but the high notes on the bass are kind of the most beatuiful no :D ? And it's just so much more enjoyable to play if you got hammers instead of fingers lol
@@henriht1147 amateur bass player here, yeah, the higher notes have this special warm feeling. the thickness gives them a mellower sound compared to the piercing sound of the high notes of a guitar, i say cuz i also play guitar, but i'm a behs player mainly
@Zack-bl2gg You act like there's no difference. Slap and pop for example is much harder on guitar, but you can do it on a piccolo and get a very unique sound and keep the feel of a bass.
Yup! His OG Carl Thompson was built as a piccolo hence it's a 32 inch scale... And I'd heard the same a la strings in the 90s to really get that mid range snap he's famous for... I use rotosound funky masters which are thin guage for similar results
My band has three bassist and no guitarist; in order that we are not in each others space, muddying the sound, I play Sub-bass: E0, A0, D1, G1. The rhythm bassist has a chorded 8 string standard tuning & the lead bassist has a 5 string tuned: D1, G1, C2, F2, A#2. It does overlap with the rhythm bass but, he tends to play from 12 up whilst the 8 string satays below 12. A piccolo would have been another option but...
I think the idea is mainly so that bassists can do melodic solos more like guitars while using standard bass technique, scales, fret spacing etc. also I find piccolo basses to be more scooped than guitars it's a subtle difference but it's noticeable P.S. Would love to see you try Ali McMordie s tone from Stiff Little Fingers sometime soon, specifically from Suspect Device
Piccolo means little or small in Italian, yes, the character in Dragon Ball is named after the Italian word for "little", that's no mistake nor coincidence.
My initial response was "just get a guitar" but actually having a guitar sound but with the fretboard spacing of a bass and without those annoying two high strings actually sounds great and now I want one.
Expecting anything Les touches to sound like you expect is like expecting a cat to not knock something off a shelf it's sitting on. It can happen. It does happen. But not often.
It makes you look at the instrument diffrent and it is a different sound from a guitar. It's obviously a longer scale length with heavier strings under higher tension so you get pretty long sustain. Playing lead lines with bass finger style is also awesome
Fun fact; my real given name is Piccolo. Most people think I was named after Brian Piccolo, but my mother actually got it from an old Errol Flynn film titled, Escape Me Never. An old Brazilian friend (rip), as well as an Italian friend, told me that in those countries, the name Piccolo is a generic term for a little boy. Get it? A piccolo is a small flute, lol. Thanks for that, mom and 😂
Man that movie about Brian Piccolo was SO damn sad. You could do worse than being named after him though. He set an ACC record at Wake Forest University, which isn't far from where I grew up.
Brazilian here and no, piccolo isn't a brazilian portuguese word for little boy. Never seen anyone use that term for that. It is an italian word that means "small".
I'd say this piccolo bass is more useful than an 8 string guitar. Hard to make out anything when the guitar, bass, and kick are all in the 0 and 1 octaves.
Tbh it’s basically just for playing chords and soloing, practically speaking it had no benefits but they’re fun as secondary instruments on top of a bass if you write music and because it has less strings a lot of guitar chords don’t work so you get cool arrangements for your harmony plus the neck is still wide enough that you can freely and comfortably move between each string without it being too tight
Sounds more like a guitar, to me. Not the BEHS, WE love so much!!! Jeff Schmidt is from another Planet. Check him out, the only piccolo , that sounds cool.
That second clip is of a song called Apotheosis, if I recall, and it's probably the best use of a piccolo bass, in that it has an E3 in the lowest position, so it still has some bass qualities while giving better melodic definition.
I've often wondered the same about acoustic basses since so many people seem to hate them yet acoustic basses still exist. And those big mariachi bass guitars. More seriously, I'd say something like this piccolo bass is best used as part of a greater ensemble--like a short scale bass, 8 string unison bass, or a Fender Bass VI. All help to make a string arrangement sound fuller by filling different frequencies in the spectrum. That said, some sections get more love than others. Just look at how much more attention the violin gets than the viola.
Feeling of bass and octave up, sure you could play a guitar but the string spacing is different. And with all things music there is a different solution that everyone will say is better than another, but it’s fun.
