Basses

I have 6 main basses that give me a very broad range of sounds – enough to cover almost every gig or session.

I’ve split them up by make:

I have two Musicman Stringrays, one four-string and one five-string.

Ball Family Reserve 4-String Stingray

While down in Brighton shooting some video clips for Musicman, I was given seven different basses to play.

There were two that really stood out to me – instruments that I really connected with, a 20th Anniversary model and a Redwood BFR Stingray. I haad to have this bass. It looks beautiful, sounds awesome and it a dream to play.

After taking on some deps for the Thriller Live show in London, I needed a five string. One quick chat with the boys at Musicman UK and a choice had been made. A five string Stingray with a Maple neck, with a Pacfic Blue Burst finish. Sweet.

Fender 4-string Jazz (Marcus Miller Signature Model)

I also use a Marcus Miller model Fender Jazz 4 string. It sounds great on just about everything and has a particularly great tone for rock stuff. After years of playing my Sei six strings on most gigs, in recent years I have been rediscovering the joys of thrashing into a four string. My Marcus Jazz travels with me on most rock and pop gigs – there are quite a few situations where a headless six string just isn’t the right look for the band. Although I miss the access to low B string notes, my EBS Octabass is always on my pedal board, and the Marcus gives a very healthy amount of low end to really drive the Octabass well, giving me great tracking and a huge sound on those low notes.

One of the dangers of this signature model is that it can sound so much like Marcus! You have to be careful. I’m very heavily influenced by Marcus, but try very hard not to steal too many of his licks and play them with his sound.  To get an idea of just how great this bass sounds through my EBS rig, check out this clip from my Youtube channel:

1962 reissue Fender Precision

(Dec 2007)…. in NYC I purchased a 1962 reissue Fender Precision. It’s strung with Flatwounds and gets used on anything where I need some old skool thud in the low end. Sarah Grace’s album had quite a few tunes where the Jazz sounded a bit too lively – too bright and metallic in parts. P-Bass time…. It’s a strange quality that these basses have. They sound dreadful when you play them soloed but drop them into a track and they mix themselves. They seem to just blend in perfectly, with a minimum of EQ and a little compression they just sound big, warm and round. Yummy….

More Pics will be up soon…

Here’s my first shot of the P Bass. Lovely instrument.

I have 2 beautiful hand made Sei Bass 6-Strings. One is fretted, one fretless and both are awesome.

These basses are made by world-renownedbass builder Martin Petersen at The Bass Gallery in Camden Town, London.

Here’s a pic of Martin and I in the Gallery a few years back (when I had no hair…!)

I used my Sei Six strings on all of my touring work with Carl Palmer, and they went all over the world with us on our travels. I also use the sixes for most jazz gigs or anything where I’d be required to solo or play chordal parts.

I’ve found myself doing a lot of work on the four string recently, but playing these sixes is like coming home. When I get a few days back into them again, things just flow. I know that I won’t use them on everything I do, but I can’t see myself ever getting rid of them….

Although they both look very similar, they have very distinct sounds and ‘personalities.’ Aside from the fretted / fretless thing, they respond quite differently and their electronics and EQ’s are set up for diferent things…

Yamaha Silent bass (with Rick Turner Pickup)

Recently I’ve started using a Yamaha Silent bass for upright gigs. In the studio I still go for an acoustic upright every time but for a more convenient / less risky option, the Silent bass does an awesome job. It’s a plain fact that there’s nothing better than the real thing – the feeling of the upright’s body next to you and the sound and feel of a big low note blossoming out of it is…. well it’s just not gonna happen on an electric instrument. Bearing that in mind though, the Silent bass 2 does an admirable job – particularly with the Rick Turner Pickup added on. Either pickup by itself lacks a little something, but blending the two together gives a great result. Large, deep bottom end and enough honk in the mids to catch the articulation in your playing.