Doug Wimbish

[Faithless]

I'm at the moment diggin' into Doug Wimbish's stuff, mainly with Living Colour..

I won't be bothering with effects he uses (they're all listed in his website, BTW..), but I wanted to know if there's somebody who analysed his playing techniques?

I dig most of 'em, but, the one, that's strange to me, is like he is 'knocking' his bass with open-hand. that is mainly put against the fretboard..

So, can anyone give a few more words about his tech?


I'd be happy,
Cheers,
Faith


BTW, [url="http://www.fabchannel.com/living_colour_concert"]there's[/url] a great quality Living Colour gig, that was about a month ago..

Edited November 24, 2008 by Faithless

[The Funk]

Fretting hand slap techniques. I think it developed from over-exuberant fretting hand muting and crossed with hammer-ons to become something else.

Check out some Louis Johnson (not because he uses it really, just because his playing's awesome).

[bremen]

[quote name='Faithless' post='335675' date='Nov 24 2008, 05:48 PM']I'm at the moment diggin' into Doug Wimbish's stuff, mainly with Living Colour..[/quote]

Heard his stuff with Tackhead? and Keith LeBlanc's solo stuff?

Dirty, dirty bass! It's what made me buy a Thumb :-)

[nick]

+1 for TackHead

Some nice bass work on this

[Faithless]

Is his stuff with Madonna interesting? :wub:

Edited November 24, 2008 by Faithless

[Alun]

Is it the weird fast slap thing he does you're referring to? If so, it's basically this....

He often uses his fingertips to slap the strings onto the frets, similar to the "typewriter" technique John Entwistle used.

The fast triplet is played by using the first finger on the E string and putting the thumb under the string so that it's almost pinching it. He then quickly flicks his wrist so that the first finger hits ths string down and the thumb snaps it back up - it's pretty much the opposite of normal slapping! Weird but effective.

[Russ]

[quote name='bremen' post='335711' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:32 PM']Heard his stuff with Tackhead? and Keith LeBlanc's solo stuff?

Dirty, dirty bass! It's what made me buy a Thumb :-)[/quote]

Shame he used his orange Spector on 90% of the stuff he's recorded. I have seen him with a Thumb 6 though.

I love Doug... I find his playing to be supremely inspiring. He can groove like a monster, yet he has these amazing solo chops, not to mention the wild sounds he gets out of his pedals... I went to one of his bass clinics, and it was awesome... from deep groove to Jaco-esque harmonics to Jeff Beck-style soloing over loops in one tune. The Little Axe stuff is fantastic from a bass perspective. Funny guy too, lots of great stories from the road and from the many gigs he's done.

He does have some unusual techniques though... the technique you're talking about is almost a reverse slap... he "slaps" the strings with his fingertips, and pops the lower strings with his thumb - he can get this technique going pretty bloody fast too. He also has that very strange technique where he hits the strings with a small jam jar... certainly a unique sound!

[nick]

[quote name='bremen' post='335711' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:32 PM']Heard his stuff with Tackhead? and Keith LeBlanc's solo stuff?

Dirty, dirty bass! It's what made me buy a Thumb :-)[/quote]

He did some tasty playing with Bomb the Bass too!

[Faithless]

Well, gotta mention, that the only thing I don't like about him is when he uses octaver and 'tries' to be gu1tar-like when soloing.. I don't see any reason here.




Well, if you still mind, I'll get my coat then.

Edited November 24, 2008 by Faithless

[Alun]

[quote name='Faithless' post='335760' date='Nov 24 2008, 07:19 PM']Well, gotta mention, that the only thing I don't like about him is when he uses octaver and 'tries' to be gu1tar-like when soloing.. I don't see any reason here.[/quote]

I know what you mean - I saw him on The White Room ( Ch4 music prog from the 90s) with Tackhead and he did the whole thing with the Whammy pedal on +1 octave while a second bassist stood at the back and played the basslines.

I love his playing on "Stain" by Living Colour though - some of the most amazongly creative rock playing I've heard.

[SJA]

[quote name='nick' post='335741' date='Nov 24 2008, 07:03 PM']He did some tasty playing with Bomb the Bass too!
[/quote]

is that him on Bug Powder Dust? I thought that was a sample off the intro to Flora Purim's "Open your eyes, you can fly".


--------------------

[bremen]

[quote name='Russ' post='335733' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:57 PM']Shame he used his orange Spector on 90% of the stuff he's recorded. I have seen him with a Thumb 6 though.[/quote]

D'oh! Once again I fall for the marketing machine. I saw him one time and he was handed a different Thumb for each song, it seemed. I'd never seen a 5 string fretless before. I got close to the sound on Hard Left with the 4 string anyway, so it worked for me.

