Bert Kaempfert bass sound

flatwound strings?

 

There's bits here............

http://www.spaceagepop.com/kaempfer.htm

http://www.kaempfert.de/en/discography/disco_09.htm

 

Isn't it a Danelectro 6 string bass played with a pick?

 

I've read in a music magazine Kaempfert produced his unique bass sound by laying a double bass over a bass guitar during the recording process.

 

Owen Bradley as well...it's all over Brenda Lee records like "I'm Sorry" where it's very loud in the mono mix and not quite prominent in the stereo.

 

Billy Vaughn also had that "Kaempfert" bass sound by the early 1960's. I wonder what his method was, same as Kaempfert's?

Vaughn and Kaempfert certainly created some OUTSTANDING Easy Listening music!

 

I don't know much about Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra, but I love some of his tunes: 'Swinging Safari', 'Living It Up' and 'Afrikaan Beat'.

They have a very specific dry bass sound. Anybody in the know how this was achieved?

 

Love that bass beat. I would consider it his signature sound in almost all of his recordings.

 

I'm well aware of the use of the Dano bass in recording, but I always thought that the bass on Bert's recording had too much bottom end for it to be a Dano. To me, it sounds more like a Fender Precision played with a pick and the tone knob turned all the way up. Did Bert tell you otherwise, Steve?

 

I'm not too familiar with Bert's music, but they regularly use one of his themes on our local radio station.

IIRC, the bass is very similar to Carol Kaye (Pet Sounds). "God Only Knows" springs to mind.

That was a fender bass wasn't it?

Stephen

 

A few posts (and several minutes) up, Steve said "Danelectro."

Unless you're meaning "fender bass" in the generic electric bass guitar" sense, in which case, yes.

Like Jet Harris. Only not really.

 

On some of Kaempfert's recordings, like "Cerveza," it sounds like the bassist is damping the strings with his pick hand.

Kaempfert used that bass sound a little bit on his first album, April in Portugal (1959), but didn't invent it. It was already common on country recordings, particularly those coming out of the Decca studios, and is often referred to as "tic tac" bass. For example, Hank Garland's Danelectro 6-string bass can be heard very prominently on Jimmy C. Newman's recording of "Step Aside Shallow Water," recorded in February of 1958.

 

On earlier dates, Carol played a Danelectro. I am of the opinion that the bass on Pet Sounds is a Fender.

 

Bert recorded a Fender bass and an upright acoustic bass and combined it for his characteristic bottom friendly sound.

When he recorded the Beatles for Polydor he passed this on to them

They ignored it and spent years trying to get good 'bottom'

Such is Showbiz....

Roger

 

This was true of late '50s country recordings, too. On the Jimmy C. Newman recording I mentioned earlier, there's an upright bass in addition to the six-string electric bass.

 

German big band leader James Last said in an interview that it was him who actually gave that (Fender?) bass guitar as a present to the guy who became Bert Kaempfert's bass player (don't remember his name). At the time, it must have been one of the first electric basses available in Germany.

 

Ladi Geisler.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sJjVT9Gffg

 

There he is on stage and in the studio with an electric Fender Jazz Bass!

The Fenders come with a bridge cover that has a strip of foam that fits over the strings. That helps mute them. Most rock players take the bridge cover off immediately so the strings have more sustain. Playing the muted strings with a pick helps give it that unique sound you hear on Bert's recordings. You can also must the strings with the side of your hand when you play with a pick if you play close to the bridge at the bottom of the bass.


Thanks for the link!

 

There's a film of John Lennon and Phil Spector listening to an early take of "Imagine" (same version that appears on John's Anthology) and John comments that he doesn't like the sound of the bass because "...it sounds like Bert Kaempfert again." That got a laugh out of Phil.

 

When I first went to London in 1965 Fleet Street was home to the Press and the Law Courts, a heady mix of eccentrics...

Also added to this mix of journos and barristers drinking in ancient pubs was a smattering of HiFi shops.(Laskys, Sterns etc)

They all played Bert Kaempferts 'Swinging Safari' to demo their speakers.

It ruined my appreciation of the Band

The other awful fave was Mantovani

Both these I am now investigating.

Ah the power of the net......

Roger