Another installment of “who cares about a bass blog?”

So, I’ve been doing a ton of recording lately, working on my album, writing stuff just for fun, writing other stuff specifically aimed at trying to get a sync licensing deal. And with all this playing, I’m hardly playing any upright bass. Even my live shows have been mostly ’60s tribute shows. Since I’m not playing upright, what am I playing and why?

Let’s start with the live tribute shows. I’ve been doing a Monkees tribute and a Lovin Spoonful tribute. The first time I did the Lovin Spoonful, I wanted a P-Bass as I feel that best served the tone of those songs. When I did the Monkees show, I felt like it needed a little “tubbier” sound, like a hollow body, my Dan-o would be perfect. In fact, it was so good, that last weekend when I did the Lovin Spoonful show, I brought out the Dan-o and left the P-Bass at home.

But for all that recording I’m doing, it’s the P-Bass. A P-Bass has the ability to sit right in the mix and still can stand out when you need it to. It growls, boinks, thuds, and delivers a clear note. My Dan-o does all of that too, but when I put it into the mix, it starts sounding too thin, or too boomy, it’s rarely “just right” and that pains me to say it. Years ago, when I was recording with Charlie Chesterman, producer Pete Weiss try over and over to get me to swap to the P-Bass, and I did, and I hated it… but he was right, it sounded better and fit in the mix better.

Well, what are these two basses?

First the Dan-o: it’s a 1958 Sears Silvertone, Dolphin Nose U1 made by Danelectro. I’ve owned many Dan-o’s over the years, so when my Keyboard player said he saw one, glued to a board in a dumpster behind the cable access station, we drover over and went dumpster diving. Turns out a local cable music show had taken apart some old guitars and made a backdrop for their show. They were spray painted and in rough shape. But the bass had all the pieces. Inside the neck it was both stamped and hand written on a piece of tape “April 1, 1958 ” under the tape was a yellow’ish orange color, so once I stripped off the spray paint, I re-painted it “Jerry-Jones/Gretch” orange. I put on some random GHS Flatwound strings. This has been my main, live, electric bass for about 30 years… with that same set of strings!!!

Now, the P-Bass: When I first started gigging, I got an early 70’s Fender P-Bass and had it painted sea-foam green. I actually hated that bass. I have a long history of hating P-Basses. They were not flexible enough, they didn’t sound modern. Too heavy…blah, blah, blah. and of course, once I got rid of it, I missed it! I must have had 10 P-Basses over the course of my life as a musician, but none were ever as good as that early 70’s one (that I hated at the time) It was light weight (I had sanded about a pound and a half off of it before sending it to be painted, so it wasnt heavy like most 70’s P-Bass. The neck was just right. Ugh!, regrets. I had a Sting model for a while that I loved too….But what about my current one? We’ll I always loved Fiesta Red Fenders, and I played this Squire 70’s vibe, fiesta red P-Bass in a store when they first came out and I was blown away, the fit-n-finish was great, but the weight and feel and sound!! Wow… but I didnt buy it…huge mistake that haunted me for years. I became determined to find one, setting up alerts on eBay and Reverb, finally it popped up for sale, at a reasonable price and just a few miles away. Soon as I played it I knew it was the one for me. I tool it home and put on some Labella Deep Talking Nylon covered flats… Wow, what a sound and what a feel, but it was missing top end and growl. So I shelled out the cash for Thomas Infield Flats. I have never played a flat-wound string this nice. Incredible tone, super loose feel. I think I’ve had this same set on the bass since the first week I got it, 4 years ago.

About Recording: I’m mostly using the P-Bass, with the Flats, with a pick going straight into a Focusrite, into Logic Pro and I use the Landr Plugin for Bass. I had made a custom patch with compressors, EQs, Ampeg emulators and cabinet simulators, but this Landr plug-in sound more like the sound I’m trying to get.

Conclusion: We all know the sound comes from the player, I sound pretty much the same on upright as I do with an electric. And I can get pretty much any type of sound I want out of any bass. But as we get older and more discerning, we as the player hear more than most listener. I always say “no matter what I do, it always just sounds like bass out front.”

If there was a short answer for which one wins… Dan-o for live, P-Bass for recording.