Premier Guitar - Nothing but Bass Vol 1 2018

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NOTHING BUT BASS VOL. 1

From cheap wiring mods to DIY fretless jobs, faux-synth strategies, and amp-shopping tips—8 gems just for low-end lovers.

Digital Press

ON BASS

The String with the Most Bass BY VICTOR BRODÉN

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usic is such a fiercely individual thing, and how you get to the sound you hear in your head should really only be your business. No matter what kind of advice people give you, it is ultimately your job to figure out exactly how you want to make your musical expression. I make mine 99 percent of the time playing a 5-string bass. When I was in my teens, I purchased an octave pedal to cover the lower notes of the synth-bass parts for the Top 40 bands I played in. I would also tune my 4-string down for the hard rock and metal bands I played in, to take care of all my extended-range needs. I was —I am embarrassed to admit—sort of a 4-string purist. I’m not sure what’s in the air lately, but the resistance to extended-range instruments and the snobbery regarding the 4-string bass seem to be at an all-time high. I started playing 5-string bass when I moved to Nashville at the age of 27. I had been a 4-string player for 15 years, and my 5-string purchase was strictly business-related. Because late-’90s pop-country albums used 5-string basses almost exclusively, I figured I had better not show up in Nashville without one. When the Sadowsky I ordered arrived a couple months after my move, however, it quickly changed my preconceived notion that the low B on a 5-string somehow felt different than the other strings and that it wasn’t really a natural part of the instrument in terms of sound or feel. In fact, I

tried playing one of my trusty 4-strings after a few weeks of woodshedding with the Sadowsky, but it just didn’t quite feel right. And I had many thousands of hours more experience as a 4-string player! For me, the transition was that quick and natural. I recall taking the new bass to rehearsals for the first band I joined after moving to Nashville. The band was being produced by a well-known member of a classic-rock band and the style of music was very much in the vein of the Black Crowes. After the first few weeks, I was told by the manager that it was brought to his attention I shouldn’t play a 5-string bass. I was dumbfounded. There was no mention of my playing ability: It was strictly a visual request. It’s funny, because the bass I was playing had a 3-tone sunburst finish, a J-style body, and a light-colored rosewood neck that could easily be confused with a ’60s Fender Jazz if you squinted hard enough. And it sounded vintage as well, thanks to its passive electronics. My second taste of 4-string snobbery came a few years later. I was in rehearsals for a recording artist, and the musical director (a sax player) asked me to “maybe try a P bass instead.” The interesting thing is that I was already playing an actual P bass, but—you guessed it—the bass had five strings. Again, vintage 3-tone sunburst and passive pickups, but apparently that one extra tuner somehow miraculously made it not a P bass in his mind.

Some 4-string players go through great lengths to avoid being seen with a 5-string, even when they’re more than capable of playing one well.

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Some 4-string players go to any length to avoid being seen with a 5-string, even when they’re more than capable of playing one well. For example: I was backstage at an amphitheater show, where I was playing with one of the opening acts, when I saw that the bassist for the main attraction (one of the biggest names in pop country) had nine Fender Jazz 4-strings in his tech’s area. There were six different tunings. The band’s material is very similar song-to-song, so the bassist was obviously trying to maintain tonal consistency. That said, I played one 5-string that day. Yes, I am well aware that when bassists double the guitar riffs (often in rock music), sometimes relying on open strings like the guitarists do is sonically imperative. That definitely wasn’t the case here, however, and I’ve seen people go to similar lengths to avoid playing a 5-string at other levels of the industry as well.

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It should be noted that in other areas of today’s music industry, things are (thankfully) the opposite. If you work in the pop, gospel, metal, or contemporary R&B genres, you had better show up to a gig with a 5-string bass. The sound is imperative to those genres. So many classic albums were made using a 4-string bass, and players like Jaco and Jamerson only needed four strings, but here is my honest, simple view on the matter: The low B adds more bass! I’m absolutely in love with bass, so it’s beyond my comprehension how more bass could not be seen as a good thing. I’ve had other musicians turn around and smile so many times over the years when I hit a very low note, but have never had someone turn around and scowl after I provide a small earthquake. (They only do that when I hit a wrong note.) I think this proves that the aversion is only visual, right? My advice to 5-string naysayers: Get over it.