I have one of those Mayones Cali basses, which is tuned as and feels like a normal bass guitar from the 12th fret up. I see it as a guitar on which I can use bass techniques, like fingerstyle or slapping.
Ron Carter sometimes plays a piccolo stand-up bass. Tuned B, E, A, D. On his Piccolo album, he played one alongside a regular stand-up bass, piano, and drums. I guess it makes sense in an ensemble but it sounds pretty whack in isolation
they're useful because you can get the same range of a guitar with a pretty different playability because of the string spacing and scale length of a bass. you also get the sound of bass pickups which you might not be able to get on a guitar.
I laughed my piccolo off at this one...man you keep nailing...and no...i dont see the point...how different that is from the lower 4 strings of a guitar? Unless its the tuning or something
I first heard about those after seeing some pictures of Les Claypool from Primus playing one, they’re definitely interesting-looking basses but still sound kinda cool as well
Piccolo bass to my mind has two purposes: solo work where the low range isn’t as necessary, and sub synth bass playing on a standard electric while maintaining all of the same fingerings. Playing synth bass tones on electric bass often means you have to play an octave up on the neck, which sacrifices much of your high range for parts where it’s needed. And, it keeps the tone of the bass guitar, which aids in maintaining a beautiful bottom end when affected by pedals. I’ve tried using my synth bass rig with guitar instead of bass, and while the range is nice, it sounds thin. Piccolo bass would solve that issue easily.
I’d say it’s probably the same idea as an extended range guitar but in reverse. Extended range guitars can be tuned to bass range but they still sound like a guitar not a bass, because of both the pickups, amp, and playing style. Same thing would apply for a piccolo bass.
I just bought a baritone ukulele. Because I have short fingers. It's just a better fit for my hands than a standard guitar. I put on heavier strings, and put it in E standard tuning. So it's just a small 4 string guitar, and I'm rockin' with it.
Not pointless but not versatile either. Piccolo is more of a solo instrument imo, and solo bass players are not the majority. Ultimately great musicians make any instrument great, I saw a guy with a rubber band on a piece of cardboard and a looper get busy and it was amazing!
It's basically the same premise as a bass vi, it's just a way for a bassist to occupy the same sonic range as a guitar instead of having to learn how to play with the smaller string spacing and the b string being a third instead of a fourth
Piccolo bass
Vegeta guitar
Krillin drums
Goku vocals
FORTNITE FESTIVAL!!!!!! This would be entirely possible I think
@@funkinfungoidKrillin ain’t in the game yet, but this could probably be done in GHWT though
I think _The Z Fighters_ is a most excellent band name. Party on, dudes.
Violins Julienne
@@zer0_iz_d34dyeah it could be done in ghwtde
A guitar. They made a guitar.
Correct!
That is missing the highest 2 strings, at that!
But, isn’t the bass a kind of guitar already ? 🤔
@@reservoirdog1think about it. It's called a bass ......
I guess, main point is slightly wider neck and hence bigger distance between strings.
Guitarist: I wanna play low notes I should buy bass
Bassist: I wanna play high notes I should buy bass
but the high notes on the bass are kind of the most beatuiful no :D ? And it's just so much more enjoyable to play if you got hammers instead of fingers lol
@@henriht1147 amateur bass player here, yeah, the higher notes have this special warm feeling. the thickness gives them a mellower sound compared to the piercing sound of the high notes of a guitar, i say cuz i also play guitar, but i'm a behs player mainly
Nah I'd say guitarists would get a 9 string lol
People nowadays: I want a 18 string half guitar half bass
Baritone guitar:
"Am I a joke to you?"
It's basically just a way for bass players to play in guitar's register while keeping the familiar string spacing and scale length of a bass guitar.
Or… hear me out… just play a guitar 🤷♂️
@Zack-bl2gg Well then you wouldn't have the strings spacing and scale length. Also bass pickups are voiced differently
@@GeoffreyPeas I also assume you still use heavier gauge strings
@Zack-bl2gg You act like there's no difference. Slap and pop for example is much harder on guitar, but you can do it on a piccolo and get a very unique sound and keep the feel of a bass.
@@gumballthechewybased on some of the clips shown, the gauge is almost certainly heavier.
