Barry Bales Interview - Gut strings, plywood basses, bluegrass & more!
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- My Approach to Bluegrass Bass by Barry Bales Out Now: courses.discov...
Meet Barry Bales! In this video, we welcome our newest tutor to Discover Double Bass, Barry Bales. Known for his work as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, as well as for appearing on countless albums with artists such as Dolly Parton, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, and soundtracks including "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou". Barry is a celebrated bluegrass, roots, and country music upright bassist who is the winner of 15 Grammy awards, 23 International Bluegrass Music Association awards, a Country Music Association Award, and two Academy of Country Music awards. He really has done it all and it's an honour to welcome him to Discover Double Bass.
I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. We discuss topics including Barry's use of American Standard upright basses - comparing one with gut strings and another with steels, influential bluegrass bassists, and much more. The video ends with an uptempo performance of the bluegrass classic, Train 45.
Thanks for watching!
Geoff Chalmers (DDB Founder and Host)
My Approach to Bluegrass Bass by Barry Bales: courses.discov...
Timecodes:
01:30 American Standard Bass 1 and gut strings
10:20 Set up
11:16 Dampening the sound
12:14 Amplifying the bass
13:20 American Standard Bass 2 and steel strings
14:16 Strings
17:44 Performance
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#BluegrassDoubleBass
Great interview. Hes a great teacher.
The first one is so nice. Then the second one....wow. like all acoustic instruments. Total diversity. Where do i look so it doesn't take a year to find one?
Barry is such a force in Bluegrass music, his sound is undeniable - crafted deliberately for decades. So glad this course exists. Love to see my fellow East Tennesseans and heroes in a new light. Thanks Geoff.
Allison Krauss and Union Station got me into Bluegrass.. and Barry's Bass sound got me into a Music Shop, and Bringing a Upright Bass Home.. Best Purchase of my Life.. i Thank you Barry...
i have Evah Pirazzi Weich's on a 1939 Kay..
I was just googling this exact topic 5 hours ago. Eerily pleasant to see this uploaded the same day.
Happy to help! :-)
A Legend!
you’re killing it Geoff, another great course 👌🏻👌🏻
Impeccable timing!! Just starting bluegrass bass and was told to watch Barry Bales. And thanks for the great content in this channel!
Barry is by far the biggest influence on my playing and my sound…it’s so inspiring for not only beginner musicians but also seasoned musicians to have bassists like Barry to listen too and learn from but also other styles and many more amazing bassists as well…music is like DNA as far as being past down to generation after generation…that’s what music is all about though
The "White Company bass" is from King Instruments in Eastlake, Ohio. It's in the suburbs of Cleveland. I worked there in my 20's and played the last King upright made that was left in the parts department where I worked. They refused to let me buy it, although I could play it anytime I wanted to.
Wow, that's amazing!
Superb playing and top rate advice
That was great! More bluegrass please...very informative on the strings
More to come! :-)
Great interview and information. Just one thing I wanted to add. When putting the plain gut strings in the ziplock bag with oil to bring the string back to life, be sure not to use olive oil as it will go rancid eventually. Mineral oil is the only oil to use on gut. I learned this many years ago And it has definitely brought strings back to life.
Thanks for the info!
So great to learn from different players in different styles. Very inspiring videos!! And off course a good sound...
When talking about the basses please include manufacturer, model and year. It’s a really interesting part of these interviews. I think both of theses basses are Kay C1’s but was not sure. Thnxs!
I completely agree, but I think you missed our first question at 01:30 where I ask that question.
Every bass is different and likes different strings to make them happy. i had a set of velvet garbos and the ead were great and the g sounded like a plastic micky mouse guitar lol. i've settled in to medium spirocores. They have tone, punch (they rattle the china cabiner at home), and great tone on my bass.
I play a 1937 American standard. I was told that was the first year. She’s a boomer! ;)
Beautiful basses!
It’s really inspiring to see the pros like Barry Bales, Olivier Babaz, and Scott Mulvahill making a career out of using plywood basses.
Agreed! There are so many great players using them. I love this video of Ben Williams playing a plywood New Standard bass. The sound is perfection. czcams.com/video/tjgrdDgXz4c/video.html
@@DiscoverDoubleBass wow!! Thanks for sharing that video! Ben Williams sound was killer. I just love that thumpy old school sound that plywood basses make.
Barry should show off some of his fancy playing on the next Alison Krauss & Union Station album...
Agreed! :-)
The music of the intro should belong to the invited artist , it's a little misleading, you have to wait all the interview to listen the artist a little bit.
Thanks for watching and for your feedback. We have the same theme music at the start of all our videos on the DDB channel. We also try to feature the artist in a performance at the end when possible.
Great video! What microphone is used to mic his bass here? Sounds so good.
It was some kind u47 valve microphone that was owned by the studio. I'm not sure if it was a Neumann or a modern clone.
@@DiscoverDoubleBass Thanks!
Where do I get the course?!
It's out now, here's the link: courses.discoverdoublebass.com/p/bluegrass-bass
Look like both have rosewood fingerboards? Is that a typical bluegrass thing?
I'm not sure, but my guess is that some of the plywood basses might have been made with alternatives to ebony, like rosewood. Perhaps it was to keep the costs down on these.