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HEART OF GOLD

 

Yup-that's right. It's a bass guitar with a midi keyboard mounted on it. Yes, the two are played simultaneously. The bass is played with the left hand alone by means of  a guitar technique known as “hammer-ons” while the keyboard  (which  emulates a distorted slide guitar most of the time. among other things) is played with the right hand. This instrument has a weight equivalent to that of a small motorcycle, and as you might imagine, requires years of time and patience to "master".

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June 2007

 
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The challenge of playing an instrument (s) like this is obvious. What isn't is its use as a compositional and improvisational tool as a means to create big balls of music, unrestricted by predetermined chord changes or rhythmic elements... in real time. The coordination between the two elements - bass & keyboard outweigh the physical technical limitations one might expect.

Kind of like a drum set

I discovered my ability to play Bass & keys simultaneously living in NYC back in 84. Soon after, the logical (?) progression was to mount a MIDI keyboard on a bass -- a "one stop shop", if you will. I was lucky enough to have a job a music rehearsal studio & had access to equipment and supportive people, giving me the ability to really start developing the thing.

It's a long story.

This  bass is (or was) a bright pink, piece of shit Ibanez “ Destroyer 2” which begged  to have its tacky rear rudder  assembly carelessly hacked off with a skilsaw (hence the name my band) Needless to say, My friend & resentful, former J. Skilsaw drummer, Ron & I had it plugged into an amp at the time -- yeah of course we recorded it .  This particular bass, with out  any major neck or pick up adjustments, seems to lend itself well to the well to the one handed hammer-on technique.

Outside of  having no electrical components to it, other than  a  single guitar pick up without any volume or tone controls,  there’s  no other modifications to the bass,…… midi or other,….. its just a stupid bass,… you dig?? ….Except, of course,  for that unsightly keyboard thing  hanging from it.  Believe it or not, after years of  playing the bass with one hand,  I’m able to  achieve more punch, tone, sustain and articulation  than I, or some other folks possibly  could if I were playing with both hands…Go figure?

 

 

The Swiss army Bass Circa mid '90s prior to it's oh-so- stylish woodgrain makeover

 

 

The keyboard that you see, a Yamaha KX-5, is an artifact from a problem decade. (the 80s.)This is one of those things looser, music nerds dubbed "a MIDI controller" - I call it a piece shit & I've been through like five of them (then again as you may suspect, I don't take all that great care of my equipment.  Anyway "midi controller" meaning that it doesn’t make any sound on its own –it plugs into other things that make sound so that evil  music/electronic companies can keep you busy and broke running around buying all sorts of shit.

Nothing of my rig is by any means “hi-tech”.In regards to this particular  instrument. This keyboard controls a series of dinosaur “sound modules”……. the pea, electronic brains - of keyboards popular in the mid-80s. The Yamaha  TX-7 (DX-7 brain) that I use for my primary  sound,  has  the capability of producing hundreds of crappy sounds of which, of course,  I use only one.  A clav sound from this device  when put through a wah-wah pedal and a fuzz box,  though hard on the ears is capable of  producing tones that are not entirely dissimilar to that of an electric guitar— Which is much more to my liking than most of sounds most electronic keyboards pollute with.  I'm tired I;ll vent more later--check out the videos--