MEGADETH’S DAVID ELLEFSON Said ‘I Ended up Picking up a Plectrum, a Pick, Mostly Because You Guitar Players Are Always Too Loud’

Megadeth’s David Ellefson finally spoke up what most bassists feel about guitarists during “Basstory” European tour at Rough Trade in Bristol, England. Read what he said:

“Your signature sound comes from the hand you sign your signature with, which is usually the hand that we strum our instrument with.”

“And for drummers, it’s probably the opposite, because it’s a snare. That’s why drummers – when they get signature instruments, it’s usually a signature snare…”

“When you think about it, Kenny Aronoff, Alex Van Halen, some of these guys, as soon as you hear [a song on] the radio, wham! You can tell within one measure: ‘I know exactly who that artist is,’ ’cause of the way the guy is hitting the snare drum. But I think for us string-instrument players, it’s mostly right here [in the strumming hand].”

“For me, I ended up picking up a plectrum, a pick, mostly because you guitar players are always too loud.”

“I was in bands where I could afford amps about that size [points to a small amp], as a kid, and I couldn’t afford big Ampeg SVTs and big stuff like that. And guitar players would get 50-, 100-watt Marshall half stacks and we would have to turn them against the wall, ’cause they were so loud.”

“Because the sound man, when he does this [lifts arms above his head and shakes his head], that means the P.A. is off, you’re not in it and you’re too loud. And most guitar players go, ‘F* that, dude! I’m gonna f* play loud.’ Pardon my language, but that’s just kind of how guitar players are.”

“So in order to compete with that, I picked up the plectrum, because when I got in a band, all of a sudden, that got in the mix; now I was in the room finally and got inside the kick drum.”

“I learned that later making records about how to get my bass kind of right inside that kick drum, so as the drummer… as that beater hit the skin, that was the cannon and I was the cannonball right behind it. But that really is my philosophy.”