Re: RANT WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What's Up With This Bass PlayerThing!!!!!Re: New Bass Guitar

Rich Koerner <richk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The musical legacy left us by the likes of a Jamerson, McCartney, Jaco,
Laird, Bruce, Brown, Mingus, etc... who did not have the so called
creative musical advantages of that http://timeelect.com/things/garry2.jpg
instrument, gave the music so much.

Great heavens. Django Reinhardt lost the use of two fingers on his
fretting hand and came from a gypsy family - he did not have the
creative musical advantages of those of us from middle class homes with
all our digits - and yet he played so much more creatively than most and
left a rich musical legacy. Should all therefore thrust our fingers in
the fire?

There's a clip going round of a one armed bass player, shredding all
over the bass and doing amazing things - should the rest of us chop a
limb or two off?

Yet, in comparison, equal musical prominence and musical legacy has not
been achieved by the players of this new
http://timeelect.com/things/garry2.jpg instrument, in all the years it has
been with us, in spite of it's so called creative musical advantages it
now gives the player.

So, you are taking 7 of the most astonishing players from over 60 years
of playing history and comparing their legacy to that of one guy and an
instrument that was only built last year. Incredible!

To be fair Garry Goodman did have a 7 string built in 1978 - so you
*could* stack a 30 year legacy up against 60 years of the greatest bass
players in the world. Which still strikes me as somewhat unfair.

You have, I presume, looked up Garry's resume - he's no slug ...
http://garrygoodman.com/Resume.htm

Anyway.

Every time this "Four strings were good enough for XXXXX" crap comes up
people neglect the simple question - if > 4 string basses had been
readily available would these people have played them.

Let's explore this premise using your list.

Here's a timeline:
1961 - Fender bass VI - many people discount this instrument even though
it is clearly a 6 string 'bass guitar' - this is due I suspect to people
listening with their eyes - it looks like a guitar so it can't be a
bass.
1975 - Anthony Jackson contrabass guitar - most people consider this the
first six string bass.
1976 - Jimmy Johnson - 5 string bass guitar.
Early 1980's 5 and 6 string basses started becoming available as
'standard' offerings from various manufacturers - they didn't really
become common until the early 1990's.
1987 - first 7 string bass (incidentally this was played by Garry
Goodman) - 7+ string basses are still custom items from boutique
luthiers.

Let's explore the list.

Mingus' entire career pretty much fits before 1975. Extended range
upright basses were available, but the low C extension is an expensive
addition. I don't know whether Mingus owned or played one.

Brown - upright player - caused a stir in 1960 when he had a hybrid
instrument built that combined featues of the bass and the cello - this
experiment inspired Ron Carter to have a piccolo designed for him.

McCartney, owns and performs live with a 5 string Wal bass.

Jaco Pastorius - owned an early 5 string bass - he died in 1987, before
5 and 6 string basses became easy to obtain. Jaco clearly felt
restricted by the range of the four string bass and went to
extraordinary lengths to overcome this with false harmonic techniques.
Had 7+ string basses been available or common during his early career
(or even lifetime) I suspect he'd have been drawn to them.

Jamerson - died in 1983. He owned a Fender bass V...

Laird, finished his career inthe early 1980's - he did own a Carl
Thompson bass - but I can't tell if it was a 5 or 6 string.

Bruce. He played much of that early cream music on a Fender bass VI,
he uses 4 and 5 string basses.

With the possible exception of Mingus *none* of the players in your list
restricted themselves to four strings.

--- Derek


--
Derek Tearne - derek@xxxxxxxxx
Many Hands - Trans Cultural Music from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http://www.manyhands.co.nz/

.

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