Tony Levin Speaks on Basses He Used on New Album, Reveals Unusual Way He Checks If a Bass Is Good – No Treble

For Tony Levin, a bass guitar is an endless playground. However, in our recent interview, he revealed a surprisingly simple way of testing whether a bass guitar is good.

What makes one instrument great is relative, and it depends on what the player needs and what the song requires. And that is a whole other — we could say endless — discussion of its own. As far as his new album, Bringing It Down to the Bass, Levin has some of his go-to instruments on there. When we asked him about the album’s track “Bungie Bass” in particular, Tony replied:

“Just playing the NS electric upright — it’s a great sounding instrument. As I have said — a bass gives you the way it sounds.”

After mentioning his NS upright fretless bass, Levin dived into the topic of how he likes to test basses. Although not directly related to his new album, Tony was at the right place since we could talk for days on the matter. His method, however, didn’t sit all that well with the (unnamed) bass maker in question since it didn’t bring the desired crowd. He continued:

“At the NAMM show, I used to visit somebody. A guy in a booth would say, ‘Would you try my bass?’ And I would go, ‘Okay, I’ll try.’ And I would just play a low E for a while. And the manufacturer of the instrument would gradually get in a bad mood because he was hoping I would shred on it and do this thing, and a crowd would gather to see.”

“But what I do a lot is play the low E and just get a sense of how good is this. This is a rock bass, this is going to be useful to me,” he added while discussing this somewhat unconventional method. Nonetheless, despite being able to play, well, pretty much whatever he wants, Levin doesn’t need a “shreddy” way to test an instrument’s quality.

Going more into his NS upright bass, Levin also revealed that the instrument never fails to impress other musicians and producers. He offered:

“Sometimes a bass just gives you this gift. So the NS is an extreme of that, the NS electric upright. When I play a low note on many records — this has happened — the producer and the artists just go, ‘Oh, Tony, that’s what I wanted with my ballad, with my piece. You’re so good.’ They say, ‘You’re great.’ [Laughs] It’s not me at all. It’s the instrument. And I quietly take credit for this. So the NS electric upright is extreme of that.”

Another bass model he prefers, and that he still often uses is the Stingray Special. Ernie Ball Music Man, of course, bought the brand from Leo Fender back in the day. But, as Levin reveals, the new ones sound and feel just as great. Reflecting on these, the bass icon said:

“Also, the Music Man Stingrays that I’ve been playing, with a different sound, of course… To me, when I first played it, which was before even Ernie Ball got the company, I play a G, a low E, they were only four-strings at that time — and sounds like rock. It sounds like really what I want. It’s the sound that I want.”

“So I was never one who knew how to experiment,” Levin admitted. “Well, if I change the strings, if I change the pickup, or did this thing — that kind of musical imagination, I’m not gifted with. But I know myself, and I know if I pick up a bass and it just sounds great playing the G [string], this will be very useful for me. And the Music Man Stringrays and some of the other models — they have always been useful to me.”

“Since I’m on the subject of Ernie Ball Music Man, they took over the company from Leo Fender, and they gradually and very carefully made tiny improvements. And they didn’t lose what was special about it.”

“I mean, if it had lost the original special thing that it had, I would have kept the old ones and stopped getting the new ones. But indeed, the very newest ones, this Stingray Special, is my main go-to bass. Now, it hasn’t lost a bit, and I can adjust the tone to get the sound, if I want, exactly [like] the vintage ones.”

Among other basses, Tony also used his Steinberger on the new record. Of course, also designed by Ned Steinberger just like his NS upright, it worked wonders for his material. Going more into the matter, he said:

“By the way, on the album, I happily revisited my Steinberger bass, which is the first one that Ned Steinberger made. A really special bass, a fretless. I used to play it a lot on the road with Peter Gabriel. But through the years, it turned out I was only playing it on one song. There’s not that much fretless playing on this stuff. So I stopped taking it on the road.”

“But I pulled it out for a really special to me track called ‘Floating in Dark Water’ with Robert Fripp soundscape going and this kind of bass melody on bass. And that’s one of the few tracks that only has two or three guys on it.”