The Bass On Privateering

[jerrymb]

What's going on with the bass on Privateering? On some songs the bass is way too loud and muddy.

[kaleo74]

I noticed the same thing, it almost there... and some there...maybe because most of the songs are played with "the big old lady" and it sound like poor sound. But,  I must admit that the playing on "Miss you blues, Kingdom of gold and  Occupation blues" is awsome ! respect Glenn !!!

[Knopflerfan]

Agree with the bass being loud but I guess thats down to the technique that Glenn is playing the bass. If you notice on any of the live 'Privateering' clips on YT he seems to be hitting the strings as opposed to normally touching them.
I think that as it is an 'Oldie-worldie' pirate themed song, you can imagine that after plenty of rum etc the bass/string player wouldn't be exactly tame with the beast!!!
I close my eyes and imagine this tune being played on a pirate ship - you try the same and it does work!!!

[a visitor]

As great as Glenn is, but very often I find his style is too quirky, or busy, for my taste.

Edit:

Wow, that was a wonderfully phrased sentence! Haha. I'll try again:

As great as Glenn is, I very often find his style is too quirky, or busy, for my taste.

[3Pints]

As great as Glenn is, but very often I find his style is too quirky, or busy, for my taste.

Edit:

Wow, that was a wonderfully phrased sentence! Haha. I'll try again:

As great as Glenn is, I very often find his style is too quirky, or busy, for my taste.

I concur.... with both statements!   

[3Pints]

What's going on with the bass on Privateering? On some songs the bass is way too loud and muddy.

Can you be specific?  Which songs?

[3Pints]

I noticed the same thing, it almost there... and some there...maybe because most of the songs are played with "the big old lady" and it sound like poor sound. But,  I must admit that the playing on "Miss you blues, Kingdom of gold and  Occupation blues" is awsome ! respect Glenn !!! 

Nobody's mentioned yet on which songs the bass is too loud and muddy but I think it's possible that on some of the blues numbers they were going for a very authentic (i.e. 50s-era?) style and sound.   "Gator Blood" is probably the most obvious example, where they used a couple of "live" room mics and let the sound bleed into them rather than isolating everything.

[3Strats]

If you read Guy's studio diary page 3, there are photos of a lot of basses, but you get the impression from the text that the P bass was used for most of the electric bass, and a Vox Phantom on one track when they needed something "nosier" (?) does he mean nosier as in  with more  "nose" or Noisier (louder) ?

[Love Expresso]

A little off topic maybe, but it's about a bass:

Do we know already why Guy played bass on Redbud Tree? I mean with a world class bass player like Glen Worf, it is somewhat surprising, isn't it? Do you think it was just to give him some work becaue he used to hang around all day at BG and had nothing to do because there were no synths on Privateering and Jim did all the keys? Or, another version, maybe that song was recorded in the early stages of production, just Mark and Guy alone, and was later decided to be so good that nothing should be changed? So we maybe have some sort of "demo" song here on the album?

LE

[Jules]

I think that the reason that Guy plays bass on Redbud Tree is just because the song its a demo...

I mean, MK and Guy record many of the songs like a demo playing bass and drums (Guy plays both in that recordings) and then they start developing the songs around that. When the band comes to the studio, they listen to that demos and then they re-record the drums and bass.

Looks like MK decided that the bass on that song was ok, or Glenn listened to it and said "Its ok, doesnt worth to record it again"

My bet is that this particular song was developed just with drums, the pedal steel guitar and the backing vocals, as all guitars are played by MK and Guy plays bass, keyboards and synths. So its mainly the demo.

[3Strats]

I think MK & Guy probably worked Red Bud Tree up in the early stages before Glenn got there, and Mark must have been happy with Guy's playing so it wasn't thought necessary to re-do the bass. I wouldn't describe it as a "demo" as Guy was a bass player before he took up keyboards & MK wouldn't release anything that wasn't a "finished product" 
You get the impression that there is a distinct lack of "ego" amongst the band members so I don't think Glenn would spit his dummy out because he wasn't asked to play on one track. 

[Jules]

When I say demo, I name that the recordings they did at the arliest stages as the demos, the "demonstration" recordings they show to the band before everyone add his parts to it.

We know that they do that quite often, and that sometimes Mk plays to everybody the song just him with the acoustic guitar, and from that they start. Two ways of work that works very well.

[3Pints]

If you read Guy's studio diary page 3, there are photos of a lot of basses, but you get the impression from the text that the P bass was used for most of the electric bass, and a Vox Phantom on one track when they needed something "nosier" (?) does he mean nosier as in  with more  "nose" or Noisier (louder) ?

Hi 3Strats,
Definitely "nosier" as in 'nose'.  The Vox Phantom has a kind of mid-range attack (and less sustain) to the notes.  Some might even describe it as sounding a bit like a "honk" - hence the descriptive, "nosier". 

[MisterYES]

Being a bass player myself, i actually like lower frequencies on album in general. (first bass notes/tones on YTC are beautify, almost on sub levels) .
I particularly liked upright bass sound on songs like "Hot Or What" and "I Used To Could" because it sounds powerful, and upright bass usually doesn't (that's why I'm not much of a fan of it either)

But, regarding topic, i heard (on first early iTunes snippets) some parts of "Go, love" where "something clipping" .. i wrote about that at the time, and some said that it's because of poor snippets quality. Now with CD qual. i still hearing almost "overdrive" on Mark's vocal when he pronounce "retuuuurniiing" and on some other parts of the song also...so it is not that bass guitar or lower frequencies are too loud, but something other. And it's not that i don't like that...somehow it make whole thing more human

[jf9081]

The audio tracks where I feel the bass frequencies stronger are: Go love / Radio City Serenade / ......submariner. What do you think?