This tone: can you identify the components?

[LeftyLB70P]

In a recent thread about 'a light touch' Lokire pointed out this link
<I didn't want to hijack that thread out of respect>

Originally Posted by Lokire

There's a pretty sweet vid of Willis in the videos section of basslobster.com

http://www.basslobster.com/videos/index.html

They have lots of cool vids there

WOW!!
I love this tone -- absolutely LOVE it. Sooooo.....

can you guys/girls please share with me different details about this specifically.

>Is he playing a fretless? (I see fretlines I believe but it doesn't look like there are frets there) I appreciate that this may be obvious (perhaps to everyone) but I honestly don't know - maybe that in and of itself is the biggest factor in this particular tone?

>Any ideas about p/u arrangement? It looks to me like he has 2 single coils but again is it obvious to someone that he is using ??? (i.e. using a jazz stlye neck p/u or jazz stlye bridge or the two together, etc)

Any kind of info will be great. I know/believe that tone is in large part in the hands/fingers, but I want to know about this setup as much as possible.

[JimK]

Willis plays a LINED fretless.

Is Willis still playing his Ibanez signature bass w/ 2 soapbar pickups?
...he also used to use Eden amps.

[jongor]

Jimk,

Did the video links work for you?

Not for me....

[JimK]

...didn't even try it(I'm at work).

And home's no good since I'm still on Dial Up.


***PUNCHIN' IN***
I just tried garywillis.com
I guess his site is no mas?
...I used to visit there when I first got online back in '99; damn good site, too bad if it's still not available. The "Ask Willis" section would keep you ROTFL.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by JimK

Willis plays a LINED fretless.

Is Willis still playing his Ibanez signature bass w/ 2 soapbar pickups?
...he also used to use Eden amps.

The one in the clip is his old silver Ibanez soundgear with 2 jazz pickups (they might be hbs in j form) and no electronics.

I think you can approximate the tone using any passive J-style fretless. There isn't any other signal processing going on in the clip that I can hear. The harder thing to do is to cop the phrasing, speed and harmonic sophistication of that solo.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by JimK

Willis plays a LINED fretless.

Is Willis still playing his Ibanez signature bass w/ 2 soapbar pickups?
...he also used to use Eden amps.

His Ibanez signature he plays nowadays just has the one soapbar, and he uses Aguilar amps.

His tone is all his own though- he sounds pretty much the same on his new(ish) recordings as he does in that old video. I think he always plays passive as well.