Ron Carter Talks About His Signature Sound, Epifani Bass Amp, and Strings

Legendary bassist Ron Carter (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock) talks to fellow Epifani artist KJ (‪@TheOddysy‬) about his personal sound. Mr. Carter discusses his acoustic bass, Epifani amps and cabinets, La Bella strings, and how he conjures the unique tone that has graced thousands of recordings from Miles Davis' Miles Smiles to Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest.

"I tell my students they have to be responsible for the sound they get," the masters tells KJ. "Whatever sound identifies them, they have to learn how to make it." To find the sound that identifies him, Ron Carter started by talking to a double-bass repairman. There Carter learned about the inner workings of an upright bass—the sound post, bass bar, seams, strings, and everything else that goes along with them.

The next journey set the great bassist on the road to the perfect set of strings. Having tried everything, Ron settles on La Bella 1700/1710 strings which combine a nylon exterior with a steel core. He's been using them ever since (about 25 years).

It was a lot harder to find the right bass amp, Carter recalls. "This is the best I've ever played," says Carter of his Epifani UL 901 bass amplifier and DIST2 dual-impedance bass speaker cabinet. "Epifani makes the bass sound like it's supposed to. It doesn't color the sound, it doesn't make it sound like someone is playing the bass."

Carter uses a mix of 10-inch and 12-inch speaker cabs depending on the size of the room he's playing. And he's taken to mounting the cabinet on a pole to get it away from his socks and closer to his ear. After all, there's no sense in having a great sound if the amp is trapped behind the body of the bass.

Both Mr. Carter and KJ have been Epifani Artists for decades. Like the master, KJ runs his Fodera basses through Piccolo and UL 901 amps, but prefers a 2x10 cab to create his ideal sound.

The interview was shot on location and Ron Carter's NYC apartment. Audio/Video was handled by Shapeshifter Lab, owned and operated by Matt Garrison, a world-class bassist in his own right.

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