The instructions are very clear in the name of the instrument itself: "Pick a low bass"
Very clever
It’s a behs for behsists who have trouble hearing the behs
Or cutting through the mix :D
Have you ever thought about doing a lemmy tone guide
😂😂😂😂😂😂 these knobs that never seen the sarcasm humour in your post bud. Love it. 😂😂😂😂
Love the shots at Scott lmao
The SBL comments always make me laugh. Danny's just jealous. ;)
Bassists just want to be audible in the mix for once
On Primus' early stuff Les was playing a piccolo. A while back I heard he used two A strings for E and A strings, and two D strings for D and G.
Yup! His OG Carl Thompson was built as a piccolo hence it's a 32 inch scale... And I'd heard the same a la strings in the 90s to really get that mid range snap he's famous for... I use rotosound funky masters which are thin guage for similar results
@Skippymoogoose90 I uses the funkmasters years back. Very snappy.
The 4-string guitar💀😭
I had previously thought they were all 12 or 16 string.
@@jprp999 WHAAAAAAT😭
@@prodbyDGTL Just did a search for 12string piccolo bass and loads came up so not crazy.
@@jprp999 yeah, that’s fair
I could be remembering incorrectly but I heard that sepultura lead singer plays a 4 string guitar
The benefit is largely due to the superior configuration of the bass. No silly major thirds or extra strings.
I thought that was called a guitar
If Manowar does it, it can't be wrong!
In defensive of piccolo bass, I once saw Victor Wooten play *The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies* on a piccolo bass.
My band has three bassist and no guitarist; in order that we are not in each others space, muddying the sound, I play Sub-bass: E0, A0, D1, G1. The rhythm bassist has a chorded 8 string standard tuning & the lead bassist has a 5 string tuned: D1, G1, C2, F2, A#2. It does overlap with the rhythm bass but, he tends to play from 12 up whilst the 8 string satays below 12. A piccolo would have been another option but...
that sounds like an absolutely incredible lineup
Ok you used SOME punctuation but it’d be nice if you used ALL of it…
@@randomcrap7682 Thanx had another look; easier when not on a phone, in a train.
Where can I listen to your music?
I want to hear this
I love it when you punch up to Scott’s bass lessons
But I still want Scott to tell you to FACK UFF😂😂😂
I think the idea is mainly so that bassists can do melodic solos more like guitars while using standard bass technique, scales, fret spacing etc. also I find piccolo basses to be more scooped than guitars it's a subtle difference but it's noticeable
P.S. Would love to see you try Ali McMordie s tone from Stiff Little Fingers sometime soon, specifically from Suspect Device
I thought he was talking about dragon ball for a second😭
Piccolo means little or small in Italian, yes, the character in Dragon Ball is named after the Italian word for "little", that's no mistake nor coincidence.
Foley played a piccolo bass much like a guitar, with Miles Davis
Came here to bring up the man. Not a traditional player in that sense, but different and awesome
Piccolo bass is fucking rad and I dont care what anyone says
I just imagined a bass shaped and panted like the Dragon Ball character
So it's a 4 string guitar... isn't it?
It is indeed a 4 string guitar
@@vertyqaullJust different neck, different strings, string distance and different sound from the pickups
My initial response was "just get a guitar" but actually having a guitar sound but with the fretboard spacing of a bass and without those annoying two high strings actually sounds great and now I want one.
It would be interesting, but I wouldn't be tempted to play widdly widdly tappy slappy shreddy stuff, even if I could.
I had piccolo strings on one of my basses and they’re so much fun
Anyone done a 6 string piccolo??
Isn't that a tenor guitar?
you joke but i think something like a 6 string bass up an octave would be cool
Bass IV... it's an octave above bass and below guitar.
I think Les Claypool’s first Carl Thompson was a piccolo that he played on frizzle fry. But it doesn’t sound like a piccolo on that album weirdly
Fact
Expecting anything Les touches to sound like you expect is like expecting a cat to not knock something off a shelf it's sitting on. It can happen. It does happen. But not often.
When I want to play an octave up, I use this cool instrument they call a guitar and it gives me the same sound 😂
It makes you look at the instrument diffrent and it is a different sound from a guitar. It's obviously a longer scale length with heavier strings under higher tension so you get pretty long sustain. Playing lead lines with bass finger style is also awesome
The guy from Dragon Ball?
So...a 4 strings guitar ?
