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© 2015 Hartke | hartke.com
© 2015 Hartke | hartke.com
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Lowdown, the Real World, Dig My Rig, Court of Opinion
22 NEW GEAR
Ampeg, Barefaced, Mike Lull & more
66 BOBBY'S BASSMENT Pick your poison
1 4 URIAH DUFFY
Progressive directions with Points North
1 6 RICK BARRIO DILL Simpler is better with Vintage Trouble
1 8 TOM CHAPMANAn old hand for New Order
20 BP RECOMMENDS
38 WARWICKCorvette $$ 5-string & Star Bass II 4-string
42 AEROType I PHC pickups
44 GLOCKENKLANG Blue Sky head
46 JAZZ CONCEPTS Moving up the neck with Simandl
50 BLUES YOU CAN USE Chuck’s Latin approach
52 NEW! EXTENDED TECHNIQUE Working out the fretting hand
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LEMMY
Motörhead might be the “ultimate underdog band,” but Lemmy has earned a place in the rock pantheon for his ageless energy, aggressive playing, and some-what reluctantly, his influence on metal. By Freddy Villano
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MIKE BRIGNARDELLO
With hundreds of Nashville studio credits, the former ’80s rocker helped to bring about a sea change in modern country music. By Rod C. Taylor
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Richard Davis infuses the 1968 folk-rock masterpiece with tinges of jazz and a 4-over-3 rhythmic feel. By John Goldsby
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L I N K F A C E T E C H P L A Y L E A L O W D O W NIT’S THE LAST ISSUE OF 2015, AND MUCH CAN BE SAID ABOUT A YEAR OF GREAT LOSS balanced by the release of numerous inspiring projects that pushed the bass and music worlds ever forward. Instead, upon re�ecting, I realized this is my 20th issue in my new role as the face of B��� P�����. I’ve been a part of close to 300 issues as an original BP contributing editor. Te difference between those and the last 20 is extreme. Te best way I can describe it is in terms of bass playing, which is what I’ve done the longest in my tenure on earth.
When you �rst start to play bass, your mind is all consumed by the part you’re assigned, and how you execute it. As time passes and you get more comfortable with the instrument, you allow yourself to listen to the drums, the vocalist, and the rest of the band. Tese stages of enlightenment not only enable you to loosen up your note choices and feel, they open you to broader potential pursuits, such as singing, composing, producing, and arranging. You discover the role of the bass and how it �ts into the music you’re playing. In other words, you see the big picture.
Tat’s the kind of revelation I’ve had over the past 20 issues: understanding how B��� P����� comes together from the conceptual planning stages to print, thanks to the diligent work of the editorial, art, and sales depart-ments, and office staff, the advertising commitment of gear manufacturers, the willing participation of artists, and most important, the suppor t of you, the reader. I’ve got a much better view from my current seat , and I can see that we will continue to bring you the best in bass in 2016. Tanks for your readership.
C ommunity
D I G M Y R I G !
C H R I S J I S I
20/20 Vision
OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE MANAGED TO assemble some of my favorite basses, as well as some of the most iconic. Some of these have been with me for over two decades. From the left: cream 1976 Fender Mustang, Jetglo 2009 Rickenbacker 4003, Inca Silver 1977 Music Man StingRay, sunburst 1966 Fender Precision Bass, 2013 Fender Custom Shop Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, and 1982 Steinberger L2. For ampli�cation, I use an Orange error Bass 500 head with an Orange Smart Power 210 Isobaric 2x10 cabinet, and an Ampeg Micro VR 200-watt stack. My effects are an Xotic SP compressor and a Sansmp Bass Driver DI. —MICHAEL PALLOTTA
Got a rig you think we’d dig? Send a photo and description to [email protected].
bassplayer.com/ h o l i d a y 2 0 1 5 13 I start with a nice routine of s elf-loathing mixed with a little regret
from not practicing more. —Tom Faraone
Stretch some. At 45, you have to. I warm up with some scales, then jump to some of my favorite bass riffs, usually something with
unique or different patterns. Metallica, Rush, and Tool usually work. —Jay Harrold
I warm up with scales, arpeggios, and my favorite exercise, John Patitucci’s “the spider.”
—Jorge Reyes
Soundcheck and go for it. —Jimmy Yount
Hit the ground running and warm up with the first couple songs. —Alan Campbell
Ideally, I paddle my kayak for a few miles before going to a gig . I can’t explain it, but going out on the water puts me in the perfect mood for performing. —Jon Jacobs
Hot compresses on the hands to loosen the tendons, then flex-exercise the hands.
—William V Stankiewicz
Drink beer. Duh. Buncha primadonnas. —Haze Brown
I play “Crisis” from Jaco’s second album. —RN Neal
Two groupies and a bottle of Talisker. —Colin DW Coonie
Whatever I’m doing, it’s not enough. I need to give this more attention!
—Sean Fairchild
I play “Into the Lungs of Hell” by Megadeth. That usually seems to do the trick.
—Crystal McCraine C O U R T O F O P I N I O N
How do you warm up before a gig?
Kevin Wells
Home baseOshkosh, Wisconsin
Occupation Military defense manufacturing
Gigs KWT featuring Tom Washatka (contemporary jazz and funky stuff)
Basses Fretless Warwick Jazzman (with flats), Warwick Standard, Fender Jazz
Bass (with rounds), fretless Yamaha
Rig Ampeg SVT-3PRO head, Ampeg Pro Neo PN-410HLF 4x10, Ampeg Pro Neo PN-115HLF 1x15
EffectsEBS MultiComp compressor, EBS BassIQ envelope filter, MXR Carbon
Copy delay, Tech 21 SansAmp DI
Strings, etc.D’Addario XL Chromes Flatwound
Heroes & inspiration Chris Squire, James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius, Rocco
Prestia, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Todd Rundgren
Contactkwtjazz.com, kevsoffi[email protected]
How did you come to play bass? What’s a lesson you’ve learned along the way? What are your musical goals?
Jermaine Jackson made playing the bass cool. Chris Squire made
playing the bass great!
Trust your instincts, trust your ears, and only play on the days you eat.
Currently, working on our second CD, writing new material, and gigging
often. It’s what we do. T H E R E A L W O R L D
Introducing Players’ Circle - Buy Strings, Get Points, Claim Rewards Enter to win 2,500 Players Points by visiting bassplayer.com/realworld
“THAT REALLY COOL
SLAP-TAP-sweep lick is only an exercise until you �nd a way to put it in a musical context,” says ultra-dexterous Uriah Duffy. When B��� P����� presented his progressive power trio Points North at the Brick & Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco, Duffy exempli�ed the idea of turn-ing technically proficient playturn-ing into solid songs. Many were from the band’s latest album,
Points North, and Duffy was happy to share deep
insights on his compositional contributions. Can you describe how speci�c techniques inform “Northstar”?
