John Burgess - Summertime

John Burgess performs Summertime by Gershwin at the Moruya Jazz Festival 2011

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Music

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• John
• Burgess
• solo
• electric
• double
• bass
• ns
• design
• cr5m
• string
• high
• jazz
• improvisation
• arco
• thomastik
• spirocore
• moruya
• festival
• 2011
• boss
• rc50
• loop
• pedal
• summertime
• george
• gershwin
• Boss Corporation
• fretless
• tapping
• contrabass
• kontrabass
• contrabajo
• steinberger
• Live Music
• french
• bow

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@JohnBurgessMusic Sorry - I meant perpendicular to the strings, not parallel.

[chrispiano]

Brilliant John, thanks. I will definitely try all of the below.

Having spoken with a few other contra to NS converts, another hot tip seems to be increasing the angle of the bass at the body/stand joint. (Just in case anyone else is having the same troubles!)

I'm 100% with you on Spirocores, amazing response across the fingerboard, and you really make them sing. Love the vids, please keep making them!

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@JohnBurgessMusic Thats some stuff off the top of my head. Its hard to say whether its a technique issue or not, there are some inherent quirks to spiros that need to be considered. Some players just avoid them all together for arco, but I love them.

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@JohnBurgessMusic Also make sure that the end of the fingerboard isnt touching the string when bowing the lower strings. I shaved some wood off the end of my fingerboard because the high deflection of the large strings was causing the string to hit the FB, which will interfer with the fundamental freq of the string.

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@JohnBurgessMusic You can try applying some extra rosin directly to the E and A strings to see if that gives you the extra grip to give a strong fundamental, without compensating by using more bow pressure.

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@JohnBurgessMusic I find there isnt one amount of rosin on the bow that works optimally on all strings, in all registers. I use only a small amount of rosin, and while it works well for the solo stuff I do, its not really enough if youre bowing alot in the lower registers, especially if you have to play anything spiccato, or fast passages etc.

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@chrispiano Spirocores can be tricky to bow, so you have to be sure youre bowing parallel, which can be deceptive on this 5 string bass because of the high curvature.

[chrispiano]

@JohnBurgessMusic Yup, Arco!

[JohnBurgessMusic]

@chrispiano Are you referring to playing arco?

[chrispiano]

John a quick question if I may - I have CR5 with Spirocores, and am having some difficulties with my set up.

It has a nasty tendency to leap into harmonics on the lower strings, and I find that double-stopping/string leaping is much less responsive than on my double.

Have you ever experienced these issues?

On a more normal note- this sounds incredible, really really lovely.