Bass Guitar & Me

In the Beginning ... I first started playing bass guitar about 15 years ago or more.. well hmmm i can't remember exactly how long ago. But anyway I used to jam with friends playing in bands where I was a very basic keyboard/piano player.  Yes these we the days of playing in 80's cover bands!! could there be anything worse?  But lets hold up a minute, thankfully my musical journey really began a few more years before this time. Thanks to my parents, I had the opportunity to take up playing the trumpet in primary school.  Inspired by the opening theme from Star Wars  I just had to play the trumpet!! So I insisted in primary school that I 'had' to play it - none of this piss-ant squarky-arse clarinet shit that they were pushing on me. So for $400 (which was a fair cop in those days)  they bought me a shiny new Yamaha trumpet on the promise that "i would practice everydaaay".  And I did.   I wasn't a bad trumpet player.  I can safely say playing the trumpet is about as much as I have in common with the master and lord FLEA oh and yes, he plays bass too. More on him later. But I soon learned playing trumpet along to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" or the trumpet part in The Models song "Out of Mind Out of Sight" wasn't exactly rocking out!!  My good friend in high school, Eliot, a great muso and fan of music, (and now accomplished actor) taught me to play piano.  We were both doing music at Perth Modern School. We shared the latest (and "alternative") music tapes and records of the day.

I used the piano more really to allow me to play along or learn whatever song i heard on the radio or on a record which I liked. These years are probably when I learned the most about popular music.  I think this all helped me today when I try to think of or compose bass parts or contribute to the writing of songs.  I guess you build like a databank of "what sounded cool" almost subconsciously in your mind which sometimes can help you shape a part of song. 


My First Bass Guitar
So, the piano..  I began jamming (well dicking around really) with my friends in bands playing keyboard + piano..  Coupled with our band's need for "someone to fuken play bass man" and my lack of piano "rocking out-ness" I put my hand up and said .. "yeah man I'll fuken play bass!"   So it was off to the local cash converters (of course) we went, looking to buy the band's bass guitar. Someone told me... maybe it was my mother I don't remember ..  but they warned me of the perils of buying things jointly.. especially in bands. So I almost sadly parted with the $125 it cost to buy my first Bass Guitar in probably 1993!  It was The HONDO II  - Fender Precison clone bass, which was probably either made in the 70's or 80's in Japan! It was a maple neck all light wood grain body black scratch plate hunk of wanna be Fender P bass. Which I soon and now to my dismay trashed!  I don't even wanna know if this guitar could be vintage or actually worth something.  All that is left of it is the neck  - which now lives under my bed as my late night intruder whacking stick weapon! (Haven't had to use it yet!).  

At the time (so little did I also know about Bass) the last thing I wanted was a boring Fender P Bass!  I wanted something that looked hip and whacked out... something PRINCE would play!! It wasn't long before I began to love the bass guitar.  Armed with my trusty "Hondo II" I found myself playing along to whatever music i was listening to at the time on the radio, record or CD.  I think I heard "always on the run" by Lenny Kravitz and I was smitten with the groovin bass line. From then I knew the bass guitar was for me. I listened and learned and copied. 

I got together with my brother Daniel Romeo and his high school friends Ben Vanderwall, Matt Eastwell.. (and that crazy mofo Van.. although he didn't play anything other than the madcap fool) and we started a band.  We played a lot of Eric Clapton and Cream covers and recorded two original songs -  "Kerri" and "Trapped" .  These songs have a cameo chick vocal in them from a mysterious girl named Nicole who I've unfortunately lost track of.   My good friend from way back, Dan Avila is also playing guitar on these tracks.  We went to Uni together and spent many hours mucking around on our guitars in his music room. We wrote "Rocking Tonight" which got regular airplay on local radio station PMFM.  Gary Shannon from the station made it his own personal theme song. My bass playing was okay - technically defunct! but I didn't care I was just playing music, that's all that matters.  And its still probably all that matters today too. 

