BassPlayer 2017-03

F
Steve DiGIORGIO
to think about such things because you’re up against
challenging riffs and polyrhythms. The technique is
just about getting it done. Whereas with Testament,
there are long passages of riffs that aren’t so difficult
to play in a technical sense, but they are difficult
to play convincingly, and that’s what I mean by
playing the Testament bass role—having the right
attack, the right tone, and the pocket.
Did you record direct or through an amp?
We had two direct signals. We kept one completely
plain for any opportunity to re-amp, and one
was dirty with a Darkglass B7K to give it that grind.
I also have this little EBS MultiComp that I love to
record with. It doesn’t change your sound; it’s like
a medium-level loudness button that brings out the
good sounds without really changing anything. It’s a
nice subtle addition. The recording engineer also ran
it through a Kemper [profiling amp] so that we could
mess with the EQ for a room sound. Overall, I got
a nice, passive bass sound with a controlled attack,
but it took a while to get there. It was back to basics.
Do you employ two- or three-finger plucking-hand
technique?
I would say I’m a three-finger player. I only know
because of my calluses! But really, it’s like a fourbarrel
carburetor; if I don’t need the other fingers,
I don’t use them. I just use one, and when I need to
shift a gear, I’ll use two, and so on. I’m not a slap
player, but I also use the side of my thumb to punch
out accents while the other fingers are going. I’m bad
at analyzing my technique. Sometimes it’s better if
you just let nature take its course. Just play and let
it come out. I’m a “Get it done by any means possible”
kind of guy.
Testament seems like it’s on tour constantly.
Are you traveling with backline or
profiling amps?
I have rigs on both continents, but Carlos, my
bass tech, knows the Kemper inside out and he’s
profiled my EBS amps. We went to South America
i INFO
LISTEN
Testament,
Brotherhood of
the Snake [2016,
Nuclear Blast]
EQUIP
Basses Fretless Ibanez BTB Custom
5-string, Rickenbacker 4001
Amps EBS Fafner II heads, EBS
NeoLine & ClassicLine cabinets
Strings Dunlop Super Bright (.045–
.130)
Effects
Darkglass B7K
Microtubes
Analog Bass
Preamp, EBS
MultiComp
Bass
Compressor
40 bassplayer.com / march2017