Martin BC-15E

[Sparky]

Since I joined basschat I've been banging on about my amp and my logistical issues. Everyone has been very helpful and I'm enjoying the forum very much so I figured since I am [i]'no longer a newbie' [/i]it was about time I gave something back. I don't have any technical knowledge to offer, so here is my trump card - my undisclosed asset; This is my Martin BC-15E acoustic bass. It was a gift from my dad on my 21st birthday so it's very special to me.

The sound's Amazing - resonates so sweetly - the mid to upper registers especially. Great for practice because it's tough to play - the big, deep body means that when i'm sat down playing it, my right elbow's higher in the air than usual - less blood gets to the forearm and hand! it's a work-out but means that when i play my electric bass it feels comparitively untaxing!

I've taken a few pics and have included a snap taken last summer whilst using it in the studio - you can see how high up my elbow is! argh, it burns! come on sparky, work it, work it!!!

ok, enjoy.

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[fleamail]

I always wanted one!!! Any chance of some sound clips???

[thumbo]

Nice one! That looks awesome.

[paul, the]

There are very few basses that I have thought were genuinely beautiful. This is one of them.

[Sparky]

[quote name='fleamail' post='86625' date='Nov 10 2007, 08:23 PM']I always wanted one!!! Any chance of some sound clips???[/quote]
Yeh, I know - I'm very lucky. Hey, I've no idea how I'd record any new soundclips of the bass on it's own, but I have our album recording from last year and you can hear the bass pretty good - especially right at the beginning of the track (think the recording captured the great resonance of it's upper-registers - listen on a pair of good headphones and you'll wet yourself ). Our engineer got me to record the bass part twice - once with the acoustic where he laid plywood down on the floor, put up this perspex screen all around me and positioned the mics inside the enclosure (the studio was carpeted and very small, so we needed to create a false acoustic) and once with the electric bass (the one you hear is a sweeeeet 70's p-bass belonging to the studio) plugged straight into the desk (via a load of rack mounted stuff i don't know about). Then the guys mixed the two to get the end result - the acoustic bass is only heard in the verses - you'll hear it change in the other sections - method worked out pretty well i think.

anyway, the song's called 'Open with a Lie' and is the '[i]one for the ladies[/i]' on the album - the rest of it's rock and roll ! if you're interested, the website's got clips of the whole album on autostream - www.theexpensivehabits.com

cheers fleamail.

[attachment=3443:09_Open_With_A_Lie.mp3]

[Sparky]

[quote name='paul, the' post='86764' date='Nov 11 2007, 06:00 AM']There are very few basses that I have thought were genuinely beautiful. This is one of them.[/quote]
Yeh thanks Paul the. Like I said to fleamail, I'm very lucky to own it. I don't rekon it looks as 'beautiful' as some other guitars but it's definitely the most honest peice of wood i'd ever want to own! you can really see it in the shot of the shot of the headstock rear - it's just a 'plank'! - the instrument in it's most simplest form. anyway, enough about my guitar; i've recently been taking a more serious interest in learning how to play it!!!

wanted to learn the bass part for the stevie wonder song 'do i do' so tried to google the transcript (there's only so much i'm able to do by ear - it's all the fast stuff in the 4th bar of each phrase that gets me).. anyway, couldn't find the notes so thought i'd try YouTube - searched for 'Nathan Watts, Do I Do' and didn't find any footage of the man himself, but instead, came accross this guy - you heard of him? MarloweDK... german dude - frickin' awesome. here's the link of the Do I Do 'playalong':
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8[/url]
and here's the link to his [size=3]170[/size] other videos!
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8[/url]
only discovered this yesterday so obviously haven't looked through all of them but i've browsed a few and looks like it's a good mixture of him playing along to tunes with nice bass lines, him recording his own lines, but then most interestingly of all he has some tutorials on there where he speaks, plays, repeats things slowly etc. He uses some cranky backing beats for these but it doesn't matter - his playing sounds great and I rekon I'm gonna try and work through some of them... i might copy and paste this bit into a more suitable forum actually... yeh, i'm gonna do that... oh yeh and by the way - he's got some LOVELY GUITARS!!! and the quality of the recordings is very good...

