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Question: Can Mike play double bass? :: Total Votes:8 Poll choices Votes Statistics Yes 6  [75.00%] No 2  [25.00%] Guests cannot vote

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Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 14 2010, 19:29 This was spurred by the video for "The Bell", which I've watched various times during these days. In your opinion, is Mike actually able to play an orchestral double bass? In the video he does, but of course he's miming. Do you think he would have any problems with the fact that its neck is fretless? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Milamber Group: Musicians Posts: 2275 Joined: Feb. 2010 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 04:45 Mike plays with his eyes shut a lot of the time so he's playing must be based on feel so fretless should be no problem It would be a very small list the instruments that he could not play IMHO Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 05:33 I'm sure i read an interview somewhere were he states he has problems with it.I think it would have been around the time of TBII.So i'd say no.I know he can and has played fretless bass though and that's essentially the same scale legnth as an double bass flipped through 45 degrees-minus the bloody great body of course! -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 05:57 @ milamber: I guess, just drums (intended as a drum kit), strings (apart from country fiddle) and brass instruments are what he doesn't play. But he also said (IIRC) that he doesn't like the sound of horns... @ Caveman: of course he can play fretless bass, unless the famous fretless bass solo in the "Boat" movement of Amarok was played on a normal bass with a 'defretter' effect (I don't think so). But I also imagine that the problems he had with the double bass are due, as you said, to its cumbersomeness. So his playing in the clip is most probably just a scenic/scenographic thing he did. But it doesn't match with the actual song: one second before, Viv says very clearly "Bass guitar". -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

clotty Group: Members. Posts: 237 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 08:48 I don't know the answer to the original question about playing the double bass, but to add to the discussion, note that his 1960 Fender precision was de-fretted. -------------- Clotty Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 09:47 Quote (Ugo @ Mar. 15 2010, 05:57) @ Caveman: of course he can play fretless bass, unless the famous fretless bass solo in the "Boat" movement of Amarok was played on a normal bass with a 'defretter' effect (I don't think so). But I also imagine that the problems he had with the double bass are due, as you said, to its cumbersomeness. So his playing in the clip is most probably just a scenic/scenographic thing he did. But it doesn't match with the actual song: one second before, Viv says very clearly "Bass guitar". Now that would be an intersting effect.Where can i get one? To ammend what i said i meant flipped through 90 degrees although watching the angle at which Mike is playing on the Pictures In The Dark vid 45 degrees would be more accurate. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 10:01 @ Caveman: the defretter effect for bass does actually exist - it's included in some multi-effects units by Boss, such as this one. @ clotty: I think you mean that, on Mike's 1960 Fender Precision, the frets were removed and then the holes left by the removed frets were filled up, but you could still see where the frets were. This way the instrument was, I think, quite easy to play for Mike - he was getting the sound of a fretless bass but he was playing it like a normal bass because hehave the references. This is the same as Red Canzian's bass: the bassist in the popular Italian pop band Pooh has got a bass whose frets are just drawn on the neck. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 10:19 There are a lot of basses that have fret 'markers'.They're quite common.For a example a regular jamming buddy of mine plays a Squire J-Bass wuth markers.Some people call it cheating but what the hell.It works just the same! -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 10:51 @ Caveman: I don't consider it 'cheating'. As I said above, it's just easier to play than a regular fretless bass with nothing on the neck, or maybe with a single design running all the way through the neck - like on a Michael Kelly acoustic fretless bass owned by a friend of mine. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Mar. 15 2010, 11:18 I don't consider it cheating either.I was referring to those awfull purists you get that do. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

clotty Group: Members. Posts: 237 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Mar. 16 2010, 03:52 Quote (Ugo @ Mar. 15 2010, 10:01) @ clotty: I think you mean that, on Mike's 1960 Fender Precision, the frets were removed and then the holes left by the removed frets were filled up, but you could still see where the frets were... Yes you are right Ugo. My original statement was unintentionally misleading. -------------- Clotty Back to top

larstangmark Group: Members Posts: 1767 Joined: Mar. 2005 Posted: Mar. 16 2010, 05:44 Fretless and double bass is not the same thing. Legendary double bass-player Roy Babbington said in an interview that the double bass is such a difficult instrument to play that you have to practise every day in order to be a decent player. So I'm sure Mike could play the double bass if he wanted to, but it's not a thing that you learn once and that's that. The double bass takes a lot of physical strength (hands! to play and you get blisters and all kinds of pains for the first few days. And it's a terribly quiet instrument unless you give it your all! Lars T -------------- "There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste" Mark E Smith Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Mar. 16 2010, 06:05 I actually meant the scale legnth rather than the technique.The reason Leo Fender invented the electric bass (apart from the sheer bulk)was to make it easier and louder.The strings on a double bass are frighteningly thick and the action is very high but all this is neccesary to get any decent volume. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: Mar. 16 2010, 08:12 I must admit he's got a very good technique going on "The Bell". I play the violin and cello, and I think they're instruments that if you're faking it look a bit obvious, like when actors do it, and I never understand that - it just spoils the film. -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

emac Group: Members Posts: 66 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Sep. 01 2010, 10:27 Well....     Didn't Mike use a double bass on Amarok? I think it's listed as a string bass in the liner notes and was used in "mad bit" I play a double bass amongst other instruments. Its a bit like playing checkers, easy to start but really hard to master.. Long fingernails sound aweful on a double bass and you have to play with the side of you finger instead which is not the best technique, but it works.. Yes I'm sure Mike can play double bass.... emac. Back to top

CJJC Group: Members Posts: 210 Joined: Aug. 2010 Posted: Oct. 21 2010, 08:36 I'm going with yes, at least in its most basic form. The tuning is the same as a bass guitar so he'd at least know where to aim for for individual notes. As stated above he may have trouble sustaining a performance for very long without having a lot of practice and, of course, only if playing pizzicato - Mike has often spoken of problems learning how to do bowing on stringed instruments. So, in essence, he could play one to a certain degree though probably not to concert standard. -------------- IMHO Back to top

fragile Group: Members Posts: 41 Joined: April 2006 Posted: Oct. 24 2010, 04:40 No I am sure he can not! Mike is a guitarist he can play all sorts of guitars (incl bass guitar) very impressive. At the piano and keyboards he is not really good and on wind instruments he only can play the recorder. As far as I know he did not play clarinet, saxophone, oboe for example. Also he did not play any brass (trumpet, trombone....). The classical string instruments as violin, viola, cello or DOUBLE BASS are definetly instruments he can not play really. You see in his Wonderful Land Video that his violin playing is a fake. On Taurus 1 he listet the violin too, but he only used it for playing glissandos up and down (everybody can do that). For the BASS: Yes he had a frettles E-Bass. But where did he used it after defretting??? I dont know. I only know him as a frettet Bass player. In Platinum we can hear a fretless bass, but the Bassist was a NY based Session Player. Double Bass is completely different from the fretless, So you can not say if one is able to play fretless E-Bass he can also play the double bass. Scale length from E-Bass is more similar to the cello then the Double bass. All the technics, fingerings etc are different. Back to top

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