Last clip is good for me. Love your content
Fun fact; my real given name is Piccolo. Most people think I was named after Brian Piccolo, but my mother actually got it from an old Errol Flynn film titled, Escape Me Never. An old Brazilian friend (rip), as well as an Italian friend, told me that in those countries, the name Piccolo is a generic term for a little boy. Get it? A piccolo is a small flute, lol. Thanks for that, mom and 😂
Just say you were named after Piccolo from Dragon Ball, way cooler🤣🤣
Man that movie about Brian Piccolo was SO damn sad. You could do worse than being named after him though. He set an ACC record at Wake Forest University, which isn't far from where I grew up.
Brazilian here and no, piccolo isn't a brazilian portuguese word for little boy. Never seen anyone use that term for that. It is an italian word that means "small".
Almost as cool as a Mandochello.
Now we just need a bass behs
Phillip Bussonett of Magma often played a piccolo bass when Jannik Top played with the band using a normal-tuned bass.
Got an example of that? I'm a bit of Magma nerd and I'm always down to seeing more of their musical shenanigans
Yeah, I'd like to hear that!
A cool vid would be: cheap squier piccolo vs an octave pedal
Piccolo bass ❌
Four string guitar ✅
Bass ukulele.
When you play Banjo, but want to Rock 🤘
"Piccolo bass" sounds to me like "dry water".
I'd say this piccolo bass is more useful than an 8 string guitar.
Hard to make out anything when the guitar, bass, and kick are all in the 0 and 1 octaves.
Big Green bass
Nice
Underrated comment
Spacing I guess. People that like the sound of a guitar but like the feeling of playing a bass
I'm here for the constant Scotts Bass Lessons and Bill Wyman slander
They want to play guitar but don't like the extra strings
And here's me thinking it's a bass with a woodwind instrument attached to it.
What the point of bass ukulele?
Tool would go wild with that
SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!
aka a banjo with guitar shape
The octave of a guitar played like a bass, basically things that only bass players can or would do
The SBL clip made me die
Piccolo bass? More like picca-lower bass note.
Tbh it’s basically just for playing chords and soloing, practically speaking it had no benefits but they’re fun as secondary instruments on top of a bass if you write music and because it has less strings a lot of guitar chords don’t work so you get cool arrangements for your harmony plus the neck is still wide enough that you can freely and comfortably move between each string without it being too tight
Sounds more like a guitar, to me.
Not the BEHS, WE love so much!!!
Jeff Schmidt is from another Planet.
Check him out, the only piccolo , that sounds cool.
That second clip is of a song called Apotheosis, if I recall, and it's probably the best use of a piccolo bass, in that it has an E3 in the lowest position, so it still has some bass qualities while giving better melodic definition.
The progression reminds me of Sirius.
None of those wire thin guitar strings cutting into my big meaty claws.
BIG . MEATY . CLAAAWS !
Because you can 🤷🏼♂️😳
That pickle ain't low
Bring that BASS back lol
Congratulations guys, you did it. You made a guitar with two less strings.
I've often wondered the same about acoustic basses since so many people seem to hate them yet acoustic basses still exist. And those big mariachi bass guitars.
More seriously, I'd say something like this piccolo bass is best used as part of a greater ensemble--like a short scale bass, 8 string unison bass, or a Fender Bass VI. All help to make a string arrangement sound fuller by filling different frequencies in the spectrum.
That said, some sections get more love than others. Just look at how much more attention the violin gets than the viola.
Pick a low bass
I always liked Clarke’s slap work on one, it’s very sharp and clear
Dudes will do anything to try to make themselves stand out except practice.
Now take a guitars first four strings, pitch it down an octave, it’s a new instrument, we’ll call it a “bass” guitar.
Feeling of bass and octave up, sure you could play a guitar but the string spacing is different. And with all things music there is a different solution that everyone will say is better than another, but it’s fun.
Wow…a tenor guitar…
(Yes they exist, and yes they are pretty much the same as a piccolo bass from what I can tell)
Tenor guitar has different type of strings & are tuned differently than a Piccolo Bass. They a very different instruments.
@@jugglerj0e thank you, I do not have much experience with either instrument.
I love how many versions of just about every instrument there are.
[4 string guitar has entered the chat]
Piccolo + slide + open tuning = fairly dirty blues
Dude, every video of yours brings a smile to my face.