[paul, the]

[quote name='Sparky' post='86927' date='Nov 11 2007, 04:35 PM']Yeh thanks Paul the. Like I said to fleamail, I'm very lucky to own it. I don't rekon it looks as 'beautiful' as some other guitars but it's definitely the most honest peice of wood i'd ever want to own! you can really see it in the shot of the shot of the headstock rear - it's just a 'plank'! - the instrument in it's most simplest form. anyway, enough about my guitar; i've recently been taking a more serious interest in learning how to play it!!!

wanted to learn the bass part for the stevie wonder song 'do i do' so tried to google the transcript (there's only so much i'm able to do by ear - it's all the fast stuff in the 4th bar of each phrase that gets me).. anyway, couldn't find the notes so thought i'd try YouTube - searched for 'Nathan Watts, Do I Do' and didn't find any footage of the man himself, but instead, came accross this guy - you heard of him? MarloweDK... german dude - frickin' awesome. here's the link of the Do I Do 'playalong':
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyTQzA8_kI8[/url][/quote]

Oh my. How much would a bass like that set me back? I'm not normally attracted to MMs and the tone is so warm and gentle despite being active. Is there anything MMs can't do?

[BassBod]

Hi Sparky,

I've got a similar Martin - how do you get on with strings for yours? I liked the Martin bronze ones, but found them too "clacky". I've ended up with Thomastik flats....like the mellow sound and feel, but can't help feeling I've lost a bit of volume and presence?

BB

[Sparky]

Dude, that sh*t's vintage: Music Man Stingray 1977. or is it? - how old does a guitar have to be to be considered 'vintage'? he's got Loads of really nice guitars - check out the list on the left hand side of his page; [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/MarloweDK"]http://www.youtube.com/user/MarloweDK[/url]
mmmm....

[Sparky]

[quote name='BassBod' post='94401' date='Nov 26 2007, 09:15 AM']Hi Sparky,

I've got a similar Martin - how do you get on with strings for yours? I liked the Martin bronze ones, but found them too "clacky". I've ended up with Thomastik flats....like the mellow sound and feel, but can't help feeling I've lost a bit of volume and presence?

BB[/quote]

Alright BassBod.
I've been bad, and very lazy and not changed the strings on the Martin for a long time. I can't remember for sure, but I rekon I would have gone into the shop and said 'i need a set of strings for a martin acoustic bass' and they would have said - 'well, we've got the martin ones', and i would have said, yeh ok, i'll take them - it's the safe option right?'! so i think i probably have martin strings.
i don't think i have any issues with the sound really - i very rarely plug it in so any 'clacky' sounds aren't amplified and are just heard in the context of the acoustic vibe! however, i think if i Were to plug the guitar in, then any exaggerated clacking of strings would probably irritate me. But seeing as that's not the case, and if you're saying you may have lost volume and presence with the Thomastik's, I'll probably stick with Martin. Every bit of volume on any acoustic bass is worth a lot huh?!!
How's the action on your Martin?? Like I said in my original post - playing mine's a workout! The bridge doesn't look adjustable so I guess there's not a lot i can do about it unless I get it proffessional altered... and i don't really want to do that... just curious about yours..

[BassBod]

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Mine was given a good (ie low) set up before I got it - it plays nicely, but aggressive playing (ie with anyone else!) does produce some rattles and clacks. I tried the Thomastik acoustic strings - they sounded fantastic (think big classical guitar) but were far too thin and flexible to play with the current set up, hence the Thom flats which are still a bit floppy, but a better balance of sound and feel for me.

I think your approach is better than messing about - the standard Martin strings are fine, just let them age a bit more and most of the "clack" will probably be gone in a few months.

