Examples of Bass jargon

[Blazer]

Lately I noticed that Bassplayer magazine has created their own words for describing destinct bass sounds and so I figured to make a little list of the best known recordings of those sounds.

"Mwaah" - The sound of a glissando performed on a fretless bass.

Best known recorded examples of "Mwaah"
"You can call me Al." - Paul Simon, Bassplayer: Bakhiti Kumalo
"Come back and stay" - Paul Young, Bassplayer: Pino Paladino
Anything by Jaco Pastorious.

"Growl"- The sound of a bass through an overdriven amp/ distortion pedal.

Best known recordings of "Growl"
"I'd rather be with you" - Bootsy Collins.
Anytime Larry Graham switches on his distortion pedal.
"No one knows" - Queens of the stone age, Bassplayer: Nick Oliverti
"For who'm the bells tolls" - Metallica, Bassplayer: Cliff Burton
Anything by Motörhead.

"Grind" - Powerful pick driven clean sound, most often played on the bridge pickup of the bass.

Best known recordings of "Grind"
"Roundabout" - Yes, Bassplayer: Chris Squier.
"No more heroes" - The Stranglers, Bassplayer: JJ. Brunel
"Louie, Louie" - The kingsmen, Bassplayer: ?

okay feel free to add more.

[ramone57]

mud - no explanation needed!

[Barklessdog]

Plays like "Butter"

Piano String tone

[Barklessdog]

Thud

Thump


slap

[nofi]

my back is killing me

[uwe]

ooomph

[Dave W]

Punch.

I always liked Mesa's definition of great tone, from the Bass 400+ description in their catalog:

The essential ingredients of great bass tone are Pitch, Punch and Power. Pitch, so the frequency of the note is identifiable and accurate, not the flubby rumble often heard. Punch, so the attack of each note is a precise event in time. And Power to deliver these two with authority and headroom ...and to disembowel the first five rows! 

[TBird1958]

All credit to George (Old man C)  for this:

ANGRY PIANO......................... 

The sound of a Thunderbird with all the knobs at 10 played with a pick. Helps to have an amp with a functional treble feature....

[Chris P.]

"......."

[nothing]

Accidentally pulled my lead out of my amp in the middle of a song.


I also want to discuss smells of amps! Vox amps have a very special odour. And so do all tube amps. But Voxes smell different. My former guitar player and I think we'll buy a modeling amp if they can recreate the smells!

[Dave W]

Chris, that distinctive Vox odor probably comes from overheating.    My experience comes from old Vox guitar amps. They generally only ran two ways: extremely hot or actually bursting into flames.

[Chris P.]

A burning amp (AC50s are known for that..) will be nice on stage:)

[TBird1958]

 Well,  

GK's don't make any odor when operating, but when it comes to electrical things I love the smell of HO scale electric trains..............  Ahhhh............ childhood  

[lowendgenerator]

Hum - The sound of single coil pickups with poor shielding/grounding.

Buzz - The sound of excessively low action coming through the pickup.

Ping - The sound of my pick attack.

[angrymatt]

Bonk -- Either a note or a measure (absolute meaning is contextual), borrowed from Paul Simonon.

[Blazer]

The now defunct Brittish mag "Bassist" had a really funny description of a Rickenbacker's sound.

"A Rickenbacker ought to sound like an overloaden cargo ship running aground at a gravel shore."