I was very pleased to see Alain included. He is so underated. Alain double-thumbs and occasionally triple-pops with his index, middle and ring, using his pinkie as a pivot against the body.
I've learned so many things from this RUclips channel. I'm a better bass player today than I was a year ago when I first started watching Scott's channel.
Get a class on SBL with Alain. He’s almost 70 and has such knowledge. I’ve known Alain for over 25 years and I know his knowledge will serve so many. 🙏 I was actually in the audience of the clip you posted. Was so good.
I’m so glad mark king is talked about here and credited for his great playing. A lot of people don’t really like him because he gets a bit slap happy which is true, but I love mark and level 42. I have to say, King isn’t a show off all the time, he has some great fingerstyle bass lines, the man is so groovy too! Listen to bass lines like Kansas City Milkman, Children Say, Starchild, Turn It On. That being said he has some great slap bass lines, his clip was just a solo here but he can really groove with slap. Listen to The Essential by Mark King, that album actually, Influences. And listen to Love Games as well. Anyway, love you guys thank you for this great video!! ❤️❤️
Mark King was a big Alembic, & Jaydee player too, along with a smattering of others. I think his best documented solo is on Guaranteed Live at the Town And Country Club on his Alembic Mark King Signature bass, just tone perfection. A formidable fingerstyle player too .
I found out he’s the one who turned Prince on to the Jehovah’s Witnesses so I want to deduct points BUT imagine being sooo cool you get Prince to convert to your religion! Ever hear Claypool’s cover of Awakening?
@@Redbeard4321if it is something that makes you a better person and influences others around you to become better people, that definitely adds points to my list.😊
Soooo Glad you included Alain Caron!!! Such an underrated bassist. His fretless playing is outstanding too. His bass has a special synth pickup system by Roland.
Really don't understand why there's such a focus on Mark King's choice of strings... Just because he uses light strings, and Scott doesn't like his sound does not take away the influence he has had on the style of slap bass. With respect to both IMA and SD, neither of them got close to imitating Mark King on this video, and that should be acknowledged, not just that Scott prefers a heavier string. He opened the door for many players to discover slap, for my generation, and I don't think I'm alone, he was Victor Wooten or Flea, I'd never have discovered Stanley Clarke or Larry Graham if not for Mark King. Good video except that section, only IMO of course.
I wanted to learn bass because I wanted to play like Bootsy. I took lessons from a guy named Freekbass, and he introduced me to Larry Graham by making Hair one of our lessons. I walked out of the lesson and immediately went to Best Buy to get the best of Graham Central Station.
You gave Mark King pretty short shrift and spent most of the time talking about his strings etc. Instead of showing a solo you could have had a clip of one of his great slap lines like Love Games or the endurance test that is Lessons in Love.
So glad you highlighted Brian Bromberg! Awesome story Ian Been listening to his smooth jazz tracks for years So much talent You should do a in depth interview with him!
I think it's fair to say Mark King's Status years are the one's most of his fans like the least, as you say very bright and Hi-Fi sounding, probably down to EQ as much as the basses. His best sounding basses were in the earlier years on Jaydee Supernaturals and then Alembics before his move over to Status when Level 42 reformed back together. Both the Jaydees and Alembics were much more fuller sounding even with the same light 30-50-70-90 strings. Funnily enough he has moved back to Jaydee basses for the past few years and his sound is much more enjoyable.
The first time Mark King was using Status Basses was on the True Colors Album (1984), a later called S2. Later in the 80s he changed to Alembic and then even to Music Man (beginning 90s). Also a Fender Type Mark King Model was around in the late 90s. The actual Mark King Status model showed up in the early 2000s. In my ears his sound never changed much. String gauge 30 - 90 is the main thing.
Mark King brought out a signature set of strings in the 80s (Rotosound Funkmaster 30 50 70 90) , and I have used those medium to super-light gauges ever since. However, the main contributor to his sound was at the ball end, where the outer wind didn't begin until after the bridge, which they called "piano string design", ie, the first inch from the ball end was just the core of the string. The ring and sustain this gives is also crazy good.
For part two: for being a total freak I'd say Doug Wimbish, but maybe also Michael Manring, who may not be slapping that frequently, but he does it differently to anyone else. Mohini Dey, Ilja Lappin, Charles Berthoud and Nate Navarro are crazy too. And in terms of being a huge influence, some important slappers are certainly Stuart Zender, TimmyC, Fieldy, Alex Katunich.
Bought the programm because I did the Fretboard Accelerator and it blew my mind. I‘m sure this one will help me finally uncover Slap Bass as I tried for years and years and than got frustrated. Dear Scott thank you so much for your teachings.
I loved UZEB, I am from Hamilton , Canada and F bass gave me tickets to Alain workshop, I had no idea who he was. he as so cool and humble. Michel Cusson played an f guitar as well.