This bruised and scratched 1999 Sadowsky is the instrument that started our columnist’s 5-string journey, and while it looks like a vintage bass and sounds like a vintage bass, it’s not an acceptable bass according to some players.

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ON BASS

How to Impersonate a Synth Bass BY VICTOR BRODÉN Electric bassists can benefit greatly from learning keyboard bass parts because they challenge our status-quo patterns and playing habits.

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ver since playing bass in my first cover bands as a teen, I’ve been infatuated with the sound and feel of synth bass. Keyboard players often create parts that are not contained in normal fingering patterns or within normal hand placements for us electric bassists. And realizing this can be extremely useful for expanding our creative horizons to create bass parts that come from a place of musicality—not just writing within the limits of our normal playing style or technical ability. Keyboard bass parts also tend to be mixed louder than electric bass, making the significance of each note that much greater. Perhaps most important, synth bass sounds are often bigger, fatter, or thicker, which means they are taking up more of the frequency spectrum. Let me explain. Certain bass sounds contain stunning amounts of sub-low frequencies and


bright, sweeping filter top-end—all layered within the same sound. This decreases the need for many other instruments because so much of the sonic space has already been occupied by the bass sound. I listen to a lot of ’90s R&B for this very reason. Several hits from that era are prime examples of the synth bass taking up a lot of space and the other instruments providing subtle flavors around it, rather than adding big parts to the foundation of the song. The challenge for electric bassists is to somewhat truthfully replicate parts like this, or at least give the illusion of a synth bass with an analog pedalboard and electric bass. The first and most important tool is an octave pedal. With that said, you always need to keep the type of room you are playing and the challenges it can present in mind. If you set the volume of the octave below the played note to a level where it sounds big and fat coming out of your personal

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PREMIER GUITAR - DIGITAL PRESS NOTHING BUT BASS VOL. 1 V

A modern envelope filter, synth bass pedal, octave pedal, and vintage envelope filter make a great starting point for an electric bassist to be able to handle most songs where the line was originally recorded with keyboard bass.

The challenge for electric bassists is to somewhat truthfully replicate parts like this, or at least give the illusion of a synth bass with an analog pedalboard and a bass. rig, it’s probably too loud and muddy sounding for a PA system (which will effectively amplify that lower octave, to a large degree). I prefer to use an octave pedal where the lower octave has separate volume controls for the sub-frequency lows and the low mids. It makes a big difference when playing through a large system or in a rehearsal room with sound dampening that’s anything less than great. Tip: If you are using an octave pedal all night, it’s a good idea to boost the mids on your amp so your tone doesn’t become unclear once the rest of the band comes in. I purposely try to use the sound of my fingers sliding over the fret into the note, usually from a half-step below. I do this quickly enough so you don’t actually hearthe approach, but instead feel something slippery happening around the note. (Using a fretless bass can make this feel even more


authentic to a synth sound, especially on modern R&B ballads.) Yet another trick with the octave pedal is the “dub” effect, where the volume of the played note is dialed completely off and only the very round-sounding artificial octave can be heard. You’ll lose some punch and definition, but this setting can deliver a great feeling to modern reggae or any other song where you want to be felt more than heard. To emulate the filters on the top end of synth bass sounds, the solution can be as simple as using an envelope filter or auto-wah. Rolling off the tone on your bass and playing through one of these pedals alone will allow you to create sounds that don’t convey traditional electric bass, but incorporating an octave pedal as well will deliver the most synth-like tones. Don’t forget that an octave pedal needs a very clean signal to track your playing accurately, so running an envelope filter later in your signal chain is crucial. And because the octave pedal pushes an envelope filter harder, I find that I have to use different settings on my envelope filter when using the two pedals together. There are a number of synth bass pedals on the market that provide both the filter and the low-end goodness of an octave pedal in one enclosure. Most of them are great for really making a statement, but I’m careful when I use one because the filter sweep in the high end can sometimes reach too high in the frequency range. If you are like me and play cabinets with tweeters, you might get more than what you bargained for sonically. Personal preference is key here and experimentation is the mother of all things good. When it comes to synth bass impersonation, this is especially true. Being able to double as a synth-bass player with a keyboard onstage is a huge asset to have as a bassist, but the ability to create a similar feel and effect with traditional stompboxes and playing techniques is a skill the musicians around you will really appreciate.

