Peter, 127, 149,
108, 110, 111, 144, 159, Earth, Wind & Fire, 120 Holland, Dave, 147
174 152, 159
160 Eddy, Duane, 52, 59, 87 Holly, Buddy, 92
Armstrong, Ralphe, 148 Gang of Four, B-52s, 177
Bruford, Bill, 160 Edwards, Bernard, 140, 141 Hood, David, 75
Armstrong, Ron, 137 Gaye, Marvin, 70, 71, 75,
Buchanan, Roy, 65-66 Edwards, Nokie, 56 How, James, 87, 90
Arnold, Jerome, 76 77, 105-106, 149
Bullet Bass, 156 Egan, Mark 154, 158 Hull, Everett, 98
Attali, Jacques, 180 George, Lowell, 147
Burbridge, Oteil, 174 Elektric Band, 162 Hungate, David, 52, 131
Attitude Bass, 157 Getz, Stan, 149
Elements, 154 Hyatt, Dale, 150
Audiovox Model 736 Elec¬ Callender, Red, 62 ghitaron, 19
Emerick, Geoff, 83 Hybrid styles, 144-149
tronic Bass, 28-30 Campbell, Glen, 67 Gibson EB-0, 109-110
Entwistle, John, 86-88, 91, Hyperbass, 174-175
Audiovox Manufacturing, Candlebox, 177 Gibson EB-1, 109
28 93, 110, 111, 114
'Career Girl,' 132, 134, Gibson EB-2, 109 Iron Maiden, 164
Auf der Maur, Melissa, 177 ES-335, 109
135, 148 Gibson EB-3, 107, 110
Estrada, Roy, 147 Jackson 5, 11
Carpenters, 67 Gibson Electric Bass Gui¬
B-15 Portaflex, 98 Experience Music Project Jackson, Anthony, 74-75,
Casady, Jack 92-95 tar, 23-24, 54, 108-110
Babbington, Roy, 104 Museum, 14 132, 148, 158
Chambers, Dennis, 165 Gibson Les Paul, 54
Babbitt, Bob, 77, 147 Jackson, Freddie, 149
Chambers, Paul, 68, 159 Fabian, Christian, 35 Gibson Mando-Bass, 21,
Bach, Johann Sebastian, Jackson, Jermaine, 11
Charles, Ray, 63 Faith, Percy, 59 22, 30, 31
18, 111 Jackson, Michael, 168
Chic, 140, 141 Fania All-Stars, 165 gitarrenbaumeister, 55
Bacon, Tony, 52, 79 Jackson, Paul, 148, 161
chitarrone, 19 Feather, Leonard, 35-36 Gleick, James, 39
Bailey, Steve, 171, 178 Jackson, Randy, 178
Clapton, Eric, 105, 110, Fender Bass V, 69 Gomez, Ray, 160
Bailey, Victor, 157 Jaco Pastorius Relic Jazz
162 Fender Bass VI, 60-63, 64, Gordy, Berry, 70, 75
Baker, Ginger, 105, 106 Bass, 127
Clarke, Buddy, 62 65, 79, 105-107, 111, Gottlieb, Danny, 154
Barney, Tom, 156 Jaco, 74, 121-131, 132,
Clarke, Stanley, 118-120, 116, 129 Gould, Geoff, 136, 137-138
Baroque Double Bass Vio- 147, 149, 150, 154, 156,
137-138, 147, 149, 158, Fender Bassman amp, 34, Gradney, Kenny, 147, 170
lone, 19 157, 158-159, 161, 170,
162, 170, 171, 172 94, 97 Graham Bond Organisa¬
Barrett, Aston "Family 179, 181
Clash, the, 142 Fender fretless Jazz Bass, tion, 105
Man," 142 Jamerson, James, 68-77,
Cloud Chamber, 173 127, 128 Graham Central Station,
Barrett, Carlton, 142 78, 79, 80, 81, 98, 104-
Cobham, Billy, 148 Fender fretless Precision 115
Barretto, Ray, 165 105, 111, 112-113, 129,
