Black Keys - Howlin' for You

[tomhanzo]

The song

I think this is a cool bass tone. Can anyone point me in a ball park for this? I have tried my BBM and PW-2 and can't pull it off with either.

[Mark Olson]

My brother saw the Black Keys recently performing this album live. I believe he said the bassist was using a V4.

[tomhanzo]

the ampeg? crap.

Well i did some searching around. Found that the backing band for Dan's solo project were called something that started with an H. I just brought the thread back to life. People seem to think a depth charge will get the tone.

On another note. Mark does your muff overdrive get you anything near that?

[Mark Olson]

The backing band was Hacienda, but I heard Dan played just about all the instruments on his solo album. Also those guys don't use the same pedals and whatnot from gig to gig, they don't seek to nail the same tones all the time, but moreover I've heard Hacienda is not the backing band for the Black Keys now so there's really no correlation there.

You can get that specific tone with a V4 or a V2 though, cranked up a ways. Nano Muff wouldn't come close.

[tomhanzo]

Well i figured he did the playing of the instruments so i figured it would be the same for anything he has touched. The tones from his solo stuff and new keys album sound similar.

I see. Well i dont need the nano muff then. i also see that a Depth Charge is way out of my price range.

[Mark Olson]

Yeah Dan goes through fuzz pedals like... I don't go through pedals like Dan goes through fuzz pedals. He doesn't really work in such a way to consistently use one pedal from project to project, song to song, night to night. I'm sure he's got enough fuzz pedals that he'll never have to.

But no, for that tone you need an Ampeg V4 or V2. Roll your bass towards your bridge pickup will help.

[tomhanzo]

That stinks. I dont want to buy a head just for a second dirt tone. I already have one im super happy with.

[Din Of Win]

Yeah dude, i've also tried to cop the V4 sound.

I haven't had much success at all with my myrriad of dirt pedals. I've had soooome success... but nothing spot on.



Some pedal builder needs to make a cranked V4 sounding pedal.

[karter2000]

Yeah baby, I have a V4 . I believe it can cop that tone when the volume is at 11ish or so. It's definitely a distinctive overdrive tone. Fuzzy, farty, growly, yet punchy all at the same time.

I think I can get 90% of the way there with my SFT.