Author Topic: Same strings for 45 years? (Read 137 times)

glocke · « **on:** March 03, 2010, 05:39:07 PM »

Phil Chen is great. His playing on Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow is some of my favorite bass playing.

You guys think the strings on his pbass could really be 45 years old?

?

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/phil-chen-masterclass/jul-09/97409

Legendary producer George Martin achieved Chen?s sound simply with a DI and a miked Ampeg B-15. In perhaps the ultimate homage to the phrase ?if it ain?t broke, don?t fix it,? Chen?s P-Bass has been his one and only main axe for as long as he?s been playing, and it?s had the same La Bella .052?.110 strings on it for?wait for it?45 years. ?It?s still sounding amazing and still going strong,? he proclaims.

811952 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2010, 08:18:47 AM »

I have no problem believing that.

I know a couple of people who've been playing longer than I, who have never changed their strings.

I am more surprized at the telephone-pole gauges he's using, though I guess that was more normal back in the day..

John

811952 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2010, 06:01:52 PM »

Oops. I guess one of those people died last year. I need to get out more. RIP TH.

John

keith_h · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2010, 07:38:21 PM »

If I recall correctly James Jamerson was said to have never changed his strings either.

Keith

cozmik_cowboy · « **Reply #4 on:** March 04, 2010, 08:06:49 PM »

I read an interview years (ok, decades) back where (IMS) Harvey Brooks averred that he only changed strings when one broke - and then he rubbed the new ones with BBQ sauce to get the right sound. Hey, it's all accordin' to whatever it takes to make your boat float.

Peter

cozmik_cowboy · « **Reply #5 on:** March 04, 2010, 08:08:43 PM »

I read an interview years (ok, decades) back where Harvey Brooks (IMS - might have been Harvey Mandell) averred that he only changed strings when one broke - and then he rubbed the new ones with BBQ sauce to get the right sound. Hey, it's all accordin' to whatever it takes to make your boat float.

Peter

dluxe · « **Reply #6 on:** March 04, 2010, 08:58:28 PM »

Anthony Jackson did a great remembrance piece on the late Ronnie Baker (MFSB, Philly Soul Bassist) back around 1990 in Bass Player Magazine. He remarked that Baker would special order extra heavy gauge Fender Flatwounds and rub them with butter and let them sit for a year before putting them on his bass. Even then he said they were still a bit bright.

I read years ago in Guitar Player that Joe Osborn would only change the La Bella's on his Jazz Bass when one broke.

hifiguy · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2010, 12:15:32 PM »

Re: Phil Chen

First, he's a monster player. Second, I heard, not read, him interviewed somewhere once (Standing in the Shadows of Motown, maybe) and the man has the weirdest, most interesting accent I'd ever heard. He sounded like a Jamaican guy with a Chinese accent. Given that he's of Chinese heritage and grew up in Jamaica, that shouldn't be surprising, but it's not something a midwestern boy had ever heard before.