Dave Matthews Band -- American Baby -- Bass Cover

Here's my attempt at covering Stefan Lessard's bass part on the Dave Matthews Band song, "American Baby." Go easy on me, I'm a longtime guitar player that just started messing around on bass in the past couple of weeks. Working on my finger style technique which feels a bit strange still, so there are some timing issues here and there.

I noticed something strange with the tuning on this song. It seems that either Stefan's G string was slightly out of tune or he was bending it out of tune (or the intonation on his bass was out slightly) during the moving bass part in the bridge. My bass was tuned dead-on with perfect intonation (based on two different tuners) and every time I hit the D flat in that run, it was out of tune. I even played the fretted D flat on that string through two tuners and it was dead on. Quite odd, and I couldn't figure out how to fix the issue.

Here's the recording rundown (in signal path order):

-Ibanez SR500 bass with Rotosound Nexus Bass strings (slight bass rolloff, mids boosted, highs rolled off about 60%)
-Samson C-valve preamp
-Line 6 TonePort KB37
-POD Farm (Vetta Compressor and Eden Traveler WT-300 amp model)
-Ableton Live
-Waves C1 Noise Gate
-Waves API 2500 compressor

I threw the Waves API 550B EQ on the song and cut all bass frequencies from 200Hz down -6dB. This did a great job of making the original bass track inaudible. So the bass you're hearing is all me.

Drop a comment, let me know what you think. Thanks for watching!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Dave Matthews Band
• American Baby
• bass
• cover
• Ibanez
• SR500
• POD Farm
• Samson
• C-valve

[robertrmcm2010]

I just picked up a bass today, my first time really playing. Dude that was ,.....Awwwsome !!.I typed in DMB bass cover and hit your video first.Great job and you are inspiring.

There really insn't any reason to watch any more. Seriously, i'm gunna try to play this song !! ..what do you think ? could a novice learn to play a song like this ?

[Cwildenradt]

@robertrmcm2010 Thanks! Sure, a novice could learn to play it...you just watched one. Haha. Just take it slow in the beginning to get the muscle memory down and gradually work up to tempo.

Have fun!

[toma24987]

could you tell me the settings of your EQ? YOU HAVE VERY GOOD SOUND..!

[Cwildenradt]

@toma24987 Thanks, my friend. The settings are in the description: "slight bass rolloff, mids boosted, highs rolled off about 60%"

[86superdado]

have you got a tabs ?

[Cwildenradt]

@86superdado No, but I know there are plenty available with a quick Google search. Most of the song I did by ear, but I had to search the tabs to get the bridge line. Can't recall which I used though.

[IAMREZEK]

This was so good I couldnt help but watch it again!

[abshmusic]

Nice sound!

[Bissekala]

perfect cover dude! :)

[jsid7]

Awesome dude, you make me want to pick up a bass.

[iliachulsky]

Stefan is such an underapriciated bass player.

great cover man! :)

[MrStayCoul]

Nice job !! I want to buy the Ibanez SR500BM, please what do you think about it ?

[aubs1100]

Nicely done man. I'm in South Africa. I'm a guitar player too, and recently got myself an Ibanez SR 505 SDGR, So we're in the same boat, as far as "new to bass playing' is concerned. So good luck with your bass playing....

[brett2525]

Cwildenradt, this is a very nice tone your getting here. Could you tell me are those rotosounds flatwounds? How does the sound compare to the original elixer's. Im thinking of changing to rotosounds as the tone is a bit too metallic and bright. Thanks

[CountRammerhymen]

sick tone!



[ArnoldandPereira]

You kinda look like Stefan.