Reader Spotlight: Davey Maddox

Meet Davey Maddox, who originally started out on guitar but found it frustrating due to what he describes as “sausage fingers.” After a friend showed him a bass, he fell in love – and never fell out of love with it.

Davey is the No Treble reader in the spotlight this week. Here’s his story…

Bio:

Davey Maddox is a 30-year-old rocker, born and raised in Lunenburg County on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. He enjoys pizza, fast cars and all things retro and nostalgic. Provide him with a few drinks, and he’ll sit down and tell you a story of old (even if it wasn’t really that long ago).

Location:

Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada

Day gig:

Car salesman by day, music man before and after work.

Years experience:

13 years

Bands & Gigs:

I am in a band called The Brute Squad. We named it after the famous Brute Squad from the 1987 classic movie The Princess Bride. That, and apparently I’m a miniature version of Andre The Giant/Fezzik.

Gear:

• Roland Cube 60XL bass amp
• Epiphone SG EB-03 bass in cherry red
• Washburn Apocalypse “Paul Stanley” edition bass
• BOSS Heavy Metal Pedal
• Ibanez 5 String Acoustic in solid oak
• Ernie Ball custom gauge for all
• iPad Mini 2 running ToneBridge and other apps for changing my sound

Why I play the bass:

In high school (back in 2003), I decided to take a course in guitar. After a few weeks, I started to learn the basics of it, like how to properly hold it and strum it and learned the basic chords. The problem I had/have, was that the strings were too small for my sausage fingers. I kept getting dead notes because I wasn’t holding them down properly.

Then, as I was about to give up, a friend of mine showed me his bass. It was just a red 4-string Squier, nothing overly fancy. But what he showed me next was eye opening and mind blowing.

He said “show me a G chord on the guitar” so I showed him. He said “see how that takes three fingers to do? Now watch this.” He picked up his bass, placed his left pointer finger on the third fret of the E string and said “here’s my G chord. What do you think about that?”

I was so excited, I quickly grabbed it from him, and when I tried it, I knew this would be my main instrument. He then taught me how to play NIB by Black Sabbath on it, and that’s when I really fell in love. I loved it and haven’t put it down since!

My bass superpower/claim to fame:

My claim to fame is the energy I bring to the crowd. Crowds feed off it and bring it back to the performers. So I make sure I’m doing everything I can to sound as best as I can as well as have as much fun as possible. It doesn’t matter if we are on first or last; I want to stand out and make sure everyone has a great time.

My bass superpower is that I’m turning into a hybrid bassist/rhythm guitarist. I bought a 5-string Ibanez acoustic bass, and instead of keeping the low B I switched them all out and went with a high C. So I have EADGC, and I couldn’t be happier. Now I can mimick more of what guitarists do, and keep the bass as well. I’m trying to narrow the gap because we only have a drummer and a guitarist, so I’m trying to do double duty, so we sound more full. Guitar bar chords on a bass sound soooo heavy, I love it!

My influences:

Jason Newsted, Cliff Burton, Geezer Butler, Flea, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Steve Harris

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