Jazz player here. This has been the focus of my practice for about a year now. Here's some of my setup, and "rules" I've come up with for playing chordal bass.
I play a 5-string with a high C as opposed to a low B. I use light strings, and turn the bass EQ on my amp down to 3 to even out the sound. I use tapewound strings, but I bet the sound would be brighter with literally anything else, especially regular metal/wound strings.
My chord voicings are mostly 1 or 2 note "fragments" on 2 the high strings, with a bass note. the lower you go on the neck, the wider the interval on the fragments needs to be. It gets muddy the lower you play the chords. On the 5-string I don't play 3rd intervals below the 5th fret, and down at the low end of the neck anything smaller than an octave gets muddy. When I'm playing my 4-string I more often play a bass note and a single high note to give the impression of a chord.
One trick i've come up with is not striking the bass note and the high chord fragments at exactly the same time. I play a "flam" instead, or even separate them by an entire 8th note. In jazz it's pretty common to play piano chords "in the cracks" between the walking bass notes anyway. YMMV in other styles, but it helps with the muddiness (this is why jazz pianists do it -- to make more space in the sound and to create a push-pull with the rhythm and chord changes).
that sounds pretty interesting, ima def check out a 5 or 6 string bass setup for chordal playing. I see the fender bass VI and it kinda just looks a guitar with thicker strings, it looks kinda weird but I do want to try it one day.
And I get what you mean for the muddy sounding the lower it is. I'm def gonna look into the theory talk your laying down because I told myself I would start to study theory more because it is very very useful.
But thankyouu
I started out my bass career on a Fender Bass VI. I was a guitar player and I figured the same thing "it's just a guitar with thicker strings". I never quite got the hang of it and I couldn't figure out why until I got myself a 4-string bass.
Once I got a "real" bass I realized how close together the strings are on the Bass VI. You effectively can't play fingerstyle -- you have to use a pick. I immediately moved up a skill level when I got a regular bass. I suppose the Bass VI could work if you're playing with a pick, but it ended up not being the instrument for me.
Yeah see thats what I was thinking too, everything is so close together that it doesn't really feel like a bass. I look at 5 and 6 string basses but the neck looks so wide that it wouldnt feel like a regular bass. I bought a cheap squire jazz bass over the winter and I was gonna completely tare it apart this summer to make something custom, maybe ill experiment and add another string or two.
For reference I grew up playing a sterling music man and for the past 4 years have been playing a fender PJ that I love. Unrelated but I wanna save up money for a ricky 4003, they look so cool
Originator of this style would be Hooky from Joy Division and New Order. Here's how to play Love Will Tear Us Apart: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsL16fcBXs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsL16fcBXs)
I assume you've seen this Chicago Music Exchange video where Barlow talks about developing his style as a means of survival when competing against the insane wall of sound J Mascis was producing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymI7t9gb8nk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymI7t9gb8nk)
I've been trying to replicate Lou for a few years now and I've figured out a couple things:
- the amp and bass you're using doesn't really matter that much, he mentioned in an interview that his playing style originated because of a crappy amp and him not being able to hear himself (like Peter Hook) I alongside Js stack of amps so he just hammered at the strings. Ideally, you'd just want something with a bridge pickup. He plays a Grabber, Rick and a Stingray, but I used a j-bass knock off with the neck pup on full and bridge on 25-50% with the tone knob at around 30-40% and got decent results. Although he uses many different amps and cabs, the bass amp really doesn't matter if you have a drive pedal (or if you want to spend a fortune and buy a bass marshall head), you just want to boost your mids. He only recently started using an Ampeg (because J forced him to lol) but you'd be fine with just about anything. Especially those Peavey workhorses.
- if you don't want to buy a Marshall head, you want a guitar distortion instead of a bass drive since you don't need a blended signal, just an overdriven tone. I think any drive or dirt pedal will work as long as it retains enough low-end. He mentioned he does use a BB bass Preamp, but basically any drive pedal will work. Just make sure you're only using the distorted signal.
- the trickiest part about playing like Lou is the muting which really limits your left hand if you've got short fingers, the trick is to fret 1 or 2 strings (sometimes even 3) at a time and to constantly mute the strings you're not playing with your left hand while hammering all the strings with your pick. You need to use your thumb to mute which many deem to be 'bad technique' but there's no way around it. With practice you get the gist of it, but it feels unnatural when you first start. Playing power chords and melodic lines do the trick, especially playing really high up the neck. The trick is to constantly switch between playing low and high notes.
His style is really hard to copy and is really hard to apply in a band setting, especially if you have more than one guitar, but it's a really fun way to play when you get the hang of it.
Lou is an underrated bassist and I love when people mention him on here.
