RBC
#3, Expecting and Little Room.
Someone asked me last week if I plan to include bass tabliture
with the remainder of Redd Blood Cells. As
of now I have no plans to transcribe my parts on to paper, I
feel I'm doing quite enough as is. I do encourage anyone to
give it a shot though, I would be happy to look it over.
This
week I would like to speak from a more technical perspective though,
but in stead of boring old notes and chords, I would like to talk
about my vintage hofner 182/183 basses. People are constantly
commenting on how natural the addition of my axe wielding sounds
to the band. Aside from an intuitive understanding of the band's
music, I also for some mysterious reason have the perfect basses
for the job. The colors are stock and it is pure coincidence that
I have a white one and a redd one – I swear. The Redd is
a 1963 Hofner 182 solid body bass. It is true
that I recently acquired this one, it actually was a birthday
gift from my family, but I found it on ebay weeks before I started
this whole crazy project, and I would of got it regardless of
what color it was. The white one is a 1964 Hofner
183 exactly the same as the 182 except it has pick up off and
on switches, and the surface is covered with an alligator textured
naugahyde. Both of them are strung with Hofner
flat wound light gauge strings (just like Paul McCartney's
Hofners). Producing a similar tone as their hollow
body Beatle bass cousin. I find that their solid
body construction gives me the freedom to crank up the freak
outs
just a bit more than their hollow bodied relatives would allow.
I found both of these instruments on eBay within the last year.
Both were around the $350/$400 mark, and both needed a little
bit of work, but I have to say with out a doubt, this model is
the instrument not only for Steven White, but
Steven McDonald can't get enough of these basses
either. I've been playing them on the SMG recordings
that I'm producing simultaneously with Redd Blood
Cells, and the tone is the best I've ever had.
Yuk I'm starting to sound like a bass player, the tone ... ugh
... please forgive me.
OK, What can I say about the selections this week? I had fun as
usual, I think Expecting came out really cool,
with these super low bass chords I'm playing in the "Toledo"
parts.
Little Room; Since this song was originally
recorded "bare bones" even by White Stripes
standards (vocals and kick drum only), I found it especially challenging
to do my thing with out being too much of a show boat. Hopefully
I found the right combination of dirty and sweet, or rather, I
hope it is ... dirty sweet.
enjoy,
Steve
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