Hey, how are you doing?
This is Scott from Scott's Bass Lessons here,
hope
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Today I'm going to talk about tonal options
on the bass.
It's something I
get emails, literally, hundreds and hundreds
of emails a month, asking me
about my tone settings on my amp and my bass
and that type of thing.
I want
to talk about how the power's kind of in your
hands, literally, the power
is in your hands.
And I learned this by, basically, I travelled
to New
York.
I was on it to get a lesson, I didn't travel
there because of this
lesson, but I was out there.
And I really wanted to study with a guy called
Skuli Sverrisson, I always pronounce his second
name wrong.
And he's been,
you know, one of the biggest influences on
me in my bass playing and
musicianship, you know, right across the board.
And, you know, in fact one
of his solos was the first bass solo I had
ever heard.
And it actually made
me want to play bass.
And even to this day that is the best bass
solo I
have ever heard.
If you want to check it out, it's Allan Holdsworth's,
the
album, and I think that the album is called
Hard Hat Area.
And it's track
three I think or four.
You can find it, you know.
It's on a ballad,
literally breathtaking, the solo.
The tone of his bass on that solo was just
ridiculous, in front of the
entire album.
In fact everything I heard this guy on, I
was just like, how
does he get that tone, how does he get that
tone?
And there I was, you
know, before I knew it, or after a few years,
I was stood outside his
house, knocking on his door, waiting for this
lesson.
So he opened the
door, you know, I went in.
And you know, the lesson commenced.
And right at
the end of the lesson, he was like, 'Oh, is
there anything else you want to
do?'
And I was like, I'd been staring at his bass
the entire lesson.
I was,
'That's the bass, the bass with that tone,
you know, that tone I've been
dreaming about'.
And I was like, 'Can I have a go on your bass?'
And he was
like, 'Yeah, sure.'
So I picked up this bass and I played it.
I was just
like, 'Oh no, it just sounds like me.'
It didn't sound anything like the
bass on the record, it just sounded like me.
And it was then that I
realized that it was to do with him, it was
to do with his hands, how he
was plucking the strings.
It was to do, you know, just his physiology.
It
was everything to do with him and nothing
to do with the bass really, I
just sounded like me on that bass.
It was nothing special at all.
Whereas
he sounded phenomenal.
So when people email me asking me about tones
on amps and basses and, you
know, what you're doing here and you know,
tone controls and stuff like
that.
My first point of call is always to say, 'You
know, you should really
be looking at how you're playing the bass.'
That's your first, the first
thing you should be looking at is how you're
playing the bass.
How you're
striking the strings with your right hand
has a huge effect on the tone of
the bass.
And it's almost more important than, the bass
and the amp and
stuff like that.
Like, in fact, my amp, I generally leave completely
flat.
Like, completely flat, except the bass control,
I sometimes boost it a tiny
bit.
But I'm talking, you know, if it's, if you
say flat's twelve o'clock,
like, pointing straight up in the air.
When I boost it I boost it to maybe
one o'clock, two o'clock maximum and that's
really all I do.
And this is a
passive bass even, so I've got no sort of
like, controls on here that do
anything to do with the EQ.
But the amp that I use is just like pretty
much
flat with a tiny bit of bass boost put on.
And that's it really.
And if you
played it through an amp that I'd set up,
it would sound like you.
It
wouldn't sound like me, it would sound like
you.
So a lot of people when they get frustrated
with their own tone, it
sometimes, the actual tone that's coming from
their hands and how they're
playing from the, they're playing the bass.
That's where the frustration
actually lies so that's what you have to work
on.
And as far as like,
basses are concerned.
As I said, this is like a passive bass.
And we'll go
through some of the tonal options on this
bass in a minute.
But I just want
to give you an exercise to check out.
Basically I want you to play a riff
or a groove and I want you to try and create
three different sounds with
your fingers, Okay?
So this is completely just all to do with
your right
hand, okay, your left hand, if you're left
handed.
So I'm just going to
turn everything wide open on the bass, everything's
wide open.
Now I'm just
going to play round a D7 to C7 to G7 kind
of chord sequence, so it'd be
something like [music].
That kind of thing.
So the bass line would be [music].
So first of all, try
and play that riff, or around these chords.
And try and imagine a really
round sound, you want it to sound round.
So you're not going to be wanting
to play down here at the bridge, you're going
to want to be playing around
here.
You could even play an over the neck.
What I'm trying to demonstrate
here is the extremes of the three, okay?
Like, obviously there's like,
loads of increments in between these three.
I'm just going to develop,
[laughs] can't speak.
I'm just going to show you the extremes, okay?
So I'm
thinking a really round sound here, so it
could be something like [music].
So that's just, I'm thinking round sound,
I'm playing it round here.
Now if
I wanted to have a brighter tone, maybe sort
of like a more of a bark to
it, I'd play it back here.
And I'd play more staccato.
[music] So that's
more of a [music] back there.
Now if I wanted, like a modern, maybe like
an
R&B type thing, I might dig in a bit more.
[music] Now can you hear how the
tone's different from this? [music] Then that
barkier tone.
[music] Now can
you hear the three extremes there?
One's [music] nice and round.
One's
[music] and then the other one's [music].
And then like that Marcus
[music], that Marcus Miller type of bark to
it.
What I'm saying is, really
explore the tone within your own hands before
you get frustrated with the
tone of your amp.
You know, you need to really get this stuff
down and
understand how you can, the tone is sort of
like in your, it's in your
power without even touching the amp or the
bass to change the tone of your
bass.
Saying that, my, on this bass specifically,
sometimes when I'm soloing, I
will turn the net pickup off.
You know, so if this was my normal bass sound
[music], if I was soloing I'd just roll the
neck pickup off and then a lot
of the times actually roll the tone control
off as well, just to make it
really sort of like [music].
That tone there.
Because I almost want it to
be even more, I just, I want to take the top
end off it.
[music] But I've
only done that because I feel like I can't
get there with my hands.
So I
really urge you to see what you can do with
your hands first and once
you've run out of options and you think, 'Well,
no, this isn't working.'
Then try maybe tweaking the amp a little bit
or tweaking the bass.
If
you've got an active bass, obviously you have
more options.
But, you know, check out what you can do with
just your hands.
Now I'm
going to give a demonstration of those three
tonal qualities along with a
backing track that I've put together.
Now, if you want to download this
backing track, which I think you should do.
You should, you know, do
exactly the same as I am here.
Try and sort of like, bring the tonal
qualities out in your own hands, just hit
the link below this video.
If
you're on YouTube, hit the link below the
video.
If you're on my website,
it's right below this video.
So just, you know, check it out down there.
It
will say something like, 'Download the backing
track' or something like
that.
So let's take a listen to this with the backing
track.
So first of all, let's listen to that round,
mellow tone.
[music] Maybe
think P bass [sounds like 11:24] . [music]
Maybe more bite.
[music] Now
maybe more of that raspy sound.
[music]
So hopefully there you'll be able to hear
exactly how I'm putting this into
action.
Just completely flat on everything and trying
to, you know, get the
sounds out of my own hands.
When you're trying to create a mellow sound,
play around the neck.
You know, how you strike the string as well,
maybe
[music].
I almost try and tease the note out of it.
[music] Obviously if
you want more bite, play back there.
[music] And then with the more raspy
sound, I'm almost pushing down.
I'll show you there, I'm like pushing down.
[music] All right, see, pushing into it.
And it's getting that bounce off
the [music].
Getting sort of like a striking motion off
the string.
So hopefully you've enjoyed this lesson.
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Tell all of your bass player friends about
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Other than that, take it easy, I'll see you
soon.
Get in the shed.
