Listened to Aussie folksinger and bassist....

Mike Hokkanen (27034)

Bass Artists Forum
6/26/2006 10:01 PM

Listened to Iain Campbell Smith and his band Sat. night at the Forksville, PA FOLK Festival. (check it out on line if you like)His bassists, his wife I believe, used a capo for some of the music on her bass. They did not need to read music, so I am not sure what the advantage of doing this might have been. It seemed strange to me. But then, she, admittedly, is a much better player than I. Anyone have ideas on the subject?

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Re: Listened to Aussie folksinger and bassist....

6/26/2006 11:20 PM

Douglas Wyatt (6750) wrote:

There have been a couple of posts on that recently, asking about the same thing. I do know McCartney tried it out on his Hofner back in the early days with the Beetles. Like your thought on it, I don't see much sense in it myself. It would be different if it was on a guitar that has those nasty barre chords I and 10,000 others cannot play, but a bass? I guess it might playing in some keys a little easier since certain notes could be played on open strings without having to press that particular note down, or maybe just reduce the reach on those long necks. That's the only thing I can figure.
Doug

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Re: Listened to Aussie folksinger and bassist....

6/27/2006 4:00 PM

Jonathan Thomas (55) wrote:

The only possible use I can think of would be to get the open string slap sound when you, well, slap. Other than that, there really is no reason for it that I can think of. A conversation piece maybe?