Five String Basses


As the Hondo II wasn't cool enough for me and I also got my first "real" job, I began thinking about getting another bass guitar.  I didn't really know what I was looking for or exactly why but I decided I would get something 5 string.  Five string basses were beginning to be used more in music and a lot of what I was listening to so I thought I'd try my hand at one.  I stumbled across a Fenix SH 5 String bass .   Fenix guitars and basses were made in Korea by the mainly piano manufacturer Young Chang. Its the yellow bass guitar in the picture and is a solid maple body with gold GOTOH hardware. 

What I really liked about this bass was its cut away small body design which gave great access to the high 24 frets (not that I really needed it!!)  Its still nice to play even now the neck is smooth and easy. With light strings and its nice low action its just down on tone qualities on its own.  Its got twin switchable passive P bass style pickups and a simple tone control.  I think the bridge pickup set isn't working properly.  I think I paid $700 for this bass in 1995.  

About 5 years later I decided I wanted an active bass.  So I got to looking at the Ibanez SR and Cort Artisan series of basses.  I went with the Cort C5 because Gene Simmons uses Cort .. well no that wasn't the reason ... and maybe if I had of known one of the workers at the Cort factory was so upset about an industrial dispute he set himself on fire, I might have gone Ibanez?  

The Cort C5 was also made in Korea and is a Basswood body with active Mightymite soapbar pickups.  With 24 frets I really loved the shape of the body and the nice thin neck for a 5 string. Its bit heavier than the Fenix and is a great bass for slapping and modern tones. Its a pretty bass and I used it ever since up until our first Stellas Kitchen gigs. It now sits basically in storage and still hasn't got a mark on it. 

As for the poor Hondo II ... well once I had the other basses I almost therapeutically began to destroy it!  You spend all your life with guitars trying to keep them clean and not ever scratch or god forbid DROP them.  Its like not touching the surface of a CD or DVD!! So when you don't care anymore like if the CD is buggered, its almost liberating to put your dirty fingers all over em.  So,  I thru the Hondo from moving cars, dropped it, stood on it, put dumb arse stickers all over it, drew on it.  It just wouldn't die!  Looking back, much like everything I've done with bass it was and is all ARSE ABOUT!!!  I mean I'd been playing for a few years now and I wouldn't even look at the Fender basses in the music shops!! 

I have to mention BuXom!  This was a mostly crazy and fun cover band I played in for a while around this time. Daniel was also in the band as the main singer but we also had the greek Eddie Macguire Nick "G'day maaate" Keskinidis playing guitar and singing.  Ben "why you little" Suda played lead guitar and Sam "STAF" Stathopoulos on drums.  We spent Friday nights practicing at Daniel's ... pretty soon we were all great "Tiger Woods Golf" gamers.  Well we did play music a bit too. There is talk of a reunion tour should all parties' management teams be able to find some common ground for an agreement to terms.  


Stellas Kitchen

I'm playing bass in Stellas Kitchen with my brothers Daniel, Carlo and Jon. We got together in 2007 at Daniel's to jam some of his many original songs.  We'd all been involved in music and playing our instruments, over the years but never played together as a rock band.  The catalyst for this was really the emergence of Jon on electric guitar. And can he play! I think when the Hondo II was still alive, Jon came to me and asked me to show him how to play the bass guitar, to teach him (HAH!).  So I showed him some basic finger positions and finger plucking technique along with the little bass bit at the start of "Another One Bites the Dust". And that was it. He then went away and studied the instrument and practiced.  With the Hondo II  dead .. no actually it just had three strings on it but no output!!! -  I bought him  a basic Yamaha RBX170.  Although Jon is a 20 times better bass player than I'll ever be, (thankfully) he is even better a guitarist!  He picked up the electric guitar and studied and practiced even harder than he did on bass.  He is a true student of music and the guitar.  So now Jon plays lead guitar with us in Stellas and is our "Norton's Anti-chump" filter for the band! 

When I took up trumpet many many years ago - Carlo's choice was the drums. Like Jon he took to the drums naturally and was soon playing better than the eggs who actually learned music at Perth Modern School.  I think he jammed with Mark Lizotte's (Diesel) band/crew - even one morning before school in the school's auditorium.  With us establishing Stellas Kitchen I think Carlo has gotten even better as a drummer and even more into drums. Like Jon he is a true aficionado of the instrument, its legendary players and his drum toys! ( I think he has bout 12 snare drums now?). 

