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Danny Thompson growls!


Bob G
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I'm new to this double bass playing, about a month in, although I've played bass guitar for over 40 years. What I would like to know is how Danny Thompson gets that growl in his sound, does he have a particularly low action, or heavy right hand action, or is a particular string make more likely to produce this sound? Whatever, I like it a lot, even though I'm not likely to try and emulate it (at least not yet!)

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I believe that for most of his recordings Danny played Thomastik Spirocore Stark strings. In his DVD he mentions higher action at the nut and hand strength built by many hours of rehearsal. Danny now has his own signature strings you can get via the Bass Centre, reasonably priced quality steel strings, I have used them in the past and liked them. Other than that, a fine old carved bass like his and his unbelievable talent are sure to be contributing factors to his sound. Hope this helps.

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Spirocores would be a good start, but I'd agree that technique is a big part too. Setup also helps with getting that growl, (fingerboard dressing in particular) as I found I could get much closer to that sound on a bass which had been set up by a luthier who played jazz bass rather than a strictly classical-strings luthier.
There's a bit of a balance to be found though, as Thompson's sound has a solid and woody attack as well as the growl, and it's easy to focus on the growl and miss the attack...

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Yes to all the above - practice, practice, practice....
Not tried the Danny signature strings
But I have tried several types,
and I'm amazed at just how different each type is, and what a huge difference in sound they can make

I'd say the same for bass guitar too, but it's an even bigger difference to DB in my opinion....

Interestingly, I saw Danny play a few years back, at Cambridge Folk Fest, in the original lineup of Pentangle
(RIP Mr Jansch) The sound engineers had quite some problem with Danny's sound
It was a huge sound, but there was a lot of feedback going on too
I'm sure that was mainly their problem, not Danny's
But sadly, it spoiled the last time I saw the original lineup of Pentangle....

Let us know what strings you try, and what you think of them
+ 1 for Spirocore Weichs, for me.....

EDIT: I meant to add the anecdote I'm sure many of you have heard;
On setting up his bass in a studio one day, the engineer was having problems with Danny's sound
"What the heck is going on?" The young engineer remarked...

"That my son, is called tone - and it's taken me 25 years to get it, so leave it alone!" ;)

Edited by Marc S
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Interesting, that. The last time I saw Danny was at Cornbury a couple of years ago. The sound people completely destroyed his sound.

Remember, most of those great bass tones are generated in the recording studio in perfect acoustics and with a very nice mic. And then we all get frustrated when we can't reproduce those sounds in a live settings, usually with iffy acoustics and a piezo pickup that we hope won't feedback too much.

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True Bassace...If I had a penny for every time the sound guys made me sound like a tin of biscuits with 4 strings attached on stage, I'd be able to afford Danny Thompson's bass...meanwhile it's only fair to try and get the best possible acoustic tone and hope that the clever people who make mics, pickups and amps will one day be able to allow us to reproduce it on any stage. They are getting much much better all the time: they just have not cracked the affordability element yet...

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In some ways it's a shame he hasn't moved on from the Underwood live (or at least hadn't the last time I heard him). It's a good sound and it works, but I feel like it's not getting his whole sound across as you would hear recorded. Still, the fact that he's focussed on his performance rather than getting sidetracked with gear geekery perhaps says something I could learn from!

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I seem to remember there was a thread on Danny Thompson, where a Basschat member claimed to have had a go on Danny's bass, Victoria and said he sounded just like himself playing. Danny then had a go on the Basschatter's bass and sounded exactly like Danny Thompson.

Pretty much tells you all you need to know about Danny's sound....though years and years of playing on Spiro starks to develop fingers capable of poking through titanium armour probably helps.

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  • 1 month later...

Any string will growl (within reason, I did struggle with a set of Pirastro...never again!). Spirocores growl more than Dannys signature set (I use his strings for A D and G and have a medium Spirocore on the E).
I'm the the guy that posted the story about playing Dannys Bass, he told me off for having a stupidly high action! Victoria's action was pretty low, he was twice as loud as me when we played unamplified and he wasn't really digging in with his right hand. The reason he raised the action at the nut when he practised was to build up left hand strength, his aim has always been to produce a fingered note that had as much tone and clarity as an open string.
Pickup wise, he's been using a blend of two for years, don't know if the Underwood still gets used, ( he defected to shadow for a bit...) but I do know he has a Highlander piezo ribbon pickup inlaid into his bridge about a half centimetre below the strings, he told me its a guitar pickup....
He was using a Ravenlabs PMB2 preamp/blender made for him by Steve Rabe of SWR fame, but when he started using the AER Basscube, he ditched it.
Danny told me it was years before he had any kind of amp and a couple of decades before he cracked the pickup conundrum, so by the time he'd gone down that road, his sound was already fully developed.......
He's on facebook and is very accessible and free with his information and time to anyone, give him a shout.

