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I have felt the need to have a smaller bass amplifier for a while to use at home or at small places. A combo would have been nice, but since I already had a pair of EBS NEO112 cabs, I was also looking at compact heads. My ordinary rig is an EBS HD350 and Ampeg 410HLF.

I looked around and tried a few amps and I finally decided for that Gallien-Krueger MB 150S-III. It is rated to 150W at 4 ohm and it is louder than I expected. Since I am mostly playing fretless at these days I wanted an amp that is voiced toward midrange. The MB 150E has a few more features, chorus for example, but is also more expensive. I chose MB 150S, since I can play through my Bass Pod XT Live and get chorus that way if I like.

I like to experiment, try new approaches and improve things. I have written before about the floating thumb technique. Click on the tag “floating thumb” below to read more. After having used the floating thumb technique for a while now, let’s evaluate.

I had to gradually work my way up to speed on the fast songs. Since the angle of the fingers are different, muscle memory has to be retrained. That was no problem. I can actually play faster now, because I find the position of the fingers are more natural.

The most difficult thing with changing technique was playing on the lowest string (E-string on a 4-string bass or B-string on a 5-string bass). The “normal” fingerstyle technique is resting your thumb on the pickup or on the two lowest strings. When you pick with your finger, you land on the next lower string or on the thumb. That way playing on the lowest string “feels” like playing on the other strings. Your finger is stopped by a string or thumb. When you use the floating thumb technique and you play on the lowest string your fingers have to stop in the air by themselves. The feeling is different and I have found it difficult to play relaxed when playing fast.

The advantages the floating thumb technique are many. The angles of the fingers are more consistent whether you play on G-string or E-string, which helps muscle memory. I find it easier now to change from picking with my fingertips to picking with my finger pads in order to change the tone. It is easy to move the hand from playing close to the bridge to playing close to the neck seamlessly, because you are not dependent on having your thumb resting on the pickups. I find the angle of my wrist is more comfortable now. You can easily switch to slapping technique, because your hand is almost in the correct position already. When you play on G-string you are able to mute several of the lower strings (not only 2) with your thumb. I guess that floating thumb is the only way, when you play 6-string, though I have not tested that yet.

It is important to make sure the thumb is resting lightly on the strings. We do not want tension to build in the thumb. Just a light touch is enough to mute them.

Today two books and a DVD from Jamey Aebersold dropped into my mailbox; How To Play Jazz And Improvise, Maiden Voyage and Jazz: Anyone Can Improvise (DVD). Awesome books! I was completely ignorant of Aebersold until a few weeks ago. It looks very promising. I have studied only bass-related material about jazz so far and now I would like to broaden my view. I will get back with a review soon.

For a long time I have had the desire to branch out to play jazz. My present band has a steady flow of rock cover gigs and I do enjoy that and will continue with that. But I want to play jazz also. I listened much to jazz, fusion and funk when I was younger. Weather Report was my favorite. Lately I have explored jazz more and all of its combinations with other genres. I like to listen to the improvisational and unpredictable nature of jazz.

Last summer I decided to start my journey into playing jazz by working through some books of Ed Friedland: Building Walking Bass Lines, Expanding Walking Bass Lines and Jazz Bass. Here comes a brief report.

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On Saturday, a few days ago my band Soundrise played at a wedding nearby. We were scheduled as the last event and we played for 2 hours. There were about 75 guests. They wanted us to be careful with the volume so we used digital drums live for the first time. All went well and the bride and bridegroom were very satisfied.

Playing at weddings is difficult because you have a very differentiated audience, from children to old grandma’. We make it very clear when they hire us that we primarily play rock, blues and funk. The building was very odd, a wooden house in the form of an cone (something like a cot or indian wigwam) with a fire place in the middle and many animal skins on the walls. The midrange of my bass sound disappeared and I was not really prepared for that. Yes, we made a soundcheck, but it all got worse when the guests arrived. I did not use my equalizer this evening and was not enough familiar with the Line6 Bass Pod to adjust it in a hurry.

