George Merril’s (yep the lead singer!) super 80’s pop style bassline. There are some great variations throughout this line and lots of following the vocal phrasing, which I like a lot 🙂
Gear used:
Fender 50s Precision Bass
D’addario NYXL Strings
Dunlop 2mm Delrin pick (the purple one)
Diamond BCP-1 Bass Comp
Tech 21 VTBASS DI
M Box 3
Logic Pro X:
Studio FET compressor
Channel EQ
For the solo:
Same Bass
Logic PedalBoard:
Wham
Rawk
Blue echo
Spring Box
iMovie 10.1.8
Nick Campbell’s killer Disco/Funk/Pop bass line on Pomplamoose’s cover of La Roux’s Bulletproof. Some great syncopated disco lines here and a few tasty fills!
Gear used:
Fender 50s Precision Bass
D’addario NYXL strings
Diamond BCP-1 Bass Comp
Tech 21 VTBASS DI
M Box Pro 3
Logic X:
High end DI emulator
Studio FET compressor
Channel EQ
iMovie 10.1.8
Bobby Watson’s in the pocket bass line from the 1983 ‘Stompin at the Savoy’ live album with Rufus + Chaka Khan. Nothing flashy here, just tight pockets and slick syncopation. Enjoy!
Gear used
Fender 50s Precision Bass
D’addario NYXL strings
Diamond BCP-1 Bass Comp
Markbass Compressore (Original)
Tech 21 VTBASS DI
M Box Pro 3
Logic X: Platinum Digital Compressor
iMovie 10.1.8
In honour of the great man’s 61st birthday (and me putting new strings on me fretless) here’s a quick cover of his great bass line from Paul Young’s ‘Wherever I Lay my Hat’. I’ve had this transcription lying around for ages and thought this was the perfect occasion to bust it out.
Gear Used: Home constructed fretless (custom p style neck, squire jazz body, omega bridge, seymour duncan ‘steve bailey’ basslines pickups)
D’addario NYXL Strings
M Box 3
Pro Logic X: Classic Bass Amp, Heavenly Chorus, Spring Box Delay/Verb, Vintage FET Compressor, Noise Gate
imovie 10.1.8
I had to learn this for a wedding so thought i’d knock up a quick transcription/video to help out any other wedding band players. A surprisingly nice bass line is hidden in this track played by Mike Brignardello. Enjoy friends.
Click here to download the transcription
Gear used
Custom built 5 string with Aguilar DCB pickups + OBP-3 preamp
D’addario Chromes
Markbass Compressore (original)
Diamond BCP-1 Bass comp
Tech21 VTBASS DI
MBox 3 Pro
Logic X
iMovie 10.1.8
I’ve been trying to get my plectrum playing together so here’s a quick cover of T- Bone Wolk’s super tight bassline on Maneater.
There’s some extra “special effects” too. Enjoy!
I’ve been trying to get my plectrum playing together recently so I’ve been learning some basslines by great plectrum players. Here’s one from the great Tom ‘T-Bone’ Wolk
Click here to download the transcription (PDF)
Just a quick transcription to get the ball rolling again.
Nick Campbell’s Bass line + solo on Scary Pockets’ version of Just The Way You Are. I heard this the other day and loved the groove and solo so decided to knock a quick transcription/video. Check out the solo, Nick pops off a few Joe Dart quotes in reference to Joe’s Vulfpeck bandmate Theo Katzman on vocals. See if you can spot them all.
A student asked me to have a look at this song for a lesson so I thought I’d do a full transcription. This is one of the tunes that seems simple enough until you scratch the surface. It’s full of semiquaver pickups and fills that are locked in with the drums. There’s an isolated bass track in YouTube land that I definitely recommend searching out.
The track is recorded with guitars tuned down a semi tone so the score is written as played on a down tuned bass i.e. A written B would sound as B. To summarise, tune your bass down a semi tone and read the score as normal.
This was recorded on my 2001 Fender Jazz Bass with Aguilar 60s pickups and Badass III bridge using a Dunlop tortex .88m plectrum (the green one). The neck pickup was on full and the bridge was on around half. The tone was on full. I used my Markbass Compressore with the gain and threshold set for my Jazz Bass. Other settings were as usual. I added a light, trebly drive with my EHX Bass Soul Food and DI’d out of myTech21 VTBASSDI with a mid/treble boost and a bit of drive. I scooped the mids slightly in Logic and added some compression.
Thanks for reading. If you like the song, make your own video and tag me on social media, @jproudbass on twitter and instagram.
Till next week.
Yes another Sting tune! I love the guy, what can I say? I picked this song as a reason to bust out my Electric Upright Bass (EUB). I’ve recently restrung it with nylon-wounds to make it a bit easier on the fingers. (I’m still learning how to play it).
As far as the song goes, it’s a relatively simple jaunt through 3 chords for most of it. The melody, subject matter, and arrangment make this tune so great. The soprano sax is lovely and I can’t imagine the song without it, same goes for the piano. Both improvised parts if I recall correctly.
The bass on this one is classic Sting. Relatively simple with improvised fills and licks to enhance the melody/arrangement. The walking bass line in the solo section is definitely the work of a man who has studied his jazz. Check out those chormatic approach notes!
I recorded this on my Palatino EUB with Presto nylon-wound strings. I used my Markbass Compressore with my usual settings, the volume level is similar to an electric bass. I DI’d out of my Tech 21 VTBASSDI with the drive dialed back and a slight mid and treb boost. I added a little compression and reverb in Logic to give the feel of an acoustically recorded double bass.
Thanks for reading. If you like the song, make your own video and tag me on social media, @jproudbass on twitter and instagram.
Till next week.
Jonathan Proud 