This popped up on my phone notifications, while I was at a Marcus Miller concert last night, in Montreal Canada. Seen Stanley Clarke two nights before as well at the same theatre
You have the most interesting, educational and pedagogical videos, and yet you manage to make me laugh and forget all the bad things in the world. You give me hope and joy every day and I am enormously grateful for that. Love you guys❤️
Hey, I’d like to draw attention to Jeff Berlin’s intro on FiveG, from the Bruford album One of a kind, total killer example of fluidity, amongst the rest of the tune .
This is the best bass channel ever, l've addicted to it for years now. I would love to see you interview or sample Abraham laboriel Snr bass techniques.
My Favourite Slap Bass player is Tomohito Aoki with his Atelier Z. Stuff he did with DIMENSION and Toshiki Kadomatsu was sooo good. Unfortunately he's no longer with us but I listen to his stuff every day. He was also pretty amazing on finger style and fretless!
Kinda dissappointed UK's Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) didn't get a mention! He's pushed slap bass to new dimensions so many times, most easily detectable on «Solo Electric Bass vol. 1» He's my wish interview no.1 on SBL!
Mark king uses full scale basses👍 that machine gun triplet thing he was doing isn’t a hammer on. It’s a combination of a left and right hand muted slap. Pluck the G string and do a left-hand muted slap and then do a right hand muted slap. Hopefully that Makes sense.
Listening to Mark King I was thinking, "That's the brightest bass I've ever heard." Five seconds later Ian goes, "That's the brightest bass I've ever heard."
Scott!! Im pulling you out the hole! Mark King inspired me to play bass and im not offended one bit by what you've said! I have a status like Mark kings and it is a medium scale. I use 100s (low e) on it and it sounds epic! Mark King does do the triplets and sure I heard in an interview somewhere he uses like 80s or 90s I think. Be very happy to let you have a go on my status if you wanted to. The pick ups sound fantastic playing finger style as well 👍
Great video. At 61 I'm still trying to get my slap technique down. You have to get Mark King in. He's a funny guy to boot, maybe his brother Nathan as well? And Deffo Larry! That would be awesome!
Hey Scott and Ian, Larry's tone is from his technique. Larry's bass is turned all the way up and he plays with a light touch. It keeps his sound more responsive to his hand dynamics and it makes his effects work better too. Then all he has to do is adjust amp volume to the room.
I was really hoping Brian Bromberg would be included! He is such an amazing and versatile player. One thing you guys didn’t mention about his technique is that he does all of his pops with his middle finger! He explained it on his old instructional video (back when he had long hair!) that it just felt more natural to him to do it with his middle finger as opposed to his index. Nice to see Alain on here as well. Another monster player.
I was at a concert where Larry Graham was playing with Mark King. It was a festival so towards the end his friend prince joined the stage…and after one song Carlos Santana joined…unbelievable and they were al fans of Larry. Later Carlos said in his own set: first time I played with him since woodstock
Alain Caron has a Roland GK pickup on his bass in this clip - hence the mystery synth sounds & him slapping every single note, these pickups needs a strong attack or else can misread the pitch which can produce warbled notes. I haven't heard anything about him before, going to have to look some of his stuff up - I was already familiar with all the other legends on your list. Nice thorough breakdown of a bunch of classic slap techniques with all their differences, definitely must see viewing for the slap connoisseur's
Light gauge strings are key to Mark King's sound, but the Status is perhaps TOO clean and if the mix isn't right, it can lose bottom end big time. Thankfully, though, Mark has seemed to have moved on from Status back to his more classic sounding Jaydee.
Been to many Level 42 gigs. You can rarely hear his bass at the shows. Some sub bass air-shifting but that's about it. He completely scoops out the mids. Best to just watch him online or listen to the albums.
I have a cheap 4 string Yamaha passive bass with the same pickup set up and i find that a nice blend of both pickups give a really juicy tone, same pickup set up of on a active fordera is mind blowing
Love you guys, you breakdown bass to such a incredible level. You also have to let your people know that there's a lot of nuance to Bass. Every live performance has a little new twist. Put your own soul into every song ❤😉.
By no means am i slap enthusis. But great content You all need to get LES on for a full interveiw. Talking about day of trying out for metallica to creating primus . His methods etc. that would incredible. He is by far one of my favorite musicians..
That's super interesting! I thought the volume problem with both pickups on is exclusive to my bass only! Thought it is some weird phasing issue! Good to hear that some other people have those kind of issues too 1:34
Great vid! Not the biggest slap fan in a vacuum, but I immediately had to hunt down that Larry Graham performance, it’s incredible. Knew I’d learn a lot from you guys even when it’s not what I’m looking for :)
The double thumb thing where you guys are replicating with a pic… Bobby Vega has a video where he does that and it is crazy ass funky. I would love to see you guys have him on.
How, again, has Stanley Clark eluded yet another SBL list? One of the slap pioneers, a fusion pioneer, and the first solo electric bassist. What gives Scott and Ian?
When I first started playing in 1980, Stanley was neck and neck with Jaco as “the world’s greatest bassist”. I bought the brown Stanley Clarke album and Jaco’s debut on the same day; loved Stanley’s album and didn’t really like Jaco’s. But after Jaco died it just seemed like he went through the roof, and since then Stanley just seems to have become less and less lauded. It’s a shame; he was Mark King’s biggest influence for a start!