“Northstar” started as a solo piece and includes nods to in�uences like Stanley Clarke and Stu Hamm. I mostly employ a claw tech-nique, thumbing bass notes as my index and middle �ngers pluck melodies and chords. Te bass takes the melody on the �rst verse while keeping simple, open-string bass notes under-neath. Pre-choruses consist of root notes with double-stops on top to �ll out the trio’s sound. I usually omit the 3rd or 5th in lower registers to avoid muddy-sounding chords.
Te solo is a bit weird. I used Larry Graham’s old, ultra-dead strings from a gig. I teched for him a couple times, and was on a bit of a mojo search. Tere are neat, bite-size musical stan-zas throughout, including double-stopped 6’s, which I had never done before. My favorite bass moments are the single-note lines at 1:10 and 3:26. I usedmovement to illustrate the chords,
dancing around the changes. It’s a cross between Geddy Lee and a walking bass line in a pop–prog format. Tat’s got to be a �rst!
What’s going on in “Rites of Passage”? hat ballad sounds easy, but it’s decep-tively difficult to play. I’m pretty much tied to
a �ve-note tapping arpeggio in 5/8 that moves through alternating major and minor sections. o cover chords originally recorded on guitar, I use a Keith McMillen 12 Step controller onstage. It’s a one-octave �oor keyboard. I program chords into Apple’s MainStage software via the Chord rigger MIDI plug-in, assign them to single-note triggers, and then play them with my feet.
What inspired “Turning Point”? Someone challenged us to defy our usual “pop arrangement” format and do something longer,à la prog bands of the ’70s. Rush and Yes
albums were the basis of my musical upbring-ing as a kid. My goal was to have clear sections cleverly glued together that take the listener on a journey and end up feeling like a great movie. In Points North, we create musical phrases that comprise a full sentence before repeating, deriving the time signature from the riff itself, as opposed to truncating or adding beats to force a certain time signature. 13/8 only sounds cool if it’s listenable and head-noddable with-out any herky-jerky surprise left turns. In this age of simpli�ed, produced beats, there is still a place for music that shows skill both as
instru-mentalists and as a band.BP
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BY JIMMY LESLIE |Uriah Duffy
Turning Technique
Into Tunes
Basses Modified Fender Standard Jazz Bass; Lakland U.S.A. & Skyline Series basses (various)Rig TC Electronic RH750 head, TC Elec-tronic RS210 & RS410 cabinets, Line 6 Relay digital wireless Effects TC Electronic TonePrint pedals (vari-ous), Darkglass Micro-tubes B3K CMOS Bass Overdrive, Darkglass Duality Dual Fuzz En-gine, Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave
Watch Duffy play “Ignition” in the official video with Points North. bassplayer.com/ holiday2015 L I S T E N E Q U I P C O N N E C T
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Points North, Points North [2015, Magna Carta] K E V I N G R A F T -R O K F O T O . C O M POINS NORHB
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L I N K F A C E T E C H P L A Y L E A“WE LEARNED EARLY ON THAT WE LOVED
the stripped-down approach to R&B, without a Hammond B-3 organ, a bunch of background singers, percussion, or a second guitar player,” says Rick Barrio Dill of Vintage rouble. “And that puts pressure on us, in a good way.” It also gets results: How many bands, after all, get to open for the Who, the Rolling Stones, and AC/DC before releasing their second album?
Te L.A.-based four-piece, which specializes in ’60s-style groove workouts and soulful ballads, spent three years on the road honing its tight sound after the release of 2011’s
Te Bomb Shelter Sessions. Eventually, Vintage rouble hun-kered down under the baton of producer/bassist Don Was
to complete1 Hopeful Rd ., a 12-track tour de force that
boasts a nuanced approach and shows the band’s theory of “devolving” in full effect.
Dill, whose lean, purposeful bass lines have nary a super-�uous note, says this approach allowed the band to get to the heart of the new songs; creating a piece of work that had emotional impact became the album’s goal. “We wanted to make people feel something. It’s an intangible concept that can’t necessarily be taught. Te more I think about it, though, I suppose we teach part of it to ourselves along the way.” How do you interact with drummer Richard Dan-ielson in Vintage Trouble’s lean-and-mean format? Sometimes, where I feel the push is different from where Richard feels the push, and that creates this beau-tiful accident. Richard and I can lock in, no problem—but instinctively, I hear parts or short phrases that imply a rhythm guitar, phrases that dance in between what he’s doing. I love the interplay within the band. We de�nitely create a lot of noise for four dudes.
What’s the main lesson you’ve learned from so much touring?
Te simpler, the better! S treamlining our approach to music and getting back to playing a song that moves somebody is where it’s at. Gear is cool, especially when it makes you feel better, but it’s not everything. So much of it is the intention that you put in and what you do with your hands.
How simple is “simple”?
For the early Vintage rouble shows, I would show up to the gig with just my bass and a tuner. And I was mad that I had to put the tuner on the �oor! I wanted it to be that simple. Even on my Fender Jazz Bass, I wire it with just a volume and tone knob; I have the pickups wired both all the way on, and I make adjustments using the tone knob.
What was it like to work with Don Was? Horrible! [Laughs.] No, it was incredible. For a second, I paid attention to the fact that he was a bass player—one of the baddest bass players on the planet, actually—but that quickly went away. He’s such a disarming , cool guy, a real kindred spirit musically. If there was something that had to do with bass, sure, he’d say it. But he really listened to the entire band without necessarily focusing on one instrument. For him, as well as us, it ’s less about a single instrument and more about the effect of the whol e
group playing together. BP
Rick Barrio Dill
Lean & Mean
BY MARCO PASSARELLI |
VIN AGE ROUBL E
Vintage Trouble, 1 Hopeful Rd. [2015, Blue Note], The Bomb Shelter Sessions [2011, self-released]
Basess Fender Ameri-can Vintage ’64 Jazz Bass, Fender American Vintage ’57 Precision Bass (with Aguilar AG 4P-60 pickups), Fender American Design Experience Vintage Precision Bass (with Aguilar AG 4P-60 pickups) Rig Aguilar DB 750 head, Aguilar DB 412 4x12 cabinet Strings D’Addario Chromes flatwounds (.050–.105)
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L I N K F A C E T E C H P L A Y L E AWHEN ASKED TO REPLACE FOUNDING MEMBER
and bassist Peter Hook in the iconic English rock band New Order, om Chapman called upon years of session and live work to gird his loins. Having worked with such art-ists as Starless and Bibleblack, Xander Smith, New Order offshoot band Bad Lieutenant, and his active side project, Rubberbear, Chapman attacked his new role with relish. Tough Chapman plays the band’s
origi-nal bass parts live, on New Order’s Music
Complete he’s his own man, start to �nish. Were you nervous replacing Peter Hook, or are you an optimist at heart?
