Need info on the history of steel strings, amps in jazz

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

Sometimes I think drummers try to take up too much sonic range, and their wide range of sound (rather than volume) overlaps the bass more than you want to hear. For example, a drummer who plays a lot of kick drum and rides on a riveted cymbal can be a bass killer.

I think this is especially true from the perspective of us jazz bassists. I was on a gig a few years ago when the drummer's kick drum beater broke and he had to play the rest of the gig with no bass drum. I could hear myself 100% better and what I was playing meant a lot more to the music than when the bass was "competing" sonically with the bass drum for a place in the music. It was also so much more comfortable to play without all of the disparate rhythmic interaction between bass and bass drum.