Cochran, Eddie, 55 Bass, 128 Graham, Larry, 11, 114-
Bass Book, The, 52 140, 147, 150, 162, 166,
Cogbill, Tommy, 72, 73, 74 Fender Jazz Bass 62, 63, 64, 116, 156, 158
Bass Extremes, 171, 178 179, 181, 182
Coleman, Ornette, 99 65-67, 92 Grand Ole Opry, 34
bass lute, 19, 20 Jansson, Mikael, 28
Collins, Bootsy, 73, 113, Fender Musical graphite bass necks, 136-
Bass of Doom, 123 Jefferson Airplane, 92, 94,
116, 118 Instruments 139
Bass Player, 52, 97, 122, 102, 103
Collins, Judy, 147 Corporation, 14 Grateful Dead, 96, 99, 100-
131, 168, 170, 171, 177 Jemmott, Jerry, 74, 127,
Collins, Phil, 163 Fender Precision Bass, 13- 101, 102, 137
bass viol, 17, 18, 20 129
Colomby, Bobby, 129 16, 17, 30, 31-38, 39, 42, Gruhn, George, 24
Bassman amp, 44, 50 Jisi, Chris, 65, 86-87, 91,
Coltrane, John, 74, 99 46-47, 49-51, 56, 57, 58, Guaraldi, Vince, 170
Beach Boys, 56, 60, 63, 82, 92, 134, 156, 166
Combo 400, 54 68, 179, 180, 181, 182 Guild Starfire Bass, 94, 101
84 Johnson, Alphonso, 147-
contrabass chitarrones, 19 Fender Vintage Series, 176- Guitar Player, 37, 58, 137,
Beatles, 78-84, 86, 97 148
contrabass da Gamba, 17 178 168
Beauchamp, George, 26 Johnson, Jimmy, 133, 135,
Cooke, Sam, 72 Fender, Leo, 13-16, 29-30, guitarron, 19
Beck, Jeff, 152 169
Corea, Chick, 118, 162 31-38, 42, 44, 45, 46, 60, Guralnick, Peter, 46-47
Beck„Roscoe, 179 Johnson, Louis, 116, 118
Coronado Bass, 101 62, 63, 69, 84, 90, 97, 98, Guy, Samuel "Jay," 42
Bee Gees, 166 Johnson, Roy, 35
Coryat, Karl, 100, 145 102, 112, 119, 121, 123,
Bela Fleck & the Haden, Rachel, 178 Jones, Darryl, 152, 156,
Coryell, Larry, 160 126-127, 129, 134, 136,
Flecktones, 171, 172 Haley, Bill, 45 157-159, 167
Counting Crows, 177 150, 153, 154, 156, 176-
Bennett, Max,'65 Hall, Jim, 149 Jones, Grace, 143
Cream, 105, 106, 110, 111, 179, 180-182
190 Index
Jones, John Paul, 85 93, 97-98, 111, 144, 166, Perez, Gene, 178 Schultz, Bill, 127 Thunderbird, 110
Jones, Percy, 148 181 piccolo bass, 119 Schwartz, Dan, 93 tic-tac, 20, 52, 53, 60
Jones, Quincy, 48, 63 McKenzie, Scott, 67 Pickett, Wilson, 72, 74, 75 scordatura, 18 Tobias, Michael, 179
Jordan, Louis, 42 McLaren, Malcolm, 141 Pink Floyd, 168 Serenader Electric String Tosh, Peter, 143
Jordan, Stanley, 171, 172 McLaughlin, John, 105, Planyavsky, Alfred, 19 Bass, 29 Townshend, Pete, 87
Joseph, Bruno, 26 148, 160 Pohlman, Ray, 62 Sex Pistols, 141 Travis, Merle, 54
Journey, 162 McVie, John, 138 Police, 127, 144, 145, 146 Shakespeare, Robbie, 142- Tribal Tech, 161
Memphis Boys, the, 73 Porter, Jr., George, 73 144 Tropical Islanders, 24
Kamin, Wally, 24 metal-resonator guitar, 23 Porterfield, Christopher, Shannon, Tommy, 161 Tucker, Ken, 140
