My Top 3 Flatwound Bass Lines

zoomduck · Post by **zoomduck** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:14 pm

# 3 The intro to "Good Vibrations" Carol Kaye -Beach Boys .P bass.
# 2 "Penny Lane" - Beatles . Gotta be pyramids on Hofner.
# 1 " Happening Ten Years Time ago " -John Paul Jones-Yardbirds . The Yardbirds cut just Kills me . What a pumping , pick clicking , wicked , hollowbody -humbucking beautiful tone !! Sorry , no RICs involved but plenty of Flatwounds . J P Jones was the guest bass player.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:55 pm

I'll add my top three:

"With a Little Help From My Friends" - My favorite bass tone ever, period. 4001, lots of compression.

"The Lemon Song" - That whole middle breakdown is some of the best electric bass playing ever. Flats on a Jazz, I reckon.

"Sloop John B" - A great bassline and the tone is out-of-this-world. I may have read that it was triple-tracked - Precision, upright, and Dano 6-string.

Whoa! Picked the same players as you Barry!

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:00 am

"'Sloop John B' - A great bassline and the tone is out-of-this-world. I may have read that it was triple-tracked - Precision, upright, and Dano 6-string."

You could always ask Carol (http://www.carolkaye.com/forum/) but I think she will tell you that it was just her Fender Precision.

At the time it was common to double bass lines with a Dano tic-tac bass and an upright, but Carol was known to reproduce that tone - both the trebly clicky thing going on top and the fat bottom frequencies - with just her Fender, set up with heavy gauge flatwounds and high action, which she played with a heavy pick of course.

McCartney was quoted as saying that he has learned a lot from the Beach Boys' bass player, I don't think he knew he was actually listening to Carol Kaye.

My top 3 flatwound bass lines... let's see:

1. Tommy Cogbill on Wilson Pickett's Funky Broadway;
2. Carol Kaye on Quincy Jones's Hikky Burr (Cosby Show Theme);
3. Joe Osborn on Fifth Dimension's The Age of Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In.

morrow · Post by **morrow** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:09 am

Carol played the parts. Brian Wilson wrote them.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:50 am

the solo on freewill by Geddy

The Real Me by Entwistle

the lead part in Tom Sawyer where the bass take over the synth part by Geddy

uhhh ... oh flats ... sorry ... wrong thread ...

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:54 am

Barry, that bass track on Penny Lane is Rickenbacker all the way. Listen to the clarity and true tones in the opening run, way up on the fretboard. One of my faves, along with Little Help From My Friends, Hey Bulldog, and Something, which probably was the Hofner.

squirefan01 · Post by **squirefan01** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:55 am

One of the bass magazines had the bass lines for Something a few months back. They had a story about it, saying that Paul played the Rick on it.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:57 am

I never really thought about my 3 favorite flat-wound lines but I heard Silly Loves Songs for the first time in a long time. Dumb song (ducking quickly) but that bass line shows off how good McCartney really is. I am guessing he used the Rick on that track.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:54 am

Yeah, I coulda sworn that Magical Mystery Tour was all Ric . . . if anything, "Penny Lane" HAS to be the Ric.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:11 am

Not enough time to narrow it down to three...but just to weigh in with something here: everything Max Bennett ever played with Joni Mitchell.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:47 am

"Penny Lane"=4001SLH.

My Top 3:
1."With A Little Help From My Friends"-The Beatles
2."Windy"-The Association(Joe Osborn)
3."King Harvest"-The Band

Honorable Mention:
"My Generation"-The Who

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:52 am

King Harvest! Way to go Ronn...excellent choice.

zoomduck · Post by **zoomduck** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:19 am

OK . Im going to go with the 4001 on "Penny Lane" and must include all the James Brown (Bootsy ?) lines I had to learn as a kid .

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:16 am

"Won't be down until your mama's gone" by the Move Roy Wood played electric guitar, cello and bass with flats ... Roy Wood's bass playing has a lot of bite and edge ...

some of the guys from the Move later became ELO ...

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:56 am

I've always liked that bassline they'd play on Match Game when contestants were thinking of an answer.