hi it's Geoff Chalmers here from discoverdoublebass.com which is the home of
online learning for double bass players from across the globe so if you're playing classical
music jazz music or even bluegrass music we have something for you and it gives me
enormous pleasure to welcome a brand new tutor to the channel somebody who's filmed
a series of lessons about bluegrass bass technique and he's somebody um well he's a real expert in
his field having played with uh bands such as the Alison Krauss and Union Station for over 30 years
uh recording with artists such as Dolly Parton and Mill Haggard uh playing on soundtracks such
as oh brother where out thou it's the great Barry Bales so Barry welcome it's lovely to
have you with me today thanks Geoff glad to be here well Barry you've been presenting
this series of videos about bluegrass bass and i've been geeking out all week uh hearing you
play really loving the the sounds and it's such a different kind of sound world from the jazz
bass that i kind of tend to tend to listen to and big part of it i think is the instruments
and the strings and we get so many questions about gut strings so i was kind of hoping to
pick your brains about your instruments and compare uh a yeah a gut string setup with a
steel string set up so first of all maybe you could let us know a little bit about the bass
that you have with you here what what is this instrument this is a i'd have to get out my chart
there's an online chart uh for the exact year it's a mid-50s American standard which was made by
the uh h n white corporation i think that was right they made their Cleveland Ohio
they made band instruments trumpets horns things like that back in the this one is
an American standard as well that's in 1936 that was the first year they started making basses but
they made all sorts of just like school band instruments but it's a plywood bass gut strings
gut strings are a funny funny animal you can't just go into most music stores and say i need a
set of gut bass strings even if they might have them what i have found over the years is that
because they are gut and made out of real actual organic type material each one is different each
set is different you may not get a consistent set all the way across so what i always do is usually
try to buy individual strings or find them online find them at pawn shops find them and wherever you
can find them and just go to the trouble of going through each set putting each string on and seeing
how it sounds and if it works great if not take it off find another one try it until you finally get
the combination that really all of them sound good and even so why don't you talk us through the set
what have you got on the g this is a really unusual string because i've heard of these before
and of course you know it when you see it what it is but tell us about the g because that's a
really unusual strength well that is an example of what some people would call new old stock that
that's a red-o-ray brand that was a really big in the 30s 40s 50s that era and it
i found it had come from an old music store it was you know it's from that era but it never been put
on it was a new string in the package and I've had numerous ones of those over the years I've kind of
had varying degrees of success i've got some that just don't really sound that great so
i changed them out got some that finally just broke and you know were kind of beyond repair so
i'm uh i'm counting on that one to keep holding out for a few more years is is it exposed is it
just wall wall good is there any coating or anything no no is it just colored yeah and i
i'm not a true expert on the manufacturer and all that i'm i'm to the best of my knowledge
these are sheep gut yeah i think that's right and you know there's certain things that you can do
they'll fray as they get worn and sometimes you can take a really super fine sandpaper
and just kind of buff those off you know obviously not enough to damage the the string itself but you
can clean them up that way and sometimes like with this this set that kind of standard setup
for gut strings is to have a plain gut g and d and then the a and e are a gut core with a silver wrap
or some sort of metal wrap depending on where you get them but with the plain ones you don't want to
do it with these but with the plain ones a lot of times just like a guitar string or something
they'll eventually go dead as long as they're physically sound uh you can take them and put
them in a ziplock bag and put a little olive oil in there and let them sit and absorb that and that
will kind of bring them back to life so they need the moisture from wow so uh i've seen people use
guts mostly in the context of kind of mixed with steels on the lower end of the bass but you've got
an all-gut set but it's just a steel wrap is that right yeah and and you know i'm not in reinventing
the wheel or anything this this was kind of a standard uh mix of of of strings back in the day
by you know the the all the great country players in Nashville a lot of the bluegrass players i have
tried all gut like all plain gut and it just you really need the the wrap on these two lower
strings to to kind of get anything out of them other than it just sounds like hitting a pillow
with a baseball bat can we have a little bit of the low register it's got such a gorgeous sound
such a beautiful tone just got a nice you know there's not you get a little bit of that click
for a little bit of high end and there is some low there but it's just a nice punchy mid-range thing
that really records well so what are you using on the lower three then so you've got red-o-ray
on the uh on the g old red-o-ray on the g the uh the d and the a are uh there's a guy in Minnesota
called Daniel Larson and he is making um he he he's i guess spins or whatever the proper term
is new gut strings but he also has started making a set that is a trying to be an approximation
of the red-o-ray's and i think they're called red diamonds and um i think that the d is this d is a
red diamond this a is one of his but it's not out of that set because the red diamonds have a copper
wrap on them and but i think this is one of his that that he makes but not out
of that particular set and then i'm trying to remember what this e is i've i've got a box
of random old strings that i've you know you buy on ebay or find in a music store that's gone
out of business or something and just kind of threw them there and in that process of
continuing to go through strings until you find one you like you know sometimes you misplace the
wrappers and sometimes they don't have wrappers so but that that e is an old an older older string
and how long will you leave the strings on you know is it so for steel strings
i i've had the same Spirocores that i use i don't know five years or something like
that is it kind of a similar thing or are you having to replace them more often due to the
the only time that i ever really have any trouble with with steel string i mean gut strings is if
i get some serious deterioration particularly on an old one where they really start coming
unwrapped um or if they just go dead and don't you know sometimes you will eventually play one out
and it just doesn't it just doesn't speak like it should and and that's really hard to say
i think a lot of that most of the times that's happened to me has been on extended
tours outside playing in the summer you know where it's nasty hot and humid and i'm
sweating all over the strings and that's just not not good for them but by and large unless
