Hamer 8 string in action

[Denis]

I was asked if I wanted to play bass with a couple of friends in a project they are working on. So, while studying Rockpile songs, I found this vid. Nick Lowe with a Hamer 8 string!

[Chris P.]

Great! I like Nick Lowe's bass playing, looks, songs and humour (Bowi!) Nice sound but I can't really hear that it's an eight string.

For a sec I thought the singer was Nigel Tufnell.

Like those pub rock bands!  I know Ian Gomm quite well.

[Alanko]

The octave strings are lost in the mix. Looks like a Marshall backline?

[Basvarken]

It doesn't look like they were having too much fun, doesn't it? 

[Dave W]

Great! I like Nick Lowe's bass playing, looks, songs and humour (Bowi!) Nice sound but I can't really hear that it's an eight string.

For a sec I thought the singer was Nigel Tufnell.

Like those pub rock bands!  I know Ian Gomm quite well.

Heresy! Dave Edmunds is one of my favorites.

Just a few glimpses on this promo video, looks like the Hamer.

[amptech]

Nice switchmaster!

[Highlander]

Saw them a few times on that tour and recently stumbled on the T shirt too...

[uwe]

Nick Lowe looks like a young John Kerry in that vid! And it goes to show that you don't really "hear" the double-octave characteristic of an 8 string bass (just like you don't "hear" it in almost all Cheap Trick songs) unless you dial in an extreme sound or play it with a lot of distortion/effects. To my ears, the best 8 string bass sound captured on a popular recording is still this one here:



In fairness: Probably aided to a large part by the fact that with ELP there was no guitar to get in the way of that 8-string sound! You can hear that Lake essentially "strums" that Alembic like an acoustic guitar for percussive effect (which sounds nice).

[Chris P.]

ELP: nice sound!

Maybe it's even more the case with octave strings than with bass in general: you don't hear it, but you miss it when it's not there? I guess an 8-string can fill up the sound of a three piece band quite nicely.

[Pilgrim]

ELP was simply magnificent. It's spell binding to watch them.

[uwe]

Not everything they did, but they got it right on this track which even found grace with its original composer Aaron Copland in the version they did. And playing at below zero temperatures in an empty stadium of course sums up ELP's testosterone-charged megalomania (which was both awesome and laughable at the same time) nicely.   

When I first saw that vid sometime in the seventies I thought it was the essence of rockstardom. The desolate vastness of the stadium, their visible exhaled breath, the leather jackets and fur collars plus the controlled racket only three men made - all very impressive! 

[uwe]

Oh, and I like Rockpile too, but Nick Lowe even better!

[Dave W]

Nice switchmaster!

It's beautiful. I'll buy one as soon as I win the lottery.

[gearHed289]

And it goes to show that you don't really "hear" the double-octave characteristic of an 8 string bass (just like you don't "hear" it in almost all Cheap Trick songs) unless you dial in an extreme sound or play it with a lot of distortion/effects.

Yes, I tried using my 8 string on two tracks on my band's current EP. With saturated tones coming from both the guitar and violin, it just gets lost. This one starts and ends with the 8 string, and there's a little melodic solo at 3:00 where you can kind of hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJkYwvuC-RQ&index=4&list=PLbpbsy0q0ZaM2UwouLvfMliQ7XftjfHWo

[Denis]

Another fine example of ELP and Lake with his 8 string. In my opinion, he really was a remarkable bass player.