When the reunited New Order played our �rst concert in 2011 in Belgium, there was a certain amount of trepidation on my part. But it was a great show and we toured for three years. Generally, you have to be confident in your ability and not listen much to the critics, good or bad. You have to believe in yourself.
Hook’s bass played a big part in New Order. How did you �nd your own way? Being the bass player in New Order is the best job in the world, ’cause you get to do all the rhythmic parts but you can also express yourself almost as a lead instrument. I do play rhythmically in New Order, but some-times the bass rhythm will be created by a synth, so that allows me to play a lead part. H o w d i d y o u a p p r o a c h Mu si c Complete’s more electronic tracks?
On some tracks it’s both my bass and synth bass, such as on “utti Frut ti,” where you can hear the synth bass plus my bass line adding extra rhythms and little intri-cate �lls. On “Plastic” we’re using the bass guitar as a lead instrument; I’m actually doing a bass guitar solo. On “People on th e High Line,” which is kind of a Chic bass line, I went for a rhythmic part with the drums.
Were there particular technical challenges?
One of the problems playing live shows with New Order was �nding the correct pickups for my P-Bass to play lines in a low register as well as lead parts. Most traditional pickups are only designed for you to play the instrument in the lower register. Creamery Pickups designed a brilliant pickup that provided great clarity and string de�nition with a sharp, rich attack and tighter bottom-end to really cut through without overpower-ing the rest of the band. It uses taller, stronger, custom-made Alnico 5 rod magnets with speci�c offset, over-wound coils—the design is geometri-cally different from a standard P-Bass pickup.
How do you respond to Hook’s claims that you are miming his bass parts live?
I still laugh at that! He called me the Milli Vanilli of bass players. He seems to be a very angry man. He’s obviously channeling his anger toward me. I don’t really mime his bass lines. If I do, I am doing very well out of it.
I thought it was amusing, really.BP
Tom Chapman
Bassist Complete
BY KEN MICALLEF |
NEW ORDER, RUBBERBEAR
W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S New Order, Music Complete [2015, Mute]
Basses Fender Preci-sion Bass, Fender Bass VI, Music Man StingRay; Creamery Pickups Cus-tom P-Bass pickups Strings Bass Centre Elites Stadium .045–.105
Rig Fender Bassman 100T, Fender Bassman Neo 4x10, Rupert Neve Portico II DI
Effects Boss GE-7 Equalizer, Boss ODB-3 Overdrive, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, Electro Harmonix The Clone Theory, Audiokitchen’s The Big Trees preamp Picks Fender medium
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MISTER BARRINGTONCAN’T TURN BACK [Double Origin]
Firmly affixed to the leading e dge of musician-played, programmed, and spon-taneously triggered electronica, Mister Barrington (keyboardist Oli Rockberger, drummer Zach Danziger, and bassist Owen Biddle) further flashes its range on album number three. he opener, “alk Abou t It ,” wit h it s ca scadi ng so nics and kill er b ridg e, co ntin -ues the trio’s singer–songwriter bent, as Rockberger’s soar-ing vocals rival hundercat’s falsetto for emotional impact in the idiom. “Justify” summons ’80s R&B singles, with Biddle playing fast and loose around the synth bass core. On the more rock-grounded “Heal the Pain,” his bass line counters the vocal before erupting into free-form filling in the rubato breakdown. On the instrumental side, the Danzige r-led “News
at Eleven” has a Weather Report ethic as it traverses multi-ple feels. Finally, there’s Biddle’s bass anthem bid via the ’70s funk-nodding “Kryptonite,” which renders his percolating sub-hook an indestructible force.— C H R I S J I S I
EAGLES OF DEATH METAL
ZIPPER DOWN[Universal]
On their �rst album in seven years, EODM get right down to business with the opening track “Complexity,” which starts things off right with a fuzz-driven bass line and some fast pick work. Te bass is primarily supplied by one half of the rocking duo, Jesse Hughes, who takes great liberty with �lls and bluesy runs that counter the hard-hitting drumming of Josh Homme. Hughes’ PBR-fueled homage to hard rock bassists of the
’70s really ties the album together. —JON D’AURIA
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Chris Wood of the Wood Brothers
bassplayer.com/ h o l i d a y 2 0 1 5 21 MIKE CORNELISON
CLASSICAL MASTER�
PIECES FOR ELECTRIC
BASS
[Bassbooks.com]CLASSICAL MASTER�
PIECES FOR ELECTRIC
BASS, VOL. II
[Bassbooks.com]
Ready to take your reading, technique, and musicality to the next level? Consider these slim volumes a motherlode of melodic ideas and a refreshing alternative to intermediate- and advanced-level sight-reading exer-cises. Playing through this well-chosen selection of 100-plus staples from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries—from Ravel’s “Bolero” and Wagner’s “Ride of t he Valkyries” to Pachelbel’s “Canon” and a whole lotta Bach and Beethoven— will do wonders for your eyes, hands, and ears. Each volume includes composer biographies and
perfor-mance notes. —E.E. BRADMAN
RANDY BRECKER
RANDYPOP! LIVE
[Piloo] he trumpet session legend revisits pop hits he played on, re-imagined by the elite Gotham jazz team of keyboard-ist/arranger Kenny Werner, saxophonist David San-chez, guitarist Adam Rogers, drummer Nate Smith, and, most noteworthy, John Patitucci in full-on, 4-string groove mode. Sturdy and conversational in support throughout, Patitucci handles the daz-zling reharms of “New Frontier” and “Late in the Evening,” the reggae-rooted “Ghost Writer,” and the multi-metered “I Can’t Quit Her,” while riff-ing melodically on the ballads “Hello It’s Me” and “Meeting Across the River.” But it’s his combusti-ble 16th-note groove on “I’ve Got a B ag of My Own” that burns down the house. — C H R I S J I S ITHE WOOD BROTHERS
PARADISE
[Honey Jar] On their sixth album, the Wood Brothers move well beyond their folk–country roots and break into Americana/indie-rock territory. Between grooving hard on “American Heartache” and“Raindrop” and showing his skills on the harmonica on “Singin’ to Strangers,” Chris Wood is a focal point; his vibrant lines and earthy upright tones fuel one of
