Jason Newsted's tone
 

Does anyone know how to get the tone from the Black Album?

For most of it, Spector with a pick.

Let your guitar player control your volume knob.

Ask Lars. He can't keep time but he knows how to get good bass tone.

This. Probably some Ampeg gear as well.

Seconding the Spector + pick + Ampeg combination.

from the sep/oct '91 issue of bassplayer regarding Jason's studio set-up

When you were recording the new album, how did you treat the bass?
Bob Rock had me try about 25 different basses and a bunch of rig
combinations; we tried some Trace Elliot stuff—which is what I’ve been using
live [see signal chain]—and also some Ampeg, Crown, SWR, MESA/Boogie, and ADA
equipment. We had all these rigs next to each other and we could combine them
various ways, which was cool. I ended up using my Trace GP-11 preamp with a
direct line, SWR SM-400s for lows, original SVT heads and 8x10 cabinets for mid
rumble, and old Marshall Flint guitar cabinets for mid-highs. We mixed all of
those together, and the mix was different for each song. On the slow tunes, we
mellowed out the bass by adding more of the SWR and SVT; “The Unforgiven” was
mostly SVT with a little direct. For angrier songs like “Holier Than Thou,” it
was pretty much an equal mix of everything blasting, with a little extra DI.

Which basses did you use?
I ended up playing an ’81 Spector [4-string] for all the songs except “The
Unforgiven,” which sounded best with a ’59 Precision.

Man, it would be great to be able to run multiple rigs like that to record with.