Bernard on a P-bass

[JJTee]

Interesting to hear Le Freak  played on something other than a Stingray by the great man himself. Definitely one of those players where it’s all in the fingers…(although, is it my ears or is his bass a bit flat?)

 

 

Edited February 3 by JJTee

[diskwave]

My grt inspiration. Yep its a bit out and sounds glorious. Bernard is one of those rare original muicans who didnt really care much about anything other than the groove....Pretty sure he didnt even know what strings he was usin, and that original thinking still sits head and shoulders above todays need for every note to be tinkered with to the enth degree,  extremely refreshing in this age of misplaced digital perfection. 

Edited February 3 by diskwave

[iconic]

According to Davide Romani (Change et al) basically anything Chic was recorded in the studio with Bernard Edwards on...... a Fender P.

 

Anything played on TV or in concert was played for looks, Stingray, BC Rich, Jazz, Sadowsky etc. 

 

Bernard Edwards and Davide Romani were great friends during the Chic days, shared studio time and session singers/players when needed. 

 

Ohh, and that oft quoted comment of not knowing what strings were on his bass? Just BE being witty, but went completely over the interviers head. Bernard and Nile were grade A anoraks when it came to production. Again, Mr Romani. 

[JJTee]

I think it’s a P bass on the first album (i.e. for Dance, Dance, Dance and Everbody Dance) and then his 1978 Stingray for everything else. And with the unchanged halfwound strings it came with, for every session. I read that he used the P bass and BC Rich for live work because he thought they looked better, and Marcus Miller I think confirmed this when he asked Bernard how he got his tone on the records using (he wrongly assumed) the BC Rich he’d seen him playing live.  

[Doctor J]

15 hours ago, iconic said:

According to Davide Romani (Change et al) basically anything Chic was recorded in the studio with Bernard Edwards on...... a Fender P.

 

Anything played on TV or in concert was played for looks, Stingray, BC Rich, Jazz, Sadowsky etc. 

In this instance, Davide Romani is a little wide of the mark. The first Chic album was a P, but most of what came after in the late 70's and early 80's was the Stingray. The BC Rich was very much for looks, Marcus Miller had a story about that, and the Sadowsky was a lot later, into the 90's, I think. The Stingray definitely became his primary studio instrument for a good few years, though.

[Huge Hands]

18 hours ago, iconic said:

 

Ohh, and that oft quoted comment of not knowing what strings were on his bass? Just BE being witty, but went completely over the interviers head. Bernard and Nile were grade A anoraks when it came to production. Again, Mr Romani. 

 

 

I agree - I'm pretty sure I saw an interview with Nile a few years ago where he said it was Bernard who taught him to use the unique chord patterns on the guitar, so assume Bernard had some guitar and harmony knowledge too?

[AndyTheBassBison]

There's a version of Everybody Dance from the same show - very nice!

 

 

[JJTee]

4 hours ago, AndyTheBassBison said:

There's a version of Everybody Dance from the same show - very nice!

 

 

Fantastic - never seen a live version of Everybody Dance with Bernard showing off his chucking technique before. There it is, at 08:00, in all its glory!

[JJTee]

6 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

 

I agree - I'm pretty sure I saw an interview with Nile a few years ago where he said it was Bernard who taught him to use the unique chord patterns on the guitar, so assume Bernard had some guitar and harmony knowledge too?

Have to disagree on the strings front. I saw a great interview with Nile on, I think, a Top Ten of Disco (hosted by Huggy Bear I think!) programme which I recall very clearly as I watched it over and over again.
 

Nile said it was in an interview with both of them for Guitar Player magazine where: ‘the interviewer asked “Bernard, you have that fantastic sound - like, what kind of strings do you use?”, to which Bernard replied “I dunno? What kind of strings come on a Stingray?” - he hadn’t changed the strings since he bought, he didn’t even care what they were!’.

[ead]

I can't seem to see the vids on this (and other threads).  Any clues anyone?

[JJTee]

And here he is on a BC Rich…

 

 

 

Marvellous stuff! 

[Misdee]

On 05/02/2024 at 17:57, iconic said:

According to Davide Romani (Change et al) basically anything Chic was recorded in the studio with Bernard Edwards on...... a Fender P.

 

Anything played on TV or in concert was played for looks, Stingray, BC Rich, Jazz, Sadowsky etc. 

 

Bernard Edwards and Davide Romani were great friends during the Chic days, shared studio time and session singers/players when needed. 

 

Ohh, and that oft quoted comment of not knowing what strings were on his bass? Just BE being witty, but went completely over the interviers head. Bernard and Nile were grade A anoraks when it came to production. Again, Mr Romani. 

I  too roll my eyes every time someone trots out that old story originally told by Nile Rogers about Bernard Edwards being so cool because he didn't know what kind of strings came as stock on a new Music man bass and he had never changed them. So what? Of course he hadn't changed them, they were flat wounds and he was featuring that sound on big hit records.

 

 He subsequently did change to round wounds on that bass by the time of the third Chic album in 1980. People don't tell that part of the story quite so much.

 

Considering how much ghost notes and muting were part of Bernard's signature style it's not that surprising that he could sound like himself regardless of what bass and what strings he was using. I can see how a P Bass would suit him just as well as a Stingray.

Edited February 20 by Misdee