the best road-trip albums of the year. —JON D’AURIA
ROMAIN COLLIN
PRESS ENTER
[AC Music] On this batch of harmonically rich, cinematic compositions by agile pianist/�lm composer Collin, Luques Curtis thinks like an arranger, laying down tasteful, sumptuously recorded bass lines that are a perfect fit for Col-lin’s left hand and the über-dynamic drumming of Kendrick Scott. Over�owing with subtle but dar ing touches, great grooves, engaging ostinatos, andimpressive arrangements,Press Enter is a feast for
the ears. — E . E . B R A D M A N
WAVVES
V
[Warner Bros.]Stephen Pope and Wavves’ �fth album is a collection of 11 short songs that take you through the band’s usual bender-hangover-bender cycle, but this time with much more energy. Tanks to faster tempos and Pope’s
gritty and cutting bass tone,V is far less
melan-cholic than 2013’s Afra id of Heig hts. his time, Pope’s ferocious pick work mimics the retro-punk score of a surfer’s epic day in the breaks more th an an angst-�lled breakup soundtrack. It suits him
well. —JON D’AURIA
THE BESNARD LAKES
A COLISEUM
COMPLEX MUSEUM
[Jagjaguwar]
Like a foghorn in the mist, co-leader Olga Goreas’ tasty lines are landmarks in the
psychedelic/shoe-gaze swirl of Mu seu m. Unhurried and
unmov-able, Goreas never plays too much or too little, occupying a space underneath drummer Kevin Laing’s kick drum but always audible alongside her cohorts. Highlights: the grinding ostinato of “Golden Lion,” her distorted and melodic lines underneath “ungsten 4: he Refugee,” and the way she plays off the vocal line in “Necronomi-con.” — E . E . B R A D M A N
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One10 1x10 & Eight10 8x10 cabinets
This U.K.-based manufacturer’s new 8, 500-watt 1x10 has a full-range 10" driver with 2" concentric midrange dome. It’s lightweight (16 pounds with a steel grille, 15 with a cloth grille) and small (15" high, 11.5" wide, and 11" deep). Its 79-pound big brother, a 4 8x10, is four feet tall, two feet wide, and 15.5" deep. It maxxes out at 2,000 watts.
Street One10 1x10 ($500), Eight10 ($2,500)
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SPECTOR
CodaP 4 Pro and CodaPJ 4 Pro basses
Spector goes old school with its 34"-scale bolt-on CodaP and CodaPJ 4-strings, which both feature a one-piece maple neck, 20-fret rosewood fin-gerboard with dot markers, and an alder body in addition to a Sp ector TonePump Jr preamp, Sp ec-tor locking die-cast bridge, and high-gloss finish. The maple-top CodaP boasts a figured-maple top and Spector Alnico split-coils, while the PJ rocks Spector Alnico split-coils and a single-coil.
Street CodaP 4, $800; CodaPJ 4, $840
bassplayer.com/ h o l i d a y 2 0 1 5 23 SUNCOAST
B1p Bass Preamp
Inspired by the legendary Pearce BC1 preamp, this 100 percent analog, true-bypass pedal features a limiter footswitch with variable threshold control, active±15dB bass, mids, and treble (with sweepable
midrange frequency control), drive, boost mode (with overdrive and EQ, adjustable via internal trim-pots), an effect loop, as well as send and return jacks.
Street $500
Contact suncoastanalog.com
Music Theory for the Bass Player:
A Comprehensive and Hands-on Guide
to Playing with More Confidence
and Freedom
Austrian-born bassist/educator Ariane Cap’s new book aims to help bass players apply music theory (including intervals, major and minor scales, triads, four-note chords, cycle of 5ths, and modes) to the fingerboard, practice it in a systematic way, and use theory creatively—right away.
Street $30
Contact arianecap.com MIKE LULL
TXB Tele and TX-Chubby basses
The classic-looking TXB, which boasts a modern twist of lightweight ergonomics and huge soap-bar sound, is available in ash, alder, or mahogany and with any pickup configuration, including Agui-lar dual-coils (pictured). The TX-Chubby, which flaunts an extra thick 2r" body while being fully chambered for low weight and huge resonance, is available in any wood and p ickup configuration, in-cluding Nordstrand dual-coils (pictured).
Street TXB Tele ($2,600), TX-Chubby ($3,300)
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Portaflex PF-20T head, PF-50T head &
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The 20-watt and 50-watt descendents of the famous B-15, each bolstered with a pair of 12AX7 tubes—as well as a pair of 6V6 power-amp tubes in the PF-20T and a 12AU7 matched with a pair of 6L6 tubes in the PF50T—can both be switched between four ohms or eight ohms. The PF-50T adds a preamp out, 5-position mid-tone control, and ultra high/low boosts. The 200-watt PF-112HLF 1x12 boasts a 12" Eminence LF driver and 1" HF compression driver.
Street PF-20T ($600), PF-50T ($900), PF-112HLF ($400)
Considering Lemmy’s recent health challenges, those three words could certainly be somewhat personal, but in a profound way, they also sum up Motörhead’s entire legacy.
When Motörhead �rst started popping out albums in the late ’70s, it probably seemed implausible that the band would be around 40 years and 22 albums later. And yet , here they are. According to Lemmy—who embodies the sex, drugs, and rock & roll ethos more honestly than anyone alive besides Keith Richards—Motörhead’s
career is de�ned by “sheer, dogged, pig-nosed fucking persistence and refusal to listen to the evidence.”
Lemmy was born Ian Fraiser Kilmister on December 24, 1945. Tough it has never been con�rmed nor denied, legend has it that the nickname “Lemmy” came from the phrase, “Lemme (lend me) a quid until Friday,” because of his habit of borrowing money. He began playing rock & roll in 1964 in Blackpool, England with the rowdy Rockin’ Vickers, and he had a near-mythical stint as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix shortly before joining his �rst professional out�t, the heavy prog-rock band Hawkwind. Although Lemmy had never picked up a bass before joining Hawkwind, his time with the band is marked by a divine melodic sense and inventive chordal
sup-port, particularly on albums likeWarrior on the Edge of ime. He
was �red in 1975 after being arrested in Canada on drug charges. He formed Motörhead shortly thereafter and released a few
albums before gaining stateside recognition with Ace of S pades.
