Bass Flatter

[ilan]

His signature Alembics that he's played all his career since the 70's and as far as I know still does (he did when I met him) are 30.75".

[uwe]

Those are all 30"? I stand corrected. I always though they were long scales that just looked tiny on him because he is so huge.

[morrow]

There was a more recent Strat style Stanley Clarke bass.

[uwe]

That does look kind of cool, I'll admit it. My usual derision about Fender products never extended to the Strat shape.



It's just a little Ritchie lurking in me ...

[Alanko]

Also, Stanley Clarke prefers 30" scale basses ...

That was like 50 years ago, Ilan, he hardly plays them live anymore. (Probably because of catching so much flak in the past for allegedly "cheating"!)

I love his playing, irrespective of what scale. He's a very "manly" player.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5Ukt9b8RPUg (A recent clip on a Strat-like shortie!)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/38UAHGQoyU4

All these years later and he still has that nasty twangy tone he had on the first Return to Forever albums. Cool for fast flurries of notes, but it doesn't really support the music. Chick Corea's left hand was the bassist in that band, and Stanley just did all the fast, clicky tuned percussion.

[uwe]

Some truth to that, but Clarke is not just a slapping one-trick-pony. He has an exquisite choice of notes too. But, yes, the percussive effect of  slapping tends to let melody take a back seat, also because it tends to be root note-, fifths-, ninths- and octave-centric which won't exactly take you into Swan Lake or Paul McCartney melody territory.

I've left that ultra-twangy tone behind too. I used to die for it - fresh roundwounds just out of the package, active EMG pups, treble and bass all the way up, mids subdued, picking close to the bridge, ultra-clean sound ... clickee-de-clack ...  One day I woke up and didn't want that anymore (though it was an attention-getter and bandmates liked it too because they could hear everything clearly), not much later I became interested in Gibson basses. But people from way back still sometimes say today: "Hey Uwe, play something with your old sound." - which always has me groaning!