I was just wondering how Bootsy Collins (when he played without the Mu-Tron) got that kinda of real growl low-mid kind of sound.
I just find that it's really nice and I've worked on it for a while but I think the only growl I get is due to my amp because a piece of crap. I tried the smae settings on a decent amp, and it did not work.

Flea also uses that kind of growl low-mid sound (i'm sure most people are aware of it).

Anyway, does anyone know how to get that kinda sound (referring to EQ settings, attack and amp). I have a MusicMan Sterling if that helps :)

Thank you

Gel what kind of rig do you have? Needless to say it is hard work getting a 25w practice amp to sound like an SVT + 8x10 beginning to distort...

That aside a lot of the tone comes from your fingers. Both Bootsy and Flea can be fairly aggressive and when playing fingerstyle that means digging in and playing hard. You have an advantage with the Sterling because (apart from the fact that it is an excellent bass) if you set the p/u selector fully back (coils in series) you will be using the same config as a StingRay - which Flea has used quite a bit.

On the amp and bass leave everything flat and practice with your hands to see what difference rh positioning (ie by the neck/over p/u /by the bridge) and effort makes. Then tweak the eq to taste.

I hope this helps, there must be some people out there more knowledgeable than me....:)

Originally posted by smoothergroover
Gel what kind of rig do you have? Needless to say it is hard work getting a 25w practice amp to sound like an SVT + 8x10 beginning to distort...


Nah, I think it's a 15W :D

I also am pretty agressive playing, and I always get frets buzzing unless I set the action so high it's hard to play. So I just take it as part of how I play.

Thanks for the help.