Troughout the band’s career, Lemmy’s unbound playing style, which relies on guitar-like nuances, has been the driving force behind now-classic tunes like “Overkill,” “Ace of Spades,” “Iron
Fist,” and “Killed by Death.” Te band’s �rst live album, No Sleep
’il Hammersmith, made Motörhead cult legends, and bands like Metallica often cite them as a precursor to speed metal. Tey were most certainly a forerunner of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but unlike contemporaries such as Judas Priest, Motör-head has yet to enjoy mainstream success. And even when they do “succeed” at something, they seem to get a backhanded com-pliment. Tey won a Grammy in 2005, for example, but it was for
a cover of Metallica’s “Whiplash” [ Metallic Attack : Te U ltimate
ribute, 2004, Big Deal]. Tey’ve sold 15 million albums world-wide, but they often still ser ve, and humbly so, as an opening act for many of their peers.
Within the industry, Lemmy’s imprint is so desirable that he’s been tapped by everyone from Ozzy Osbourne—with w hom
he co-wrote four of the biggest hits on the double-platinum No
More ears [1991, Epic]—to the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, who invited Lemmy to join his star-studded side project Probot. Heck, he’s even written songs for WWE wrestler riple H. Despite such accolades and associations, Motörhead has always existed on th e periphery. Lemmy sums up Motörhead’s legacy like this: “We’re the ultimate underdog band—the most underdog underdog band there’s ever been.”
Bad Ma gic is Motörhead’s 22nd studio album, and though it follows a familiar template, many of its aspects resonate with a sense of immediacy. Te introspective, somewhat poignant “’ill the End” offers a great example of Lemmy’s singular tone, which pokes out of the mix and offers a distinct contrast to the clean gui-tars. His percolating take on Bill Wyman’s classic “Sympathy for the Devil” bass line is a bombastic homage to one of his earliest musical in�uences. And fast and vicious numbers like “Tunder and Lightning” and “Shoot Out All of Your Lights” are classic, rau-cous Motörhead, proving that even at 70 years old, rock’s perennial
Lemmy in 1991 K E N S E T T L E
underdog still hasn’t slowed down. For Lemmy, the mission has always been “victory or die.”
How do you begin writing songs for a new record like Bad Magic?
We do it all different ways. Sometimes I come in with a song, or Phil [Campbell, guitar] will come up with a riff. Sometimes I’ll come up with some words that we’ll �t some music to, or we ’ll have a couple of riffs that I’ll put some words over. I do all the words—apart from that, it’s all-in.
Do you write material before heading into the studio? We always have the riffs before we go in. Sometimes we just make up something on the spot. And sometimes we write a riff that’s unfeasible, so we have to bite the bullet and cut it down.
Do you cut the bass before your vocals?
For recording, we put the drums down first with a scratch rhythm guitar. Ten we wipe that and do a new rhythm guitar and I’ll cut the bass over that. Ten Phil comes back in and does some solos. Te vocals come last. Mickey [Dee, drums] was most outraged when he �rst joined. He said, “You can’t work like this!” I said, “Sure we can.” We just build it up from scratch.
Do you guys embrace any of the recording-technology advances, such as working with a click track?
Mickey sometimes uses a click track because he speeds up a bit now and again. But really, he’s pretty good. Me and Phil don’t need it because we’ve never used it. I don’t know how to use it. It puts me off, a click. I’ve got a natural rhythm, baby [laughs].
Do you play different bass parts in the studio than you do live?
No, it’s pretty much the same style. In the studio, you can make anything heard, whereas onstage I sometimes have to hit two strings to make it louder—the drone [open] string and the note. Fortunately, we do a lot of songs inE, A, andD [laughs].
Is it easier to sing in those keys or write riffs or both? Tose are my keys to sing in, really. We have a few exceptions.
We do a few songs in B now and again—it just depends on what
I come up with. Sometimes I’ll ask them to change the key of a song, which really pisses Phil off [laughs].
You use a lot of chords in your playing. Where does that come from?
I was a guitar player �rst, so I’m used to playing chords. It’s just like playin g th e gu itar witho ut t he t op t wo s tring s. I just
made chords out of what strings I had left [laughs]. It’s
unortho-dox, but it works for us.
Do you apply that approach because Motörhead is a power trio?
I hate it when I see a band and they’re thumping along, the riff is great, and then the solo comes in and the riff dies because the guitar player has to play the solo. So I always said to myself, I’ll back it up—put some extra bits in, like two-note chords or something like that.
Tere’s a breakdown in “Fire Storm Hotel” that features a short bass solo. How did that part come about?
We had that right at the beginning. We don’t usually think about things like that. We just play it through a few times and one of us will say, “Hey, how about …” It’s just like a young band. Like many Motörhead songs, “Fire Storm Hotel” has a straight-up rock & roll vibe, yet you are often credited with inventing speed metal. Does that ever bother you?
I know. It’s stupid. It was because we had long hair. When the mods came out, they had short hair, so the rockers had to have long hair. We got stuck in with heavy metal, which is not what we are. We’re hard rock—we have a lot of the blues in us.
Te intro to “Te Devil” shows just how crushing your tone is, with a massive combination of chords and distor-tion. What’s your secret?
I don’t use any effects. On my amp, I turn the bass off, the treble off, the middle is full on, and I’m at about three o’clock with the presence and two o’clock on the volume—on both stacks. I h ave two ’70s Marshall stacks. Tey go through 15" and 4x12 speaker cabs. What made you gravitate toward the Rickenbacker as your main instrument?
Te shape. I’m all for the image—always. If you get one that looks good, you can always mess with the pickups if it sounds bad. I would get Rickenbacker basses and change the pickups. I put a Gibson hunderbird pickup in my first one, and that sounded like a fucking bulldozer. Te new Rickenbacker pick-ups are much better.
In “Evil Eye,” there’s a melodic bass part in the bridge before the solo. You seem quite comfortable and a dept at
taking such liberties.
I like doing those. Te bass can be more of a lead instrument than people give it credit for. I �nd it just as pleasant to listen to as a guitar. And I like to show off, so I put one or two of those on an album [laughs].
In “each Tem How to Bleed,” there’s a two-note bass �ll that epitomizes your innate sense of rhythm.
I was born to play the bass, basically. Basically … very good [laughs]. I was a mediocre guitar player—I couldn’t play lead to save my life. But I was a great rhythm guitarist. I have a feel for rhythm, so that’s probably where it comes from.
You’ve been working with producer Cameron Webb since 2004’s Inferno. What is it that makes him essential to Motörhead records?
He’s a really good producer. Sometimes, he hears things that we don’t hear, because he doesn’t share our history. He doesn’t know us like we know each other. We might dismiss a suggestion somebody makes, but he won’t. He’ll say, “Why don’t you try that?” And he’s not afraid to say, “Sit down, shut up, and listen,” which is what we need sometimes. We had a couple of producers who were scared to death of us. Tey tried to please everybody and, of course, pleased nobody.
Do you write songs on bass?
