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02-17-2009, 03:50 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: UK | | | Jaco and Mick Karn fretless tone
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I have a fretless Jazz and keep reading about the difference between the Jaco and Mick Karn tone. How would you describe the Mick Karn tone? We know you favour the bridge pickup and use rounds to get the Jaco tone, can I achieve the Mick Karn tone with a fretless Jazz bass? |
02-17-2009, 04:08 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | I don't think you can - it's a very different sound to a Jazz bass!
I remember reading an interview with him in International Musician magazine - when he was in Japan and he explained how he would play his bass lines in the studio and they ended up being out of tune with everything else! But David Sylvian liked the lines so much that he re-did everything else to fit around them! 
Maybe the answer is to play out-of-tune or adjust your intonation ....badly! 
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02-17-2009, 04:44 AM
|  | I took the one less traveled by | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Reims, Champagne, France | | | You want fat humbuckers for this kind of tone, along with a heavy touch. Not easy to replicate. |
02-17-2009, 06:01 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | | Yeah, IMO his fretless tone that you hear on most things is very much a product of the Wal basses he plays. if you listen to a recording of him playing another kind of bass, it doesn't sound so much like the classic Wal tone people know and love from him. |
02-17-2009, 09:22 AM
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Both are great tones.
The Jaco tone has become the norm.
I prefer Mick Karns Wal tone. (Not better, just different) |
02-17-2009, 09:39 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: UK | | I made the point when I started this thread of saying and instead of or or vs because they do both have great tones. I'm just interested to see if I can get a Mick Karm type tone from my fretless Jazz using pickup selection and preamp EQ. To my ear it's favouring the bridge piclup and boosting the bass on the preamp but not the mids as much as the Jaco tone. Mick's tone is darker than Jaco's.
The Mick Karn tone is quite similar to the Audere tone demonstrated on the Audere web site sound clips page where the guy uses a fretless Jazz. Not the same I know but it got me thinking. http://www.audereaudio.com/3ZB_SoundClips.htm
Last edited by the low one : 02-17-2009 at 10:14 AM.
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02-17-2009, 11:26 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | | To me I find that the single coil pickups of the jazz bass always impart too much of a "nasal" midrange characteristic, especially in the upper mids, to be able to pass for a Wal sound.
I'm sure that with the right preamp and playing technique you could probably do a pretty decent take on Mick's sound, but if you're really serious about getting it, you'll need to spend some money.
The common way to replicate the Wal tone is often said to be:
1) Get some custom pickups with the coils and wiring made to replicate Wal pickups. If this is impossible, find some big humbuckers with a naturally dark sound. IMO, Bartolini do this well.
2) Get a custom preamp from ACG with the low pass filters.
3) Put them in a bass with a mahogany body and and ebony fretboard. |
02-22-2009, 01:55 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: London | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazz Ad  You want fat humbuckers for this kind of tone, along with a heavy touch. Not easy to replicate. | +1
There's a touch of neck pickup mixed in with the bridge pickup to his Wal tone. The heavy action involves swinging the finger a bit more than usual on to the strings.
The most dominant element is VERY heavy vibrato (usually on the upper notes and usually over a semitone - sometimes 3 tones.
There is also a panning effect - probably a subtle use of delay.
The answer is, no, you'd have trouble replicating the tone on a J Bass IMO. |
02-22-2009, 02:39 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vsAvMm22zg
This well worth a listen if you like Mick...great playing, great tune! Such a unique way of playing the fretless. |
02-22-2009, 02:46 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Halifax | | | modulus quantum fretless basses with barts work well for that thick humbucker tone
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02-22-2009, 02:49 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Europe | | | The Mick Karn tone is my favorite fretless tone. Big fundamental, lots of growl, heavy vibrato and sliding. His melodic approach is really surprising and inspiring (for me at least)
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02-22-2009, 03:00 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | | Maybe wiring the Jazz pups in series will get you closer? Gives a bigger, darker tone.
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02-23-2009, 01:37 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: UK | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Baryonyx | Not heard that before, sounds great, thanks. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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