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BASS BENCH

Cold Facts About Strings BY HEIKO HOEPFINGER

Photo courtesy of cooltech.at

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n a 1999 New York Times article titled “For the Musical Alchemist, a New Tack: Cryogenics,” author Terry H. Schwadron describes a trend among brass and woodwind makers to offer deep freezing of trumpets and flutes as a way to improve their sound. The article cites both makers and scientists looking for evidence that this technology actually works, and their opinions could hardly be further apart. This debate has raged for years and continues today—at least in the world of brass instruments—while the process of deep freezing has spread to other areas, including bass. What is it? Cryoscopy is an experimental method in analytic chemistry used to determine the molecular weight or amount of a dissolvable or mixable substance in a solvent. Meaning “freezing measurement,” the term comes from Greek. The related term cryogenic treatment means something is exposed to very low temperatures. The most popular coolant is liquid nitrogen at its freezing point of 63 Kelvin (corresponding to -210 degrees Celsius or -346 degrees Fahrenheit), but for various reasons the practical temperature is slightly higher at 77 Kelvin. Some systems even use helium at temperatures of about 4 Kelvin. Simply put, cryogenically treated instruments or parts are exposed to these low temperatures for about 30 hours. The claim is that when these objects are brought back to room temperature, “something” has changed. Companies offer the treatment for strings, pickups, bridges, and even complete instruments, with strings being the most successful product when it comes to market share. The cold, hard truth. Because strings are relatively simple in terms of material and construction, they offer a useful way to see if this process can offer any real-world advantages or whether it’s all voodoo. For bass strings, we’re most often dealing with stainless steel in both the core and outer windings. One certainly can’t expect that

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Although the change is invisible, there’s evidence that bass strings benefit from cryogenic treatment.

making something cold—radically reducing the vibrational movement of the molecules—will alter the chemical structure ... except in a few special cases. And stainless steel is one of them. In certain steels, the changes during a cryogenic treatment happen via a diffusionless transformation of atoms, which form different crystal structures that remain stable at room temperature. This process yields higher strength and hardness, and thus reduces wear, so it’s widely used for tools, bearings, and engine parts. No similar transformations are known to take place in copper or silver.


This disassembled T-style guitar and a batch of strings are about to take a cold bath.

So even though we start to smell marketing B.S. when statements like “every major NASCAR team treats their engine components for added horsepower” are used as an argument for buying a set of strings, the underlying process isn’t voodoo. Whenever a new technology creeps into our world of instruments, there’s usually not much further evidence to support marketing claims, but one elusive study on acoustic guitar strings finds increased stiffness of around 30 percent and a modulus of elasticity (Young’s modulus) of about 20 to 80 percent. Additionally, the researchers measured an increased amount of upper harmonics, although often at the cost of the low end (Chen Jer Ming, “Cryogenic


treatment of music wire,” 2004, National University of Singapore). The implications. So what does this mean for bass strings? Hardened strings provide some realworld advantages, starting with improved tuning stability and increased longevity. In addition, the tone—especially the upper end—will not decay as fast as the strings start to age. This will be especially welcome news if you play slap-style because that technique is particularly hard on standard bass strings. The only possible downside to hardened strings could be increased fret wear and, of course, the higher cost of a cryogenically treated set. Next time we’ll look at some hardware—and even instruments—to discover what might happen when these items get thrown into the cold.

Photo courtesy of cooltech.at

Cryogenically treated instruments or parts are exposed to low temperatures for about 30 hours. The claim is that when these objects are brought back to room temperature, “something” has changed.

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ON BASS

Low-End Life Hacks BY VICTOR BRODÉN Not exactly standard procedure, but I’ve been recording all my bass for a national TV show and other sessions using the DI from my main touring rig (a relatively inexpensive, small class-D amp), and using just a little bit of EQ.