There are so many phenomenal slap masters out there, you cannot narrow it down to 25, let alone 7! Glad to see #1 is Larry Graham, who is the originator, the innovator, without him, slappin' would NOT happen! Make it so, Ian!
Is that a Spector in antiqua color behind Mr Allison? The headstock looks like Spector and color looks like antigua, but I've never seen a antigua Spector before😅
Flea and Les were the guys that got me to try slap, I don’t do it a whole lot but it’s still fun as hell regardless and I still want to try and put some into my own band’s music since we recently started writing stuff (plus slap bass in a metal song sounds like it could be a lot of fun lol)
I played at Jazz Café in Costa Rica the day before Alain Caron played there, and the owner of the club brought him. I had a terrible cold and played awful that night, and didn't knew that Alain was there. He complimented our singer after the show. :b
I would love to see you guys check out brands like Kiesel, Maruszczyk or Sandberg basses sometime. They have some super attractive instruments and some really dope online configurators (been drooling over them for months now)
Idea for your next giveaway, Scott and Ian (and possibly Sharon and other instructors) should design their own reimagined versions of classic basses ; "Jazz"," P", "Thunderbird", "Stingray", etc. Find the perfect luthier for each, make (and possibly film the making of) said basses. Make a buttload of videos playing each bass and then give them away for charity. The twist being that any basses Scott has a hand in designing must be short scale like the "Mustang" or "SG", or perhaps just medium scale versions of classic long scale basses, either way, that big handed bastard must pay!
Forgot to say. Mark King is Playing a Status King bass that has a 34" scale, unless he's using the one with a Bend Well. The neck is the same length however, but that particular one reduces playable scale to accommodate the Bend Well. The point being however, its a full length neck that looks small beccause its headless. His Jaydee, on the other hand, also a 34" scale and look huge when he's playing it
Perhaps you should do a subseries - "Scott teaches the best". "Yes, Mr King, I'm afraid there's rather a lot wrong with your sound. Your scale is too short, your strings are too thin...... I'm not fully impressed with your technique either....... but a couple of lessons with me and we'll soon put it all right." LoveLifeGoodness&Freedom, Andy
@@uboweeg agree with you. But I saw LC with both and I must say that they sound so much better with Muzz. Just my opinion. Doug is a top bass player, but sometimes...hum...often...too much notes and effects.
Mark King is the GOAT. Anybody new to him should go back to earlier 80's Level 42 to hear him kill it. That clip you played wasn't the best demo of him...he was groove machine back in the day. Another unknown quality player of the slap was Robert Gordon...bass for Gil Scott Heron. Check out 'Angel Dust' live...so cool.
I discovered Brian Bromberg when I started looking into Kiesel artists a few years ago. Wow, can he play.... I just got my new bass and am looking to improve my slap game!
By the way... If you guys don't know all of the guys in the Victor video... It's Joe Wooten on keys, Reggie Wooten on Guitar and JD Blair on drums. All of these guys are legends!
Please make a video on slapp bass comparing slapp bass on 4 vs. 5 vs. 6. I see the legend of slapp like marcus Miller and Victor wooten still use 4 string bass for slapp
Funny how people have said for so long that the bridge pickup was the important thing for your slap tone, but slapping with the bridge pickup solod usually sounds pretty awful (stingray being the exception). Neck pickup supremacy!!
Yo, just figured out the chords, the melodic progression for these songs are basically the same thing, just rearranged. Michael Jackson - Human Nature and Fur Elise - Beethoven. If you play one song, the other can be played the same way just different. The part where it diddles back and fouth, between notes, It's is the same exact pattern, I can hear the changes in notes and I noticed it's like the almost same song. It's like the same thing to learn both songs, would be cool to somehow blend them together into the same song. I am trying to add some more rhythmic notes to this whole Beethoven thing, cause there's just no damn rhythm in the classical genre, but it's melodic as you can get and sounds beautiful etc. To do this with any kind of percussive rhythm on bass is a very hard type of fusion, I just need some fast fingers to do stuff like that, to play with ghost notes is really hard omg. Really big challenges are good though. After I seen Charles play Van Funky Halen on Bass, I think he fried some circuit in my mind, my brain is blown for real now. Any type of fusion is now a possibility on Bass, this includes opposite ends of the musical spectrum, lol. I think you can easily combine Michael Jackson with Beethoven, for these two particular songs. It's about changing my mind, about what I can imagine to play and then doing it. You guys, we all need to be a little bit more aggressive on stage sometimes with just your body language, some attitude is okay, especially for Male entertainers. Like look at what Joe Bonamassa is doing, he's good at stage presence, he has female fans. You don't need to be good looking. I don't necessarily like men who sing higher than his girlfriends, Michael Jackson and few others could even pull it off. Otherwise, what is the point of being a musician if you don't have the presence of mind ?. Not sure, what some men are thinking about anymore with vocal performances.
