karlclews

Hello all! I haven't checked in here for a looong time, so my apologies for that. I just dropped by to list a bass for sale in the classifieds here, and while I was here thought I should share my youtube channel, since it might be of interest to you guys. For about 8 years now, I've been arranging classic hits, jazz standards, and movie and TV themes for solo bass guitar, or bass duos or even trios, occasionally incorporating piccolo and tenor basses, along with my own bass-led compositions. I had a few viral hits early on, notably with my arrangement of the Pink Panther theme and The Beegees' Stayin' Alive, and the channel has been gradually growing since then, such that now I have a Patreon page where you can download the transcriptions of many of my arrangements. Anyway, to give you a taste, here's a recent arrangement, but I do hope you'll explore the rest of the channel while you're there, because there are literally hundreds of these arrangements up there now and you're bound to find something you'll like.

A funky little solo piece that I wrote for tenor bass, vaguely inspired by Stanley Clarke: https://youtu.be/YGHaWggK3k0

Hi all, I just wanted to share the latest in my ongoing series of solo bass arrangements on YouTube. This one is Henry Mancini's Theme from The Pink Panther: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlxO_gX6dJU"]https://www.youtube....h?v=zlxO_gX6dJU[/url] And as an added bonus, if you would like to play this yourself, I've transcribed it in notation and tab, and you can download it for free from my website here: [url="http://www.karlclews.com/documents.html"]http://www.karlclews.../documents.html[/url]

Hi all - just wondered if I could ask you to take a few minutes to have a look at my jazz-funk-fusion band's debut single. While we're fully aware that the track itself, at six and a half minutes long, and full of improvisation and weird electronica, is unlikely to make too much of an impression on the charts, we're pretty stoked with the video, and hope that, even if the music isn't your cup of tea, the visuals will keep you entertained and make you want to share it along! Thanks for your time in any case, and do please let us know what you think! Here's the link: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsyJ9ta0bfc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsyJ9ta0bfc[/url]

Thanks very much, YouMa! PS: Was your mum REALLY in Shakatak??

Hi folks, Just wanted to put this out there. Please feel free to comment and/or share. Thanks for looking! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-QjPnCZc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-QjPnCZc[/url]

Here's my demolition of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It', arranged for solo electric bass - it's big and dirty, so mind your speakers!: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rYdSka4afw[/media]

Hi folks, Here's my solo bass arrangement of The Beatles' 'Hey Jude', played on an Alembic Stanley Clarke sig. A bit scrappy, but the intention was to come up with a showcase for as many different techniques as I could manage in one song, so there's a bit of fingerstyle, slap, classical-guitar-style finger picking, strumming, flamenco-style flourishes and harmonics in there. Something for everyone :-) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHt1wlzjYnY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHt1wlzjYnY[/url] Cheers, Karl

A little harsh of Pete Academy to say Alembics have 'no warmth whatsoever'. Maybe it's just a different of what constitutes 'warmth', but I'd say my Alembic is the 'warmest' sounding bass I have, and my collection includes a Jazz, a Stingray, a couple of Statuses, a Ken Smith and a Goodfellow. It's worth noting that quite apart from the filter controls, the trim screws on the filter controls, hidden away in the control cavity, really have a huge effect on the base sound of any given Alembic. When I first got mine (second hand), I found it very harsh and trebly. So I backed off the level on the bridge pickup a little and bumped it up a touch on the neck pickup and it was a completely different bass - hey presto, much 'warmer'. And then of course, adjusting the height of the pickups has a further balancing effect on the base tone of the guitar. For some reason, on every Alembic I've come across in music stores, they seem to be set up with a rather toppy sound, and a quick peek in the control cavity usually confirms that the bridge filter control trim screw is set at the max - perhaps folks like to showcase that toppy, hi-fi 'zingy-ness', but that's by no means all an Alembic can do, and you really can change the character of the default tone to a huge degree by just experimenting with those trim screws. That said, Alembics all seem to have a distinctive 'attack' - difficult to explain, but it's like a slight 'crunch' or 'quack' at the beginning of the note, and a very quick response, which you either like or you don't. You can tame it to some extent through filter adjustment and modifying your technique, but it's difficult to remove completely. So make sure you like that aspect of the sound before you commit! Here's a little vid of my Alembic Stanley Clarke Deluxe, recorded direct into audio interface - no amp, no processing, that's just the sound of the bass you're getting there. I have the treble a little higher than I normally would because I'm playing the melody here as well as the bottom line, but you should get an idea of the character of the bass and perhaps hear what I mean about that distinctive 'attack': [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9NNfDbxjP4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9NNfDbxjP4[/url] K.

Here's my arrangement of The Average White Band's 'Put It Where You Want It' for solo bass, played on a Status Kingbass. Hope you enjoy it. [url="http://youtu.be/zrp88fOgqF8"]http://youtu.be/zrp88fOgqF8[/url] Karl

Cheers for the feedback, guys! @ funkopotamus: yes, I've obviously heard the MM version at some point, but I made a conscious decision not to listen to his while working this out! Guess I should now go back and listen to his again and see how much I subconsciously absorbed into my version! As regards what I used to record the track: it's that Alembic Stanley Clarke directly into a Presonus Audiobox interface, recorded in Sonar X1 on a laptop. Little bit of compression, eq and reverb in Sonar. The drums are a slightly edited loop from Stylus RMX.

Hi folks, Here's a little vid of my arrangement of The Beatles' classic, Come Together, for solo bass, played on an Alembic Stanley Clarke. Hope you like it! [url="http://youtu.be/i9NNfDbxjP4"][u][size=3][color=#0000FF][size=3][color=#0000FF]http://youtu.be/i9NNfDbxjP4[/color][/size][/color][/size][/u][/url] Cheers, K.

I occasionally used to find this, until someone pointed me towards checking if the string was twisted. So I loosened off the string a little, until it was no longer held tight, and sure enough, the ball end rotated a couple of times in the bridge hole before settling. I then tightened it up again and hey presto - the string sounded as bright as the others! Seems to affect the E string more than the others (in fact, I've never noticed a comparative loss of brightness on any of the other strings). Anyway, now I always double-check that the strings haven't become twisted when I change a set. Haven't had the problem recur since. A related issue I had once, which also might be worth noting: after changing a set of strings, I noticed that notes on the E string seemed to have a noticeable lack of clarity or definition when compared with the other strings. It turned out that the problem was that the string break angle at the nut wasn't sharp enough - the string was leaving the tuning peg near the top of the peg, so the downward pressure on the nut for that string wasn't as high as it should have been. So I re-strang (?) it correctly such that the string wound down on the tuner peg towards the headstock and therefore left the peg as close to the headstock as possible, giving a sharper angle of deflection. Again, hey presto, problem solved. Both tips have saved me a lot of frustration and cash!