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hen I look back on my career in this business, there is a trend of me staying with a project for about two years before I start looking for a different touring project to keep myself inspired and fresh on my main gig. Maybe I’m a restless soul, a vagabond, or even non-committal to a certain degree. All I know is that I am always looking for any way possible to make playing bass new and interesting at all times—even if it includes non-traditional changes in my equipment. This month, I’d like to share two of my “bassist life hacks” that I’ve found to be very helpful over the past few years. Bringing stage to studio. In addition to incorporating non-Fender-style instruments into my regular rotation [“Get Over Your Tone,” October 2016], the most major thing I have changed lately is the way I record bass. I’ve enjoyed many years of working in studios and playing on albums I really love between tours, but I have never enjoyed recording as much as playing live. I’ve just never felt like I was able to get the tone and the feel in the studio that I can achieve while playing live. When I moved to Nashville many years ago, I was told to get an Avalon U5 direct box, and I did. Many studio house engineers love them and it’s what I’ve mainly used for recording sessions. In spite of its large headroom and clear tone, however, I never felt truly inspired recording with it. I also try not to use too many pedals when recording unless I need an obvious effect to the

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tone, like distortion. So what could I do to bump up my game? On tour this past year, I’ve been using a small, relatively inexpensive class-D amplifier. And I use the DI (Photo 1) in the back of the amp postEQ instead of pre-EQ, in spite of FOH engineers generally preferring pre-EQ for the most control over the sound. I’ve been using the EQ sparingly, but enough to where I don’t feel like I am playing through a DI only. As a result of this live experience, I’ve also been using this small amp’s DI in the studio instead of the high-end units my colleagues are using. I’ll tell the engineers and fellow musicians to avoid judgment until they hear it, and the result is often overwhelmingly positive comments like, “I am not doing anything to your signal.” There is a reason why certain units are classics, and I fully realize that records have been made using said units for decades, but music is art and individual expression. So, if bypassing the use of products with a reputation of admittedly proven

I’ve enjoyed many years of working in studios and playing on albums I really love between tours, but I have never enjoyed recording as much as playing live.


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Rather than relying too heavily on compression to correct imbalances, the steep angle of this bridge pickup helps ensure that the volume and attack stays even between the heavier-mass strings and the thinner strings.

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excellence is what it takes for me to be truly excited about playing sessions, then that is what I am going to do. Breaking rules for tone’s sake. In a column about three years ago [“Dont Get Mad, Get Even,” September 2013], I talked about the importance of note-to-note evenness when deciding on what bass to purchase. The issue of the lower strings overpowering the thinner strings often gets more pronounced on extended-range instruments, so it’s a concern since I primarily play 5-string basses. And while I consider the basses I own to be fairly even, I’ve started to break the rules of many world-class guitar techs regarding pickup height. What I do is position a pickup as close as humanly possible to the 1st string without the string actually hitting it (Photo 2). On the opposite end, I make sure the part of the pickup that rests under the 4th and 5th strings is positioned significantly lower than the part of the

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pickup under the thinner strings. I do this by ear and by feel, notby measurement. I won’t even look at an input meter until I first listen carefully to each string and determine that I hear the same volume and feel almost the same amount of rumble through an amplifier. Not a single bass I’ve purchased in a store or received from a custom builder has arrived with the pickups adjusted to actual string mass. Even some of the greatest setup guys here in Nashville—and I think we have the best ones in the world—don’t really adjust for volume imbalance completely to my liking. In conclusion, I’m not saying that I am right and the people who are legitimately more skilled than me in their respective fields (in this case, engineers and luthiers) are wrong. What I am saying is that to hear what I want to hear and to feel inspired, I’m going to do whatever is needed with my equipment.


ON BASS

Cheap and Easy Bass Mods BY HEIKO HOEPFINGER

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ass Mods: When, Where, and Why?,” April 2012]. Having weighed those considerations, let’s now look at two cheap and non-destructive mods that add functionality and tonal variety to your instrument. We’ll begin our modding adventure by working with passive electronics. The advantage is that passive wiring is pretty easy to follow and we only have to deal with a few parts—pickups and volume or tone pots. If you decide later that digging into the more complex world of pickup construction and design is the way you want to experience tonal nirvana, these mods will still remain useful. For starters, we’ll focus on the everpopular Fender Precision and Jazz basses. Remember that even spin-offs made by other companies often mimic the original P and J bass pickup and wiring schemes. Pickup wiring basics. Typically, pickup coils are wired either individually (a singlecoil pickup) or together. When you add another coil to a single-coil pickup, the second coil is wired either in series or parallel to the first, and can also be configured in or out of phase with it. Parallel mode is the standard configuration, whether you use a 3-way pickup selector switch or two volume controls, as on a J-style bass. Switching these coils to series mode results in a more powerful low end and more lower-mids, while losing some higher frequencies. Both series and parallel wiring require either two pickups

