Kurt Danielson's bass tones for TAD;(These are going in chronilogical order of the years of the release dates. I'll post a link or two with a song from that album, single, or EP.) (Also, please note that the "62 P bass" I refer to is an actual `62 P bass, not a reissue.) (When i say "songs:", i only put some of the songs, not the whole record. I only did this with Salem, since it only has 3 tracks)
Gods Balls- The `62 P bass was used in E and D tunings. It had active EMG pickups throught the band's career. It had either heavy gauge Rotosound stainless roundwounds, or heavy gauge GHS stainless roundwounds, depending on whichever he was using at the time. He used both kinds of strings throught the TAD career, and still uses them both to this day. He changes strings whenever he can afford to. So, I wont explain the strings again, as it is the same on every (studio) record.
For the amp/ cab set-up on God's Balls, his amp was a Gallien Krueger 800rb. He hooked this up to an 18" Energy cabinet, as well as a 10" Energy cabinet. He had installed a Macauley speaker into both of them. He ran all of this through a Pro-Co RAT dirt box, and used it for some, if not all of the songs on God's Balls.
Here are two tracks from God's Balls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8eu9h4tN-I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4louOXPp7LE Salt Lick- For this, since it wasn't really a "planned" EP, he didn't bring all of his equipment. He used the `62 P bass for the E and D tunings. The amp used was a 50 watt Traynor combo amp with a 15" speaker. This amp wasn't Kurt's, it was Steve Albini's (he recorded the EP).
Songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE5APzEKsFY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0WiCJEnUA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxbbsirnOxQ http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=5ymL...eature=related 8-Way Santa- Ah, how could you not love this album? Pure raw power and geniusness.
He used the `62 P bass for his bass throught the whole album. This was used for the D and E tunings.
For the amp setup, he used the Gallien Krueger
800rb again. He ran this through a Paradise 2x15 bass cabinet. All of this ran through a Pro-Co RAT, which he used on some of the songs. On the track 3-D Witchhunt, he went in and overdubbed a second bass track with the high octave of the bass line. Songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csmybgZLK8M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYcwjBG4nTk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESHdAqjqqQI http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=MJhZ...eature=related Salem- He used the `62 P bass again. Amp-wise, he used an Ampeg SVT-II (non-pro). He hooked it up to a Sunn 4x12 guitar cabinet. The EP (3 songs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msSplnWeCOg http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=I-O2...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=tGOA...eature=related Inhaler- Inhaler marked the beggining of which Kurt started to use more complex rigs and recording methods.
Basses: For the songs tuned E and D, he used the `62 P bass. Then, he bought a newer 90's black Fender P with a P/J pickup combination. This bass had the same strings as the `62, and the same pickups as well (active EMG's), but in a P/J form. This bass was intonated and used for songs tuned to CGCG.
Amps & pedals: For the clean tracks on the album, he used the Ampeg SVT-II through an old Ampeg 8x10 cabinet with the speaker grille cloth removed. For songs that involved dirty tracks as well, he used the same Ampeg head/ cab setup for one channel, and then, using an ABY box, he ran the bass through another channel to get a dirty signal. He used a Marshall Guv'nor dirt box (the original black one with red stripes, made in the UK or Korea) through a really old Fender tweed guitar combo amp. He blended the two channels together to get a semi-conglamerate distorted tone. Throught the whole album, he went back and recorded a third track on top of everything direct to the mixing board with a SansAmp bass preamp. This was the old version of the BDDI that had controls on the inside that you had to manipulate with a small guage flat-head screw driver. Songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEArEFfFOB4
This was the only song on youtube from Inhaler that hasn't been blocked for copyright reasons. It's a live version of the song, and even though the sound of the bass comes really close in comparison to the one on the record, and even sounds better in some respects, it was a different setup. For that particular live show, he used the `62 P bass which you can see, through the Ampeg SVT-II for the clean sound. He then ran the ABY box to split the clean channel, and he ran the Marshall Guv'nor dirt box through a modified HiWatt DR-103 tube guitar head to get the distorted channel. Both of these amps were ran through the same Sunn 4x12 guitar cabinet.
NOTE: On all of the recordings that he used the Sunn 4x12 cab, he had blown the speakers in that cabinet, and doctored them to a degree, and that was one of the key things to obtaining the sound. If you want to listen to the whole studio produced version of the album, you can go to Lala.com and search "TAD".
Infrared Riding Hood- This album contained his most complex recording rig with TAD.
Basses: He used the `62 P bass for the E tuned songs, a new black Fender Jazz bass with active EMG's (same as the others, and same strings) for the D tunings, and the black P P/J bass for the CGCG tuned songs.
Amps/ pedals: Note first, he used a split clean/ dirty rig for all of the songs on this album, but he used the tracks in different proportions. Some songs relied more on the dirty tracks, and others relied more on the clean track.
For the clean setup, he was using two Mesa Boogie bass 400 heads, each with all 6L6 preamp tubes. He chained these together, and each seperate head was hooked up to it's own Mesa Boogie 8x10 cabinet and 1x15 cabinet. He miked all of the cabinets at once. His second track contained of him running one of his basses (depending on the song, like all of the other tracks) through the Marshall Guv'nor pedal with the gain cranked and the mids turned down. He then ran the pedal into an old B-15 head hooked up to the also ancient B-15 cabinet. That was the first distorted track. The last track he did was direct into the mixing board with his SansAmp preamp. This was distorted to a degree. He mixed all of these tracks together to get the final result. You may notice that the distorted tracks have a scooped sound to them, but the tone itself had a massive amount of midrange. As you can see by the songs below, this cuts through the mix very well. He told me that you can't focus on one element of the tone too much, because they can only achieve a sound like that together. Songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4focJ9et2sY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FYZ1QEhZsw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3uZHf09bNM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydWdbUT1300 THE FINAL RECORDINGS- This album hasn't been released yet, but a single containing two of the tracks from the album was released on vinyl in `98. I'll post the link to these songs below. The album is set to be released hopefully sometime in 2010; they just need somebody to release it for them. I don't know who wouldn't want to release a TAD album.
For this album, he used the `62 P bass all the way through. He might have used the black P bass, but he didn't say anything about that.
This was probably his best tone he ever got with TAD, imo. It was obtained fairly simply, unlike Infrared Riding Hood. He ran both of the Mesa Boogie heads at the same time, with the same settings, to create an extremely fat, warm, balcanced, cutting tone. He cranked the Mesa heads, and that's how he got the overdrive tone. He ran each one through a Mesa Boogie 1x15 cabinet. Simple as that. Songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=3IP2...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=pucr...eature=related
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Kurt used and still uses Clayton .80mm picks.
That's all that he's told me about his tones. I covered pretty much all of the TAD releases, except for Live Alien Broadcasts, and a few obscure singles that had the same amp setups as one of the albums. If you want to know how he got the tone for Infrared live, he didn't get the exact tone. He got something similar, but he says no one complained. He used all of the cabinets and both of the heads and cranked them both.
If you have anymore questions regarding Kurt's tones or anything, go ahead and ask. Feel free to comment on this post, and anything else, as well as discuss TAD things, and all of that stuff. Anything to do with or related to the subject. I hope i helped anyone who wanted to know about his tones.
So I wouldnt mind if you spilled some beans about 8-way (any song) We use to cover Jack Pepsi in the early 90s.. it always went over well, though most people thought it was our song 
