General Music Chat

Its no use. I've tried everything I know to do to gain the interest of a professional Bass player for my project. There just aint anybody close by to rely on (except for one bloke who is practically taking up my living room... ME! )

As usual, if you want something to get done, ya gotta do it yourself.
So, that's what I have decided to do... The money that I would have paid for the support, shall now be invested in a new Bass guitar and appropriate amp.

Here is my plan. Since its an acoustically driven Folkee-dolkee project, I decided, after careful thought, am gonna do it with an Acoustic Bass. (Besides I have always wanted to get one of those...)

My question: What's a good quality Acoustic bass, and what kind of amp/head would be a good start for me.. . I am open to all the advice you can muster..

Much Thanks

dog

There was an outfit called Evie Brickell and the New Bohemians who used an acoustic electric bass - pretty nice as I recall. You might google them and get a hint. don't know off the top of my head.

Talbot

It's cool to get new / different equipment and move in new directions.

But give up ?

Hells bells boy ... I thought you were a TEXICAN.

I'll give up when I'm phuqin dead.

I don't know if this would work for you, but I had something similar, called a Zorko years back, and it was great. It sounded like a big upright bass miked, took up far less space and was easy to play. I wish I had never let it go, but I traded it for a like new Gibson EB2. I love the EB-2, but would love to have had them both. I still have the EB-2, and I later added an Alvarez to my collection so it wouldn't get so lonesome. That Alvarez is a dream to play and also has some great sounds. Now I use it exclusively for recording.


This looks rather like a remake of it with a thinner body.

http://www.jgwindows.com/products/PALAVE500.html


Here is the Zorko
http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-384 ... -BABY-BASS

dog

There was an outfit called Evie Brickell and the New Bohemians who used an acoustic electric bass - pretty nice as I recall. You might google them and get a hint. don't know off the top of my head.

Talbot

Thanks Mike. It was "Edie" Brickell They were hot back when, but I haven't heard much from them since the late 80's. Based on the official Video ("What I am") , It looks like the bassist was using a Fender Electric. (I will research em more)

It's cool to get new / different equipment and move in new directions.

But give up ?

Hells bells boy ... I thought you were a TEXICAN.

I'll give up when I'm phuqin dead.

No, seriously...trying to find the right / good bass player where I live is absolutely futile. It occurs to me, If I learn to play the bass well enough, I'll have a gigging job for the rest of my life here...

Here's the situation: We have about @100 active bands playing and getting paid in all 4 corners of the County. The population here is @800,000 people.

That's @100 decent Bass players who are good enough to stay working, worthy enough to invite to a recording project.

Out of those, I'm gonna say that 80% are Metalists and Hard rockers. The remaining 20% are jazz, blues and various obscurities. (Maybe 5% of those are actually Folk-rock).

You can see my dilemma. Basically, The odds of finding a bass player that fits my genre, and does it creatively well is ... approximately (8000 : 1 ) against me.

So, when I say "Give Up" I'm really saying "Wake up" LOL!

BTW I'm a TEXAN of Irish/English origin...NEVER a TEXICAN

I don't know if this would work for you, but I had something similar, called a Zorko years back, and it was great. It sounded like a big upright bass miked, took up far less space and was easy to play. I wish I had never let it go, but I traded it for a like new Gibson EB2. I love the EB-2, but would love to have had them both. I still have the EB-2, and I later added an Alvarez to my collection so it wouldn't get so lonesome. That Alvarez is a dream to play and also has some great sounds. Now I use it exclusively for recording.


This looks rather like a remake of it with a thinner body.

http://www.jgwindows.com/products/PALAVE500.html


Here is the Zorko
http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-384 ... -BABY-BASS

Thanks Slacker,

Both the Zorko and Palatino are beautiful instruments, Me personally, I didn't have an upright in mind...But if I get good enough with Bass, I am likely to explore the uprights.

