I really think that is the secret. I just got stuck playing bass in our band and had to focus on that and kind of forgot about the guitar and then one day I picked up a guitar and my approach was way different than it used to be. I really smacked the thing around and got good things out of it. You just have to eat your Wheaties and give her a mauling. I went to the Fur Peace Ranch and brought my Jack Casady bass with me. Jack himself taught the class and I wanted to get the sustain and ringing on my bass like he got so the man himself set my bass up for me. He set the neck perfectly straight and raised the strings quite a bit. I got the sound I wanted but man what a workout on the hands! So I played that setup for a few years and grabbed a guitar and man. Discovered something new.
Jack started off as a guitar player and then out of necessity got stuck playing the bass because the band he was in needed a bass player. So he incorporated melodic playing, finger vibrato, and chords into his bass playing. He approached it from a guitar player standpoint. You do that on a bass and then go to a guitar, WOW! You get a harmonic and resonance thing going that you just don't get playing the instrument with a lighter touch. You really have to build up your hands to do it though.
Eddie is basically playing funk on the guitar. Mean Streets is nothing but slapping and popping the strings like a bass player. It's harder to do because the strings are smaller but that is all it is. Ed uses a lot of bass trickery on the guitar and I just really started discovering that.
Last edited by Nitro Express; 11-30-2011 at 01:49 PM.
Actually apply these funky bass techniques to your guitar playing and see where it takes you. You will come up with some cool shit.
See the slap funk technique in Ed's playing? He's slapping the shit out of those strings.
Last edited by Nitro Express; 11-30-2011 at 01:59 PM.
Yup, IIRC Ed said in an interview he came up with the "Mean Street" intro playing around with slapping ala Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke or some other Motown bassist he was digging on at the time...
I think it's easier to do on bass because the strings are bigger. I can get great pinch harmonics just going off the tip of the pick and letting the string hit my thumb. It's a feel thing. I have the advantage of being a classical guitar player and also playing finger style bass 98% of the time. I have a lot of strength and dexterity in my right hand. It's helps.
There are some great harmonic overtones for some of the higher runs on bass. Anthony Hamilton's bass player is a monster at getting those tones. Still a work in progress for me.
Nitro.... I was trained in classical as well. I'm finding that I use the classical guitar right hand style more than the proper bass hand technique. Do you do this as well or have you adapted your right hand technique to the bass style over the years? Also... did you mod your epi head to gig bass through it? I tried it and it just completely distorts and doesn't grab the low like it should.
New Stuff BUMP.
Recently got asked to do a series of articles for Seymour Duncan Pickups. Pretty frickin' stoked and honored. So here's the 1st one:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/ti...while-playing/
Excellent thread. Never saw this one before. Great Thrills posts, too.
Hey...check out my new Japanese Kramer...
What pickups should I put in? It sounds good but feeds back too much.
It is so mint, I can't believe it. $250 all in.
Roth Army Canada
I did just order a Seymour Duncan SH4 JB for the bridge...what about the other two? Quarter pounder or these:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/product...t/jb_jr_sjbj1/
Thanks
You can't really go wrong with the Quarter Pounds. Very beefy, but they're true single coils and thus will be a bit noisy. The JB (and the Jr) is recommended for the bridge position. There's no law, however, that says you can't use a bridge pickup in the neck position. I'd recommend, if you get the JB Jr. try it in the neck, would probably sound better than it may in the middle position.
If you want something by Duncan for the neck and middle that's noise-cancelling but still sounds like a single coil (dummy coil is nowhere in the audio signal path), I've had good luck with the STK-S6 in the neck, and the STK-S4 in the middle.
Last edited by jhale667; 08-15-2015 at 06:37 AM.
Thanks Jay. I have no idea how this will sound, but I ordered the following last week:
Seymour DuncanSTK-S10 YJM Fury Stack Neck Pickup White
Seymour DuncanSSL-5 RW/RP Custom Staggered Single Coil Middle Pickup White
nice job
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