The I got a Music Man because I liked the sound on Blood Sugar Sex Magic ;-)

You'll be telling me that Lemmy uses an EB0 next.

Edit: I've just ben handed a piece of paper that says Flea used a WAL on BSSM and I should pay more attention.

Edited November 24, 2008 by bremen

[thisnameistaken]

Let's not forget that he was the bassist in the Sugarhill Records house band...

[nick]

[quote name='SJA' post='335775' date='Nov 24 2008, 07:35 PM']is that him on Bug Powder Dust? I thought that was a sample off the intro to Flora Purim's "Open your eyes, you can fly".


--------------------[/quote]

You're right :blush: Though it sounds like it's replayed or at least overdubbed.
Seem to recall DB being credited on my 12". Will have to try dig it out this evening to check.
Still a great bassline

[Josh]

[quote name='nick' post='335741' date='Nov 24 2008, 07:03 PM']He did some tasty playing with Bomb the Bass too!
[/quote]

Awesome!

Thats the menu music on NBA Street

[Bernmeister]

Yeah !! Doug Wimbish, what an inspirational bass player he is, he's also played on Annie Lennox
first solo album & the first couple of Seals too, if i remember correctly.

Edited November 25, 2008 by Bernmeister

[Hamster]

I went too see Doug with Keith (or was it Kenny?) LeBlanc at the Bass Centre for a gig. A bit of a name dropper and heavy on the pedals but a great bassist.

p.s. I remember the drummer looked a little frail with little or no hair and a basebal cap - cancer/chemotherapy/recreational chemistry? Excellent drummer though.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Hamster' post='336924' date='Nov 26 2008, 02:20 AM']p.s. I remember the drummer looked a little frail with little or no hair and a basebal cap - cancer/chemotherapy/recreational chemistry? Excellent drummer though.[/quote]

Not that I'm aware of (if it was Keith LeBlanc). He was another Sugarhill cat.

I'd still like to hear the story of how all the top brass from Sugarhill Records ended up crossing the pond to come and work with Adrian Sherwood, if anybody knows. I never really understood how he pulled that off!

[nick]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='336935' date='Nov 26 2008, 03:07 AM']I'd still like to hear the story of how all the top brass from Sugarhill Records ended up crossing the pond to come and work with Adrian Sherwood, if anybody knows. I never really understood how he pulled that off![/quote]

I believe it was more Mark Stewart who was working with Sherwood, who instigated bringing in the Tackhead guys. Bit of info here at about 4.05


I have a mate who I haven't seen for a while who used to be quite involved (in a non-musical capacity) with the On-U Sound crew back in the day, planning to catch up with him over Chritmas period for a pint - will definitely ask him about how the connection was made.
It is intriguing.

[ardi100]

I saw Living Colour in Melbourne in 1993. Wicked show and Wimbish's playing blew me away, even after being a fan.

My mates and I went to the only club open late on a Sunday night after the gig and proceeded to get hammered when none other than Living Colour walked in about 2am. I'd had a few by then and got up some dutch courage. I went over to the band and said hello and that I'd really enjoyed their show. Wimbish had a hot looking girl on his arm and I didn't expect him to ignore her but he turned his back on her and chatted bass with me for about 15 minutes!!

He was extremely nice and went out of his way to talk to me and my mates. Wicked! Vernon Reid, on the other hand . . .

[Doc B]

Doug Wimbish is one of my favourite players too. I saw him play with Living Colour in 93/94 on the Stain tour. Amazing stuff.

[warwickhunt]

I saw DW do a Trace demo in Gosforth, Newcastle many moons ago and I almost gave up bass!

Loved learning/doing 'Loves Rears Up' with my band when it was a current single; not the hardest track in the world but as a band not used to that kind of style it took us a while to get the feel right.

[johnnylager]

[quote name='Russ' post='335733' date='Nov 24 2008, 06:57 PM']...he used his orange Spector on 90% of the stuff he's recorded.[/quote]
And now I understand why.

[Faithless]

Why then?

[Russ]

[quote name='Faithless' post='339459' date='Nov 28 2008, 12:50 PM']Why then? [/quote]

I'd say it's because that's "his" bass - he's been using it for over 20 years and it's completely comfortable for him. Plus, it sounds fantastic. He's been through his signature series Ibbys, not to mention various other basses, and keeps coming back to the old Spector. I saw him on the Living Colour Collideoscope tour, around the time he had the Ibby endorsement, and he used the Ibbys for maybe two songs - he used the Spector for all the rest.