K&K's Artist of the Month: Shawn Burrell
September 2002
Shawn
Burrell has been playing bass for nearly fifteen years. He started in
high school playing bass in guitar class. Within months, he was in punk
bands and was performing for local party goers. From
there he was playing with other artists playing a mixture of rock 'n roll
styles from the 50s up through the 90s.
Shawn worked for a Luthier named Mark Johnson for three years while performing weekend gigs at local bars and clubs. It was then that he started getting hooked on the upright bass. He would switch between a Clevinger and a bass guitar that he made, depending on what the song called for.
In 1997 Mark gave Shawn a beat up and torn apart 1940 Kay bass and Shawn restored it. Since then Shawn has been playing the upright bass as his primary instrument.
Shawn was having a tough time finding strings, pickups and information that people playing slap style bass needed, so in 2000 he started Rockabillybass.com a web site dedicated to the rockabilly bass player. The message board has been very useful to the community of slap bass players, from beginner to advanced.
Shawn can be seen in a Northern California band called Hopped Up!
Shawn plays using gut strings and a K&K Bass Master Rockabilly pickup. Shawn says, "I have tried other pickups and none of them worked well at all. They would feedback and didn't have the sound that I was looking for. I received the K&K rockabilly bass pickup with preamp about two years ago and use it almost daily. It is durable, sounds great and is fairly priced." He just ordered his second pick up for his new Blonde Engelhardt bass.
Shawn
Burrell
707.579.5757
shawn@rockabillybass.com
www.rockabillybass.com
www.hoppedup.com