
Exploring more tips, tweaks, and work-arounds to make your low-end life even more enjoyable.
It’s that time of year again—when I find myself back in my bass-man cave for extended hours of practicing and general overthinking about all things bass related. It’s also time to work on new concepts and dig deeper into the aspects of playing that I’ve always struggled with to some degree. When doing so, I either discover new low-end life hacks or employ some old ones.
Speed and consistency on your lowest string. My bass collection is about 70 percent 5-string basses. Once I got used to playing a 5-string, something often just felt, well, missing when I switched back to a 4-string. With that said, I’ve found myself playing 4-string more frequently over the past few years—notably at different tribute events, where a lot of the songs were originally performed on 4-string.
I recently had to learn a song that consisted of even 16th-notes at a fairly quick tempo throughout, with about half of the notes located on the 4th string. Being able to play quickly with two-finger alternation means never having the tips of your fingers too far from the string. This normally isn’t a challenge when playing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings, because right after plucking a string, the finger gets stopped by the string immediately above it. When playing the 4th string on a 4-string bass, however, there is no 5th string to stop the fingers.
A solution for this is mounting a thumb rest above the 4th string to function as a finger stop, locating it the exact same distance away from the 4th string that a 5th string would be.Because I still rest my thumb on the top of the pickups or the top of the neck—depending on genre—this hack is not meant for plucking-hand comfort. This hack is for speed and tonal consistency, and it’s something I might put on several 4-string basses.
Supercharge the learning. The next bass hack is for beginning and intermediate players, and practicing it is a necessity to make the jump to the pro level. It’s also fairly simple and a lot of fun. Regular readers of this column may remember me mentioning the many advantages of the Nashville Number System. One of the main advantages is that if you’ve spent time writing a detailed chart for a particular song, you can use that same chart in any key. It could be that your singer has a cold and wants to lower the song, or maybe you’re playing with a different singer whose repertoire includes the same song, but needs a different key than the original. The latter is often a necessity when a woman sings a song originally recorded by a man, or vice versa.
If you were to study jazz at a music college, your instructor would likely encourage you to be able to play all the standards in all 12 keys. That’s an incredible exercise and a lofty goal, but my bass hack is to learn a song in at least three keys every time you learn a new song. You’ll be surprised how easily your brain will adopt the kind of thinking involved with transposing on the fly. Luckily, we bassists have a distinct advantage in this department, since transposing for us usually means moving one note at a time. That’s a less-daunting task than our fellow musicians—who, in many cases, play instruments where chords are the bulk of their function.
Hop on the vocal train. Many classic bass lines are rightfully referred to as “sub-hooks”—lines as memorable and important as the vocal melody. The importance of studying melodies from a variety of different instruments and incorporating their phrasing and dynamics into your vocabulary is a common practice in the jazz and fusion worlds. For us bassists who spend most of our time in the pop and rock realms, learning some of the vocalist’s lines is a great idea as well.
What I like to do is stray from a bass line that is simple and repetitive, and double the singer on one single line, usually in the middle of the verse or somewhere unexpected. I’ll then return to the bass line before most listeners even realize what happened. This little low-end hack really connects the rhythm section to the melody in a fun and non-intrusive way, and will add to your fill and solo vocabulary.
On our season two finale, the country legend details his lead-guitar tricks on one of his biggest hits.
Get out the Kleenex, hankies, or whatever you use to wipe away your tears: It’s the last episode of this season of Shred With Shifty, a media event more consequential and profound than the finales of White Lotus and Severance combined. But there’ll be some tears of joy, too, because on this season two closer, Chris Shiflett talks with one of country music’s greatest players: Vince Gill.
Gill’s illustrious solo career speaks for itself, and he’s played with everyone from Reba McEntire and Patty Loveless to Ricky Skaggs and Dolly Parton. He even replaced Glenn Frey in the Eagles after Frey’s death in 2017. His singing prowess is matched by his grace and precision on the fretboard, skills which are on display on the melodic solo for “One More Last Chance.” He used the same blackguard 1953 Fender Telecaster that you see in this interview to record the lead, although he might not play the solo the exact way he did back in 1992.
Tune in to learn how Gill dialed his clean tone with a tip from Roy Nichols, why he loves early blackguard Telecasters and doesn’t love shredders, and why you never want to be the best player during a studio session.
If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
https://guitarcenterfoundation.org
https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
https://www.musiciansfoundation.org
https://fireaidla.org
https://www.musicares.org
https://www.sweetrelief.org
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
Super versatile EQ. Punchy and powerful in tracking situations. Surprisingly sweet clean tones. Useful DI features. Fun!
Midrange focus comes at expense of airiness. Push button switches can be noisy.
$299
Peavey Joshua Homme Decade Too
The punchy and potent practice amp that propelled many classic QOTSA tracks proves surprisingly versatile thanks to a flexible EQ section and cool clean tones.
One of the reasons classic Queens of the Stone Age tracks leap from radio speakers like striking vipers is because Josh Homme is a true recording artist—an individual that chases and realizes the sounds in his mind by any means necessary. When you play the 10-watt, solid-state Peavey Decade Too with Homme and QOTSA in mind you understand why the original Peavey Decade became integral to that process. It’s feral, present, nasty, bursting with punky attitude, and when tracked and mixed with a booming bass, sounds positively menacing. But it’s also a lovely clean jangle machine that will lend energy to paisley psych pop or punch to a Bakersfield Telecaster solo.
Objectively speaking, if you’ve played an ’80s Peavey practice amp before, you will know many of these sounds well. (Many of my own early amplified experiences came courtesy of a borrowed Backstage 30, so they are etched deep in my marrow and consciousness.) Like any small amp with a little speaker and cabinet, it’s marked by an inherent, pronounced midrange honk—no doubt, an ingredient that Homme found appealing in his original Decade. The saturation is thick and surprisingly dimensional. But it’s the 3-band EQ, with added bass and top-end boost buttons, that really extends the versatility of the Decade Too. In many contexts, it made a cherished vintage Fender Champ sound like a one-trick pony. The Decade Too may not excel at cooking-tubes-style distortion, but in terms of punch, clarity, and versatility in the studio environment, it delivers the goods.
Peavey Josh Homme Decade Too 10-watt 1 x 8-inch Combo Amplifier
Decade Too 1x8" 10w Combo AmpNew RAT Sound Solution Offers a Refined Evolution of Distortion
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The Sterling Vermin features the LM741 Op-Amp and a pair of selectable clipping diodes.Players can toggle between the traditional RAT silicon diode configuration for a punchy, mid-range bite, or the BAT41 option for a smoother, more balanced response. The result is a pedalthat’s equally at home delivering snarling distortion or articulate, low-gain overdrive, with a wide,usable tonal range throughout the entire gain spectrum.
The pedal also features CTS pots and oversized knobs for even, responsive control that affordsa satisfying smoothness to the rotation, with just the right amount of tension. Additionally, thepolished stainless-steel enclosure with laser-annealed graphics showcases the merging of thepedal’s vintage flavor and striking design.
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The RAT Sterling Vermin is available immediately and retails for $349 USD. For moreinformation about this solution, visit: actentertainment.com/rat-distortion .
Two guitars, two amps, and two people is all it takes to bring the noise.
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.