Lesson learned: always be prepared for midrange to be sucked out. What sounds like a nice fat sound in rehearsal place, will became an undefined tone in reality. It should sound like to much mid where you stand at stage, then tone is good out among the audience. This is a real problem sometimes. The lows are unaffected but the mid or highs disappear. In a situation like this, if you boost the low frequencies or use the “smiley” setting, you will make things worse. Your instrument will sound like rumble.

Now, the good thing about the Line6 Bass POD is that you can have several alternate settings and change between them quickly. I doubt that I will ever use more than 5 different sounds during a gig. The different banks could then be alternatives for different type of auditoriums.

I have strange things growing in my garden just outside my house. This is a photo from July 2006.

Using equalizer for shaping the tone of your bass is not that useful. You will often end up having different levels for different strings. If you want a fatter sound and you decrease treble, the higher strings will sound weaker. Equalization is most useful to cut harmonics above the range you are playing or compensate for the characteristics of the amp, speaker or room. At least I want my strings to sound evenly.

Better than equalization is to use your fingers. You can change a good deal by playing with your fingertips or with your fingerpads. Also the angle with which you hit the string affects the sound.

Something I have explored lately and found very useful is to play with my thumb only and at the same time dampen the strings slightly at the bridge. This gives you a fat tone with short sustain, almost like an upright bass. G-string needs less dampening than the thicker strings so you will have to move your hand towards the bridge as you move to a higher string. Some songs that we play just begs to be played this way.

This week I have been struggling with some jazz concepts. I got frustrated that I did not “get it” faster. When I calmed down and took a step back, I realized that I had to be patient and use some principles of life. This is what dawned to me (nothing new):

I try to grasp too much at a time. I have to divide the task into smaller parts and conquer them that way. However sometimes it is hard to know how to divide. Then take a step back and think it through.

I have to practice the concepts more often, a few minutes several times a day. The most efficient learning is taking place when you repeat often. If you let several days pass, maybe only 50 % is left when you hit it again and you feel as if you are skiing uphill every time.

The third thing is to become more aware of what I am doing, to climb up to a higher level of concentration and stay there. It is easier to learn things mechanically, play what you already know or hone your slapping technique, than to intelligently steer your playing. Know why you play things. Play on purpose. Awareness can be trained. Drifting away and thinking on something else is an easy habit.

After having thought about it for almost a year I have finally put my thoughts into action and bought a Bass POD before Christmas. Several years ago I used a Behringer Bass Vamp and it turned me off digitally. It was noisy, had bad dynamics and switching between patches took forever for the software inside. But this line6 is different. I chose the floor variant, POD XT Live because I wanted to be able to switch quickly between patches.

I am very satisfied. It is quiet, have good dynamics and modelling is great. I am in the exploring phase right now and I try out different sounds every time my band meet. The SVT patch is (of course) #1 favourite. Line out from POD goes to the effects return on my EBS HD350 bass amplifier. I have as clean setting as possible on the HD350. The only drawbacks I have seen is the Line Level Out seems to be a little low. Also if you have the expression pedal half-way and switch between patches, the level will start at full. If you touch the pedal slightly it will take control. It behaves like the other controls on the board. It would be better if the pedal decided the level continously.

It is one thing to try out sounds at home with your headphones on. It is another thing to try out the sounds alone with your rig. But the real thing is to try out the sounds at full volume together with the other instruments. You cannot just take the factory settings, but have to spend time to find your sound that fits your type of music, your rig and the setting of instruments. The greatest difficulty with these kind of tools is that you have so many options that you almost drown.

I have made an observation about playing at clubs, restaurants etc. The three most important things to get the crowd going on the dance-floor is: variation, recognizability and groove. My band play cover rock, blues, funk and some softer songs. We decided early that we wanted to have variation in our songlist and many times people have commented on that. They like it! It also gives the possibility to tailor the song-list according to the situation. How fun it is to see how people rush to the dance-floor when they recognize a song. People love Mustang Sally, Jonny Be Goode and Credence. The third important thing is to create a good groove as a band. Even lesser known songs is appreciated if they have danceable rythm. It takes time to find the groove together as a band, but it surely pays off.