I usually write on acoustic guitar. But I do write the occasional one on bass. I wrote “Iron Fist” on bass. And I wrote “Ace of Spades” on bass, but it’s not often that I do that. It’s pretty limiting.
What do you mean by that?
With bass, you feel like a twat when you’re on your own. It feels incomplete. You have to have the other instruments to make it work. It’s not a lead instrument, per se. Although you can cheat here and there, you need the song playing to play bass properly, in my humble opinion.
Do you �nd that songs that come naturally are better than ones that take longer to write?
Sometimes each side of that is true. I wrote “(We Are) Te Road Crew” in three minutes—all of the words. Te rest of the band had gone on a break and they hadn’t even �nished buttering their toast when I said, “Are you ready? I’ve got it.” Tat was the
fast-est ever. And then forOverkill, we were short one song. I went
to the movies one night and saw Metropolis, the old Fritz Lang
movie, and went home and wrote that complete nonsense lyric. “Metropolis is something new / Ain’t nobody got their eye on you / I don’t care.” What the fuck does that mean? But it’s a great song. Did your experience as Jimi Hendrix’s roadie have any in�uence on you musically?
Yeah, he told me I was never going to be a good guitar player [laughs]. I was lucky, though. I joined Hawkwind for the job of the guitar player, and they just decided they weren’t going get another guitar player—Dave [Brock, vocals] decided he was going to play the lead. But the bass player, like a twat, had not shown
up that day because it was a free gig and he wasn’t getting paid. He left his bass and amp in the gear van, like, “Steal my gig,” so I stole his gig [laughs].
What did you learn about playing bass while in Hawkwind? I learned to play bass onstage with Hawkwind. I never picked one up in my life before that gig. Dave wanted me in the band because I did speed and he did speed, and we were the only ones, so he wanted a mate to speed wit h. So I walked onstage with this thing hanging around my neck—it was a Rickenbacker, too—and
Nik urner [vocals, saxophone, �ute] said really helpful stuff [
sar-castically]. He came over and said, “Make some noises inE—this one’s called ‘You Shouldn’t Do Tat,’” and then walked away from me. None of that old-fashioned stuff like, “ wo verses and a solo.”
Make some fucking noises inE—that’s really helpful [laughs].
So you were thrown right into the �re?
Oh yeah. It’s the best way. You learn if you can do it or not right there [laughs].
Did you have any bass in�uences at that point?
Paul McCartney and John Entwistle. Entwistle was like a lead guitar player, wasn’t he? He wasn’t like anybody I had ever seen. If you watch both sets of his �ngers, it’s nuts. What he did is nuts. We played with the Who a few times in the ’60s when I was with a band up in Blackpool, and I used to sit and watch him. I couldn’t believe it. I never tried to play like him—just the tone more or less. You once mentioned guitarist Duane Eddy as an in�u-ence. Care to elaborate on that?
He wasn’t an in�uence on my playing. He was more of an in�u-ence on my sound. All of the solos in his songs were by a saxophone player and he would just play the riff, but it was a great sound.
Have you always played with a pick? Did you ever exper-iment with �ngerstyle?
No, I can’t do that �nger stuff. I have to have a pick. I’m a guitar
player, remember? [Laughs.]
How would you distill the essence of your playing into a few words?
Hard. No prisoners.
Any thoughts on the current state of the music industry? People listen to rubbish now. It’s all garbage. In the ’70s, you would have gotten rocks thrown at you. In th ose days, you had to learn how to play your instrument. Nowadays, you can just loop a guitar from somebody else and you’ve done nothing to create that sound, except steal it. I don’t like that. I like to get in there and play the friggin’ thing. It’s not real if you didn’t play it.
Do you have any advice for young musicians?
No advice at all. Te problems they run into now are not the problems we ran into when we started. Te world has changed a lot, and the stuff they run into I never had to cope with. Make your own mistakes, sort yourselves out, do what you’re supposed to do. If you want to give it up, g ive it up and do something else, but don’t make it harder for good bands to get gigs by fucking around with
it. It’s not a thing to fuck around with. You have to mean it. BP
Basses Rickenbacker 4004LK Limited Edition
Rig Two “salvaged” Marshall JMP-2 Super Bass Amps, two Marshall 4x15 cabinets, two Marshall 4x12 cabinets
Strings Dunlop LKS Lemmy Signature (.050, .070, .085, .105) Picks Dunlop MHPT02 Lemmy Signature 1.14mm
With Motörhead Bad Magic [2015, UDR], Kiss of Death [2006, Steamhammer], Inferno [2004, Steamhammer], 1916 [1991, Epic], Orgasmatron [1986, GWR], No Remorse [1984, Bronze], Another Perfect Day [1983, Bronze], Iron Fist [1982, Bronze], No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith [1981, Bronze], Ace of Spades [1980, Mercury],
Overkill [1979, Bronze]. With Hawkwind Warrior on the Edge of Time [1975, United Artists]. E Q U I P S E L E C T E D D I S C O G R A P H Y
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Ben Kenney is a multi-instrumentalist and taste master with very specific ideas
about sonic and visual aesthetics. Early on Ben recalls playing a Lakland USA
44-60 in a music store and thinking, “When I make it, I’m getting one of these!”
Not so long after, while a member of the seminal band The Roots, Ben joined
Incubus as their bass player, and guess what bass he chose. Years later, with
a string of #1 modern rock hits, multi-platinum sales and a worldwide touring
schedule, Ben Kenney continues to be a devoted Lakland artist. His custom
Lakland USA Series instruments are beautiful looking and sounding, just what he
expects from his friends at Lakland. Thanks Ben!
For more information and a complete product line,
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bassists live in an era of great innovation. Advances in technology continue to make our lives easier, and thanks to laptop and desktop workstations, fast hard drives, and remote recording, few session musi-cians still make all of their living by laying down bass lines in brick-and-mortar recording studios. As such, studio bass—pioneered by giants like James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, and Carol Kaye— has become something of a lost art.Mike Brignardello is among a handful of players doing his best to keep it alive. Te lessons he’s learned from these studio heroes have made him a �rst-call session player in Music City, and like his bass lines, this Memphis native is a solid, dependable staple in the Nashville studio scene. His calm, friendly demeanor makes him easy to hang with, but his smooth vintage tone, his seemingly innate ability to know exactly when to play what, and his willing-ness to put the song above everything else is why he’s credited on over 500 albums (and countless demos) coming out of Nashville.