Good old "Primus Wrong Note Theory: If you play all the wrong notes, they're the right notes." It's so hard to get Les's sound (from the old Primus albums) because his strings are insanely thin. Some of his basses go so far as to use an A string for the E and A string, and a G string for the D and G string. And he's even used super thin strings on a short scale & piccolo bass. Super loose and flappy. Then, a lot of his basses have only one active EMG 35DC, through an active onboard Pre. (And that's just the Bass Guitar portion of his tones. Not getting into processing/FX chain.) It's such a specific bass setup/layout that very few basses in the wild can do the "Claypool Sound". They're practically different instruments unless they have the same strings and pickups and electronics.
Yeah, these guys are some aliens for sure! Alain Caron’s “Slam the Clown” (and “D Code” from the same concert) are simply unobtainable for me. So is pretty much anything by Henrik, but every one of these players are exceptional! Marcus was a large part of the reason I fell into Luther Vandross (who was a Top 5 singer for me… just wasn’t ordinary at all!).
If you see flea now Even him slap with parallel thumb You can see it at the closing ceremony of the olympics where they promote the next olymp in LA Flea slaps with his thumb kinda parallel
Since musicans from the North America and UK were mostly the one in the center of media attention, I do understand why you guys would missed this one. Check the bass solo in the middle of the tune. ruclips.net/video/zIK1Vn6Va3w/видео.htmlsi=NSb3YrCef4oQecGb or this one, check out the bass line and the bass solo ruclips.net/video/S0Xm1PWb07o/видео.htmlsi=2tjuy5PaEii1yk68 For a lot of East and South East Asian bass players growing up in the 80s, Tetsuo Sakurai IS our slap bass hero. I also challenge you to play his bass lines on the tune Halle and Misty Lady from Casiopea.
Let’s go back to 1973 in the UK.A bass player called Stephen Fields AKA Stephen Amazing from the band UPP.He was years ahead of his time and got next to no recognition.
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I was very pleased to see Alain included. He is so underated. Alain double-thumbs and occasionally triple-pops with his index, middle and ring, using his pinkie as a pivot against the body.
For those of us who love bass, this channel is gold. Thank you.
But I still hate Scott's promo letters with "one in a time" offers every month😂
I've learned so many things from this RUclips channel. I'm a better bass player today than I was a year ago when I first started watching Scott's channel.
Get a class on SBL with Alain. He’s almost 70 and has such knowledge. I’ve known Alain for over 25 years and I know his knowledge will serve so many. 🙏
I was actually in the audience of the clip you posted. Was so good.
I’m so glad mark king is talked about here and credited for his great playing. A lot of people don’t really like him because he gets a bit slap happy which is true, but I love mark and level 42. I have to say, King isn’t a show off all the time, he has some great fingerstyle bass lines, the man is so groovy too! Listen to bass lines like Kansas City Milkman, Children Say, Starchild, Turn It On. That being said he has some great slap bass lines, his clip was just a solo here but he can really groove with slap. Listen to The Essential by Mark King, that album actually, Influences. And listen to Love Games as well. Anyway, love you guys thank you for this great video!! ❤️❤️
Mark King was a big Alembic, & Jaydee player too, along with a smattering of others. I think his best documented solo is on Guaranteed Live at the Town And Country Club on his Alembic Mark King Signature bass, just tone perfection. A formidable fingerstyle player too .
No one is cooler than Larry Graham.
I found out he’s the one who turned Prince on to the Jehovah’s Witnesses so I want to deduct points BUT imagine being sooo cool you get Prince to convert to your religion! Ever hear Claypool’s cover of Awakening?
@@Redbeard4321if it is something that makes you a better person and influences others around you to become better people, that definitely adds points to my list.😊
Soooo Glad you included Alain Caron!!! Such an underrated bassist. His fretless playing is outstanding too. His bass has a special synth pickup system by Roland.
the neck pickup on 100% with the bridge pickup on around 75% is the sweet spot for me too, it's jazz bass heaven
Great list - but don't sleep on Meshell Ndegeocello! She is SUPER funky and soulful.
And she don't overplay !!
Really don't understand why there's such a focus on Mark King's choice of strings...
Just because he uses light strings, and Scott doesn't like his sound does not take away the influence he has had on the style of slap bass.
With respect to both IMA and SD, neither of them got close to imitating Mark King on this video, and that should be acknowledged, not just that Scott prefers a heavier string.
He opened the door for many players to discover slap, for my generation, and I don't think I'm alone, he was Victor Wooten or Flea, I'd never have discovered Stanley Clarke or Larry Graham if not for Mark King.
Good video except that section, only IMO of course.
I wanted to learn bass because I wanted to play like Bootsy. I took lessons from a guy named Freekbass, and he introduced me to Larry Graham by making Hair one of our lessons. I walked out of the lesson and immediately went to Best Buy to get the best of Graham Central Station.
I dont see stanley clarke. Has there been a mistake?
❤
stanley is awesome. One of the best.
You gave Mark King pretty short shrift and spent most of the time talking about his strings etc. Instead of showing a solo you could have had a clip of one of his great slap lines like Love Games or the endurance test that is Lessons in Love.
agree, he's a class in himself....if you ask me!
