How beautiful is bassist Michael Manring’s music? Let me count the ways.
Tag Archive: Bass
For the better part of the 1990s I concentrated on being a bass player. I put down or sold all of my guitars and played only bass. Electric bass was my main instrument while pursuing my Bachelor of Music Ed degree at Wichita State University. I gigged a lot as a bass player, subscribed to Bass Player Magazine, learned to play some upright bass, and REALLY concentrated on learning the instrument from the ground up. I LOVED bass players and being one of them. The bass players that I hung out with were a funny, laid back, sarcastic lot that dug all kinds of music and were dependable and professional.
But three years ago, I pulled a 180 (or maybe came full circle) by putting down my basses and picking up the guitar again. I decided to do that for a myriad of reasons, but my love for bassists and bass playing still burns. My bass player friends are REALLY cool people and there are things about playing the bass that I miss. Here are ten of them (in no particular order):
10. Tuning issues
When I would get to a electric bass gig I would tune up my instruments and away we would go. I wouldn’t touch the tuners for the rest of the night. With guitars I am fussing with the tuners after every song. I had boutique basses that cost thousands of dollars and were extraordinarily reliable, but I’ve played with cheaper basses (monetarily speaking) that were just as reliable. Thinner strings, bent notes, whammy bars, and atmospheric conditions all conspire to make guitar tuning an adventure.
9. The ability to influence the groove AND the harmony at the same time
The primary function of most electric bass players is to find the groove and nail it. Country bassists need to have a specific feel. Jazz bass players have a “walking bass” groove that is unmistakable. Rock bassists are called upon to cover all sorts of things. But the best of all of those players know their role and fill it. At the same time, subtle shifts in the bass will often shift the tonality of the music. The master of this was Jaco Pastorius. His bass playing NEVER strayed from the groove and yet he spit out an immense amount of melodic material. Listen to the Weather Report tune “Palladium” from the album Heavy Weather (youtube here). Pastorius grooves like mad but continually changes the melodic shape of the music by adding in dissonance, slides, and extended harmonies…all in the bass. That is a magical thing and something that guitar players rarely get a chance to do.
8. Always knowing where you stand in the rhythm section
A guitar player can feel like a third wheel in a popular music rhythm section. He belongs there but the marriage of the bass player to the drummer is often so tight that the guitar player feels like the odd man out.
7. The beauty of boutique basses
I am a total sucker for the beauty of sunburst Les Paul Standards (espeically if they were made in 1959) but I am of the opinion that boutique electric guitars pale in comparison to their low-end boutique brethren. Google companies like Fodera, Ritter, Sadowsky, F Bass, Alembic, and Zon and take a look at their stunning instruments. Wow!
6. The easy camaraderie of bass players
As I said before, most of the bass players I know are an easy-going lot who usually enjoy each other’s company. Guitar players can be ultra-competitive and rarely hang out together. Why is that?
5. The ability to disappear into the background
As long as the groove is happening bass players can stand back by the drummer and become nearly invisible. Guitar players have solos to take, pedal boards to fool with, guitars to be switched out, etc. The guitar player is rarely invisible in a popular music setting.
4. Being able to make one’s pant leg flap in the wind by playing the low B string on a 5-string bass
‘Nuff said about this one.
3. Not having to worry (for the most part) about picks
Unless they are playing certain types of rock or country music, bass players don’t usually have to show up with picks. The fingers on their picking hand are all that are needed. Most electric guitar players need to worry about picks. I sweat profusely and my picks slip constantly. Gorilla Snot has come in really handy since I went back to playing guitar but it would be nice not to have to worry about it at all.
2. The beauty of the acoustic bass
The acoustic bass is a daunting, harsh mistress that defies a bass player’s every effort to play her. She resists easy cuddling and is awkward to hold. She is difficult to play in tune. She demands that the bow be held just right before she yields any sort of usable tone. She is bulky and not easily transported. And yet many, MANY electric bass players are wooed by her siren song and cannot resist the urge to try doubling on the acoustic bass. I know. I was one of those that fell under her spell and I don’t know that I’ve ever awakened. In my hands the acoustic bass was a worthless hunk of wood. In the hands of a master (like Edgar Meyer…see here) the acoustic bass is a pillowy mistress that beckons to electric bassists to give her a try.
1. Not having to go deaf in order to get a good tone
It is a fact of life…plugging an electric guitar into a tube amp and turning the amp up loud makes a very beautiful and musical noise. The problem is this: Plugging an electric guitar into a tube amp and turning the amp up loud makes a very beautiful and musical AND LOUD noise. There all sorts of ways to try to circumvent this but none of them sound quite as good as plugging in and turning things up. Bass players don’t have nearly as much trouble. A great bass played at a moderate level through an amp is usually all that is needed for getting a great bass sound.
Of course there are drawbacks to being a bass player. The amps are usually heavier. Carrying around an acoustic bass is no picnic. Electric bass strings cost a LOT more than guitar strings, not to mention the cost of replacement acoustic bass strings. However, being a bass player is a great thing and I love and admire my low-end brothas and sistahs.
Alleva