Although widely known for his work with country megastars like Reba McIntire, Blake Shelton, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton, Brignardello’s multi-genre bass skills have resulted in a successful career in rock, pop, CCM (Christian contemporary music), and the blues, too. In addition to a host of CCM artists such as Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, he’s recorded with Jewel, Ly nyrd Skynyrd, onic frontman Emerson Hart, Keb’ Mo,’ and his own band, Giant. Each week, Mike’s schedule is jammed with studio dates, where he splits his time between demo work and master sessions. Armed with his ’59 Fender Precision and a few other Fender-style axes, Mike logs hour upon hour in studios across Nashville. We talked to him at one of his favorite studios, Ocean Way Recording.
How did you go from playing in local bands in Memphis to becoming a top studio bassist in Nashville?
Trough a fortunate turn of events, I got the chance to play bass for an Amy Grant concert in 1981. Her producer [multi-Grammy Award winner Brown Bannister] liked my style and asked if I had ever thought about moving to Nashville and doing studio work. I loved the idea, so I moved that next year and began working with Brown and other producers in CCM. From there, things just took off, and for the next �ve years, I just did studio work.
But you didn’t settle into the studio scene completely, right?
Mike
Brignardello
BY ROD C. TAYLOR
Secrets of a
Studio Giant
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Right. Dann Huff and I had worked together since the mid ’80s, along with his brother, [drummer] David. In 1987, we all got the itch to create a rock band, so we formed Giant. From 1988 to 1993, we had some success, releasing two albums and tour-ing quite a bit with Whitesnake, Heart, Bad English, and other bands. We had a pretty good hit with “See You in My Dreams,” but unfortunately, we were bit late to the ’80s rock par ty; grunge killed it all just a few years later.
You didn’t seem to have any problem landing back on your feet, though.
Once again, I was blessed to catch a popular new wave of music. I moved back to Nashville in ’93, just as country music exploded. I jumped back in the studio and played on albums by ravis ritt, Faith Hill, im McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, and Brooks & Dunn. Since then, I’ve stayed very busy in Nashville, mostly in country music. Country music went through a serious evolution in the ’90s, utilizing more 16th-based syncopated rhythms along with heavy synth and guitar. What do you think of those changes, and how does it affect what you play?
o me, it was a happy, natural evolution. Te demographic
K R I S T E N T A Y L O R
has changed in country music, from the listeners, the singers, the produc-ers, and the record labels. All these younger fans grew up on pop music in the ’80s and ’90s, not Waylon and Willie, so it makes sense that country music would respond to that. As a bass-ist, I �nd that contemporary country is more fun to play, and it draws on more elements from my own youth, like rock, pop, and funk.
How do you come up with your bass lines for a studio session?
Tere are two steps I go through in every session. First, I listen to the demo and write a bass part in my head. Te moment the studio session starts, though, everything changes because of what the drummer, guitar-ists, and other instruments do. So, my second step is to adapt what I heard in my head to the other ideas being presented by each individual in the room. Tat’s one of the hardest parts about session playing; you can have your own ideas (and love them), but it’s a collaborative process, and you have to adapt to the ideas everyone else brings to the song.
What gear do you think is essen-tial for a studio bass player?
First and foremost, you need a Fender 4-string. I use a Sadowsky 5-string sometimes, but mostly I prefer to tune down a 4 if I need
something below a lowE. You also
need a good DI, a compressor, and maybe an EQ.
Some people say it’s best to just send a dry signal and let t he engineer alter the sound, but you don’t hold that view.
No, not really. Most of the time, especially in demo work, the engi-neer is not going to take time to dial in the bass tone you want, so you need to do it yourself and send it to them, but not in a way that will draw unnecessary attention or be distract-ing. I bring my own gear to the studio so that I can control what is going to
the board. Keep in mind, most of the time the engineer and producer are focused on the artist, the vocals, and maybe the main instrument. Te bass is often not anywhere near the fore-front of their mind, and you have to accept that.
What do you think makes a bass player desirable to a producer, and what advice would you give someone looking to break into the studio scene?
Keep your setup simple. Make sure your gear is bulletproof: no humming, no buzzing, nothing rat-tling around. It doesn’t matter what your rig is—it can be a rack full of fancy gear or it can be a bass and a cable—but it needs to work well. Be friendly and accessible. Let everyone know you’re open to input. Some-times I come up with what I think is a killer bass part, but the producer will want to keep things simple. I’ve had many a cool bass line tossed out later in the mixing process. When that happens, don’t take it person-ally. It’s their song, so you should play what they want. Don’t blow up if they don’t dig your idea. ry to figure out what the artist and pro-ducer want, and play to that. In the end, serve the song.
With so many albums under your belt, it might be easy to settle in and get a bit complacent. How do you keep things fresh?
Te best advice I can give someone who wants to stay fresh is to get in a deep pool. here are so many great players in Nashville. Victor Wooten lives here; Edgar Meyer lives here; ommy Sims lives here. Being around so many great players encourages me to stay focused on pushing myself. One of the ways I’m doing that right now is by learning to play the upright. Tat’s a new challenge for me. I want to be studying until I’m dead, always on the path toward growth; the joy
for me is in the journey. BP
Basses 1959 Fender Precision, Sadowsky PJ5, Bluesman Vintage ’62 Deville
Rig (studio) API 312 preamp/550A EQ, Tube Tech CL 1 B compressor, Pultech EQP 1A EQ
Effects Origin Effects Cali76 compressor, Boss GE-7 EQ (modded by AnalogMan), Visual Sound Volume Pedal, Fulltone Bass-Drive Mosfet overdrive, EBS OctaBass octaver, Ampeg SCR-DI preamp/DI
Strings D’Addario Nickels .045–.125
Blake Shelton,Red River Blue [2011, Warner Bros. Nashville]; Emerson Hart, Cigarettes and Gasoline [2007, Manhattan]; Travis Tritt,T.R.O.U.B.L.E. [1992, Warner Bros. Nashville]; Giant,Last of the Runaways [1989, A&M]; Amy Grant,Lead Me On [1988, Myrrh/A&M]. E Q U I P L I S T E N
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L I N K F A C E T E C H P L A Y L E AWARWICK OCCUPIES AN UNUSUAL STRATUM IN THE
bass market. Te scope of its business is exponentially bigger and more diverse than any other high-end bass manufacturer, for one. Not only does Warwick manufacture insanely expensive instru-ments (including Framus guitars) in its German factory, it also has a broad line of inexpensive Chinese-made import basses and acces-sories, plus a surprisingly diverse range of amps and cabinets, and it also handles distribution in Europe for some of America’s big-gest music-gear brands. Warwick also hosts a top-shelf bass camp each autumn (see my story in December ’15 for more on that) and involves itself in charitable and ecological campaigns. Te com-pany exists in a sphere occupied by mass-production juggernauts
such as Fender and Gibson, but tries to maintain its carefully cul-tivated reputation for expensive, custom-designed instruments. It’s a difficult line to straddle, but having seen Warwick’s German production facility, I’ve learned �rst-hand how it works. By inte-grating the latest manufacturing technology, like CNC machines and a one-of-a-kind neck shaping and fret-laying machine (with a healthy dose of hand �nishing), Warwick basses seek to com-bine the consistency of high-tech production with the old-world craftsmanship that their high price connotes.
