The Bass Geek

It’d be easy to accuse Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings of finding a comfortable niche in nostalgia, except that their music goes beyond its historic soul roots.  The performance Jones and her band puts on transcends a frozen place in history because of the sheer power and energy they put forth.  They owned the stage from the time they first set on it, through the three-song band intro and the set drawn from their new album “100 Days, 100 Nights” and their previous two efforts, right up until they closed the show with a three-song encore/tribute to James Brown that may have featured his songs but put their talent in the spotlight.  Jones was a tornado with perfect voice and timing – she’s learned how to carry a show in her 51 years, although her performance would have been exhausting for a performer half her age.  And the band (led by bassist Bosco Mann, always a good thing) managed the tight-enough-to-be-relaxed performance expertly.  This may be the first time Jones and the Dap-Kings visited the city, but they’re guaranteed a warm welcome from now on.

I’m trying to pack in some posts before the Thanksgiving holiday comes upon us and I enter into the traditional yearly coma. Tonic Ball went quite well last night, with highlights including:

• The sly wordplay of Stacia Demos in “La Isla Bonita”
• The always-solid playing of the Benders
• Susan and the Desperate Seekers’ harmonies on “Rain” and “True Love”
• Spot-on Clash covers by Jeff Byrd and the Wingmen (“Train in Vain”) and The Common (“London Calling”)

The crowd seemed much more attracted to the Clash side of things – there were plenty of folks in both venues, but there always seemed to be a line in front of Radio Radio.

Speaking of Radio Radio, proprietor Tufty is looking to open a new all-ages venue just a few blocks from his current venue. Contact him for more info or if you’re interested in helping. Tack on the re-opening of Sam’s Saloon at the corner of Prospect and State, and you’ve got quite a few options for venues that regularly host music. Cognizant Coffee Company is also hosting a new open mic night every second Friday of the month. Not that I’ll be skipping out on the other Indy venues, but it’s fantastic to have so much available within a short walking distance.

While I was unable to make the Illinois-based Meshell Ndegeocello and Dethklok shows earlier this week, I’m being promised a huge cornucopia of music in this weekend of festivity and thanks. Tonic Ball take over Fountain Square this very evening, with a bunch of local folks re-purposing songs from Madonna and the Clash for their own beneficial whims. I’m also considering a road trip tomorrow evening for the Stefon Harris show – Purdue did a great thing in getting him to come to Indiana, although it’s too bad he couldn’t be convinced to make an Indianapolis stop. Admittedly, it’d be hard to get a nine-piece ensemble on the Jazz Kitchen stage. Then, Sunday evening brings Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings to town (see previous blog post re: my feelings on that matter). Busy weekend – the dog is going to miss us, I think.

I’m not alone, it seems.  Even if it’s another bassist, it’s good to know that the call for more bass players is being heard. Quasi’s Joanna Bolme says in the Willamette Week article:

…so, in a way, I’m on a mission to remind people that bass guitars are very important in music, and they actually do serve a purpose. When people are like, ‘Wow, it’s just so much heavier.’ It’s like, ‘Well, duh.’ [laughs] Stop playing music without bass guitar. Get a bass guitarist.

Upright bass and, in some extreme cases, tuba will also be accepted. Let it be heard far and wide.

There’s a new podcast up at Indianapolismusic.net, and this week’s episode turned out pretty well. The fact that we were able to include something from Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, was especially cool, and I’m eagerly anticipating the show at the Vogue on Sunday. Not only is this group purveying some of the greatest soul music to come around in a long time, but the band has recently shown up in Tape Op and Bass Player magazines. I can’t say I’m always a fine of the “analog only” spirit and attitude, if only because it tends to calcify some old attitudes and prevent any growth or progression. But it’s damn hard to argue with the results in this case. I’m sure it’s because they have great musicians in the band, but having a bassist at the helm of both the live act and the recording certainly can’t help but reinforce the groove.

To pick up from yesterday, a starting bass guitarist is going to need a good quality starter bass and a small amplifier. But then you’re looking at VH1 Classic or something of the like, and you see an old episode of “MTV Unplugged” that shows you another possibility. It’s an acoustic guitar, but it’s got bass strings on it. The acoustic bass guitar! Why not get something like that, huh?

For a couple reasons, actually. First, if you’ll notice, there’s a cord coming out of it. Sure, there are cords coming out of just about every instrument there, but the cord is absolutely, positively necessary for the bass guitar. Acoustic guitars can make plenty of noise all by themselves, because you don’t need to move a lot of air to make high frequencies in a loud fashion. It’s not enough to overpower an amp, but it’s still loud enough. Especially if you’re trapped listening to someone to someone try to learn the riff from “Redemption Song,” and it’s obvious they’re at the beginning of their journey. There’s a reason the upright bass is as big as it is – it needs that much air. If the bass guitar isn’t that large, you’re not going to be as loud. The next closest thing is the guitarron (that huge bass-like instrument you’ll see in mariachi bands), but it even uses special strings to make some noise. An acoustic bass guitar doesn’t stand a chance against the onslaught of even a modest-sized band without an amp. If you try to play loud enough to be heard above the din, you stand a chance of injuring your hands. The amp is a better solution.