or one humbucker with 4-conductor wiring that provides access to both the beginning and end of each coil. Many P-style pickup replacements offer 4-conductor wiring, so you can explore series mode on these instruments too. Out-of-phase wiring is not a very useful option for bass, as it cancels out your low end and thus rarely makes musical sense. (Hey, give it a try if you’re a closet soloist with no bandmates to upset.) Series/parallel switching. The most popular mod for the J-style bass is to add series/parallel switching to the two singlecoil pickups. This expands the instrument’s sonic spectrum with an almost P-like humbucking sound and has no real downside. Usually the J-style bass comes with two parallel volumes and a treble blend. Simply adding a 2-way DPDT (double-pole/double- throw) switch does the whole job. So exactly what are we going to do? Glad you asked! See Fig. 1. Instead of using a separate DPDT switch, I’d recommend replacing the neck pickup volume pot with a combined potentiometer and push/ pull or push/push switch. Doing this eliminates the need to drill any holes, so returning your bass to its original state is a no-brainer. With this wiring scheme, once you switch into serial mode, the neck volume acts as a master volume—totally bypassing the bridge volume. (Some other series/ parallel wirings

Out-of-phase wiring is not a very useful option for bass, as it cancels out your low end and thus rarely makes musical sense.


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ON BASS

Fig. 1

keep the bridge volume pot in the circuit, which requires you to have the pot fully on to get in serial mode. Not very useful.) The balance pot mod. Sometimes you want your instrument to simply be quiet. In that instance, the two volume-pot design requires more effort—you have to roll both knobs off—and this is especially true when you have a particular pickup mix that you want to recall. One way to avoid this is to wire up a volumeplus-balance-pot configuration (Fig. 2). A balance (or blend) pot retains your pickup mix while giving you one master volume to dial in. A balance pot consists of two logarithmic volume pots that work in reverse to each other. With the logarithmic scale in mind, its easy to see that these pots are normally not at 0 Ω when both are in their mid position, where you’d expect and want to have both pickups at full volume. So, depending on balance pot manufacturer and build tolerances, the overall volume can be a bit less than 100 percent. (If you find it’s a lot less, you’ve probably wired the scale upside down and

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Fig. 2

everything needs to be swapped.) Adding a kill switch. Another way to avoid having to turn down two volume knobs to achieve silence is to wire up a mute (aka “kill”) switch. A kill switch can be very handy, especially onstage. If you’ve already managed to install a DPDT switch for the series mode, you can use a second one for a full mute. Cut the hot wire on its way to the output jack and solder both ends to one of the middle pins. Then bridge each of the two outer pins and attach a separate ground to one of the bridges. Now one position will bridge both “hot” ones, while the other one connects both to ground. If you’re using a push/pull DPDT, it’s a good idea to wire the “kill” in the up position. In our wiring diagrams, white is hot and black is ground. Color codes from other pickup manufacturers will differ, but if you visit their websites, you should be able to determine what colors they use for hot and ground. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more cheap and easy mods in upcoming issues.


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BASS BENCH

DIY Fretless Conversion BY HEIKO HOEPFINGER

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ave you always wanted a fretless bass but never had the cash to buy a new one? Good news: Assuming you have a spare bass in your arsenal—preferably an inexpensive one you rarely use—it’s an easy mod to convert it from fretted to fretless. There are many descriptions of DIY fretless conversions on the web, but I’d like to add yet another one that focuses on the reasons and alternatives behind each step. One might argue that it can’t be too tough a job. After all, Jaco wasn’t a luthier and he managed it on his own—even without YouTube. But his conversion had to be revised by one or two luthiers because the marine epoxy (probably Pettit’s Polypoxy) he used peeled off the fretboard. We want to avoid such do-overs, right? Before you start! Going fretless is a reversible mod, but the way back isn’t as easy and it’s not cheap. To reverse it, the fretboard first has to be