Edited by mart3442
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I'd always seen Danny at big gigs, and as has been mentioned in another reply his live tone was never quite right to my ears either.
The first time I saw him in an intimate setting, he walked on, started to play (his sound was immense), and then they put him through the rig. The tone pretty much stayed the same. He had no amp onstage, he was using the Ravenlabs pmb2 as a di and preamp. I met him for the first time after that gig, and asked him about it. Turns out he was never fussed on his front of house sound either, having had issues on and off over the years, so he was determined to have as much control over his amplified sound as possible. He used the Ravenlabs to eq his signal in his monitor, and when he was happy with that, he'd send the same signal to the main desk, requesting that where possible, it went through the main rig as was.....

Edited by mart3442
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  • 1 year later...

All;
This thread very helpful and hello. After a 20 year sabbatical (!) from systematic double bass playing 2 years go I picked it up again and now want to upgrade my bass (£565 from Footes in London in 1988) and sound along the lines in this thread (growl like Danny). I am going to jazz workshops and been doing some gigs here in Bristol (UK), even get paid sometimes.

Mart3442 made some really useful posts in particular about Danny's talent, a sound developed over many years. Will start finding a decent bass, nothing much here in Bristol so will visit Contrabass Shope in Walton on Thames on Saturday, maybe Thawites North London, Caswells in Brackley later. Any South or SW England shop suggestions welcome.

I have a nice Headway EDB-2 preamp and Headway Shire King 60 amp. So once I have the bass it will be working out pickups to suit the bass ... Underwood mentioned but any other ideas welcome ...
Cheers John
(if this thread is not still active will repost elsewhere ...

Edited by johnnigelcook
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johnnigel
Hi, I'd be very interested to hear how you get on over at Thwaites or Caswells. I'm in a similar position wanting to upgrade from my Stentor 1950 gigging bass to a better quality bass. My budget doesn't stretch to the Contrebass shop, and I wouldn't wanna drag something from there round the type of gigs I play. Turners in Birmingham/Nottingham seem to be another of the shops that carry a reasonable number of basses, but I haven't had time yet to get up to Beeston in Notts.
Good luck with your search. Pete

Edited by petebassist
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Hi Johnnie, I'd suggest having a chat with Martin Penning in Froome. He's a wonderful DB luthier and is likely to be able to source an instrument locally.

Greg Cordez on the forum is selling a particularly lovely instrument on here, I've heard it live and it's lovely (although he made my piece of junk sing wonderfully) but it's a pro level instrument that has been set up and maintained impeccably. I'm a firm believer in that you get what you pay for with a DB.

He imports Chinese basses and sets them up too if you can't stretch to a vintage instrument or one of his own hand made instruments.

Edited by Burns-bass
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[quote name='johnnigelcook' timestamp='1485513822' post='3224473']Will start finding a decent bass, nothing much here in Bristol so will visit Contrabass Shope in Walton on Thames on Saturday, maybe Thawites North London, Caswells in Brackley later. Any South or SW England shop suggestions welcome.
[/quote]

Worth checking out [url="http://thedoublebassroom.com/basses-for-sale/#.WIxy9IXXJPY"]http://thedoublebassroom.com/basses-for-sale/#.WIxy9IXXJPY[/url]

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  • 2 weeks later...

Low action, high tension strings ... a nice bass

also .. a lot is in the right finger action .. none of my orchestral bass friends make a nice pizzicato sound because they pull their fingers straight across the string and generally too close to the end of the finger board ... makes a satisfying PLONK that suits those symphonic drops of bassiness. For jazzy growl it helps to play higher up the fingerboard and to sort of slide your finger diagonally across the string using the side of the finger not the tip. Danny thompson has it, Eddie Gomez has it in spades; I THINK its the same thing Jaco Pastorious does on a fretless electric.

Pickups usually destroy it but I found I can get close using my realist sound clip .. and a decent soft sounding amp with a bit of an EQ smile .....

oh the endless pursuit of a particular sound :¬).

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