Our review instruments here ref lect two sides of the Warwick coin. he “$$” (double-buck, i.e., double humbucker) Corvette is a sleek and modern solidbody with burly active electronics, while
B Y J O N A T H A N H E R R E R A |
Warwick
Corvette $$ (Double Buck)
& Star Bass II
bassplayer.com/ h o l i d a y 2 0 1 5 39
SPECIFICATIONS
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S P E C S W A R W I C K Corvette $$ Street $3,700Pros Excellent playability; powerful and flexible tone; good construction Cons Chunky neck, giant frets, and flat radius not for everyone; control cavity could be fancier
Bottom Line A superbly made bass that’s great for anyone who wants to cut through a big mix. Surprising flexibility courtesy the pickup-switching.
Star Bass II Street $5,600
Pros Thick and tubby with just enough cut to poke through a dense mix
Cons That Warwick neck/fret thing again Bottom Line Easily as expensive as many vintage and contemporary alternatives, the Star Bass II still deserves a look if you’re after that semi-hollow thump.
Corvette $$
Construction Bolt-on Body Ash
Top Flame maple Fingerboard radius 26" Frets24 jumbo bronze
Pickups MEC MM-style humbuckers Controls Volume, blend, bass, treble; 3-position switch (series, single-coil, parallel) Weight 9.5 lbs Star Bass II Construction Set-in neck Body Maple Fingerboard radius 20" Frets 21 jumbo bronze PickupsMEC single-coils
Controls Volume, Tone for each pickup; 3-position pickup selector
Weight 10.5 lbs
Both Basses
Neck Four-piece wenge Fingerboard Wenge
Nut Brass Just-A-Nut III (variable height) Bridge Two-piece Warwick solid brass Scale length 34"
Tuners Gotoh-style with wood knobs
Made in Germany
Contact warwickbass.com
the Star Bass is a semi-hollowbody with huge Hagstrom-like single-coils and passive elec-tronics. Each was built in Germany, although like most Warwick models, close approxi-mations of each are available via Warwick’s Chinese Rock Bass line.
MORE THAN A COUPLE BUCKS
When you’ve played a lot of basses, you start to develop a working familiarity with each build-er’s concept. Warwicks have a few unifying qualities, regardless of the model, that strongly differentiate them from other brands, for better or worse. While many of these qualities can be altered through Warwick’s comprehensive cus-tom-options list, they represent what the vast majority of users will �nd on their instrument. Te chief differentiating characteristic of a War-wick, to me, is the neck. As our Corvette exempli-�ed, Warwick necks can be chunky, with a deep C-pro�le and minimal taper at the nut. Warwick also uses some of the biggest frets around and a nearly flat fingerboard radius; coupled with the chunky neck pro�le, this makes Warwicks feel like a handful to me. It’s subjective, but not much like other basses out there, so before you
buy a Warwick sight-unseen, be sure you’re down with this approach.
he Corvette was well made—as it should be, considering the price. It’s in the construc-tion and �t-and-�nish that Warwick’s extensive CNC experience comes into play. Tere’s noth-ing amiss in the body’s contour, the pickup and electronics routing, or the assembly; everything �ts together perfectly in a sort of stereotypically German way. Te only area that could use a little sprucing up, given the cost, is the control cavity. While I love the no-screwdriver-necessary cover, the wiring could be neater, and I’d prefer to see copper shielding foil, not conductive shielding paint as found in our tester.
Te Corvette balanced exceptionally well— my hand didn’t need to support the neck when I played on my lap. High-fret access was also very good, although I’m not a fan of the neck pro�le, big frets, and radius. Whether or not you dig the unusual body contour, there’s no denying it’s a thoughtful shape with regard to playability.
A p air of M M-sty le p ickups place d di rectl y next to each other is another unusual touch on the $$. As one might expect, the resulting tone is strong and authoritative, with a pronounced
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L I N K F A C E T E C H P L A Y L E Athickness and funky honk. It’s a superb all-around instrument for those who like a ton of fundamental in their tone and don’t �nd themselves seduced by high-frequency sizzle. Moving into the high register for little �lls revealed a sweet and mellow voice that never offended. Down low and palm-muted, the Star Bass oozed chocolaty gooeyness. Playability was also good for such a big-bodied bass, although I had the same quibbles with its super-chunky neck and frets. In the end, Warwick basses are generally an acquired taste. Tere are many who love the ir solid construction, electronics versatility, and big necks and frets. o others, the German-made models (espe-cially the fancy “Master-built” series) are too expen-sive, considering the mass production that goes into some aspects of their construction. Regardless, they are some of the most customizable and solidly b uilt instruments out there. My suggestion is to go try one (they are widely distributed in the U.S., so that shouldn’t be too hard) and discover which camp you’re in. If you have the money and you’re on the team, you’d be hard pressed to �nd other
instru-ments quite like them. BP
high-frequency bite and, in the bridge position, a reasonably StingRay-like scoopiness. Te two 3-position switches govern each pickup’s function, allow-ing selection between series- and parallel-wired humbuckallow-ing modes and a single-coil using the outside magnets. Tese switches, along with the potent EQ, made the bass more versatile than its dominating pickup scheme might suggest. For example, with the neck pickup soloed in single-coil mode and the treble rolled off, I coaxed a reasonably thumpy P-Bass tone out of the other-wise aggro Corvette.
A STAR IS BORN
When Warwick debuted the Star Bass, it was an obvious departure for the brand, whose fame is built on exotically shaped, decidedly modern-sounding solidbody basses. Even without the not-so-subtle name, the Star Bass’ primar y design in�uence is clear: the hallowed Guild Star�re bass, the single-coil secret weapon for many a session player looking for a thick-but-decisive tone with a pillowy air to the sound.
Our tester was gorgeous. Tere was a timeless sophistication to the black “high-polish” �nish and chrome hardware. Te bass also boasts dead-simple electronics , basically akin to a Gibson Les Paul guitar (volume/tone knob s for each pickup and a 3-position switch). One of the most celebrated aspects of the Star�re, its enor-mous Hagstrom single-coil, is duplicated on the S tar Bass II, which uses MEC-branded versions of the same design.
