Piezo's in Music Man basses?

[petruccirocks02]

Hey everyone, I'm just curious as to what a piezo does in a bass? I've played fully loaded JP6's before with the piezo's, but never played a bass with one. What would one be used for? And what do they sound like? I guess what I'm trying to say is what do they do to the sound? If anyone has any clips too that would def. be great. Thanks for the replies in advance.

-Phil

 

[jongitarz]

The piezos do on a bass what they do on a guitar. It's an acoustic sound, and on a fretless bass it sounds much more like a standup bass. Blending the piezo and magnetic p/ups is a really cool sound as well.

 

[petruccirocks02]

Thanks for the fast reply. I'm hoping someone has some soundclips of a Music Man with a piezo. Thanks again.


-Phil

 

[jongitarz]

You might try PM'ing psychicpet. He has a lot of vids etc and may have what you want to hear

 

[Alvabass]

BTW, why don't lefty basses have the piezo option? Maybe there are lots of technical reasons behind that, but I just can't understand what makes such a difference.

 

[bassmonkeee]

I have piezos in both my of my current Bongos. I love 'em. But, I don't really like them with roundwound strings.

Give me some EB flats, a 4 band EQ, a neck pickup, and some piezos and I'm a happy guy.

Here are a couple of tracks that my band just recorded in the studio. They are pre-mastered but sound decent. It was a guerilla recording session, so there are still some mistakes, but what are you gonna do?

This one is my black sapphire HHp Bongo with EB flats and a BassMute. The pickups are at about a 60/40 mag/piezo blend. The piezos really add some space and air to the sound.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jshew/08 Caged Bird.mp3

This was something we were screwing around with while warming up, and it was decent enough to keep. The main bassline is my fretless SHp Bongo with Sadowsky flats (which will be replaced with EB flats when I get around to it). the same 60/40 pickup blend favoring the neck mag pickup. The bass solo is the fretted Bongo with bridge pickup and piezos slightly overdriving my TrueVoice preamp.

http://www.mindspring.com/~jshew2/07 Endings.mp3

 

[midopa]

great tracks, Jason!

 

[ekb16b]

+1 to the great tracks
specially like the bass line in the first one

 

[fly]

man bassmonkeee,that jam you do in the second link is waaaaaay to cool.

 

[bassmonkeee]

Thanks, guys. The engineer loved the bass tone I was getting as much as I did.

Anyone have any piezo samples with roundwounds? I think the difference is a bit more apparent (I can't stand the string noise though with my ham fisted technique).

 

[Alvabass]

Anyone have any piezo samples with roundwounds? I think the difference is a bit more apparent (I can't stand the string noise though with my ham fisted technique).

My fretted Bongo's audio samples.


Include "piezos only", of course.

Your recordings are great, Bassmonkeee!

 

[saxnbass]

It's Alva. I'm using your Youtube video of Donna Lee to try and learn that song. My bass teacher wants me to learn it. It's so hard, IMO. Love the sound of your bongo in that too. What setting did you use, do you remember?


I'm probably gonna have to go with a Bongo for my fretless EBMM. Will they come in the Blue this year (the LE)?

 

[jongitarz]

Alvabass is an awesome player. I Love his Jaco stuff!

 

[Alvabass]

It's Alva. I'm using your Youtube video of Donna Lee to try and learn that song. My bass teacher wants me to learn it. It's so hard, IMO. Love the sound of your bongo in that too. What setting did you use, do you remember?

Hey man, I'm so glad my videos are useful (that's my intention) . Basically, I set all four bands from my fretless' EQ to approximately 80%, the magnetic pickups are blended 70% bridge - 30% neck and around 60% piezos - 40% magnetics.

Hope this helps.

P.S.: Thank you so much, Jon!

 

[saxnbass]

What transcription did you use Alva? I have one that's out of a Charlie Parker book, can't remember the name of it. The cover is orange and has a silhouette of Charlie. I think it's called Omnibook, but I'm really not sure. It's not my book, so I can't just go check.

 

[Alvabass]

What transcription did you use Alva? I have one that's out of a Charlie Parker book, can't remember the name of it. The cover is orange and has a silhouette of Charlie. I think it's called Omnibook, but I'm really not sure. It's not my book, so I can't just go check.

I started studying it from the Real Book transcription, but some notes didn't convince me. After listening to lots of versions, I found that all of them had small differences, so I decided to create "my" version selecting what I felt were the most appropriate notes. Here it is:

You'll notice there are fingerings as well. My fingering method consists of writing shifts only: Wherever you find a number-open string name, it means that every other note should be played in that position until you find another number => then shift.

 

[saxnbass]

That's the whole thing? My transcription is 2 pages long.

 

[Alvabass]

That's the whole thing?

Yes. That's what I tried to play in my video. Maybe the book you used includes a solo?

 

[midopa]

ooo my. Props for being able to play that and play it well!

 

[bassmonkey]

Hey Alva,

You need to put a link to your Youtube pages in your sig. Your website doesn't have it. It would be useful. Thanks.