400 ISSUES OF WISDOM

We’re celebrating 400 issues of Bass Player in this issue, but that doesn’t mean we’re just congratulating ourselves on how great we are—we want you to benefit from the distilled wisdom we’ve learned along the way. Apply these nuggets of knowledge from the world’s greatest bass players to your playing, and you’ll be well on the way to bass nirvana...

- Mike Brooks

PRINCE

November 1999

Space is what it’s all about. I’m always telling people in rehearsal, you’ve got to shut up once in a while. Solo spotlights are fun and everything, but if you make music people want to hear, they’ll keep that tape.

GEDDY LEE, RUSH

November/December, 1988

The freedom of the trio is that you’re allowed to be as busy as the thing can take. Obviously you have to use taste and discretion where and when you’re being busy. You really have to serve the song the best way possible. If it serves the song to be busy, that’s fine, but if it best serves the song to be a bit more fundamental and groove-oriented, then you have to do that.

NATHAN EAST

May 1997

I quickly realized if I stayed on the same note when the chord changed, it made a difference—and if the chord stayed the same and I changed my note, that made a difference as well. That’s how I discovered the common tone and the substitution, and learned how I could control the complexion of the music.

STU HAMM

July/August 1991

The sound you get is in your fingers and the bass. I try to use gear that gives me a true reproduction of that sound, without having to mess with a rack full of parametric EQs that are always going down.

JASON NEWSTED, METALLICA

September/October 1991