By the way, There's a new kind of acoustic bass out called a Kala U-bass. Its extremely portable (I think the U stands for Ukelele) . I was looking around for an Acoustic I could use for recording purposes.. This is on my list of considerations..
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/I ... eview.aspx

That looks easier to manage than these. A friend of mine bought one of these, and the price was very reasonable. It sounds great and plays pretty easy, but it is a bitch getting your arm over the body. The other bad part is that it is neck heavy. OK if your sitting down, but muy mal standing up using a strap. (Probably got that wrong SG = Gringo)

http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q= ... group&sa=X

That looks easier to manage than these. A friend of mine bought one of these, and the price was very reasonable. It sounds great and plays pretty easy, but it is a bitch getting your arm over the body. The other bad part is that it is neck heavy. OK if your sitting down, but muy mal standing up using a strap. (Probably got that wrong SG = Gringo)

http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q= ... group&sa=X

I know a guy here, who plays one of those... He's mexican and always jokes about how he could pull off the face of the Mariachi bass and use the body to canoe his way across the Rio Grande ...

PaperDog you're killing me again. You say that ALL the working bass players in your area are playing different genres so they CAN'T play your genre. Or they are not qualifed to play your genre. That's B.S. I'm a bass player in a blues band but I'm quite capable of playing ANY genre. I've GIGGED with classic rock bands UNREHEARSED. I've done studio work for a red dirt country band. So you would write me off as somebody unqualified for your project. I'll bet there's DOZENS of bass players in your town highly qualified and willing to work with you. I'll bet that many aren't even in bands, the economy being what it is. How about calling the music stores and contacting guitar/bass instructors and see if one of them might be willing to take on a side project. For that matter start contacting lead guitarists and see if they would play bass for you? Go on local band websites and send them emails telling them about your situation with a link to some of your recordings. ASK if they know of any bass players. Their own bass player might even be willing to take on a second project. A few years ago we had a problem with a lead guitarist. I asked a friend of mine if I could talk to his lead guitarist about filling in for my unreliable guitarist. He said sure and now he's the lead guitarist in my band. Working muscians know people in the music business. Start talking to more of them and chances are you'll get the right person involved.

Bob you're killing me. First of all there aren't as many well rounded bass players as you out there. Second you can NOT take a guitarist and make them a bass player.
To put this in a simple way, I would have no problem sitting down and jamming with any guitarist that had some creative background .
But there is no way in hell, knowing all the theory behind playing bass, and even if all I did was , listen and practice bass that,,,, I would come close to having the skills YOU HAVE.

By the way Bob, I'm sure that even the rockers here would love to have you covering bass. I WOULD! As far as advice, even Ann Landers was wrong once or twice. ( )

PaperDog you're killing me again. You say that ALL the working bass players in your area are playing different genres so they CAN'T play your genre. Or they are not qualifed to play your genre. That's B.S. I'm a bass player in a blues band but I'm quite capable of playing ANY genre. I've GIGGED with classic rock bands UNREHEARSED. I've done studio work for a red dirt country band. So you would write me off as somebody unqualified for your project. I'll bet there's DOZENS of bass players in your town highly qualified and willing to work with you. I'll bet that many aren't even in bands, the economy being what it is. How about calling the music stores and contacting guitar/bass instructors and see if one of them might be willing to take on a side project. For that matter start contacting lead guitarists and see if they would play bass for you? Go on local band websites and send them emails telling them about your situation with a link to some of your recordings. ASK if they know of any bass players. Their own bass player might even be willing to take on a second project. A few years ago we had a problem with a lead guitarist. I asked a friend of mine if I could talk to his lead guitarist about filling in for my unreliable guitarist. He said sure and now he's the lead guitarist in my band. Working muscians know people in the music business. Start talking to more of them and chances are you'll get the right person involved.

Bob...I do not mean to kill you.. Honest

I never said that the bass players here 'can't' play my genre or are not 'qualified' to play my genre... I'm saying that the ones worth taking a look at, are not terribly 'interested' in my genre. Amidst all the inquiries, there are two Bassists who were of significant caliber, and had inquired about my audition. (One guy has gigged at House of Blues...I have heard his work and he's awesome.) The other guy has a 30 + year studio and gigging background..(I never heard his stuff so I don't really know) . In both cases, they flaked out on me and did so without explanation , after they heard my stuff. I can only assume, my stuff wasn't up to their sense of a good challenge..So, they just blew me off and moved on.