I should also mention the p/up died - started humming suddenly. Its wrapped in a thin shield (paper thin) and this is easily damaged. If you ever take out the bridge saddle be very careful. I'm guessing it was the set up that damaged it (only a tiny fray in the outer shield) cause I only changed strings!

BB

[Sparky]

[quote name='BassBod' post='94430' date='Nov 26 2007, 10:47 AM'][attachment=3751:DSCN0885.JPG]

Mine was given a good (ie low) set up before I got it - it plays nicely, but aggressive playing (ie with anyone else!) does produce some rattles and clacks. I tried the Thomastik acoustic strings - they sounded fantastic (think big classical guitar) but were far too thin and flexible to play with the current set up, hence the Thom flats which are still a bit floppy, but a better balance of sound and feel for me.

I think your approach is better than messing about - the standard Martin strings are fine, just let them age a bit more and most of the "clack" will probably be gone in a few months.

I should also mention the p/up died - started humming suddenly. Its wrapped in a thin shield (paper thin) and this is easily damaged. If you ever take out the bridge saddle be very careful. I'm guessing it was the set up that damaged it (only a tiny fray in the outer shield) cause I only changed strings!

BB[/quote]

TeeHee - I know what you mean by 'aggressive playing' and the many rattles and clacks that come with plucking hard - practicing on my own is a workout anyway, but trying to match the volume of a regular acoustic 6-string and 3 vocals leave my fingers and forearms properly 'pumped'! i really should just invest in a small practice amp to save me the olympic effort!

I've not used the pickup for so long, but if i do decide to get a practice amp and plug it in, all i'll be doing is changing the battery - i won't be touching the bridge or anything else that doesn't look like it wants moving! that's a shame about your pickup. If you wanted it fixed, could you send it back to Martin? Do you know if they have U.K workshops?

[BassBod]

No idea about Martin in the UK, but I read somewhere that they only warrant their electrics for 3 months! I also explored the Fishman site and they described the problem exactly, with a "sh*t happens"...approach. I could've got a Fishman replacement pretty easily (its nothing special as far as I could see) but instead I had a K&K fitted (well, glued) under the bridge plate, and bypassed the internal preamp. I think it sounds better (more woody, less stringy) so I'm happy.

BB

[paul, the]

[quote name='Sparky' post='94407' date='Nov 26 2007, 09:27 AM']Dude, that sh*t's vintage: Music Man Stingray 1977. or is it? - how old does a guitar have to be to be considered 'vintage'? he's got Loads of really nice guitars - check out the list on the left hand side of his page; [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/MarloweDK"]http://www.youtube.com/user/MarloweDK[/url]
mmmm....[/quote]

Thought as much. 'Tis an expensive pass time we have. Modern Stingrays do nothing for me but that one is draw dropping.

I went through a few of his vids. Loved the marcus miller bass muted groove. That Stingray still has the best tone in my opinion, though.

Cheers for introducing me.

[Nick80]

[quote name='paul, the' post='94630' date='Nov 26 2007, 04:47 PM']Thought as much. 'Tis an expensive pass time we have. Modern Stingrays do nothing for me but that one is draw dropping.

I went through a few of his vids. Loved the marcus miller bass muted groove. That Stingray still has the best tone in my opinion, though.

Cheers for introducing me.[/quote]

I stumbled across this guy a little while ago, really love his playing. He's not German btw but Danish (I think).

Nice Martin btw, I was never really interested in acoustics till I saw this thread, I'm getting a GAS attack!

[Sparky]

[quote name='Nick80' post='94777' date='Nov 26 2007, 09:14 PM']I stumbled across this guy a little while ago, really love his playing. He's not German btw but Danish (I think).

Nice Martin btw, I was never really interested in acoustics till I saw this thread, I'm getting a GAS attack![/quote]

Yeh, MarloweDK is a fanstastic player and his clips are good to watch & learn from - consistent sound and film quality. Someone started a 'YouTube finds' thread in the recroding forum... I'm suprised that there wasn't more love for it - only two replies! i think it's a great way to learn - by watching/listening to others. youtube's a good resource for that. oh well.