 Ugly Bass Player Feature: GW Basses
Slade's GW 4 String Bolt-On:
After getting Grandon to make me a 5 string I knew that when the
time was right there was no choice where I would go when I needed
another new bass. As some of you know I've been playing a lot of
old school country music for the last 6 or 7 years, along with
lots of reggae/dub music- both have pretty similar bass tones-
big, round, and thumpy. The first "real" studio I went
into to do the first Leroy Powell record pretty much insisted that
I play the "house bass"- a 1976 American Fender P-Bass....
the record came out great, the bass tone was ridiculous, but I
was a little bummed I wasn't able to play one of Grandons basses
on the record.... as soon as I got out of the studio I started
scanning E-Bay and Craigs List for an older American P-Bass that
would work for my country gig, convinced by those around me that
no new bass could come close to that old P bass sound..... after
a few months of searching and not willing to pay 3K for a 35 year
old bass I emailed Grandon and asked for his opinion- I knew that
I could trust his thoughts, as one of his favorite basses is a
P-Bass too. After rapping a bit and taking some time to think about
it a bit I convinced myself that Grandon could at least come close
to what I was looking for, and I could pick the wood and customize
the look- so I got back in touch with him, told him that I wanted
him to come as close to an older P-Bass as he could, and told him
I needed it quickly because I had a large show coming up and that
I was recording another record a few days after.....
So now- THE
BASS!!!!
I had a look in my mind, and the funny thing is, it was
a famous guitar that I wanted my bass to resemble- Bob Marley's
classic SG- dark wood, super simple, clean, and looked COUNTRY.
Grandon actually had EXACTLY what I was looking for at his site-
a dark piece of Walnut.... the rest of the details of the bass
can been seen at his website- I really left it all up to him, just
like I did with the 5er- just told him to make it like that P I
had been searching for and left it at that....
The bass showed up
in the morning right before I was leaving for L.A (more on that
later) and I knew right when I sat on the couch and played it acoustic
that it was JUST what I had been looking for- it felt SO comfortable,
played evenly and smoothly up and down the neck- no fret buzz anywhere,
no flat spots, just creamy. I didn't get any time to play it plugged
in until I got to L.A and went to rehearsal- and the amp we were
using at rehearsal was a self powered single 15" P.A speaker-
I could tell it was a special bass, even thru a p.a speaker, but
until later that night on stage I had NO idea how special. Like
usual our band didn't get a sound check- we were the third of four
bands going on that night and the room held about 1100, and was
full.... the bass rig was a Ampeg SVT Classic plugged into a Ampeg
8-10 (quite a rig), but more importantly the damn monitors at the
club (The El Rey Theatre) were incredible- the stage sound was
as good as anything I've ever heard- huge bass and kick drum....
sooooo, the first proper note I heard out of my new bass was on
stage in front of 1000 people, quite a thrill.... long story short-
I simply fell in love with the bass that night...... she felt soo
damn confortable- tone was easy to adjust, all the notes felt and
sounded even, and damn, I know it looked cool as hell on stage!!
A
few days later I went into the studio again, this time armed with
my GW.... after playing plugged straight into the board the engineer
asked, "what the hell kind of bass is that- it sounds
awesome direct". I wasn't really too surprised, more just
proud. Apart from a little intonation being needed the bass performed
a lot better than I did- for a lot of the tunes I just rolled all
the way off the tone knob, getting a little bit of a dull, thuddy
sound which is exactly what I was going for. Some of the tunes
I rolled the tone knob on a bit, keeping it thick but adding a
little bit of punch for the lines that needed a little more definition
on. The bottom line is that the bass was exactly what I was looking
for- sounded like I wanted it to sound, played like I wanted it
to play, and looked like I wanted it to look. I honestly haven't
played my MM Stingray since Grandon shipped me this bass, and my
MM has been my main bass since 97'....
Grandon- I can't thank you enough for making me such an incredible
instrument, and putting so much time and love into every inch of
her. You listened to every comment I made and obviously did everything
you could to implement all the qualities that I was looking for....
you truly are an artist!!!
Sidenote: as I said above I was in a
bit of a time constraint if I was going to be able to play this
bass on the new record, and Grandon OVERNIGHTED it to me out of
his pocket just to make sure it arrived and I had it in time. If
you order a bass from GW I can pretty much guarantee that he will
bend over backward to make your experience a positive one- his
work is incredible, but his customer service and attitude are even
better- you will not go wrong with a GW!!!! If you have any questions
at all about my basses just email me at slade@uglybassplayer.com
I tell you anything you want to know.
Like what you see? Click here to order
one from GW.
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