And what do you have then? An amplified acoustic bass guitar. You still need the amp, so you’ve got to make sure the tone sounds good. And on the budget models, I just haven’t heard a good quality of tone. Stanley Clarke expressed a similar opinion in this World Cafe interview, saying that a lot of these instruments don’t sound great, and you have to adjust your playing style dramatically to make it work. I’ve heard some wonderful acoustic instruments, like Rob Allen’s instruments and the fine bass guitars at Azola. They sound great amplified and acoustic, but they’re hardly starter instruments.

If you’re looking for something to practice with or get a certain tone, these instruments will be fine. It’s my opinion, though, that these instruments were primarily made to bank on a series and not a sound. For every player like Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes (who gets an amazing tone and, by the way, uses a full Hartke rig to get part of it), you have a bunch of other instruments that are acoustic in name only. They still require an amp to get anywhere near a usable sound. They can be fine for certain circumstances. But if you’re just starting out, get your fingers around something a little more practical and work your way up from there.

I mentioned that I was going to start going over some stuff from my bass book now that I’ve got a copy back in my hands, and a good place to start is actually getting that first bass.

There’s a reason most folks start learning to play on crappy instruments. You’re just starting this journey, you’re not entirely sure you’re going to keep going, and you don’t want to waste a lot of money in the process. Totally understandable. That’s the reasons there’s such a big market for rental band and orchestra instruments – parents balk at paying the hundreds of dollars required for a good instrument, knowing that their child will probably not become the next John Coltrane and put that saxophone to use outside of their mandatory music class (if they’re lucky enough to have one in this day and age of school arts and music cuts). So the instrument goes back, the family is out only a little bit of money, and everybody’s happy.

I don’t remember my first bass being a total piece of crap, but I’m sure that looking back on it now I probably would. It was a sunburst P-Bass copy I bought from some random resident of Marion, IN who had taken out an ad in The Trader. The price was $100. I don’t think I overpaid, but I didn’t get a deal either. I eventually traded it for a J.B. Player P-Bass copy (thanks to some not-so-gentle prodding from a bass teacher who also owned the instrument and the store selling it), and then that went to purchase my first “real” bass, a Fender JP-90. Those three instruments taught me a few things to look for in beginner instruments:

• A slightly rounded fretboard – the first bass I owned was completely flat, and as a result it was difficult to play. Fingerboards should have a slight curvature, or radius, so look for it. This is really only a concern for low-end instruments – it’s a given at everything but the bargain basement level.
• Well-maintained instrument – if you’re buying a used instrument, make sure it’s clean and cared for before you purchase it. The neck should be straight, the electronics should be clean and sound clear, and it should be free of major cracks or holes. These things will only become major problems later and keep you from learning as quickly as you could.
• Body-mounted output jack – The part of the guitar that you plug in should be located on the body, or at least in a metal pickguard. On the JP-90, the jack was located on a one-ply plastic pickguard, and I was constantly bugging the student radio engineer to solder it back into place after I broke it yet again. Guitar cords will strain these jacks, and they’re a pain to repair repeatedly.
• Get an amp – yes, you can’t play the instrument by itself and expect to get any decent results. If you’re worried about expending a lot of money, get a headphone amp or small practice amp. Beginners shouldn’t be trusted with full amp stacks, anyway.

If I were starting out a new player today, I’d encourage them to get a Made-In-Mexico Fender Precision or Jazz bass with a small (30-50 watt) practice amp. It’s enough power to get heard without disturbing surrounding life. That’s only about $400, and it should retain a decent amount of resale value in case you want to pass it on and get something else.

Why you’d want to is beyond me, but that’s a different matter.

A friend sent me this link to the blog of Robbie Fulks, renowned singer/songwriter/wit-about-the-nation. Specifically, he referenced to me this passage:

I should explain that bass players are an odd species. You might guess that with about twenty-eight notes to play in a three-minute song, and without the ego-nourishing plaudits lavished on soloists, the bass player personality might be typified by a Gary Cooperesque easygoing humility and can-do stoicism, but not so. Bassists are the screwiest of all musicians, excepting only female singers, if you can call them musicians. Drummers are the subjects of all the stock jokes, but if there’s one person in your band who has a hair-trigger chemical imbalance, holds strange and unalterable opinions, pores over obnoxious magazines whose titles incorporate the name of his instrument, and demands constant catering to, it’s almost always the bassist. He will wear you out by talking long into the night about speaker cabinet dimensions, string gauges and alloys, and coming advances in direct-box electronics, and if you excuse yourself to go to sleep, he will start in eight hours later at the point in the sentence where he left off.

I was dodging Fulks’ descriptive bullets like the Matrix until he got to the part about the magazines. It’s about then that I had to take my 16 years of “Bass Player” back issues and head out the door. I’d try and differ with him about the other points, but I’ve got no idea who he’s played with, and I believe there’s more than enough weird musicians in general to back up an opinion like this about any instrument. So take it for what you will.

Luckily, this weekend’s victories of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the DePauw Tigers have filled me with victorious spirits, and the whole shebang was pushed over the edge by a much-delayed viewing of “300.” I think I tried to lead my pug to eternal glory over the backyard at some point, but I might be mistaken. The replacement copies of my bass book also came in, so I’m going to dedicate a few blog posts in the coming days to instrument actually named in my blog.