So glad you highlighted Brian Bromberg!
Awesome story Ian
Been listening to his smooth jazz tracks for years
So much talent
You should do a in depth interview with him!
I think it's fair to say Mark King's Status years are the one's most of his fans like the least, as you say very bright and Hi-Fi sounding, probably down to EQ as much as the basses. His best sounding basses were in the earlier years on Jaydee Supernaturals and then Alembics before his move over to Status when Level 42 reformed back together. Both the Jaydees and Alembics were much more fuller sounding even with the same light 30-50-70-90 strings. Funnily enough he has moved back to Jaydee basses for the past few years and his sound is much more enjoyable.
Exception here. Loved his Status tone.
His Alembic tone was incredible, especially when he was using two big Eden stacks (such as the Isle Of Wight live DVD!)
Mark played Statuses in Level 42 with the original lineup in the 80s. Like you, I much prefer the Jaydee.
The first time Mark King was using Status Basses was on the True Colors Album (1984), a later called S2. Later in the 80s he changed to Alembic and then even to Music Man (beginning 90s). Also a Fender Type Mark King Model was around in the late 90s. The actual Mark King Status model showed up in the early 2000s. In my ears his sound never changed much. String gauge 30 - 90 is the main thing.
Mark could be given a slab of wood with literally horsehair for strings and make music.
The genius of Mark King was he was singing and writing hit pop tunes as well. Its still about the song...and Mike Lindup!
Mark King brought out a signature set of strings in the 80s (Rotosound Funkmaster 30 50 70 90) , and I have used those medium to super-light gauges ever since. However, the main contributor to his sound was at the ball end, where the outer wind didn't begin until after the bridge, which they called "piano string design", ie, the first inch from the ball end was just the core of the string. The ring and sustain this gives is also crazy good.
For part two: for being a total freak I'd say Doug Wimbish, but maybe also Michael Manring, who may not be slapping that frequently, but he does it differently to anyone else. Mohini Dey, Ilja Lappin, Charles Berthoud and Nate Navarro are crazy too.
And in terms of being a huge influence, some important slappers are certainly Stuart Zender, TimmyC, Fieldy, Alex Katunich.
Great to see Alain Caron! I’d like to add Melvin Lee Davis, Scott Ambush and Vince Loving.🤘
The opening to "Lessons in Love" is why I became a Mark King fan.
Bought the programm because I did the Fretboard Accelerator and it blew my mind.
I‘m sure this one will help me finally uncover Slap Bass as I tried for years and years and than got frustrated.
Dear Scott thank you so much for your teachings.
Mark King on the Jaydee is sooooo Much Better. Sure he uses light strings, but that Status was also ultra bright. Jaydee all day long ..
I loved UZEB, I am from Hamilton , Canada and F bass gave me tickets to Alain workshop, I had no idea who he was. he as so cool and humble. Michel Cusson played an f guitar as well.
🔥🔥🔥
oh NORWOOD FISHER from fishbone, slappedyslapps in bonin' in the boneyard!
I love Norwood. Nobody talks about him.
This popped up on my phone notifications, while I was at a Marcus Miller concert last night, in Montreal Canada. Seen Stanley Clarke two nights before as well at the same theatre
You have the most interesting, educational and pedagogical videos, and yet you manage to make me laugh and forget all the bad things in the world. You give me hope and joy every day and I am enormously grateful for that. Love you guys❤️
I think a lot of why Alain Caron sounds like synth is he’s got the Roland GK divided pick up on the bass as well
I will actually see (and hear) Marcus Miller tonight! (Montreall Jazz festival)
Awesome!!!!
Awesome, hope you enjoyed the gig!!
It was awesome! What an inspiration! It was pure bliss for 2 hours 🙂
Yeah Alain Caron Slapping is his quiet superpower Slam the Clown + more Brian Bromberg he’s amazing
Seeing Graham play reminds me a lot of Les Claypool. I'm guessing Graham must have been a big influence.
Hey, I’d like to draw attention to Jeff Berlin’s intro on FiveG, from the Bruford album One of a kind, total killer example of fluidity, amongst the rest of the tune .
This is the best bass channel ever, l've addicted to it for years now. I would love to see you interview or sample Abraham laboriel Snr bass techniques.
Pls do a vid on casiopeas tetsou sakurai!
Jerry Peek and Dave LaRue were doing "Country-fied Slap Bass" 40 years ago with Steve Morse.
My Favourite Slap Bass player is Tomohito Aoki with his Atelier Z. Stuff he did with DIMENSION and Toshiki Kadomatsu was sooo good. Unfortunately he's no longer with us but I listen to his stuff every day. He was also pretty amazing on finger style and fretless!
🔥🔥🔥
Kinda dissappointed UK's Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) didn't get a mention! He's pushed slap bass to new dimensions so many times, most easily detectable on «Solo Electric Bass vol. 1»
He's my wish interview no.1 on SBL!
