BASSES & OTHER GEAR
Okay... If you insist, here it is:
Welcome to a short tour of my basses and recording gear.
As we all know, simply owning a bass does not make you a bass player.
Now I know what you're thinking: "yeah, obviously you don't have to OWN a bass, you just have to be the worst guitar player in the band!"
Right....
Jokes aside though, If you really know what you're doing, you can make any instrument work for you. I debated even making this page but I'm sure you would probably like to know what I'm working with (besides over a decade of professional experience).
This page is only really here to satisfy the gear nuts of the world. If you are really interested in working with me, I urge you to listen to a few different samples of my work found on the Home Page.
Why do you care what gear I use?
Get your first song done for free TODAY! ----> Free Song Link
BASSES
Made in Japan Mystery P-Bass:
This P-Bass has mysterious origins. It was a gift to me from a friend who rescued it from going to the dump. It needed a lot of work but it was totally worth it! This mid 80's instrument is loaded with the much sought after Leo Quan BadAss Bass II high mass bridge. This bass has a huge range from super gnarly aggressive punk sounds to a muted Motown sound by just throwing some flat wound strings on it and/or tucking a bit of foam under the strings near the bridge. This is my go-to instrument for most sessions in the world of rock/pop/funk/RnB/punk/ska/soul.
The Pallet Bass
I actually hand built this bass from scratch out of old pallet wood. It is heavier than any other bass I've ever held and has a really thick tone. The Gibson/Epiphone style pickup gives it a really nice vintage sound. It can be really good for blending into RnB or with brighter strings it actually picks and slaps surprisingly well too!
Custom Frettless Peavey Millenium Series 5
This was the first bass I bought with my own money (in high school) and the second bass I ever owned. I used this instrument for about 4 years before I upgraded to the Dean (below). This bass sat in storage for a long time before I realized I should really just rip the fretts out and give it a new life. So I did just that. I pryed all them all out, filled the slots with wood fill and epoxy and, voi-la! a whole new instrument! This was originally a pretty mediocre instrument but it has an amazing tone now. Every time I use this bass in a live show, at least one person approaches me afterwards to ask about it. This is my go-to instrument for world music, jazz, fusion, and some folk, soul, and funk.
The Dean Edge 5
This was my main bass for a really long time. A good all-round instrument for a modern sound. The active pickups and EQ make this bass extremely versitile. I have played this bass for rock, pop, metal, jazz, reggae, funk, fusion, folk... you name it! I have plans to upgrade to a high-mass bridge on this instrument in the near future.
Stentor Fully Carved Upright Bass
This bass has a really lovely sound. I use this bass all the time for anything with an acoustic vibe. Of course, an electric bass is sometimes totally fine in an "acoustic" setting, but the upright bass cannot be beat for that rich organic warmth. This instrument has quite a range of recorded tones depending on mic choice, mic placement, and blending with the pickup. I like to use a ribbon mic between the bridge and the f-hole for the classic thumpy pulsing sound of old jazz recordings, a condensor about 2 feet from the shoulder of the bass for the natural string sounds, and the Shadow II pickup for a more sustained "mwaaa" sound. In practice I usually blend two or three of these techniques to taste.
RECORDING GEAR
Here is a basic rundown of my signal flow, or as I like to call it: Tone Path
1. Fingers. One day these will be vintage too..
2. Strings. I usually use Ernie Ball super slinky round wound strings but I switch it up sometimes when I need a specific sound. I also really like putting a little foam under the bridge to make the pbass thump a little harder.
3. Pickups. Not too much to say here. My basses all have stock pickups to the best of my knowledge but when it coems to my Japanese mystery bass we are really just guessing!
4. Preamp. I almost always run everything through my ART Prochannel II (with upgrade Russian tube for more clean headroom). This channel strip has a medium high voltage tube stage, a valve compressor and four band parametric EQ. The EQ allows for very precise or general tone shaping and the compressor helps to make everything down the chain respond more uniformly.
(Here we split)
One of the cool features of the Pro Channel is that it lets you use the balanced and unbalanced outputs simultaneously. I send the balanced output straight into the converters of my Presonus firestudio interface while the unbalanced signal continues on to pedals amps and microphones. This clean direct signal is captured as a foundation but also as a backup. Sometimes a client will say they like what I played but ask for a tone tweak (more or less distortion, chorus, etc.). While some of this can be done "in the box" it is often nicer to re-amp the original clean signal through the desired effects and blend it back in.
5. Pedals. I don't always use pedals but they can be a really nice touch when creating a unique tone. Once I have found a tone I like, I will unplug all the pedals that are not being used to help preserve the integrity of the signal. Some of my favorites include: 1980s OC2 octave pedal, East River Drive by EHX, and FUXX FUZZ.
6. Amp. My go to amp is an old beat up 60 watt Roland Cube amp. It has a great sounding speaker and very musical tone controls. If I want a more guitar-ish sound (less low frequency information, more distortion) I will play through an old 1960's no-name guitar amp. I don't know the origins of this amp but it has a great greenback speaker in it and very nice breakup. I't perfect for bluesy guitar stuff and handles a distortion pedal very nicely. Any time I am using this sound I tend to blend it with the direct signal to fill out the bottom end.
7. Mics. I have a bunch of mics to choose from when micing up any of the amps mentioned above.
SM57 and SM58 - You know these ones.
SM48 - Very similar to the SM58 but less presence in the upper mids.
MXL 55A Kicker - This is a bass drum mic that sounds good on the bass cabinet. Fairly flat response.
Apex 210 Ribbon - This is a pretty dark ribbon mic. Works really well paired with the 57.
MXL R144 (pair) - These are a brighter ribbon mic. Excellent for recording the stereo chorus of the Epiphone guitar amp. Also really nice for more distant room/ambient mics if desired.
AT4040 - This is a large diaphragm condensor mic. It's really nice for ambience or just a really natural amp sound.
Random cheap dynamic mics (Unidyne, Pyle, announcer booth mic, bull-horn) I only really use these if someone wants a very lo-fi garage sound. For this purpose, they are great!