Hope my rambling makes some sense lol
Jazz player here. This has been the focus of my practice for about a year now. Here's some of my setup, and "rules" I've come up with for playing chordal bass. I play a 5-string with a high C as opposed to a low B. I use light strings, and turn the bass EQ on my amp down to 3 to even out the sound. I use tapewound strings, but I bet the sound would be brighter with literally anything else, especially regular metal/wound strings. My chord voicings are mostly 1 or 2 note "fragments" on 2 the high strings, with a bass note. the lower you go on the neck, the wider the interval on the fragments needs to be. It gets muddy the lower you play the chords. On the 5-string I don't play 3rd intervals below the 5th fret, and down at the low end of the neck anything smaller than an octave gets muddy. When I'm playing my 4-string I more often play a bass note and a single high note to give the impression of a chord. One trick i've come up with is not striking the bass note and the high chord fragments at exactly the same time. I play a "flam" instead, or even separate them by an entire 8th note. In jazz it's pretty common to play piano chords "in the cracks" between the walking bass notes anyway. YMMV in other styles, but it helps with the muddiness (this is why jazz pianists do it -- to make more space in the sound and to create a push-pull with the rhythm and chord changes).
that sounds pretty interesting, ima def check out a 5 or 6 string bass setup for chordal playing. I see the fender bass VI and it kinda just looks a guitar with thicker strings, it looks kinda weird but I do want to try it one day. And I get what you mean for the muddy sounding the lower it is. I'm def gonna look into the theory talk your laying down because I told myself I would start to study theory more because it is very very useful. But thankyouu
I started out my bass career on a Fender Bass VI. I was a guitar player and I figured the same thing "it's just a guitar with thicker strings". I never quite got the hang of it and I couldn't figure out why until I got myself a 4-string bass. Once I got a "real" bass I realized how close together the strings are on the Bass VI. You effectively can't play fingerstyle -- you have to use a pick. I immediately moved up a skill level when I got a regular bass. I suppose the Bass VI could work if you're playing with a pick, but it ended up not being the instrument for me.
Yeah see thats what I was thinking too, everything is so close together that it doesn't really feel like a bass. I look at 5 and 6 string basses but the neck looks so wide that it wouldnt feel like a regular bass. I bought a cheap squire jazz bass over the winter and I was gonna completely tare it apart this summer to make something custom, maybe ill experiment and add another string or two. For reference I grew up playing a sterling music man and for the past 4 years have been playing a fender PJ that I love. Unrelated but I wanna save up money for a ricky 4003, they look so cool
Originator of this style would be Hooky from Joy Division and New Order. Here's how to play Love Will Tear Us Apart: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsL16fcBXs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsL16fcBXs)
Or Chris Squires from Yes.
oh yeah, forgot to mention him. Love Will tear us Apart is fun to play too
I assume you've seen this Chicago Music Exchange video where Barlow talks about developing his style as a means of survival when competing against the insane wall of sound J Mascis was producing: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymI7t9gb8nk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymI7t9gb8nk)
yess literally watched that before making the post lol
I've been trying to replicate Lou for a few years now and I've figured out a couple things: - the amp and bass you're using doesn't really matter that much, he mentioned in an interview that his playing style originated because of a crappy amp and him not being able to hear himself (like Peter Hook) I alongside Js stack of amps so he just hammered at the strings. Ideally, you'd just want something with a bridge pickup. He plays a Grabber, Rick and a Stingray, but I used a j-bass knock off with the neck pup on full and bridge on 25-50% with the tone knob at around 30-40% and got decent results. Although he uses many different amps and cabs, the bass amp really doesn't matter if you have a drive pedal (or if you want to spend a fortune and buy a bass marshall head), you just want to boost your mids. He only recently started using an Ampeg (because J forced him to lol) but you'd be fine with just about anything. Especially those Peavey workhorses. - if you don't want to buy a Marshall head, you want a guitar distortion instead of a bass drive since you don't need a blended signal, just an overdriven tone. I think any drive or dirt pedal will work as long as it retains enough low-end. He mentioned he does use a BB bass Preamp, but basically any drive pedal will work. Just make sure you're only using the distorted signal. - the trickiest part about playing like Lou is the muting which really limits your left hand if you've got short fingers, the trick is to fret 1 or 2 strings (sometimes even 3) at a time and to constantly mute the strings you're not playing with your left hand while hammering all the strings with your pick. You need to use your thumb to mute which many deem to be 'bad technique' but there's no way around it. With practice you get the gist of it, but it feels unnatural when you first start. Playing power chords and melodic lines do the trick, especially playing really high up the neck. The trick is to constantly switch between playing low and high notes. His style is really hard to copy and is really hard to apply in a band setting, especially if you have more than one guitar, but it's a really fun way to play when you get the hang of it. Lou is an underrated bassist and I love when people mention him on here. Hope my rambling makes some sense lol
Lou also runs a Peavey Mk4 Bass head (very early 1980’s) into (I believe) a 1x15 which is also a killer guitar amp.
gotcha, ive trying to learn more and more about gear lately. Def gotta look into guitar shit too
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never heard of em but ill check em out