Kaukonen, Jorma, 92 85, 181 Sheehan, Billy, 152, 153, Turner, Rick, 100, 118,
Meters, the, 73
Kaye, Carol, 60-63, 65, 67, Praetorius, Michael, 19 157, 162-165, 167 137, 138
Metheny, Pat, 130
72, 112 Presley, Elvis, 38, 41, 42, Shepherd, Ben, 177 Tutmarc Bass, 14, 28-30
Milkowski, Bill, 50, 122,
Ken Smith 6-string, 158 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 59, 73, Sherrell, Charles, 73 Tutmarc, Bud, 28, 29
129
Khan, Chaka, 134 Simmons, Jimmy, 52 Tutmarc, Paul H., 14, 28,
Miller, Drew, 178 85, 86, 159, 168
King, B.B. 74 Presley, Lisa Marie, 168 Simon & Garfunkel, 60, 63 29, 30, 97
Miller, Marcus, 150, 155-
King Curtis, 70 Simon, Carly, 143
156, 167, 174 Prestia, Francis Rocco, 117,
Kohman, Peter Stuart, 56 U. S. Vintage Series, 176-
Mills, Mike, 177 161 Simon, Paul, 75
Kool & the Gang, 11 179
Minutemen, 160 Price, Joel, 34 Simonon, Paul, 142
Kooper, Al, 147, 148 Urge II, 169, 171
Mitchell, Joni, 130 punk P-Bass, 141 Sinatra, Frank, 63
Korner, Alexis, 104 Urge, 168, 171
Modulus Graphite bass, Sklar, Lee, 163
Kubicki Ex Factor, 169, 170 Queen, 141
136, 137 Slutsky, Allan "Dr. Licks," V. C. Squier, 33, 90
Kubicki, Phil, 135, 170 70, 71, 72, 74
Montgomery, Monk, 36- R.E.M., 177 Vai, Steve, 162, 170
LaBella flatwounds, 69, 88 37, 112 Rainey, Chuck, 70, 74, 166 Sly & the Family Stone, 11, Van Halen, Eddie, 162
Laird, Rick, 148 Montgomery, West, 36 Raitt, Bonnie 127 115, 116 Vanilla Fudge, 152, 162
LaRue, Dave, 129 Montreux, 173 Ramone, Dee Dee, 142 Smith, Jimmy, 133 Vaughan, Stevie Ray, 161
Las Olas Brass, 122 Moon, Keith, 87 Ramones, the, 142 Smith, Ken, 134-135, 158 Vega electric upright, 27
Lasner, Rich, 34 Moore, Scotty, 47 Rancho Revelers, 23 Smith, Norman, 83 Ventures, 56
Layton, Chris, 161 Motown, 63, 69, 70, 71, Rancid, 177 Smith, Paul Samwell, 164 Versatone, 94-95, 99
Led Zeppelin, 85 75, 76, 77, 79 Randall, Don 30 Smith, Richard R., 29-30, Vicious, Sid, 141, 142
Lee, Dr. William E, III, 165 Mr. Big, 162 Ranglin, Ernest, 104 31-32, 33, 68 Vincent, Gene, 92
Lee, Geddy, 138, 175, 178 Mulhern, Tom, 79, 162 Red Hot Chili Peppers, 160 Snowden, Don, 140, 144 Vintage Guitar, 29, 56
Lee, Sara, 177 Muscle Shoals Studio, 75 Redding, Noel, 89 Soundgarden, 177 violone, 17
Lee, Will, 117, 155, 165- Music Man StingRay Bass, Redding, Otis, 72 Spector, Phil, 63 Vivi-Tone electric basses,
167 15 Regal Bassoguitar, 22-23 Sponge, 177 24
Leech, Mike, 73 Music Man, 119, 150 Regal Electric Double Bass, Springsteen, Bruce, 139
Myers, Dave, 49-51 Squire, Chris, 88, 91, 170 Waiters, 142
Leiber and Stoller, 47 26
Myers, Louis, 50 stack knob configuration, Waksman, Steve, 180
