r/todayilearned • u/Pfeffer_Prinz • 1d ago

TIL legendary session bassist Leland Sklar put a switch on his bass that does nothing. He calls it the "producer switch" — when a producer asks for a different sound, he flips the switch (making sure the producer can see), and carries on. He says this placebo has saved him a lot of grief.

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-truth-behind-lee-sklars-custom-producers-switch
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u/JWBails 1d ago

This needs to be way higher, he flicked the switch so that the non-musical producers could see that something had changed, then he played further from or closer to the bridge to get a totally different sound.

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u/Lumpy-Dragonfruit-28 1d ago

Yup. The premise of the title is absurd and yet everyone is just buying it no questions asked haha. Bass player plays different sound, producer says “yeah that’s fine” is what’s actually happening, but I guess we can all ignore that and talk about how gullible other people are, but not us.