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Slap Tone


Fly2far
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[quote name='Pete Academy' post='784197' date='Mar 23 2010, 11:54 PM']That's rather hattist, I must say.[/quote]

When the geezer is arguing Marcus Miller's sound I think it's relevant. If he was actually Jimmy Cliff then maybe it would be unfair.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='784210' date='Mar 23 2010, 11:59 PM']Sorry mate, but you're coming on as the 'pork pie twat'.[/quote]

And you're a thick c***.

Sorry is name-calling only allowed as part of a pun?

Edited by thisnameistaken
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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='784219' date='Mar 24 2010, 12:06 AM']When the geezer is arguing Marcus Miller's sound I think it's relevant. If he was actually Jimmy Cliff then maybe it would be unfair.[/quote]

I think you'll find that my choice of headwear is completely irrelevant to
anything.

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='784219' date='Mar 24 2010, 12:06 AM']And you're a thick c***.

Sorry is name-calling only allowed as part of a pun?[/quote]

Yes it is.

However with you saying that I'm prepared to make an
exception......

I'd better not,I don't want to get banned.

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='784219' date='Mar 24 2010, 12:06 AM']When the geezer is arguing Marcus Miller's sound I think it's relevant. If he was actually Jimmy Cliff then maybe it would be unfair.



And you're a thick c***.

Sorry is name-calling only allowed as part of a pun?[/quote]

Thanks for that...much appreciated. Perhaps a better name would be 'paranoid', as I get the distinct feeling you enjoy irritating me.

Or am I just being a thick c***?

At least my name-call was an attempt at being clever.

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[quote name='Doddy' post='784050' date='Mar 23 2010, 09:56 PM']Pop stuff that you may have heard of includes.....
Luther Vandross, Scritti Politi,Was(not Was),Simple Minds,Frank Sinatra,
Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston,Joan Armatrading......

Just a few there-not including all the jazz work and countless
jingles.[/quote]


Just about everything that came out of NY had MM or a MM clone on it. Tom Barney built his early career depping the MM sound.
Just the same way that Sanborn became THE alto part that people started getting work by using his 'sound'.

MM's slap sound also evolved because he needed/wanted it to be heard of radio's and the bass was often buried. Nice story... :)

I like to use something else these days, and never really had that sound until relatively recently but his sound was all
over the product at one time, which is why and how he became a producer of so many.
His tone, was as defintive as anyones .. it may not be to everyones taste, but he pretty well wrote the book, IMO.

I've said this before.. Louis J was a very influencial player and played on MJ's work at the time but it is really heavy and ragged stripped down.
Popwell just has a great groove on his modded P-bass. Ditto Freddie Washington.

I really like Berlin as he really has it down...and it is something different. But then he NAILS everything anyway..

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[quote name='Fly2far' post='784162' date='Mar 23 2010, 11:23 PM']Thanks for all the replies.

A bit more info. for you the Jazz bass is fitted with a MMC active TB cct. the pickups are the originals.
The TE pre-amp is the GP12 feeding into an Ashdown Mark King head (via the return skt).So I'm just using the power amp inside not its pre-amp.
MarkBass 2 10 and a Hartke 4 10 Traveller Cab.

Even with new strings (Elites) the bass on the E always sounds a bit dull I was wondering if a Baddass bridge might make a difference. The neck is Maple fretboard so should be bright enough.

The closest sound to what I would like would be from this link

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47PYoNEd4tk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47PYoNEd4tk[/url]

Although it's a MM and modified there are lots of others out there getting this tone with other basses.

Perhaps it's me.[/quote]



Assume you mean the 1st sound. You'll need the bright strings pretty new, and you'll need both pups wide. Play around with scooping the low mids. Don't boost the bass anymore than it takes to fill out the bottom string. You might want to back off the very top end..depending how sizzly your cabs get.

If you can't get close to that sound, then your bass probably doesn't have it, in that regard.

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[quote name='JTUK' post='784369' date='Mar 24 2010, 09:05 AM']Just about everything that came out of NY had MM or a MM clone on it. Tom Barney built his early career depping the MM sound.
Just the same way that Sanborn became THE alto part that people started getting work by using his 'sound'.

MM's slap sound also evolved because he needed/wanted it to be heard of radio's and the bass was often buried. Nice story... :)

I like to use something else these days, and never really had that sound until relatively recently but his sound was all
over the product at one time, which is why and how he became a producer of so many.
His tone, was as defintive as anyones .. it may not be to everyones taste, but he pretty well wrote the book, IMO.