unless they just go dead or or kind of give out physically i keep them on for long as long as
they're working yeah well they sound amazing and i think that combination of good strings with
a plywood base so is it a fully plywood bass or is it yeah yeah yeah sounds absolutely amazing i
i absolutely love that bass i think it sounds great i mean both of them and we'll hear the steel
one and with the steel strings in just a moment but it really is just like that classic sound
you know and uh and it as i said it records so well it it it even comes across better to me on
once you record and you go back in and hear the playback i'm always pleasantly surprised
you know i um as we had mentioned i wish i could hear it more often from out here you
know you get so used to hearing your bass from up here and that's not the full sound so could
you give us a bit of blue grassy kind of root fifth stuff what kind of some sounds that we can
it's it's just it's just an awesome thing and and also the uh the setup as well is
quite kind of comfortable i mean i'm uh i'm new to gut strings and i've enjoyed playing a few
notes on your bass and it's fairly comfortable isn't it yeah it's it's i think with with guts
you know anytime you're uh going with an instrument like this and and not plugging it in
by by having the higher action you know there's more tension and you're you're
getting more out of it but you also don't want to get it so high that you're killing yourself
trying to play it so that's the that's the good thing to me about gut strings is you can kind of
push that action height to get that real good moving air thump but yet because gut strings
are what they are the way they feel it's not as hard on you physically it's a it's an easier
easier set of strings to play than if you were trying to play steel at this
same height and just lastly a couple of things about the bass before we move on and check out
the next one i see that you're dampening the top as well with a towel which is really you know
like a really obvious mute so you're kind of getting that thwack that kind of sound
yeah just you know it's it's the main purpose is to cut down on on the overtones
and just tighten the sound up a little bit where it's not not getting rid of any muddiness that co
most basses have some sort of unwanted overtone it may not be that pronounced it might you might
never really notice it or it might be awful and it might interfere with the recording but most
you know that's something i've i've noticed ever since i was old enough to pay attention is most
people that i know have something in there whether it's a towel or foam or um i've even seen people
use tennis balls down in there but it just helps with kind of tightening up your sound and you've
got a fishman full circle on both bases um so if you're playing amplified on gigs will that depend
will that change to your choice of bass or do they both amplify well they they both do really well um
what colors which bass i play is more what the gig is what type of music i'm playing but i've
been really happy and this one in particular um through my i if i'm using an amp i've
got a couple of uh 12 inch aguilar cabinets that i'm using through the tone hammer head
and it just you know it sounds like a bomb going off it sounds like a million dollars so
there's not a whole lot of for what i do and the calls that i get i mean i could
play everything on this bass or i could play everything on that bass
i just like the you know being a a traditional bluegrass music and traditional country music
geek that i am you know i i try to emulate some of my heroes with their setup and the
way they played and the type of strings they used that's fantastic i tell what let's hear how this
bass down so if you don't mind we've got some space to drop that one off and uh there you go
look at this what a beauty so this is from the 30s you say yep 36. look at that
i just love the i love the pattern you know and it is a cannon it sounds so loud let's let's maybe
hear a few notes Barry because that's what people want
oh i love that low end i love the e and all the you know
it's got the it's got low end it's got punch but it still has growl and sustain if
you need it you could do your whole career on either of these basses i'm guessing in many ways
i mean what what um what did this what's the setup with the strings have we got a d'addario helicore
on the e uh yeah these are maybe i think these are i mean i know that's what i use i think this
normally i use the zyex yeah i think this might still be i can't remember what the wrapping is
they had sent me some prototype sets yeah and i think that's i think that's what this is is
i've still got the prototype wrap on there they sound gorgeous and uh just experimenting around
with this and you know better than i the green is the is that the helicore i think it's the helicore
hybrid yeah i think it's the helicore hybrid so just always experimenting you know even with
steel strings they're going to be a lot more consistent across a whole set but sometimes you
know your bass may not like them as a whole set so you know don't I would say don't be afraid if
one of the strings is not really doing it for you even if it's steel strings just keep
experimenting until you find something that's good and full all the way across the spectrum
could we just maybe hear just a little bit more because i just i just personally want to hear it
i love the sound it's the plywood i think as well there's a thwack about well and these
are these standards too you know they're a bigger they're wider up here and they're
i think they're technically a a 7 8 scale they're they're they're kind of a weird
thing in between they're bigger than a three-quarters but not as big as a full size
so you've got a little bit extra area here that's getting you that good low end
but they're all very comfortable instruments to play aren't they yeah both of those basses
are really you could go out on a gig and you know you'd be fine if you'd ever played it before it's
a really comfortable instrument yeah i'm i'm i'm really happy with them i've got many more
basses at home and i don't necessarily exclusively play American standards for any reason other than
i came across these basses and i like them yeah well i think that's a that's the that's a good
enough reason isn't it and they really do sound uh terrific and Barry where can people find out more
about you beyond the stuff that we've done um do you have your own website yeah i don't know if you
you have the farm i use i used to but you know i'm kind of uh the i'm okay with being
the obscure bass player in the back okay and i just let it go um i've facebook instagram all of
those kinds of things um if if people are looking for a good laugh there's lots of that on there
and we'll be sharing plenty of videos as well so we've been filming with uh Barry this week
we've had the great pleasure of hearing you play and especially in a wonderful trio as well i mean
that sounded really cool yesterday we were joined by Jeff and Justin and yeah it was just really
special putting together this series of lessons on bluegrass bass playing and i think we should
cut to maybe a short performance taken from the course so people can hear what it sounds like in
context so if you want to learn more from Barry then please check out the links below and we'll
yeah you can go and maybe check out a lesson and find out more about this wonderful style of
music thanks so much for joining us at home thanks Barry thank you and we'll see you next time