Two string short scale

[Dave W]

This is an old friend who moved from the Twin Cities to Pittsburgh years ago. He was in town early this week to pick up his new bass.

[uwe]

Stig Pedersen of DAD would be pleased though he likes his designs a bit more on the adventurous side.

[Dave W]

I doubt that he intends to use it outside the studio, especially since he plays guitar in his band and drums in another. But even if he eventually plays it on stage, he's not a hey-look-at-me guy like Stig Pedersen.

[uwe]

That's a really nice track.

Stig Pedersen's bass designs owe a lot to Dadaism - that kind of appeals to me.

[ilan]

I still don't get it, why would anyone want a 2-string bass? To support Dave Mustaine's claims?

At one point I even considered getting a fiver and string it EADGC (like Leo first designed it) just to avoid shifts.

[uwe]

It's called minimalism, Ilan, don't let it unnecessarily perturb you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIR2AH9zng&list=PLA88E8VkVUDodyYkRa-xrLNOuHuRwg_rE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_CKwRjD6rI&list=PLA88E8VkVUDodyYkRa-xrLNOuHuRwg_rE&index=2

I used to avoid shifts too, because my jazz bassist teacher force-fed that concept to me. It backfired badly, I remember a gig where a guy quipped afterwards: "Your bass player ain't doin' much, ain't he? Always stayin' in one place." For someone who was actually quite busy on bass, I took that as an insult. I don't recommend it unless you are a studio musician. Live, people, want to see you move around on the fretboard. I realized the errors of my ways and today I slide around liberally, more than I actually would need to. As a bassist, they can't really hear you, so you have to draw their attention via other means to make them realize you're actually doing something. 










And of course you could do fine in a lot of bands - AC/DC, Judas Priest, ZZ Top, The Ramones, Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, U2 to name just a few - with just two strings.

[ilan]

Learning upright 13 years ago I realized how much a jazz player can do just in half-position.

I want to avoid shifts especially when sight-reading. Playing rock/blues live I'm all over the neck. I think I posted here a vid with a little bass solo I did high up the fretboard.

[uwe]

"Learning upright 13 years ago I realized how much a jazz player can do just in half-position.

I want to avoid shifts especially when sight-reading. "

Agreed. I've also become less stationary on the fret board over time because I bend notes a lot more than I used too (sometimes even fretting a half-step deeper to be able to pull to the correct note) - and that is more effective on the A string at the 15th fret than it would be, say, on the G string at the 5th fret.

And of course it looks infinitely more cool.