Bass on Lamentations

[Advent1]

What is the silver thing that Bass Player has on his bass near the bridge. It's on his Fender Jazz Marcus Miller bass. It looks like it's there so he can rest his thumb on it while playing maybe. Or is there some other use for it?

 

[:Wreath:]

it was used on all electric basses back in the 50ties to emulate the sound of a double-bass. eventually, bassists began to take it off as the sound of electric bass became popular but some still use it today because of the vintage feeling

 

[worldwide_suicide]

cool

 

[Mr. Bland]

I played the Marcus Miller when i went to Guitar Center...

I couldn't stand that silver thing, it got in the way for me...

I never knew thats what it was though, so, cool.

 

[metal_wrath]

It's a string enhancer, a cheating mechanism that was used in the 30's by outlaw bassists

 

[Fe Maiden]

Yeah they are called ashtrays. Pretty sure the MM sig bass only has one on the neck pickup. It must be the nicest bass ever, i almost cried when I saw the roadie walk on stage with it in Auckland. Must be so nice to play one... Peter's quilt top PRS looks AMAZING!

 

[FRUGiHOYi]

I really like the way it looks.

 

[AnTz0r]

it was used on all electric basses back in the 50ties to emulate the sound of a double-bass. eventually, bassists began to take it off as the sound of electric bass became popular but some still use it today because of the vintage feeling

wrong.

it was indeed used as sort of a hand-/thumbrest. the yellow bass mendez plays is a signature series Marcus Miller bass (a famous bass player), and indeed it features a pickup cover over the neck pickup. the cover is not something people put on on any bass, it's usually model-specific. even in the beginning some basses had them and others don't.

it doesn't change the sound in any way, and defintely does NOT make it more double-bass sounding. it doesn't even play more like DB with it on there, DB's dont have them.

now there is one exception: the rickenbacker horseshoe pickup. this is what the fender pu-cover looks like:

compare with a rick 4001 "horseshoe" pickup:

note that the cover doesn't run all the way through on the top, you can see why it is called horseshoe. the "cover" is in fact part of the pickup, the magnetic coils that comprise the pickup run all the way over the strings. also note that the rick cover runs over the bridge pu and not the neck pu.

rickenbacker used these horseshoe pickups on their stringed instruments way before leo fender even knew what a guitar was they stopped installing them on their bass guitars in '69. modern rick basses have "normal" single-coil pickups and a plastic chrome-looking cap over it.

for both fender and rick basses with pickup covers most players took them off. what most people started to refer to as an ashtray is actually the bridge cover of early telecasters (ok squier JV bad example hehe but you can get the point):

when in the studio they took them off, and when pieces of metal like this lie around the studio and everybody's smoking, take a guess what they will be used for...

 

[Pethical]

wreath, you got antzor'd.


and also answered for that matter.

 

[Nuk3m]

Just some info you might think usefull or just pointless.

Marcus Miller (Mendez plays his sig) has it there because when he was first learning it was there and he slaps alot so he eventually used it as a point of reference. it tells him where to stop his hand (his hand actually taps it when slapping) and also when to let his thump loose.

This isnt the "textbook" technique of slapping but its just the way Marcus does his thing and hes one of if not the best slapper in bass history.

I like the cover it makes it more car-chasing-super-fly-sexual-revolution bass.

The bass was designed to look and sound like a 70s bass and it does.

PS great bass, but a bit of fret buzz seems to be the trend with some of them.

 

[coolsnow7]

Does that matter when you're slapping?

 

[:Wreath:]

wreath, you got antzor'd.


and also answered for that matter.

hahah well I guess I could be wrong, I'm a guitar player not a bass player but I'm sure I read something like that somewhere, in a guiter magazine I believe... well, maybe this explains why the editors went bankrupt

 

[worldwide_suicide]

Mendez rules!

 

[FRUGiHOYi]

^got that right

 

[all_sins_undone]

i actually prefer reginald quincy "fieldy" arvizu iirc

 

[Pethical]

hahahha nice one