Leigh, Bill 174 Return To Forever, 118,
62, 63, 64 Walker, Tom 119
Lennon, John, 78, 79 137
Nashville Pussy, 178 Watt, Mike, 160
Les Paul, Jr. (guitar), 110 Richards, Keith, 58, 181 Staple Singers, 75
neck-through-body bass, Weather Report, 122, 130,
Lesh, Phil, 96, 99-101, 102, Rickenbacker 4000, 101, Steinberger bass, 139, 181
54-55 147, 148, 157
103, 111, 137 102 Steinberger, Ned, 138, 139
Nelson, George, 48-50 Weeks, Willie, 166
Letterman, David, 155, Rickenbacker A-25 'frying 'stick' bass, 14, 24, 97
Nelson, Ricky, 66 Wheeler, Buddy, 52
166 pan' guitar, 39 Sting, 127, 138, 144, 145,
Newman, Mike, 37 Wheeler, Tom, 13
Levin, Tony, 138, 139 Rickenbacker Combo 400, 146, 152, 159
Niacin, 165 White, Forrest, 15, 90, 119,
Levy, Andrew, 177 54 Stone, Jesse, 49
Novello, John, 165 126-127, 180
Lewis, Jerry Lee, 41, 46 Rickenbacker Electro Bass- Stratocaster guitar, 33, 44,
Little Feat, 147, 170 Oakley, Berry, 146, 174 54 White, Lenny, 118
Viol, 25, 26, 28, 30
Live, 173, 178 Odum, Bernard, 73 Stroh, Augustus, 21 White, Verdine, 120
Rickenbacker left-handed
Loar, Lloyd, 14, 21, 24, Sugar Hill Gang, 141 Who, the, 86
O'Jays, the, 133 4001S, 80, 82
108 Orbison, Roy, 59, 84 Rickenbacker Model 4000, Summer, Gordon, 144 Wickersham, Ron, 93, 100,
Luhman, Bob 65-66 Osborn, Joe, 61, 65-67, 72, 53-55 Summers, Andy, 144 101-102
Lull, Mike, 178 97, 112 Riddim Twins, 143 Sunshine, 115 'Wife, the’ 153, 157, 164,
lute, 18, 19 Overwound strings, 90 Super Beatle amps, 98 165
Righteous Brothers, 62
luthier, 19 Owsley, Augustus Stanley Rivers, Johnny, 67 Sutcliff, Stu, 78 Wilburn, Vince, 158
"Bear," 100 Robinson, Smokey, 75, 76 Swallow, Steve, 149 Willis, Gary, 161
Madonna, 152, 159 Wilson, Brian, 56, 82
Rodby, Steve, 158, 175
Mahavishnu Orchestra, Palladino, Pino, 128, 178 Talas, 162 Wilson, Jackie, 59
Rodgers, Nile, 140
148 Pappalardi, Felix, 110 Tallent, Gary, 139 Wonder, Stevie, 77, 84
Rolling Stones, 58, 86, 126,
Malandrone, Scott, 171, Parker, Charlie, 74 'Tamla' bass player, 76, 77 Woodstock Festival, 85, 86
152, 159, 168
178 Parker, Ken, 149 Taylor, James, 163 Wooten, Victor, 171-174,
Rossmeisl, Roger, 54-55,
Malley, Matt, 177 Parks, Corey, 178 Teagle, John, 29 178
101
Mamas & the Papas, 67 Parliament/Funkadelic, Telecaster, 31, 32 Wyman, Bill, 18, 125-126
Roth, David Lee, 162, 165
Mann, Aimee, 177 113 Temptations, 77
Rotosound "Swing Bass" X, 177
mandolin orchestra, 21, 22 Pastorius, John Francis III. tenor bass, 119
strings, 91
Manring, Michael, 18, 173, SeeJaco The Band, 126
Rotosound roundwounds, Yardbirds, 164
174-176 Pat Metheny Group, 154, 'The Hook,' 112-113
87, 88, 89 Yes, 88, 91, 160
