Thought this was a fun studio story to revisit and an interesting read for anyone who hasn't.
"During the day generally, if Jeff was there, we’d do instrumental OD’s….fixes, layered guitar parts, solos, harmonium, tabla, cymbal screeches, key rattles, stuff…etc….(Jeff mostly only sang at nite after dinner).
We were working on Eternal Life, the solo stabs and a complete solo. It was just the three of us. We were in a little half circle. Andy was turned away from the console, facing Jeff handling tape-op/punching, I was just sitting on the coffee table across from him with a birds-eye view, Jeff was in the middle, to my left. The amp was in the record booth, a JCM 800 w/ 4x12, and on this day he was touting the Frehley Les Paul. So of course, Jeff being Jeff, between takes, he’d break into a KISS tune, mocking it or himself mocking it, he even did the little "Shock Me" solo pull-off thing with the pick..
Anyway, all of sudden he was like….”I have an idea!”. Stood up, grabbed a bass, went into the record booth with the amp. Unplugged the guitar from the JCM and plugged in the bass. Started mucking with the sound, got it all distorted and REAL heavy. Asked for some headphones (which he never used while tracking vox), told Andy to go to the top. So basically, the hole setup is still for gtr...421 mic into the API, with only Andy having time to tweak the level.
He cued Andy to roll and off he went. He was wailing on that thing, jumping around like he was on stage, I mean all over the place, head banging, posing. Andy and I just thought he was guffawing, cause he’d do that from time to time…
So he does this take and at the end is jamming the bass into the speakers getting all this feedback…and…done.
He comes out and was like….”that was fun!”. Andy sorta had a dazed look on his face and said “yea, that was pretty cool!” I don’t think he expected it to make the cut….but it did. I was surprised too when I heard it on the finished album. It really made the song heavy, I think there is an outtake of EL on yt without it. I mean, that's how I knew the song until the album dropped.
So, there you go, an impromptu Jeff Buckley on distorted bass, one take. That’s where he was coming from most of the time…..holistic, left field and in the moment.
Oh, and the Nag Champa was always burning"
- Bryant W. Jackson (assistant engineer on Grace)
title says it all, peace
https://joeysturgistones.com/collections/summer-bundles/products/jst-ultimate-guitar-bass-tone-summer-bundle
I went down a Jeff Berlin rabbit hole a while ago and discovered his long time “feud” with the bass community and especially the bass education community. I learned that he was banned at one point from talkbass and in general was a very controversial figure within the bass community. I started watching videos and reading posts about his opinions on bass education to get a better idea about what could be causing the controversy. What confuses me is that I’m not quite sure what his grievances against modern bass education are. I am a completely self taught bass player so I have no experience with paying for lessons or going to music school, but still; what he seems to be complaining about seems very cryptic and vague to me. Is it just his personality and his wordiness that puts people off? Is his general message fairly decent and he just does a bad job of articulating it? Is there an actual problem in bass education or is that all just a bunch of hubbub? I haven’t really found a clear answer and I’ve scoured the internet trying to find one.
I don't know much about the bass, but I'm interested in learning to play and I'm honestly inspired by Jeff's basslines. I'd like to learn more about the variations my favorite artists use before I make my decision (albeit it will probably be cheap knockoff).
https://twitter.com/ry_bass/status/1203849220119248896?s=21
