Copying the tone

[ndrly]

What's the deal with some bass guitarists wanting to copy the sound of their favourite bassists? If everyone's gonna copy Geddy Lee, or Flea, or Les Claypool, you're not going to be regarded as a great bassist. Great bassists make sounds that are uniquely their own.

The closest thing I do to copying another artist's tone is to take some elements from some of my favourite bassists.

Flea
-MusicMan StingRay
-Gallien-Krueger amplification
-Slap/pop style

Peter Hook
-Fender Precision bass (While Peter Hook didn't actually use a Precision bass, his Yamaha BB1200 may have had a similar tone.)
-Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory
- Picking lead bass

Tim Commerford
-Fender Jazz bass
-Fingerstyle

Justin Chancellor
-Wal bass (Let's hope these go into mass production)
-Digitech Whammy

Les Claypool
-Six-string fretless
-EMG pickups

Chris Wolstenholme
-EXH Big Muff

And another thing, have you heard of any bass guitarist who uses a Warwick bass fitted with EMG pickups and Rotosound strings through Gallien-Krueger amplification? Didn't think so. See, that's the setup I would like.

[bassist15]

Even if you get the exact same settings as another bassist it doesnt necisarily mean you are going to sound exactly the same . Your tone and everything comes from your hands. How much pressure you use on your plucking hand and how you fret and all that.