Mark king uses full scale basses👍 that machine gun triplet thing he was doing isn’t a hammer on. It’s a combination of a left and right hand muted slap. Pluck the G string and do a left-hand muted slap and then do a right hand muted slap. Hopefully that Makes sense.
His Status basses are 32" scale.
@@TrevBec yes! But for the majority of his career he’s used Jaydee basses and a has recently switched back to them they are full scale 👍
Yup, was quite surprised they got that one wrong really, That was really the original machine gun slap technique to me
@@samba1412 exactly!
Listening to Mark King I was thinking, "That's the brightest bass I've ever heard." Five seconds later Ian goes, "That's the brightest bass I've ever heard."
🤣🤣🤣
Scott!! Im pulling you out the hole! Mark King inspired me to play bass and im not offended one bit by what you've said! I have a status like Mark kings and it is a medium scale. I use 100s (low e) on it and it sounds epic! Mark King does do the triplets and sure I heard in an interview somewhere he uses like 80s or 90s I think. Be very happy to let you have a go on my status if you wanted to. The pick ups sound fantastic playing finger style as well 👍
Mark King sings while playing difficult bass lines. This is a talent few bass players have...that puts him on another level as well.
Very true! Lessons In Love while singing is a serious challenge!
@@devinebass For me the singing is the only bit I can do for the entire song. 😉😂
Great video. At 61 I'm still trying to get my slap technique down. You have to get Mark King in. He's a funny guy to boot, maybe his brother Nathan as well? And Deffo Larry! That would be awesome!
Hey Scott and Ian, Larry's tone is from his technique. Larry's bass is turned all the way up and he plays with a light touch. It keeps his sound more responsive to his hand dynamics and it makes his effects work better too. Then all he has to do is adjust amp volume to the room.
Mark King wasn't doing open hammer thumb plucks. Triplets. Pluck, left hand muted whacking thing, thumb. Rinse and repeat.
Great slap ‘o sound: Tony Levin with his funkfingers (f.i. King Crimson’s ‘People’ / Peter Gabriel’s ‘Red Rain’ (Secret World live album)!
Thanks guys, so much goody slap stuff here & as always great fun !
Think l'll be watching it again.
So cool to see Alain playing the dual split coil F-bass! It's my main gigging bass but I don't think I've seen anyone else playing that configuration.
I was really hoping Brian Bromberg would be included! He is such an amazing and versatile player. One thing you guys didn’t mention about his technique is that he does all of his pops with his middle finger! He explained it on his old instructional video (back when he had long hair!) that it just felt more natural to him to do it with his middle finger as opposed to his index. Nice to see Alain on here as well. Another monster player.
In that solo ...His tone sounds similar to Marcus Millers and his tapping seems reminiscent of what Victor does
When the slap finger points to me it is P Bass or Jazz with only the neck pickup! I’m so glad IMA prefers this too. The tone is SO good!
I was at a concert where Larry Graham was playing with Mark King. It was a festival so towards the end his friend prince joined the stage…and after one song Carlos Santana joined…unbelievable and they were al fans of Larry. Later Carlos said in his own set: first time I played with him since woodstock
Alain Caron has a Roland GK pickup on his bass in this clip - hence the mystery synth sounds & him slapping every single note, these pickups needs a strong attack or else can misread the pitch which can produce warbled notes. I haven't heard anything about him before, going to have to look some of his stuff up - I was already familiar with all the other legends on your list. Nice thorough breakdown of a bunch of classic slap techniques with all their differences, definitely must see viewing for the slap connoisseur's
Light gauge strings are key to Mark King's sound, but the Status is perhaps TOO clean and if the mix isn't right, it can lose bottom end big time. Thankfully, though, Mark has seemed to have moved on from Status back to his more classic sounding Jaydee.
Been to many Level 42 gigs. You can rarely hear his bass at the shows. Some sub bass air-shifting but that's about it. He completely scoops out the mids. Best to just watch him online or listen to the albums.
I have a cheap 4 string Yamaha passive bass with the same pickup set up and i find that a nice blend of both pickups give a really juicy tone, same pickup set up of on a active fordera is mind blowing
Love you guys, you breakdown bass to such a incredible level. You also have to let your people know that there's a lot of nuance to Bass. Every live performance has a little new twist. Put your own soul into every song ❤😉.
By no means am i slap enthusis. But great content You all need to get LES on for a full interveiw. Talking about day of trying out for metallica to creating primus . His methods etc. that would incredible. He is by far one of my favorite musicians..
We would love to Les on for an interview, i'm sure it would be incredibly interesting!!
Did you mention that Mark King is left handed but playing right handed?
Thank you for introducing me to Brian Bromberg!
Flea admits he got his style from Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, yet no one ever talks about Norwood.
love reactions during Mark King's section but would have been great to see him shred instead haha
Big respect for all these amazing bass players...thank you guys for doing these things for the whole community!
hah, Mark King's sound - the most hated sound if we could trust the opinions from various bass fora ;)
Victor makes it look so effortless and Ian rocking a quality bass face trying to emulate it
Doug Wimbish. Very different approach and technique. Slaps with his fingertips. He’s got the Larry Graham thumb, too.
