Scott Thunes sound

[Texx]

Just saw a clip of Zappa´s Barcelona show with Scott Thunes having this great P-Bass sound. Is this the sound of flats??

[Mojo-Man]

I belive Scott uses Roundwounds, with a pick?

[PhR]

Originally Posted by Mojo-Man

I belive Scott uses Roundwounds, with a pick?

Right. I remember reading that he always wanted the same sound Tom Fowler had on "Roxy & Elsewhere": a Precision played with a pick. During his first tours with Zappa Scott used a two pickup Carvin but was satisfied when he got his Precision.
I think I have seen the Barcelona show too(1988?) and he also used a flanger most of the time.

[darkblack99]

One of his better-known tones, Valley Girl, was a Carvin bass equipped with Maxima strings through a Vox amp...'Not that it makes any difference to ya'

[Muzique Fann]

Thunes rocks - I love his liberal application of duct tape on his P bass too.

[phxlbrmpf]

Originally Posted by darkblack99

One of his better-known tones, Valley Girl, was a Carvin bass equipped with Maxima strings through a Vox amp...'Not that it makes any difference to ya'

Interesting, I always thought the bass sound on "Valley Girl" was awesome. I take it it he was using a guitar amp or did Vox also make bass amps?

[darkblack99]

Originally Posted by phxlbrmpf

I take it it he was using a guitar amp or did Vox also make bass amps?

Since 1967. Although whether it was a Vox amp, or a Vox cab with some other amp...?

Even more interesting, from the trainspotting perspective...

link

Thunes: Frank had lost most of his high-end hearing way back in the old days, and that's what you're hearing on my earlier tracks, combined with the tone of four different brand strings on an '81 Carvin with active electronics (Valley Girl is a perfect example). Everything pre '84 was the Carvin. Post '84 is the '63 P-bass. The only exception was Cocaine Decisions, which was my '65 Jazz Bass. The only time I played that, except for broken strings in '84.

[zombywoof5050]

Originally Posted by Muzique Fann

Thunes rocks - I love his liberal application of duct tape on his P bass too.

Are you sure you're not talking about Patrick O'Hearn? O'Hearn's the one with duct tape on his P's, looks like he's taped on a bridge pickup or some sort of makeshift ramp.

[Muzique Fann]

****e, maybe I've lost it? I just watched the 'Does Humor Belong' dvd recently...pretty sure that's Thunes but I could be confusing the duct tape thing. I read a cool interview once w/ Zappa and he was talking about the bassists....he said Thunes was the only one he ever gave 'cart blanche' to. So he bascially let him do whatever he wanted on stage - a pretty rare move for Francesco.

[zombywoof5050]

I'll have to check my videos with Thunes again too, but I know that O'Hearn has mucho duct tape on both his fretted and fretless P's. It looks like an extra pickup taped on in front of the bridge, and there's a couple of extra knobs added onto it also. I've asked about these mods in a few different forums but never got any replies.

Slight thread hijack: Does anyone know what mods Patrick O'Hearn has done to his Precisions, with the duct-taped in (pickup?) and the extra knobs?