Long live the Behs!
I asked Scott's Bass Lessons for advice and they sent me SPAM!!!
long-scale tenor guitar?
When a 6 string is Tooooo muuuuch
Don't they have 6 string basses? I'm just asking lol!
I have one of those Mayones Cali basses, which is tuned as and feels like a normal bass guitar from the 12th fret up. I see it as a guitar on which I can use bass techniques, like fingerstyle or slapping.
"W.T. Phil Tufnel!"
It's the yellow pokemon i think
If there's one band I wouldn't expect to play piccolo bass, it's /Manowar/.
Ron Carter sometimes plays a piccolo stand-up bass. Tuned B, E, A, D. On his Piccolo album, he played one alongside a regular stand-up bass, piano, and drums.
I guess it makes sense in an ensemble but it sounds pretty whack in isolation
Piccolo bass: a four-string instrument that has been soaked in brine. Players tend to look/be lonely.
If a piccolo bass is an octave up bass, then it's just a six string without the top two strings. Pretty pointless if you ask me.
Well, it’s an octave lower than a lead guitar, so it’s like a baritone without two strings.
@@5roundsrapid263how could it possibly be an octave up from standard bass AND an octave down from guitar??
I guess the wider string spacing would make it easier to play for someone coming from a bass
@@yellowhouse5592right?!? What the fuck...its like one of those F sharp or G flat kind of things but someone even found a middle ground somehow 😂
@@yellowhouse5592 I always thought bass was two octaves down. I guess that only applies to 5 and 6 string basses.
they're useful because you can get the same range of a guitar with a pretty different playability because of the string spacing and scale length of a bass. you also get the sound of bass pickups which you might not be able to get on a guitar.
Two things Danny Sapko don't understand: JAZZ!!!, and piccolo bass."
I laughed my piccolo off at this one...man you keep nailing...and no...i dont see the point...how different that is from the lower 4 strings of a guitar? Unless its the tuning or something
Bass grew up, left the guitar family, and started a family of its own.
I first heard about those after seeing some pictures of Les Claypool from Primus playing one, they’re definitely interesting-looking basses but still sound kinda cool as well
How would it sound with an octave down pedal?
Gonky
@@briansnoderly1850 oh of course. Gonky.
Piccolo bass to my mind has two purposes: solo work where the low range isn’t as necessary, and sub synth bass playing on a standard electric while maintaining all of the same fingerings. Playing synth bass tones on electric bass often means you have to play an octave up on the neck, which sacrifices much of your high range for parts where it’s needed. And, it keeps the tone of the bass guitar, which aids in maintaining a beautiful bottom end when affected by pedals. I’ve tried using my synth bass rig with guitar instead of bass, and while the range is nice, it sounds thin. Piccolo bass would solve that issue easily.
Les Claypool likes them too!!
You can play guitar without giving up you bass player identity! also you don't gotta learn those pesky bacon&egg strings
I’d say it’s probably the same idea as an extended range guitar but in reverse. Extended range guitars can be tuned to bass range but they still sound like a guitar not a bass, because of both the pickups, amp, and playing style. Same thing would apply for a piccolo bass.
I just bought a baritone ukulele. Because I have short fingers. It's just a better fit for my hands than a standard guitar. I put on heavier strings, and put it in E standard tuning. So it's just a small 4 string guitar, and I'm rockin' with it.
When you suck at playing guitar but still want to play a stringed instrument.
Not pointless but not versatile either. Piccolo is more of a solo instrument imo, and solo bass players are not the majority. Ultimately great musicians make any instrument great, I saw a guy with a rubber band on a piece of cardboard and a looper get busy and it was amazing!
Jeff Schmidt is a phenomenal player!!!
Thanks for showing him!!
High tuned tenor guitar
Carl Thompson Made the First Piccolo Bass I believe
Fretless piccolo with fuzz is my sound.
Hell yeah
A bass that doesn't have bass is not a bass.
Looking for a piccolo bass player to start a band with. I play an 8 string guitar. Let’s jam.
It's basically the same premise as a bass vi, it's just a way for a bassist to occupy the same sonic range as a guitar instead of having to learn how to play with the smaller string spacing and the b string being a third instead of a fourth