Martin, Bardi, 177 158 'The Tractor,' 146
Roundwound bass string, Young, Paul 128
Martino, Al, 63 Patitucci, John, 158 theorbo, 19, 20
87, 90
Marvellettes, 71 Zon, Joe, 174, 175
Rush, 175, 178
Massey, Howard, 83 Paul Butterfield Blues Thomas Organ Company
Ruth, Horace "Chili," 71
Masters at Work, 178 Band, 76 of California, 98
Matlock, Glen, 141-142 Paul, Billy, 132-133 Sadowsky, Roger, 150, 155 Thompson, Carl, 30, 132-
Matthews, Bob, 100 Paul, Les, 24, 39 Sam & Dave, 72 135
McCartney, Paul, 78-84, Pearl Jam, 177 Satriani, Joe, 170 Thompson, James, 30
The Lowdown On Bass
Bass Player gives you the tools you need to be a better bassist.
All of our writers and editors are working musicians and
teachers—with years of experience onstage and in the studio.
We’re connected to the players and equipment gurus who make
things happen in the bass world and you can be too. For artist
features, lessons, and gear reviews designed by players for
players, check us out at www.bassplayer.com.
To Subscribe:
*
This biography has become the classic Whether you're just starting out or
portrait of the troubled genius who already working, this book/CD set
revolutionized modern electric bass. is your ultimate guide to successful
Featuring reminiscences from artists gigs in rock, jazz, blues, R&B, and
who played with him, it reveals how more. You'll learn key skills for
Jaco played melodies, chords, going pro, techniques for staying
harmonics and percussive effects hot, and tips for tackling any gig—
simultaneously, while fusing jazz, classical, R&B, rock, electric or acoustic. Packed with musical examples and
reggae, pop, and punk—all before age 35, when he met exercises.
his tragic death. Softcover with CD, 120 pages, ISBN 0-87930-615-7, $19.95
Softcover, 263 pages, ISBN 0-87930-426-X, $14.95
* • * . -■* ■ :
,'nir
: V . „ ; : ''
- .. . .v *>, ! t, :* !.
' . r .. •• ;
; „-h . . •:
'■ ■ ... ■ '
' '! >•'; f. *. j" -■ -
, ’ ’' - 1' i
'
• '"'A . '•
: ■■ v ■ ■
■’ ! > .
■
' ' ’ ' ,
! -. ’• S ' ' ■ i
•t
• ■ - :V • ■
‘ . •• : ' . •' i ' ' >
r,; ; ■... ; •
( ■ • , .
■■ - .
> .. ■■ *
’
>• ;t : ■ • ,
■ ^ : 5?
4 • ■■ ' ' ' . ■.
•r ■ - • ■ ,
■ .
ii' . •
■• • j ■■
. i f , : ...... : ■. ....: ■ -'V. \:r: v
. V,V'V' n ^/ '' •'*. ,,.f. V'','! ■
r. !' ■ ■' I. 'f V..
.
■ - ... . ;
■ • . ; , •, • . V•
‘ • 1 '
■ V:■
, •
, ■
• ;V •|> 1 ■ .
i. ■ ■■ ■
.
.«
“It really changed the sound of music because
it ate up so much space-You couldn’t just
have it playing 4/4 lines because it had too
much personality.. .everything upstairs had to
take a back seat.”
—-Quincy Jones
%AHB00kS
Backbeat BASS
PLAYER
www.backbeatbooks.com
An Imprint of Music Player Network