cleaned from all paints, then the fret slots have to be sawn, and finally you have to re-fret the neck— not as easy as pulling frets out. So, in case you’re not sure if fretless is for you and your spare bass has a bolt-on neck, consider simply getting a fretless replacement neck. Yes, that’s expensive, but if you’re not able to re-fret the neck on your own, bringing it back to its initial state can easily cost as much as a new neck. Another crucial consideration: Removing the frets also means you’ll need a lower action to compensate for that missing fret height. Check that before you start (Photo 1). Will the bridge and saddles accommodate a fret’s worth of height reduction? Tools and materials. In addition to having a gripping tool to pull out the frets (more about that in a moment), you need a cutter knife, several grades of sandpaper, a sanding block (possibly a radiused one, available from luthier suppliers like stewmac.

Photos courtesy of basslab.de

Before you yank out any frets: Will the bridge permit a lower action?

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BASS BENCH

com), some superglue, a paintbrush, and either clear coat or some oil for the finish. Frets are often glued in and heating them with a soldering iron helps to loosen them, so maybe add that to the list. Pulling the frets. In lutherie, there’s always a specialized tool for every job. You can get a fret puller, but that’s kind of over the top for a one-time job. A side cutter (aka diagonal pliers) should be enough to get under the fret. Use one that’s as small as possible. Try to pull out one fret end and then slowly work your way across the fretboard. Once you’ve managed to work the first inch of a fret out, you should be able to see whether it was glued in or not. If the frets were glued, it helps to use the cutter knife to cut around them and loosen their sides to reduce the risk of chipping the fretboard. Some DIY tutorials recommend taping the fretboard around the frets to further hold down any possible chips. I’m not sure if that works. The most probable outcome is that the chips go with the tape instead of the fret. Filling the fret slots. Not surprisingly, the destructive part is the easiest, while deciding what to use to fill the slots is a bit more complex. Photo 2 shows a few of the possible materials. In the top image, from left to right, we have wood putty, two different veneers, and a plastic strip. The bottom image shows the result of using each material. The color you choose will determine whether you end up with a lined or unlined fretless fingerboard. A lined fingerboard might sound appealing, as it seems potentially easier to navigate, but many experienced players—including the late fretless master Jack Bruce—consider it confusing and prefer to only trust their ears. Once all the frets are removed, clean the slots with the cutter knife before you fill or glue anything in there. After the glue or putty has dried, use the cutter to remove any protrusions. Sanding. Next, the complete fingerboard needs to be leveled using the sanding block to remove all dirt, glue, oil, and sometimes lacquer. There are a few instances where the lacquer can remain, but only if it has no cracks or dings. In the end, the weakest part

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Possible fillers include wood putty, veneers, and plastic.

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determines the rigidity of the whole ensemble. If you feel unsure of the lacquer, get rid of it! Remove the nut before you start—you’ll have to do that anyway. If your filler material sticks out, start sanding parallel to the fret slots, so you don’t rip out the filler. Sanding can take time, especially with a lacquer finish, so be patient. Sanding is boring, but crucial for a good result. And “good” means a very even surface, including maintaining the fingerboard’s radius. Even if you get bored, don’t reach for a lower grade of sandpaper. Tweaking the new setup. Once you’ve sanded the fingerboard silky smooth, add your choice of finish, and then put the nut back in. Finally, do a careful setup. This includes adjusting the saddles and nut slots to accommodate a lower action, and possibly lowering your pickup height a tad. As you settle into playing your new fretless bass, be prepared to revisit the setup a few times until you’ve dialed in the action and feel. Note: If you need more help with the setup and reassembly process, I’ll cover this in greater detail in my next column, so stay tuned.


