David Matthews - Sandworms

[smeet]

Oh dang, this is f-u-n-k-y!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_NEIbLpg5E

The bassist is Gary King. What a bass tone! Any clues to how he got this sound? Flatwounds of some kind. Jazz bass? Precision? Distortion from a tube amp?

I can kind of eq my precision with B3K to sound like this, but it doesn't have that solid sound and attack, maybe because I have roundwounds.

[JimK]

Gary KIng was one of my favourites from back in the day...I saw him twice (w/ Bob James, mid-'80s)...IIRC, he used a Fender Jazz. Not 100% on that, though.
IIRC, Bass Player mag, once upon a time, did a 1-page thing with him...IIRC, Atlansia Basses were also mentioned.

Other nice King albums are New Yoork Connection(my personal favourite) by Tom Scott & Good King Bad by George Benson.

[JimK]

Dug out a Gary King article from Bass Player (August 2000/Tony Kanal cover)-

In his '70s hey day, King was playing a semi-hollow Guild (a Starfire-based prototype).
Examples are: Grover Washington's "Mister Magic", Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love", Gatp Barbieri's "Europa", & Tom Scott's New York Connection album.
Also, King's 17-year/19-album stint with Bob James.
King sez "...they (engineers) wanted everyone to have the same Fender sound, which was exactly the reason I played the Guild".
King usually recorded direct with a bit of miked amp, studio compression, & some Eventide chorusing...and used lighter gauge Rotosounds....these strings allowed King to approximate upright bass slides by bending his A-string up by a much as a minor 3rd.
Overall, his concept was "equal parts R&B & Jazz".
King's influenecs- Jamerson, Ray Brown, Stevie Wonder, & J.S Bach.

It is King on the Jackson Five's "Blame It On The Boogie".

In this article (from 2000)...King sez he is currently playing Atlansia 4 & 5 string basses.

[RedMoses]

Damn that tone is dope! great track to.

Sounds like a Fender to me... mids bumped up and starting to hit the cieling of a pre amp tube.