Ben Shepard

[gregmon79]

Hey all, does anyone know exactly what Ben Shepard from soundgarden uses? I mean everything you could know, bass, strings, amps (cabs heads), everything. Hopefully I find a big fan of his on here.

[AdamR]

Fender basses with flat wounds, Mesa amps ( I believe)

[charliefreak]

Hey bud, not a huge fan of his tone but that man writes some killer riffs. This is the information I found on his setup...


"Bass > Wireless > Boss TU-2 Tuner > Splitter {One side goes directly into the M6 Carbine and Powerhouse 1200 cabinet for his primary clean bass tone. The other side of the split serves as his dirty rig through the Ampeg rig} > Mesa/Boogie V-Twin Pedal > Ampeg SVT > Ampeg 8×10?Ampeg FX Send > Noise Supressor > Compressor > FX Return"

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...AB101D&first=1

[gregmon79]

Oh man you ain't lyin Charlie! I'm an absolute fan if the music/riffs that Ben writes. He's a great songwriter and is a perfect match for Cornell. I knew he used Mesa but wasn't sure on some other things. Thanks for the info.

[AdamR]

He used Peavey during Bad Motorfinger, I think after that it was Mesa 400s so it really depends on what ear SG tone your looking for.

[murphy]

Black Fender jazz bass with maple neck......back in the day.
Boogie cabs 15's and ? Mesa 400plus?

Love his sound and grooves....heavy player...so much soul and passion

[ShoeManiac]

On the more recent material Ben's been playing what looks like a Fender 50's Precision. Black body, maple fingerboard, gold anodized pickguard. It's not clear if that's the MIM version, or perhaps an older AVRI 57 Precision. That bass hasn't been offered in black in some time, IIRC.

Back around the time of Superunknown & Down on the up side I can recall seeing him with a variety of basses: Fender Precisions, Fender Jazzes and Hofner 500/1 among others.

[MAJOR METAL]

I think I remember seeing him play a Mosrite Ventures bass a few times.

[charliefreak]

Originally Posted by gregmon79

Oh man you ain't lyin Charlie! I'm an absolute fan if the music/riffs that Ben writes. He's a great songwriter and is a perfect match for Cornell. I knew he used Mesa but wasn't sure on some other things. Thanks for the info.

For real, King Animal blew my mind. I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy, but tonally it's night and day compared to the other albums. No more wavey sounding mixes- especially in the drums on some of the older albums. It's awesome. The way Ben and Matt Cameron write around eachother is very unique. It's like they mash together 3 different songs and make it sound amazing.

I imagine his tone comes a great deal from equipment that they had left over from Hiro Yamamoto. It seems like he and Kim both use ampegs and boogie cabs. Here's another thread about his recent cab use... Nothing new, but interesting no less..

Ben Shepherd - holy crap