BASS BENCH

DIY Fretless Conversion, Pt. 2 BY HEIKO HOEPFINGER

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n my previous column [“DIY Fretless Conversion,” February 2015], I described the process for carefully removing frets from a standard bass to convert it into a fretless instrument. Some of you have asked for more details on reassembly and setup, so let’s take a closer look at what’s required to get your converted fretless into top playing condition after you’ve done the heavy lifting of fret removal. (If you missed the previous installment, take a moment to read it before diving into the following material.) Installing the nut. Once you’ve sanded and leveled the fretboard, it’s time to reinstall the nut. With the frets removed, you’ll want to lower the string height at the nut. Instead of filing down each individual string slot, it’s far easier to sand down the nut’s base. If the previous setup was good—in other words, the open strings sat as low as possible without rattling on the first fret—you should sand off the exact height of the fret from the bottom of the nut. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. For one thing, if you have a curved nut slot, you need to maintain the fretboard radius. Conversely, if the slot is flat, you need to keep the nut bottom dead level as you sand it. Also, you’ll want to be very careful not to sand too much off the base. The operation takes time and patience, and you’ll probably need to restring, retune, and check the action of the two outer strings several times. Yikes! What happens if you end up just a tiny bit too low? An easy way to incrementally regain height is to use paper and superglue (this also works when adjusting a nut on a fretted bass). Here’s the trick: Apply superglue to the base of the nut and press it onto the paper. Once the glue has dried, use a cutter knife to trim off the paper surrounding the nut. The superglue soaks into the paper, stabilizing it so it won’t compress.


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The key is to use enough glue to impregnate the paper and not so much that the nut adheres to the workbench. (Tip: acetone works well for removing superglue.) Once you’ve found the ideal height for the nut, use a lighter glue to attach the nut to the neck. Any all-purpose adhesive will do the job. Finishing the fingerboard. Once the nut is installed, it’s time to choose a finish for your fingerboard. You shouldn’t leave the fingerboard

Photos courtesy of basslab.de

A dusty 2k (aka “twocomponent”) acrylic clear coat has been applied (top), then sanded (middle), and finally polished (bottom).

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You shouldn’t leave the fingerboard without any treatment or protective coating because any change in humidity will cause it to shrink or swell. without any treatment or protective coating because any change in humidity will cause it to shrink or swell. Thus the neck with its gluedon fingerboard and oiled or lacquered back will behave much like bimetal. That’s not what you want on a stringed instrument that’s so dependent on setup for its tone. Here you have two choices: You can use oil that soaks into the wood or a hard sealant that stays on top of it. Your decision also depends on your skills, tools, and how you want to use your new fretless. Another consideration is your preferred tone, and whether you’re going to string up with flatwounds or the more popular roundwound strings. If you opt for flats, then oiling the fingerboard is the easiest and fastest way to go, but even though these strings offer reduced wear, they’ll ultimately eat up your fingerboard. Sonically, choosing flats means your fretless tone will be closer to an upright. Furthermore, the softer oiled surface will suck up even more of the higher frequencies and upper harmonics. Of course, this also depends on the hardness of the fingerboard wood. The softer and less dense, the muddier the tone. That’s not a judgment—some songs require a darker sound, but that effect is often easier to get with EQ. But over time roundwounds will nibble even the harder woods and create little trenches at your favorite positions. This negatively impacts the characteristic “mwah” sound that comes from the strings gently buzzing against the fingerboard.


To protect the playing surface, you can follow Jaco’s lead and use a marine sealer or another lacquer finish. A hard surface also preserves the trebly parts of your tone. The downside? Any lacquer finish requires more effort to apply than simply pouring some oil over the fingerboard. It’s also more expensive. So this goes back to your original plan, i.e., whether you converted a cheap instrument to tentatively explore the fretless world, or if you know what to expect and are serious about taking the plunge. One more thought: The huge amount of available epoxies, polyesters, glues, and oneor two-component polyurethane- or acrylicbased lacquers can be confusing. The options outnumber the available wood species! The easiest sealants to apply start with brushing several layers of superglue onto the fingerboard and then sanding it again, while the elaborate ones require a spray gun for a two-component clear coat. Photo 1 illustrates an interim clear coat solution that almost anyone can manage at home. Carefully tape all around the fretboard area to build up a small basin to hold the clear coat. Beware: Basins leak easily and clear coat loves to seep. It’s safer to first brush a thin layer of clear coat into the edges of the tape and fretboard, and then let that dry to seal these areas before you add the final amount. After that, it’s time to get back to sanding and finally polishing! Even with a lot of dust in the initial clear coat, the final result can look almost professional.

