# Any fans of Michael Manring? (Unreal fretless solo bass)



## will_shred (Oct 17, 2013)

So, I just remembered this dude. I used to listen to him a good amount, but I kind of forgot about his existence. His style is so unique, and just beautiful.


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## angus (Oct 17, 2013)

Yup, huge fan dating back to the early-mid 90's (around when Thonk came out...1995?). I have seen him live a bunch of times, and took some lessons with him when I was studying at Stanford. 

He is an awesome guy. About the nicest, most gentle human being you can imagine.


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## Devyn Eclipse Nav (Oct 18, 2013)

I discovered his track The Enormous Room a while back, and I friggen LOVE IT. I need to check out more of his stuff.


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## Winspear (Oct 18, 2013)

Yeah, I love the split record with Yves Carbonne and Di Piaza


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## will_shred (Oct 18, 2013)

angus said:


> Yup, huge fan dating back to the early-mid 90's (around when Thonk came out...1995?). I have seen him live a bunch of times, and took some lessons with him when I was studying at Stanford.
> 
> He is an awesome guy. About the nicest, most gentle human being you can imagine.


 

Well, if his music reflects his personality, he must be one of the chillest people on the face of the earth.


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## bamfrosty (Oct 18, 2013)

Love him. One of the greatest bassists alive. Soliloquy is probably the best solo bass album out there.


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## tripforks (Oct 18, 2013)

I don't listen to much of his stuff but when I do, it's a real treat.

I'm really digging this one:


It's like Meshuggah for solo bass half the time, it's great!


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## yingmin (Oct 19, 2013)

While this may not be as "out there" as his Hyperbass stuff, I think this is no less impressive.


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## angus (Oct 19, 2013)

I can't embed this link, but this is a better version of his fretted tapping stuff IMO: (Him playing The Police's Spirits in the Material World)

Michael Manring / Spirits in the Material World - YouTube

More fretted playing: (Purple Haze)




A good cut from my favorite album of his, Thonk:


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## pushpull7 (Oct 20, 2013)

Way way back I was at GC San Jose for a "clinic" and was part of the "4 bass" thing he does. Wow, I'm old 

Absolutely fabulous player, a true musical genius who found his love of bass.


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## Herrick (Oct 20, 2013)

Michael Manring: One Of A Kind.


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## Igotsoul4u (Oct 20, 2013)

yup. he's a bass god.


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## shadowlife (Oct 23, 2013)

Stellar musician- love the stuff he did with Michael Hedges, and the albums he did under the Attention Deficit name (especially _The Idiot King_) with Alex Skolnick are probably my favorite recordings featuring him.


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## wankerness (Oct 23, 2013)

I bought the transcription book he did for "Thonk," that was sure a waste of money, most of the songs require multiple retuning keys be installed on your bass (especially "the enormous room"), another requires playing three basses at once (my three moons), others involve frets going up to the high 30s and are tuned incredibly high besides (monkeybusinessman), etc. What a nut. I think the only songs I managed to learn much of were "Big Fungus" and "Disturbed."


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## angus (Oct 24, 2013)

Do you still have the book?


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## wankerness (Oct 24, 2013)

Yep, it's fun to have to show people and the write-ups he has on each song are good. Someday when I'm rich and I buy a hyperbass with tuning keys maybe I'll get more use out of it.

Look at this:













EDIT: Forgot to mention, I did plug all of Disturbed into powertab, along with maybe 2/3 of monkey businessman and the first like...8 measures of big fungus, if anyone wants to take a look at them and has some way for me to send you the files. Obviously the book versions are far better cause the book is the best-written I've ever seen in terms of explaining exactly how everything was played (it's loaded with tiny notes of like, what finger he used to tap what note and any special slap techniques he used on certain notes etc).


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## MF_Kitten (Oct 25, 2013)

I always find it hilarious when I see someone on youtube playing insane stuff requiring insane technique, odd tunings, and specific gear, and someone goes "anyone got tabs?"

Asking for tabs for something like The Enormous Room is like asking for a recipe for CERN's Large Hadron Collider... If you got a hold of one, it would still be useless to you!