I've said this before.. Louis J was a very influencial player and played on MJ's work at the time but it is really heavy and ragged stripped down.
Popwell just has a great groove on his modded P-bass. Ditto Freddie Washington.

I really like Berlin as he really has it down...and it is something different. But then he NAILS everything anyway..[/quote]

Here's an example of Popwell's playing and tone:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOJDGXaFxSk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOJDGXaFxSk[/url]

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='784219' date='Mar 24 2010, 12:06 AM']And you're a thick c***.

Sorry is name-calling only allowed as part of a pun?[/quote]

Woah, you may have dug yourself a hole and made yourself look a fool, but it's nothing an apology can't sort out. You're well out of order here.

FWIW, I love the Ed Friedland slap dvd, I got that years ago! Classic stuff!

And as for slap tones, it never got better than Stuart Hamm with a Kubicki Ex-Factor IMO! But then all the "old" slappers like Larry Graham have dire tones that sound like they're being amplified by cardboard cereal boxes!

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interesting...

Larry Graham is credited with the style way back when... ?? late 60's early 70's..?
Dance to the Music, maybe..?

Stanley Clark's album in '74...?
Marcus Miller on a Lenny White album not long after.. so late 70's and the tone is getting there.
I don't know what they played through but I'd think Ampeg would be the live rig for most ...and then came SWR and TE although I doubt TE was that popular stateside..I might be wrong.

I doubt there was the technology to get away from Fender and you probably couldn't get work without a Fender bass anyway :) :rolleyes:

Is it fair to talk about tone today and back then when it was all starting..?

And some people have to go out on a limb soundwise as they can't compete with the pyrotechnic bass these days..
Larry Graham has good feel though, even now, although you can give his slap type stuff...he has a unusual style.. a miss, probably.
But what would you do...you are credited with inventing the genre...you can't not play it...??????

Edited by JTUK
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The whole origin of slap bass is strange because Louis Johnson had apparently never heard of Graham when he started using the style.

The ironic thing also is that Johnson always credits Jamerson as his main influence, yet it was slap playing that killed Jamerson's career.

If you want to hear some killer tones, check out Bernard Wright's 'Nard' album, featuring Marcus and 'Sonjon'. A real classic.

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Then along came Mark King with his rickety tickety slap sound and stuck an "aura" of tackyness to the whole genre, and as we all know, when something is done to overkill it looses appeal and most of all TASTE. A bilt like every rock band in the late 80's had to have a Van Halen'esque tapping solo in the middle of the chorus. bah!

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80's shred solos rock. The death of the 80's was the death of mainstream rock music that rocked, and bands that sucked took over wholesale! Furthermore, Mark King is the boy. Some of the best slap tones ever, he played the 70's crowd under the table with ease all the while writing better songs!

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Larry Graham had a great sound by first GCS record in '74. Granted before that it was arguably undefined when with Sly.

Other guys in the same period (Louis Johnson, Pops, etc) also had a kind of muffled slap tone on the P basses at the time.

Personally I prefer the Louis's stingray tone on Blam from '78 to the among best recorded slap tone. Which is another reason why rays > p bass IMO

Other great early slap sounds are from Byron Miller (on p bass with George Duke and Roy Ayers).

Also check out Abe Laboriel, esp. on Chaka Khan (Night in Tunisia) and w/ George Benson 'Give me the nIght album

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I've never been a big fan of Mark King's tone-I've always found it too
treble-y. Kind of a weaker version of Stanley.

Yeah,'Pops' is really underrated. I've got a great album called 'Baked Potato Super Live' by
Greg Matheison, and 'Pops' plays great.

Victor Bailey has a really filthy slap tone on Weather Report's 'D-Flat Waltz'.

Slap tone for me,starts with Larry and then kind of branches off into Stanley
and Marcus.

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[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_DPx0eQ16c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_DPx0eQ16c[/url]

THE SLAP TONE! (for me anyways), i just love it, doesnt sound too trebley...
more like quite middy actually, before he got to the stage of using alembics and status's when it all went downhill along with the bands musical direction (again imho),

Jaydee supernatural classic series 1 1978
Trace elliot ah250 (i think?)
x2 Trace elliot 1048h cabs
x2 yamaha analog delay: one for modualtion, one for delay...
mxr phase 100...

unbeatable.

on a serious not ive just read this thread and not really impressed to be honest, slap bass tone is not the end of the world and yet that guys slating marcus miller is acting like it is. lets not argue were supposed to be grown up's here. the only thing i will say is that marcus is not bothered hes got more money than probably all of us, so if his tone is crap or not who cares???

thanks, hope everyone is well :)
marcus
x

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