Bass FX

When I find myself talking about getting a great tone. I always think about pickups. You want to pay attention to those little magnets. They are the microphones of your instrument and will be considered important for the overall TONE coming out in the band. You want pickups to sound clean and rich. Currently, I use a set of Bartolini 8s on my Precision Bass and I’m really satisfied. If you’re here because your curious about the pickups, write me a comment here and I will post a sample of them. They are used and have been used by many many profesionnals. You can view a list of musicians using bartolini pickups  here.

Bartolini pickups are professional pickups and helps to get your instrument a professionnal tone. They have been one of the biggest brands for pickups since the early sixties!

Stanley Clarke, one of the most innovative electric bass players of the past three decades — an artist and a creator in the truest sense of the words — examines the emotional sweep of war in The Toys of Men, his new album set for worldwide release on Heads Up International / Roxboro Entertainment Group on October 16, 2007.

The last question of the interview (@ 03:25) he tells us about the gear he uses for playing music. He uses Alembic basses, SWR Cabinets, Crest amplifiers, TC Electronic reverb stomp box. That’s pretty neat.

I wonder why I always come back to this video.  We got good vibrations coming out of Wooten’s Fodera bass.

Bootsy Collins, one of the Funkadelic characters has sublime bass talents and bring’s funk to another level. He also was one of James Brown’s bassist.

In this short video, observe how the man uses the tempo to insert his lick.

If you’re new @ bass. I highly recommend you learn some licks from Sly and the Family Stone and Larry Graham - the guy that started thumpin’ and pluckin’  electric bass (it was actually invented during the twenties on double bass instruments). This man  is well known for being one of the biggest founder of funk during the 70s. Enjoy the video and observe his ability to keep the groove playing while holding the same note  (forever). Wooten says you can achieve this type of  grooving using the thumb (slap style) - when you hit once with your thumb, keep going down lower than the string you’ve just hit (for delay) then come back up and hit the string again.

Check out his vintage effects he uses with his Moon Bass (great Japanese basses) and Acoustic amplifier a brand sadly doesn’t exist anymore.