The dozens of other inquiries over the past 6 months, has proved futile.. Those guys were typically not of high professional caliber, Essentially, I haven't had the luxury yet of hearing any auditions, where they guy could take care of business with his/her rendition of a bass line...

All I have asked,,, is to take the sample song and throw down "something" that they believe can work. How freaking hard is that to do if you are a decent bassist? Seriously...If you halfway know what you're doing, It takes 5 minutes to listen to the round once, another 5 minutes to extemporaneously lay down a basic simple idea for the bass...and maybe an hour or two to refine it, lay it down over the song and send it back. Not even asking for production quality...just wanna see what their musical sense is like. In cases where they cannot avail them selves with digital auditions, well I have not received any requests to meet up in person (Most likely cause the guys actually don't have the gear or the transport)

There are a boatload of out of work musicians, who , just like the two professionals, which described, are probably just as "uninterested" in my genre as the two pros seemed to be.

I can only speculate on WHATEVER the real reasons are... But I am pretty certain that I'm now gonna have to bite the bullet and just do this thing myself. Perhaps, with any luck, somebody will hear my pathetic attempt at doing the bass, and feel so sad for me that they might actually assert themselves to ask me if they can jump in...LOL!

What I am really saying here is that I suspect that the bassist, where I live, don't find my musical endavor or sample, credible enough to bother ... If so, then I'll have to just prove them all wrong, wont I

It took me 3 years to find a few people that thought the same way I do. I think if you persist and spend some time working on your stuff it will eventually peek some interest from someone who wants to help, and bring some of his ideas to the mix. What helped me was playing a lot of the songs I grew up with and finding others that liked the same things I like. When the chemistry was right I new it right away.

Its a long hard row to hoe !!!

It took me 3 years to find a few people that thought the same way I do. I think if you persist and spend some time working on your stuff it will eventually peek some interest from someone who wants to help, and bring some of his ideas to the mix. What helped me was playing a lot of the songs I grew up with and finding others that liked the same things I like. When the chemistry was right I new it right away.

Its a long hard row to hoe !!!

I am beginning to realize this in my situation. (Hopefully it wont be as long as three years...)
Bob is correct in that I could ask the music stores. We have a guitar center and a few obscure shops...in town. I have already inquired at the Guitar Center.. Heard nothing back yet. The obscure ones...not familiar with me and thus reluctant to put my name out there.

I will not enlist the help of a lead guitarist to do the bass, anymore than I would ask my drummer (Who actually play's 'some' bass") to do it. I 'm quite certain that the whole point of my not doing it or not asking other NON-bassists to do it has everything to do with specialization. The drummer that I am working with has played for 30 years. That's what he excels in and can do the most comfortably.
I tried not to do the Bass my self, since I am a Rythym Guitar player. However , its looking like that all may change now

dog

There was an outfit called Evie Brickell and the New Bohemians who used an acoustic electric bass - pretty nice as I recall. You might google them and get a hint. don't know off the top of my head.

Talbot

Thanks Mike. It was "Edie" Brickell They were hot back when, but I haven't heard much from them since the late 80's. Based on the official Video ("What I am") , It looks like the bassist was using a Fender Electric. (I will research em more)

I started writing songs with Brad Houser to put a band together in 81. I didn't like the other guitarist that he added later so I left the band. A few years later they added Edie Brickell and went on to have that big hit. Few people know that it was because Paul Simon was romantically interested in Edie, who is now his wife.

Brad's bass and a couple of lead solos were the only band members actually appearing on their "hit" CD, with the rest being studio musicians brought in by the producer. Admittedly, we weren't close friends but I don't remember Brad ever playing an upright? He did hang upside down in a hammock as a religious ritual of some sort though.

Back then, Jack Barton of Reverend Horton Heat played upright better than anyone in Texas, I thought.

I'd bet there are a few dozen great bass players in El Paso looking for a gig. They don't hang out in kareoke bars though

IMO, you ought to get yourself a bass and start working on it. COuldn't hurt to know the bass position and, as you're finding out, a good bass player is very valuable.