36th October

 

The band’s album was recorded back in February and, for a myriad of reasons, the album launch might actually fall on the first anniversary of that recording date. In the meantime you can still listen to it by visiting our Bandcamp age here or listening for free on all the usual streaming services. The Band is New Accelerator and the album is called Slow Life (Live at Glasshouse Studios).

But why waste an opportunity to talk about the basses used on the album?

When New Accelerator began I was using the Ibanez Gary Willis signature bass. This is a beautiful, five string fretless strung B to G. I loved that bass and played it on almost every project I was involved in. Whenever I played a fretted bass it was only for a short while, then I’d be back on the fretless again. Two things I could never find, that really suited me, were a Precision Bass or a five string.

Then a year or so before lockdown, I found a Fender Precision (four string, fretted) and completely fell in love. It had flatwound strings, sounded wonderful and was a complete joy to play. The only problem was that, after gigs, I would come home and play nothing but my six-string bass, because I also deeply loved that. The six string was the instrument that helped me play all the things I heard in my head. I had been inspired to get one after seeing the amazing Canadian Bassist, Rich Brown at a bass show in London.

Anyway, the upshot of all this was twofold. I stopped playing fretless and decided on taking the Precision and the six string to the studio.

Originally, I had planned on using a short scale bass on one of the tracks. It has a particular sound an feel that worked really. But that bass also had a very buzzy pickup, so it didn’t get used.

On the album you can hear the Precision on all the tracks apart from Each Word and Fierce Friend. I used the six-sting on those because of its range and more fiery, active tone. Each Word starts on a high G and ends on the low B, so it really does make the most of the instrument.

Once the album was finished, I found a bass that threw all those choices up in the air. More about that next time.

 

Have a listen to the album and when we finally organise the launch night, I’ll let you know here.