Great list. Maybe a top 20 next time! I would’ve liked to see where you guys would place Abe Laboriel and Mark Adams from the group Slave.
That's super interesting! I thought the volume problem with both pickups on is exclusive to my bass only! Thought it is some weird phasing issue! Good to hear that some other people have those kind of issues too 1:34
Great vid! Not the biggest slap fan in a vacuum, but I immediately had to hunt down that Larry Graham performance, it’s incredible. Knew I’d learn a lot from you guys even when it’s not what I’m looking for :)
Here’s an idea. The bromancers DevAllison could have a day out to The Isle of Wight and interview Mark King.
I like this idea!
@@devinebass I’ll look forward to the video.
The double thumb thing where you guys are replicating with a pic… Bobby Vega has a video where he does that and it is crazy ass funky. I would love to see you guys have him on.
How, again, has Stanley Clark eluded yet another SBL list? One of the slap pioneers, a fusion pioneer, and the first solo electric bassist. What gives Scott and Ian?
When I first started playing in 1980, Stanley was neck and neck with Jaco as “the world’s greatest bassist”. I bought the brown Stanley Clarke album and Jaco’s debut on the same day; loved Stanley’s album and didn’t really like Jaco’s. But after Jaco died it just seemed like he went through the roof, and since then Stanley just seems to have become less and less lauded. It’s a shame; he was Mark King’s biggest influence for a start!
There are so many phenomenal slap masters out there, you cannot narrow it down to 25, let alone 7! Glad to see #1 is Larry Graham, who is the originator, the innovator, without him, slappin' would NOT happen! Make it so, Ian!
Is that a Spector in antiqua color behind Mr Allison? The headstock looks like Spector and color looks like antigua, but I've never seen a antigua Spector before😅
Flea and Les were the guys that got me to try slap, I don’t do it a whole lot but it’s still fun as hell regardless and I still want to try and put some into my own band’s music since we recently started writing stuff (plus slap bass in a metal song sounds like it could be a lot of fun lol)
How could you forget about Stanley Clarke? He was an early slapper in jazz and a big influence to Claypool.
Mark King but no Stanley Clarke. C'mon man. Wtf
I played at Jazz Café in Costa Rica the day before Alain Caron played there, and the owner of the club brought him. I had a terrible cold and played awful that night, and didn't knew that Alain was there. He complimented our singer after the show. :b
I would love to see you guys check out brands like Kiesel, Maruszczyk or Sandberg basses sometime. They have some super attractive instruments and some really dope online configurators (been drooling over them for months now)
For me, the ideal slap sound is a good jazz bass with both pickups at 💯!
Glad to see Bromberg on list. Monster player...👌
🔥🔥🔥
Idea for your next giveaway, Scott and Ian (and possibly Sharon and other instructors) should design their own reimagined versions of classic basses ; "Jazz"," P", "Thunderbird", "Stingray", etc. Find the perfect luthier for each, make (and possibly film the making of) said basses. Make a buttload of videos playing each bass and then give them away for charity. The twist being that any basses Scott has a hand in designing must be short scale like the "Mustang" or "SG", or perhaps just medium scale versions of classic long scale basses, either way, that big handed bastard must pay!
Forgot to say. Mark King is Playing a Status King bass that has a 34" scale, unless he's using the one with a Bend Well. The neck is the same length however, but that particular one reduces playable scale to accommodate the Bend Well. The point being however, its a full length neck that looks small beccause its headless. His Jaydee, on the other hand, also a 34" scale and look huge when he's playing it
Perhaps you should do a subseries - "Scott teaches the best". "Yes, Mr King, I'm afraid there's rather a lot wrong with your sound. Your scale is too short, your strings are too thin...... I'm not fully impressed with your technique either....... but a couple of lessons with me and we'll soon put it all right." LoveLifeGoodness&Freedom, Andy
One name... Doug Wimbish. One track, King of the Beat (Tackhead live).
Yeah, Tackhead were great..... 'Hard Left' got me into slapping after hearing it back in the day
@@nickd.6365 100%, great track, years ahead of its time. Always loved the aggression in What's My Mission as well from the same album.
Yes !! But not the good player for Living Color , too much notes and effects.
@@callingchristiano hmm, I love Muzz Skillings as well but Doug's bass on Stain album is exceptional and really suited their direction at that time.
@@uboweeg agree with you. But I saw LC with both and I must say that they sound so much better with Muzz. Just my opinion. Doug is a top bass player, but sometimes...hum...often...too much notes and effects.
Mark King is the GOAT. Anybody new to him should go back to earlier 80's Level 42 to hear him kill it. That clip you played wasn't the best demo of him...he was groove machine back in the day. Another unknown quality player of the slap was Robert Gordon...bass for Gil Scott Heron. Check out 'Angel Dust' live...so cool.
I discovered Brian Bromberg when I started looking into Kiesel artists a few years ago. Wow, can he play.... I just got my new bass and am looking to improve my slap game!