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Let's Go Amp Shopping BY STEVE COOK

M

y first bass amplifier cost me about two bucks. With my pawnshop bass already secured, I went to the local electronics store and bought a 1/4" Y-adapter to plug into the input section of my parents’ stereo (AKA “my new amp”). I could monitor my signal by activating record and pause at the same time on the tape deck. But I quickly realized that I couldn’t count on a tape-deck-equipped stereo to be at every venue, and that I’d need to buy an actual freestanding bass amp. With little money and even less knowledge, I started hanging out at the local music store. I was that kid: 13 years old, observing, occasionally playing, but dreaming more than anything else. Thankfully, my lawn mowing eventually paid off, and I went home with a 12-watt Fender Musicmaster. It wasn’t long before I knew I needed more power and more gear to play out. I went completely overboard and bought a Peavey Mark IV head and a pair of 2x15 cabs for all those stadium shows I was planning for at age 16. I was driving the family station wagon at the time, so my gear fit, but hauling it all back and forth from my bedroom wasn’t such a fun task. Over the next several years I tried various makes of combo amps, heads, speakers, and even some keyboard amps before finding a rig I liked tonally. With all of today’s tonal options, buying an amp can be an overwhelming task. So this month, I’d like to suggest some things to think about if you’re in the market for a new rig. What’s Your Goal?

You should probably figure out exactly why you’re shopping in the first place. Maybe your current amp isn’t reliable, and having it serviced would cost more than a new replacement. Reliability is a huge consideration when buying an amp. I’ve had rigs crap out mid-show, pre-show, and between shows. Your amp is every bit as important as your car. And

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The features and power getting packed into today’s micro heads are pretty astounding.

like your car, keeping it tuned up helps—but a day will come when you’ll probably trade it in for something more dependable. Another reason you might be looking into new gear is a little more delicate. I often hear from fellow bassists that their guitarist just bought a newer, louder rig. So to balance things out, a new bass rig is needed, right? This is troubling on several fronts. First of all, unless you are playing through a 5-watt practice amp, you shouldn’t be playing a game of decibel catch-up. It’s a vicious cycle: The guitar player turns up, so you turn up. The drummer hits harder, and in an hour, you’re all worse off. The first thing a guitarist wants to do with a new rig is turn it up and show it off, and I get that. But musical sensibility needs to rule the day, not egos. You can have intensity without ear-splitting volume. Maybe you’re just throwing practicality out the window and getting a new amp simply because you want one. You’ve been playing a bunch of gigs


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and working hard, so this is your equivalent of a very expensive ice cream cone. I have no problem with this—you probably deserve it! But I’ll let you explain it to your spouse, since the “I need it for my job” line doesn’t fly in my house anymore. Practicality Sets In

Is this your first amp? If so, I know you’re excited, but let’s not get carried away and put the SVT on layaway just yet. Yes, there are even more questions you need to ask yourself before jumping in. Where will the amp be used? This question may sound silly at first, but are you looking to play live, just in your house, or both? Will you play jazz gigs, rock gigs, or acoustic gigs? Maybe you need something for all three. Then we have to look at getting to the gig. Are you riding the subway, driving a car, or driving a van? Luckily, in this wonderful age of progressive amp design, there are many options. I personally like the beefiness of big amps, but the new wave of micro heads is pretty exciting. Our egos might take a little hit not having a monstrous bass amp behind us, but the smaller heads are nothing to scoff at, and many boast features like DIs, compression, and auxiliary jacks, which used to be associated with larger amps. Bass cabs are also getting downsized. Lighter materials and innovative speaker designs have lightened the weight while maintaining most tonal properties. It can be a tough fight getting us bassists to downsize our cabinets because we love to move air. But again, go back to your list of needs and wants, and match the cabinet to your situation. Purchasing bigger cabinets is not always the best route without regular large-venue gigs on the books, but choosing a rig that can be expanded later by adding a 1x15 on bottom or a 2x10 on top might make a world of difference. As with any major purchase, do your homework. Read reviews, watch demos, and talk with other bassists. Don’t exceed your budget, try to pay cash, and by all means, have fun shopping. Good luck—and don’t forget those earplugs!

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Digital Press premierguitar.com I PREMIER GUITAR - DIGITAL PRESS NOTHING BUT BASS VOL. 1

PREMIER GUITAR - DIGITAL PRESS LESSONS premierguitar.com I

Premier Guitar - Nothing but Bass Vol 1 2018

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