It's like getting tabs for Jon Gomm's Passionflower and expecting to pull it off in your own lifetime


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## angus (Oct 25, 2013)

Oh I was not asking for tabs- I used to have the book, but it got damaged in a move from a spill and now all of the pages are stuck together. Been trying to find one. 

I transcribed Enormous Room (and a few others) to sheet music back in ~2000/2001 as homework for my bass teacher. 

I ordered a Hyperbass back in 2007.


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## MF_Kitten (Oct 25, 2013)

angus said:


> Oh I was not asking for tabs- I used to have the book, but it got damaged in a move from a spill and now all of the pages are stuck together. Been trying to find one.
> 
> I transcribed Enormous Room (and a few others) to sheet music back in ~2000/2001 as homework for my bass teacher.
> 
> I ordered a Hyperbass back in 2007.



you are a brave man


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## Aris_T (Oct 25, 2013)

A truly inspiring musician. Love everything with his name on it. Even love his collaboration with Jim Matheos, where he just created a hypnotic groove...He's on my short list of musicians that I NEED to see performing and haven't done so yet.


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## TolerancEJ (Oct 25, 2013)

Michael Manring's work is amazing. I've always been partial to "Adhan."


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## will_shred (Oct 25, 2013)

Igotsoul4u said:


> yup. he's a bass god.


 

Based God?


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## pushpull7 (Oct 25, 2013)

Man, some of you guys are crazy talented. I look at MM and say he's totally original and not copyable. People transcribing that? Why didn't I get those genes!


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## angus (Oct 26, 2013)

The transcribing is really not too difficult- I have had to do much worse in the past. It helps that I know his schemes and can tell which tuning changes are done from the bridge, etc etc. 

Writing this stuff in the first place? A number of people have copied him, and they pretty much all suck. It comes off as a very obvious, watered down copy, often lacking musical substance, harmony and motion, etc, even if they are using the techniques. He is most definitely one of a kind.


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## wankerness (Oct 26, 2013)

Yeah, I'd guess his stuff is pretty easy to transcribe just cause the production is so clear that you could hear all the notes very clearly, it would just be a matter of figuring out how they were played.


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## TolerancEJ (Oct 29, 2013)

Michael rarely plays in standard tuning. He may use a different tuning setup for each song. That's not even taking into consideration his Zon Hyperbass with Drop-D devices on all 4 tuning pegs, as well as instantly adjustable bridge. He explains the Hyperbass in this video. Then he plays a tune, which incorporates multiple tuning adjustments mid-song.



And if you think that's bizarre. Look up a few of his tunes where he plays two and three basses simultaneously.


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## Suho (Oct 31, 2013)

I went to see MM, the Modern Mandolin Quartet, and Pianist Liz Story at the Egg in Albany, NY, back when I was in high school (1991). I was a senior. Each of them were great, but when they played together it was pretty cool too. 

He was playing two basses back then (only one song as I recall), as well as the song with the changing tunings constantly throughout. I remember he played "Selene" (he pronounced it Salini) and "Watson and Crick" (I think that was the two basses) among others. He wore wrestling shoes (funny the details you recall). I was there with a cute Sophmore French-American girl... I had a great time.


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## synrgy (Oct 31, 2013)

I'm not even a bass player (beyond dabbling, anyway) but Manring was a huge part of my initial inspiration to get into tapping, and alternate tunings. When I was in my early teens and still pretty new as a player, a family friend gave me an instructional VHS tape featuring Manring, and his style floored me. At the time, I'd never heard anything else like him. More than half of my life-to-date later, and I still haven't.


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## russtolium (Nov 11, 2013)

I found out about Manring a couple years ago after discovering Jeff Schmidt (who is an amazing bassist as well) and I find his reckless disregard for convention in his solo work greatly inspiring. I worked on learning a cover of one of his (easier!) songs for over a year, and it'll probably be the only tune of his that I learn since it's one of the few that doesn't require a special instrument:


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## Hybrid138 (Nov 13, 2013)

Dude, great playing  I dig!


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## Necris (Nov 17, 2013)

Of the few bassists I admire Michael Manring is the only one whose music I will listen to frequently.


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