We’re proud to call Nathan East a Laney artist, and proud to say this iconic bass player is part of the Laney Amplification family, choosing the Laney Digbeth Bass Amplifiers as part of his full-time touring rig. So today, we’re providing a brief musical history of this iconic bass player, that we can almost guarantee features in your own record collection!
Nathan East started life in Philadelphia, USA, but grew up in San Diego where he quickly found an interest in music, initially learning and playing the cello before developing an interest in Bass Guitar aged fourteen. Starting on a short scale bass before moving to a Fender Jazz in 1971, on this instrument he joined local San Diego group ‘Power’ who were the house band for a Stax Revue. In 1973 the Power were the house band, on the bill that day was a certain Barry White, where upon hearing Power, he hired them to be his band for a US national tour, and in this moment, at a mere 18 years old, Nathan East became the youngest member of Barry White’s legendary ‘Love Unlimited Orchestra’.
After the tour, Nathan enrolled at the University of California in San Diego where in his third year he majored in music and studied classical upright bass. Still in hot demand, merely weeks before graduating he was called by guitarist John McLaughlin to get to New York to start a tour.
Nathan turned him down after promising his grandmother he would graduate; he had started his master’s when his lecturer and mentor at the university Bertram Turetzky told him it was time to get to Los Angeles and continue work. He moved to LA in 1979.
Over the following 18 months Nathan embarked on multiple session work before getting contacted by arranger and producer Gene Page who remembered him from his work and time with Barry White, Page booked him for a Hertz commercial as his skill on bass along with his ability to read music shone brightly. Before long he was one of the most in demand musicians in the city, getting booked by the top producers, working on sessions for Dionne Warwick, The Jacksons and Jonnie Mathis to name a few.
Nathan played on the debut records from Madonna and Whitney Houston and met Quincy Jones along the way who started booking him and recommending him for live dates with the likes of Jeff Porcaro, Abe Laboriel and Patrice Rushden.
The future brought gold records and number one hits working with icons like Lionel Ritchie and Kenny Loggins but the biggest came when his friend Phillip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire) recommended him to Phil Collins, the rest they say is history, the last day in the studio with Phil they wrote the global hit ‘Easy Lover’ in a reported 20 minutes! The sky was the limit and through Phil Collins Nathan met The Rolling Stones, The Who, Sir Paul McCartney, Sting, Mark Knopfler, Elton John and Eric Clapton. Nathan and Eric formed a solid bond and after playing on ‘August’ he became a permanent member of Clapton’s band.
Grammy Awards, Gold and Platinum records didn’t slow Nathan down when it came to expanding his musical chops, with his band ‘Fourplay’ they have continued to push the contemporary jazz boundaries, the proof of this happened when their debut record sold half a million copies and topped the chart for six months.
Further Grammy awards for his work with Daft Punk on global smash hit ‘Get Lucky’ further cemented his status as the guy when it comes to bass playing.
Nathan East plays the Laney Digbeth DB500H bass guitar amplifier head matched with a Laney Digbeth DBV212 2×12 bass guitar cabinet.
When it comes to equipment, Nathan has played Yamaha basses since the 1980’s and uses his signature BBNE2 wherever he plays, alongside this relationship more recently he has moved to Laney Amplification for his amplifiers, particularly the Laney Digbeth DB500H bass guitar amplifier head matched with a Laney Digbeth DBV212 2×12 bass guitar cabinet. The move to Laney has signified a precision in his hunt for tone, finding the solid-state Digbeth range the perfect complement and accompaniment to his sound both when recording and when playing live, most recently and most notably with Eric Clapton.
“From the moment I plugged into the amplifier I realised there was something special here, the sound of the amplifier really compliments my instrument. When I am playing through the Digbeth it serves me well and it really does inspire to write music, it’s a musical amplifier and I look forward to many years playing Laney.”
Pic: Laney Digbeth DBV212 2×12 bass guitar cabinet
You can see the complete list of Nathan East’s rig here, including which bass amps and pedals he uses.
One of the biggest ‘pull factors’ for Nathan to move to Laney is the fact that we are a family owned and family run business and have been for over 57 years – part of the reason worldwide artists choose our amplifiers and the reasons why Laney amplifiers are so good!
“For me, family is everything, a family-owned company means the world to me, they get it!”
Using the DBV212 as a mainstay, Nathan also enjoys experimenting with speaker size:
“I do love that 10 inch sound, so the 10 inch speakers [DBV410] really give me that pointed sound, and with the Digbeth head, I love the fact that with both of those configurations (DBV212, DBV410) it works exactly how I need it to!”
Nathan isn’t limited to bigger rigs though, as the Laney Digbeth DB200-210 combo amplifier fits the bill perfectly when doing smaller club shows or television appearances, light, compact and portable but still with the settings and functions he is accustomed to with the bigger head (DB500H).
Pic: The Laney Digbeth DB200-210 bass amp combo as used by Nathan East.
One of the standout features Nathan appreciates in his Laney Digbeth bass amplifiers is the ‘Tilt’ function. This feature allows him to adjust the sound to suit the acoustics of any room, providing more brightness or bottom end as needed. The versatility of this function ensures that Nathan can always achieve the perfect sound, regardless of the venue.
“One of the things I really like on the amp is the ‘Tilt’ function. If you’re in a room and the room is a little bit too boomy, there is a way you can tilt the sound that will give it more brightness and vice versa, if it’s a bright room and you need a little more bottom, you can dial in the Tilt and it brings out exactly what you need. I think it is a great concept!”
This tilt function is part of the 5 reasons why the Laney Digbeth Bass Amps are so good!
Nathan has now toured the world using his Digbeth and it has given him exactly what he needs, where he needs it, when he needs it.
We are extremely proud to have Nathan East as our global lead artist for Laney Digbeth bass amplifiers. He is a genuine human and a genuine legend, so here’s to the future and plenty of exciting projects and collaborations to come!
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