Billy Sheehan, Clint Strong, and Mike Gage: Dangerous Improv
Dangerous Guitars invited three top musicians into the studio to play together for the very first time. Those musicians included bassist Billy Sheehan, guitarist Clint Strong and drummer Mike Gage.
The folks at Dangerous Guitars said they brought together these musicians and asked them to “deliver us something ‘off the top of their heads.‘ Unscripted… unrehearsed… and uncanny.”
Pretty cool!
Love Sheehan, but I think the bass should have been cleaner for this jam! You don’t hear jazz bass distorted usually. MHO.
It’s Billy Sheehan … That’s his tone …. so what’s your problem?
Sorry but I’m with Bill in this one, if he had switched it on at times would’ve been great but that fuzzy distorted sound continuosly kind of ruined it for me.
Yea I would also have to agree with Bill too, Sheehan is one of my faves, actually his tone is usually is a little rounder, This seems a bit sharp for him and this. Very cool all the same though.
I think in this situation (trio) it works nicely.
That was a pretty damn great rendition of favorite things. Sheehans playing was amazing.
I gig play with mike regularly
You saying Sheehan uses the same tone no matter what he is playing?
Great playing includes great tone.
This tone is more like Chris Squire than the sound he had with Mr Big and David L Roth. I love Richenbachers but I just don’t think it’s the right tool for the job in this case.
Rickie? really? looks like a Fender to me
It’s a Yamaha Attitude signature model FYI. I think he’s talking about the tone which sounds kinda like Chris Squire’s Rick. With regards to the playing, it’s a jam as what was stated and I think it’s between a rock bassist and a jazz guitarist with a drummer in between. What can we expect but just be open minded as to what will come out.
Amazing. I feel for your hyper sensitive and eclectic tastes, but really… it’s about the musicianship.
I am not sure what your point is? Musicianship is vague or at best subjective to individual tastes.
The point is the theme of the video is “deliver us something ‘off the top of their heads.‘ Unscripted… unrehearsed… and uncanny.” Opinions amount of distortion on the bass and other personal tastes are ok, but the point is they delivered. I heard em’ fine. To the contrary, musicianship stands on on it’s own. You might not like the tone, or style, or type of music, or whatever, but in my opinion they delivered.
Confused. You say it’s ok to have opinions about the tone but your objection seems to be people voicing opinions. The web page solicits thoughts, comments. I don’t think there is uniform agreement on what musicianship is; the discussions here to me support that.
Sheehans tone works for his tapping and lead style play but to lay a solid foundation under Strongs jazz licks requires a meatier bottom. In some moments he can barely be heard!
Some of you guys gotta hate on everything, seriously if you got nothing good to say keep quiet.
By the way although i’m no fan, I know who billy sheehan is, who are you?
While the concept of this ‘jam’ is cool, I’m not sure if the tones meshed together that well. (take it with a grain of salt – just my opinion) Billy was my first bass idol back when The DLR Band first came out. I was thinking though, this would have been better if the guitarist would have slapped on a bit of distortion, or a dirtier tone from time to time. That would have mad a world of difference… to me anyway. Regardless, this is a pretty cool video/jam.
gr8 but not for me ;.;. give me mr big anyday
never been a big Billy Sheehan fan but he rocked this one. Personally his tone gave it a more proggy feel to me, and I’m ok with that. Just because it is improv doesn’t mean it has to be jazz. A lot of this was reminiscent of Chris Squires support.
Boring…..
I think Billy is a tool … there I said it.. shoulda been a guitar player
Yeah. And Hank Marvin and Hendrix and JJ Cale should have remembered that the guitar was nothing more than a gypsy rhythm instrument and only played chords.
I am sure if Billy wanted to he could rock whatever tone he wanted. He stays true to his roots and applies his style to the situation. The guy can play! Love it all. He is not a jazz guy buts hangs pretty good. I for one enjoyed it.
Not really my taste, but if the haters had a tenth of the achievements of these gentlemen they would be professional and humble enough to respect the art and knock off the criticism. If you don’t like it, move on – you can be sure none of the guys in the video are going to bother reading the comments below because they’re off to their next gig already.
the comments on the vid are pretty funny, to say the least. i’d just like to say this is great. billy just plays like billy. super improv. these guys sound great together.
what a terrible bass sound! oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good playing, but where’s the bass!? turn off that tone and cut off the treble on the amp! damn… that bass tone ruins it…
Wow… Billy is playing really unique and tasteful. Totally his own thing.
I for one like it and and his tone. There’s a zillion versions of this song with the smooth jazz sound. It’s done.
Fantastic, what jamming is all about. LOVED IT!
Maybe some need to upgrade their speaker systems, I hear the bass nice and full through the whole song. AT the beginning i as kind of shocked with the tone too, but it grows on you, and Billy’s playing is awesome.
Everyone is losing their minds over Billys tone, but what about the guitarist? Should he not have dirtied up his tone? This is two styles colliding. And collide they do. Why should Sheehan compromise? Why should Clint? Have you all been under the thumb of guitarists for so long that you just assume Bass should naturally give way?
A great jam by great musos. Loved it.
Shame Clint Strong didn’t give Billy any room to open up. Too busy immersed in his own world to allow the other members of the group to express themselves.
Somebody tell that guitarist that bebop is dead and he should learn to play to like Billy.
This was great. Very inspiring.
I actually loved his tone in this song.
It’s too bad he’s a scientologist.
Love this jam. As for Billy’s tone, I could see why people are a bit bothered by it, but I love it. The harshness of the tone, I think, gives the melody a unique quality.
I really wish I could get bass tabs or a chord sheet for this, because I love the progression, but I can’t figure it out for the life of me.