Daniel, now he is the driving force behind Stellas, its heart and soul!!  Lucky for us .. and himself  - Dan can't keep still and is  so motivated and loud (he was separated as a baby from the other babies in the maternity ward when he was born for being so) - I think this helps him keep up with all the shit he takes on for the band while trying be its lead singer and work 9-5.  Not to mention how he can create  (most) and learn all the lyrics for our songs. We're all becoming more involved now in the song writing for the band. Forming Stellas Kitchen really has made us all lift our games and for me it was also kind of a turning point in bass guitar too. 



Get Me a Fender Jazz Bass!!


Technically I'm a shithouse bass player! My fingers are all jumbled up and all over the  place. I think ever even practiced scales on bass until about a year ago!!! I snobbed Fender. I dunno much about the world's renowned soloist bassists ... I can't even hold a pick properly!!  I pretty much have done everything in bass totally arse about!  I think it was in 2007 around when we started Stellas Kitchen, I saw Diesel at the Leopold Hotel and I was watching bass player Richie Vez play. To me he was everything I wanted to be in Stellas Kitchen...  and as a bass player. What he was playing was amazing.. subtle at times - his technique and his singing was great too.  Everything he did was in context of the band and the songs. I'd rather watch a good bassist play as a component in sync with his/her band and the song, over some mad soloist bassist any day!  This is why I'm more into bassists like Ritchie, Chris Wolsteholme, Flea and Pino Palladino.


So I started paying a lot more attention to the gear these guys were using.  Its a common theme - Fender basses. So I bought a Fender Squire Afinity  5 string Jazz bass.  Squire guitars are Fender's lower cost value guitar option. When you first pick up a Fender bass (well for me anyway) you'll notice they are relatively heavy and the body seems larger. For me to was like this big old spaceship that you really had to wrestle to play (for a 5 string). Being a Squire this bass is down on the quality of the components.. but for the money they are a bargain. Although made in China the build quality about as good as my Mexican Fender Jazz basses. - well at least the one I got is not much off the pace compared to its Mexi cousins. The biggest let down are the pickups and the bridge.  However, the necks are pretty reasonable and the tuners are not bad too.  Of all my basses this one holds its tuning the best! Now it is a few years old the body and neck seem to have settled nicely.  The neck is straight as anything and I've got the action pretty much set perfect for me.  But.. the pickups sound basically dead compared to a standard Jazz or American Fender Jazz. Once the gloss wears off your new strings the tone is cardboard box wooden like. In saying all that, when I first got this bass and a glimpse into the Fender tone possibilities I was hooked. 


So, its only taken me 20 years! well not that long.. but I've finally got me a 2009 American Fender Jazz 5!!  If only I had known better and not dicked around for all these years and got one of these babies from the start!!  The sound of this bass is on other level compared to my other Jazz basses. Growling lively Fender tone is what you get when you just plug it in.  From the glossy headstock finish to the string thru body bridge they are really in a different class to Fender's cheaper options.  I went for the Olympic white with shell pick guard.
 
The USA basses are all a bit lighter. I don't know how much difference the thinner paint finish, and lighter tuners really make, but you can feel the difference for sure. The Jazz necks are only slightly thinner at the nut - about 3mm but I just find them much nicer to play than the P-Bass. I spose I'll eventually get one.. .  (I'm that addicted now to trolling ebay for basses).  I just find the P-Bass neck to feel like its almost got square sides compared to the Jazz neck.  The body is smaller and lighter and just to look at they are'nt as shapely too I reackon. Maybe a P-Bass body with a Jazz neck might be the answer!  Its  not an uncommon mod which you can even buy from Fender.  The Duff McKagan (Guns & Roses) Fender artist bass currently has this combination and many have hot-rodded this mod themselves.  I might give it a go myself one day.  It took a bit of massaging to get my Mexi 4 string Jazz set up how I like it. The American Jazz was pretty much right straight from the box.