By the way... If you guys don't know all of the guys in the Victor video... It's Joe Wooten on keys, Reggie Wooten on Guitar and JD Blair on drums. All of these guys are legends!
Please make a video on slapp bass comparing slapp bass on 4 vs. 5 vs. 6. I see the legend of slapp like marcus Miller and Victor wooten still use 4 string bass for slapp
They do, but Alain Caron and Henrik Linder both play 6ers. the real challenges on the 6 are accuracy and muting!
Funny how people have said for so long that the bridge pickup was the important thing for your slap tone, but slapping with the bridge pickup solod usually sounds pretty awful (stingray being the exception).
Neck pickup supremacy!!
We need a video on Stanley Clarke. Dude pioneered solos on the bass
That finger saying it's slap time points at me on virtually every gig I am on. For me it is always both pickups unless I am using a P Bass.
I subscribe to this list. All my favorites except for one bass player - I find Les Claypool controversial, but I can't think of an alternative
Yo, just figured out the chords, the melodic progression for these songs are basically the same thing, just rearranged.
Michael Jackson - Human Nature and Fur Elise - Beethoven. If you play one song, the other can be played the same way just different.
The part where it diddles back and fouth, between notes, It's is the same exact pattern, I can hear the changes in notes and I noticed it's like the almost same song.
It's like the same thing to learn both songs, would be cool to somehow blend them together into the same song.
I am trying to add some more rhythmic notes to this whole Beethoven thing, cause there's just no damn rhythm in the classical genre, but it's melodic as you can get and sounds beautiful etc. To do this with any kind of percussive rhythm on bass is a very hard type of fusion, I just need some fast fingers to do stuff like that, to play with ghost notes is really hard omg. Really big challenges are good though. After I seen Charles play Van Funky Halen on Bass, I think he fried some circuit in my mind, my brain is blown for real now. Any type of fusion is now a possibility on Bass, this includes opposite ends of the musical spectrum, lol. I think you can easily combine Michael Jackson with Beethoven, for these two particular songs. It's about changing my mind, about what I can imagine to play and then doing it.
You guys, we all need to be a little bit more aggressive on stage sometimes with just your body language, some attitude is okay, especially for Male entertainers. Like look at what Joe Bonamassa is doing, he's good at stage presence, he has female fans. You don't need to be good looking. I don't necessarily like men who sing higher than his girlfriends, Michael Jackson and few others could even pull it off. Otherwise, what is the point of being a musician if you don't have the presence of mind ?. Not sure, what some men are thinking about anymore with vocal performances.
Mark King put me off slap bass for 20 years
My two favorite bass nerds, I love you guys This show is so much fun (if you're a bass player )
Good old "Primus Wrong Note Theory: If you play all the wrong notes, they're the right notes." It's so hard to get Les's sound (from the old Primus albums) because his strings are insanely thin. Some of his basses go so far as to use an A string for the E and A string, and a G string for the D and G string. And he's even used super thin strings on a short scale & piccolo bass. Super loose and flappy. Then, a lot of his basses have only one active EMG 35DC, through an active onboard Pre. (And that's just the Bass Guitar portion of his tones. Not getting into processing/FX chain.) It's such a specific bass setup/layout that very few basses in the wild can do the "Claypool Sound". They're practically different instruments unless they have the same strings and pickups and electronics.
Yeah, I think he had 2 x 40s and 2 x 60s or similar.
Fellas!!!! Man you guys are the greatest! Love you guys!
Appreciate that! Cheers!!
Yeah, these guys are some aliens for sure! Alain Caron’s “Slam the Clown” (and “D Code” from the same concert) are simply unobtainable for me. So is pretty much anything by Henrik, but every one of these players are exceptional! Marcus was a large part of the reason I fell into Luther Vandross (who was a Top 5 singer for me… just wasn’t ordinary at all!).
Good job putting it all into words. Gives me new ideas though i've been playing since 1987 lol.
I'm with Scott on this one, Mark King with a 45-105 set instead of the 30-90 set he normally uses. That should bring back some oomph in his sound.
just dialing some low end into the sound will help a lot too
If you see flea now
Even him slap with parallel thumb
You can see it at the closing ceremony of the olympics where they promote the next olymp in LA
Flea slaps with his thumb kinda parallel
Since musicans from the North America and UK were mostly the one in the center of media attention, I do understand why you guys would missed this one. Check the bass solo in the middle of the tune.
ruclips.net/video/zIK1Vn6Va3w/видео.htmlsi=NSb3YrCef4oQecGb
or this one, check out the bass line and the bass solo
ruclips.net/video/S0Xm1PWb07o/видео.htmlsi=2tjuy5PaEii1yk68
For a lot of East and South East Asian bass players growing up in the 80s, Tetsuo Sakurai IS our slap bass hero. I also challenge you to play his bass lines on the tune Halle and Misty Lady from Casiopea.
Let’s go back to 1973 in the UK.A bass player called Stephen Fields AKA Stephen Amazing from the band UPP.He was years ahead of his time and got next to no recognition.