Bass tunes for testing a bass???

Rocker

Is there any bass tune that can be learned for use when testing or evaluating a bass?  Most online videos about bass upgrades end with a mind numbing flurry of tuneless bass runs and even more tuneless slap bass. You can know it is a bass but something memorable would be a great yardstick when comparing basses. I usually play what I think the bassist played on Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’. Not exactly memorable or recognisable but it works for me. So guys, is there a bass tune that is worth the effort learning???

fretmeister

No, I don't think there is.

Because the needs of every player are different.

If you are a metal player then there is no point learning 'Sitting on the dock of the bay' to test a bass if the bass you are buying is going to be used for metal.

No point in Sean Hurley learning 'Pulse of the Maggots' either, for the same reasons but swapping the ends of the spectrum.

The best song to try out a bass with is a song you know like the back of your hand already so you have a a properly understood comparator. [EDIT]: Ideally with the rest of the signal path being the same as your usual one. [/EDIT]

If 'Wonderful Tonight' is that song for you, then use that song.

If you play more than one genre and you want a bass that does it all, then have 3 or 4 tunes that you know equally well.

Personally I use

Think - Aretha / Blues Brothers
Rue Perdue - Kyle Eastwood
Hallowed be thy name - Iron Maiden.

Quite amazing to realise that the first and third of those are both a precision bass with flatwound strings, but have very different tones.

rpr

How about 
You Can't Hurry Love -"The Supremes
Taxman - Beatles
We Are Family - Sister Sledge

There's 3, not difficult easily recognisable, I may come with more 

stickyfiddle

For me it’s picking out anything with tricky runs or stretches to see how those feel on that specific instrument. Something with a lot of octaves is often good to get to grips with a new neck as well - Gimme Gimme Gimme etc. I like Ain’t Mo Mountain High Enough as well, just because I’m never going to be interested in a bass that doesn’t sound good on

Where I struggle is in string choice - I muchly prefer flats and almost everything in shops is strung with round wounds 

fretmeister

That's a good point. Unless it's a signature model with flats I don't think I've seen a bass in a shop with flats on it.
And I wasn't in the market for a Fender CS Pino bass. Bit pricey that!

Since my finger tendon rupture I also set my bass up with a ramp or with pickups very close to the strings to use as a ramp and nothing in the shop is like that either. 

slacker

If I'm looking at eubs then fever. If I'm looking at bass guitar I'll run through some modes maybe play money. However I'll only buy musicman so I know what they do I'm looking for a good one.

Another one bites the dust is a good one plus the breakdown in the chain. 

Rocker

I just remembered a song that my music teacher got me to play when I took up the bass a few years ago: Stand By Me. I think that the bass is the main backing music for the song. It is not on our band’s set list, we don’t gig very often, practicing bass is not as easy as playing guitar and I don’t noodle so tunes are for me. Speaking of SBM, I tried it last evening and my take on it did not sound too bad. At least it sounded vaguely recognisable.....

fretmeister

Rocker - if you can read then a lot of the Hal Leonard concert band / jazz band / marching arrangements of famous songs are on youtube showing the scores.

Display it on a good sized screen / television and you can read the part from the screen. And with Youtube's tools you can slow it down or speed it up without affecting the pitch.

They are often in different keys to the original, but that's a really good thing for musical education.

Funkfingers

slacker said:

the breakdown in the chain. 

That's fretless. (Listen carefully for the glissando up to the first A on every repeat.) McVie's intonation was extremely accurate.

pintspiller

I generally just do some walking lines as that's one of the things I'd play and it's good for stretching. Peter Gunn Theme in E. Maybe some Ramones to impress the chicks.

Stuckfast

I'm not really a bass player but the thing I'd always want to check for is whether it's tonally consistent across the strings. On a lot of basses the same note sounds annoyingly different when played on the E versus the A string for example.

Winny_Pooh

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

That's a good point. Unless it's a signature model with flats I don't think I've seen a bass in a shop with flats on it.
And I wasn't in the market for a Fender CS Pino bass. Bit pricey that!

Since my finger tendon rupture I also set my bass up with a ramp or with pickups very close to the strings to use as a ramp and nothing in the shop is like that either. 

The EB-2 I played in Seattle had flats on which made me love it very much. Somewhat weirdly the $24k early-60s P bass had rounds. I'd have been (slightly) keener on it if it had flats! Still nowehere near enough to pony up that kinda money, but still!! 

Stuckfast said:

I'm not really a bass player but the thing I'd always want to check for is whether it's tonally consistent across the strings. On a lot of basses the same note sounds annoyingly different when played on the E versus the A string for example.

That's pretty much inherent on an instrument with a long scale length. I don't think I've ever played a bass (or even a guitar) where it wasn't the case

Rocker

Thanks @Winny_Pooh but that playing is exactly what I don't want to play when I play bass.  For me and the band I play with, bass and the drums provide the support and foundation for the guitars who back the vocalist.  Bass is a difficult instrument to check out in isolation, a lot like drums, you need the band with you to see if the instrument fits into the mix and in the process, to see if you like playing that instrument.

Today in a Dublin music shop, I looked at a Squier PJ bass.  It looked fine but there were obvious issues to be sorted out before it could be used seriously.  A dead feeling neck, roundwound strings, high action and the lightest bridge I ever saw on a bass for starters.  It looked great but in the hand ...........

What did I play on it?  The first few notes of The Pink Panther theme.  A few notes told me all I needed to know.....

Neilybob

For me it’s either the interlude in The Chain.

Or what Mick Taylor plays at 06:04.  

https://youtu.be/fNkdVZ2w3zU

Winny_Pooh

@Rocker no really, that is objectively what the audience wants. Play that video to your drummer, he'll agree

fretmeister

Winny_Pooh said:

@Rocker no really, that is objectively what the audience wants. Play that video to your drummer, he'll agree

Amusingly the Seinfeld theme wasn't even played on a bass. It was a synth.

fretmeister

Rocker said:

 the lightest bridge I ever saw on a bass for starters.  

Nothing to do with it at all.

The Fender BBOT bridge has never been a problem. Certainly from the era of stuff you seem to listen to and play, there were no other bridges available, and yet the tones produced sounded fantastic.

rustneversleeps

“walk on the wild side “”……..Lou Reed.

smfacer

Jethro Tull: Living In The Past is my 'go to' riff on any bass I try!

prowla

Well - I have a few go-to tunes, including:

• Carry On Wayward Sun
• Roundabout
• Breadfan
• South Side Of The Sky
• Rio

Plus some general noodling to get a feel of the thing.

I bought a bass last weekend and the bloke in the shop recognised me playing In the Dead Of Night (by UK)!