[Dixielandjazz] Re: A rant on the unamplified rhythm section

[Patrick Cooke]

Jim Beebe replies to Don:

 >>>Don, this is silly.  A lot of great bass players are going to be
surprised to learn that their tone quality and attack has been ruined from
using an amp and pickup. <<<

Jim you and Don are both right....Some kind of amplification is necessary in
a large noisy venue, but there are pickups and there are pickups.
   First if you have a cheap plywood bass as I and most others have, the
problem is compounded by the fact that you are amplifying a sound that is
not too good to begin with.  Also Don is right about pickups that attach to
a bass bridge...I can't imagine a worse place to put a pickup.....you'd be
better off just putting a mike close to the f-hole.
    I've given away or thrown away at least a half-dozen pickups.  I now use
a magnetic pickup that attaches at the end of the fingerboard.  This
eliminates the cheap bass sound and only picks up the vibration of the metal
string.  It also gets the pickup enough north of the bridge to eliminate a
lot of treble.
     If you're using non-metal strings, best just use a microphone.
     But I couldn't go back to playing without amplification.  I'd give it
up first.
     Pat Cooke

----- Original Message -----
From: <JimDBB at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re: A rant on the unamplified rhythm section


> In a message dated 1/23/03 5:46:11 PM Central Standard Time,
> mophandl at landing.com writes:
>
>
> > When Jim Cullum called me to audition for the job with his band, he told
me
> > that amps are forbidden. That's one of the main things that attracted me
to
> > the job. I had always hated the unmusical tone quality that an amp and
> > bridge pickup gives to a bass fiddle, besides ruining the attack.
>
>    Don, this is silly.  A lot of great bass players are going to be
surprised
> to learn that their tone quality and attack has been ruined from using an
amp
> and pickup.
>
>    It is one thing to have all-natural-holistic-unamplified jazz if you
are
> playing in a nice hall with resonant accoustics.  But the reality is that
> most jazz is played in clubs with lousy accoustics.  Customers and
musicians
> have an annoying attitude of wanting to hear what is going on. Hence some
> amplification is necessary.
>
>   Kenny Davern made himself persona non-grata when he insisted that the
> Chicago group that had been assembled for him at an Illiana Jazz club
> concert, play unamplified.  This was not an intimate room but a big hall
with
> a large crowd. Nobody could hear the group and they were not pleased.
>
>   Everything is subject to adjustment and this includes musical
performance.
>
>   Jim Beebe
>


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