slide bass

[houndog]

>>Have you ever seen Claypool play live? He puts on quite a
>>show.
>
>Yep!
>
>I never got to see Zappa live, but he was my main musical
>hero in my teenage years.

How in Jimmny can you remember that Rico..

Ahhh McGoo...waking up to the sounds of "Bongo Fury" with my tongue stuck to the carpet...those were the days.

Titties 'n Beer,
Lovat

[ricochet]

>How in Jimmny can you remember that Rico..

Got a mind like a steel trap, rusty and closed tight.

[bluesmcgoo]

[updated:LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-05 AT 08:00 PM (EST)]"Titties 'n Beer"

Ahhh, Doggie! From my other fav Zappa album, "Live in New York". Two different eras, but both classic Zappa.

How 'bout waking up face down in the middle of the front yard...in broad daylight? Grass up my nose, and no idea how I got there. Yep...those were the days, huh?

[bosco]

>For most traditional blues bands, doing that is an absolute no-no, and what your doing with slide bass really is playing lead bass...<

There is a local blues/rock band in my area that is actually quite good, with an entertaining singer and kid-phenom guitar player...BUT; their bass player drives me nuts! Every time the band hits a stop, he does this rock guitar move where he frets around 12, poses, plucks the strings and slides his hand down the entire length of the neck resulting in a loud "Bahh-wooom." It sounds and looks ridiculous and to say he overuses this move is an understatement. He's an otherwise capable bass player but sometimes I just want to slap the guy and say "Stop that stupid sh*t!"

In working with my band, I tell them that if just one man plays an extra note, it defeats the whole purpose of the stop, which is timing and punctuation. I always use the other band's bass player as a prime example and they understand while usually getting a good chuckle out of it.

I agree with the other posters that it's ok to free form in jazz or fusion, but other than the occasional solo, bass tricks have no place in traditional blues.

Bosco

"In the school of the blues, there is no graduation day.

[bluejay]

Merging the Zappa and the bass antics themes, I was fortunate enough to see Zappa twice, once with a big band and once with only 4 sidemen. First, Frank was in charge on the stage and second, a stop was a stop. His bands were tighter than tight. The effect is incredible when you here his music played both live and with precision.

Back in the early 70s, a Boston-based bar band called Fatback played at a pub in my college town. It was a trio of drums, keyboards and bass. While the bass player didn't play slide, he did have a wah-wah, which was the first time I'd ever heard that combination. He played a fair amount of leads, trading off rhythm duty with the keyboard player, and he was actually quite good. Must have been for me to remember a bar band from more than 30 years ago.

[breakfastime]

[updated:LAST EDITED ON Mar-22-05 AT 05:29 PM (EST)]I recently witnessed some impromptu slide bass that was pretty cool:
At an icehouse somewhere in Texas, L'AMANT! frontman Jack slithers around the room with his guitar and is offered a taste from a fan's whiskey bottle. Jack takes a swig, and the patron motions for him to share with the band-Jack returns to the stage, hands the bottle to bassist JB, who upturns the damn thing and drains it before "taking 12" in an astonishing slide bass solo with the empty bottle-I mean the guy nailed some serious blues slide waaayyy up there past the top of the neck. I'd never seen him play any kind of bass solo and he claimed not to remember doing it. Weird stuff, indeed.

[ernest]

Here is a link of very cool band whit 2 string slide guitar:
http://www.morphine3.com/
saldly the singer and bass player Mark Sandman died some years ago.

[boz]

Micro Wave Dave
Elliot and the Untouchables
John Lowe
Richard Johnston
Jay Kirgis
Shane Speal and Jug Fusion
All use a multi string instrument called a LoweBow.
Plenty of Slide Bass and mostly blues !

[thealmightydave]

i have tried slide on my bass but nothing good came out of it

[guitarslim101]

If you want to try slide bass, you need to buy one of these and do it like it was ment to be done.
http://www.williesguitars.com/index.cfm ... prodID=214

[ricochet]

I thought that would point to a doghouse bass.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

[catscratch]

Hi Ricochet. We meet again.

I'm a bass player who also tinkles with guitar with a preference for slide (resonator and a Fender Tele in either G or A).

I'll stick my neck out (yet again) and say on the subject of slide bass - why would you even bother?? Finger slide on a fretless is fine if you like that kind of thing but bottleneck on a bass?

The reasons I think you would be barking up the wrong tree are:

1.Sound. - the simple observation that most slide guitar is played on the top two strings (B and E). This is because the wound strings (EADG)give a harsh gritty sound when metal or glass is applied. This, to my ear, is acceptable and may add some texture to the playing in small doses but if you limited your palette to the wound strings it would most probably be annoying. I actually use a plain G so that I get extended access to soloing options. Maybe you could use nylon bass strings but.....

2. Volume. How heavy would the slide be if it were to produce acceptable volume and sustain on heavy bass strings?

3. Pitch. The human ear is less sensitive to bass frequencies. I will be first to admit if I tried this techique I would probably have inferior intonation.

4. Tone. As a consiquence of the above I doubt whether your bass and amp would be set up for a deep bass tone and you would probably have to revert to treble settings to make any headway in the mix.

5. Futility. Bass is about the groove baby!

In conclusion my experience in this life is that if things don't become popular there is generally a good reason.