Marco Hietala's Bass Sound / Sansamp GT2

Kevin P. Ryan · #1 10-20-2007, 04:47 PM

Hi All

I'm trying to achieve a close approximation to Marco Hietala's (of Nightwish) bass sound for some recordings. I currently play a Fender American Jazz, an Ibanez EDA 900 and a Dean Edge 5 all through a Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout. I own a Russian Big Muff, which doesn't get used very often. Does anybody know the cheapest way to emulate this sound through what I have? I have tried all sorts of configs but can't get close and I can't afford £4000 to spend on the Warwick rigs and basses he uses. He does, however, use the TECH 21 Sansamp GT2 as part of his set-up, and I am curious to know how much this contributes to his sound. It has to be mail ordered so I can't test one in my local music shop. Can anyone currently playing their basses through this pedal let me know on how it sounds. You help would be very welcome.

Kind Regards
Kevin Patrck Ryan, Bassist of Temperance.
www.myspace.com/temperancerock

Niff · #2 10-20-2007, 05:19 PM

i have one, but.. you can't use it for grit, really. at least, not in the settings i've tried. i can get balls to the wall gritty ear piercing tubey distortion out of it, but any form of grit just sounds like a wet fart basically. at least with the gear i was using (ATK300 and a practice amp).
i haven't listened to nightwish recently, but i don't distinctly remember there being any overly-distorted bass in there.. unless it was too well blended with the guitars to even notice. his tone probably just comes from his technique and his amps, and the warwick.

grooVWy · #3 10-20-2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin P. Ryan

Hi All

I'm trying to achieve a close approximation to Marco Hietala's (of Nightwish) bass sound for some recordings. I currently play a Fender American Jazz, an Ibanez EDA 900 and a Dean Edge 5 all through a Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout. I own a Russian Big Muff, which doesn't get used very often. Does anybody know the cheapest way to emulate this sound through what I have? I have tried all sorts of configs but can't get close and I can't afford £4000 to spend on the Warwick rigs and basses he uses. He does, however, use the TECH 21 Sansamp GT2 as part of his set-up, and I am curious to know how much this contributes to his sound. It has to be mail ordered so I can't test one in my local music shop. Can anyone currently playing their basses through this pedal let me know on how it sounds. You help would be very welcome.

Kind Regards
Kevin Patrck Ryan, Bassist of Temperance.
www.myspace.com/temperancerock

He is awesome player with awesome tehnique. Learn that and you have his sound.

Double Agent · #4 10-20-2007, 09:15 PM

Nice to see someone on here, besides me, who knows who the guy is and admires his tone. His technique isn't anything special to me, but his tone is great. He has only been with Nightwish for the 3 most recent albums, but his tone is quite obviously distorted. I think his Warwick and playing with a pick have a lot to do with his tone. After that, a decent bass distortion and rolling off the highs would probably get you close enough.

The Ibanez probably has the best chance of recreating that sound out of all your basses IMO. Good luck!

Niff · #5 10-20-2007, 09:34 PM

from the bass i can hear in some songs i have (wishmaster, gothic sanctuary, moondance) it sounds like he has it on a relatively mild setting, playing really hard, with cut mids on his amp.. i.. think. i'm not very good at this.

bongomania · #6 10-20-2007, 09:51 PM

Someone care to post some clips?

Kevin P. Ryan · #7 10-21-2007, 05:28 AM

Hi Niff,

All the songs you have quoted were performed by Sami Vänskä. Marco didn't join the band until 2002 and has featured on the the albums 'Century Child', 'Once', and 'Dark Passion Play'. He's tone is hard to describe; but good examples can be found on 'Wish I Had An Angel', 'The Siren', 'Bye, Bye Beautiful. Let me know if your Sansamp can do aanything like this with the bass.

Kevin P. Ryan · #8 10-21-2007, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grooVWy

He is awesome player with awesome tehnique. Learn that and you have his sound.

He is most definately an awesome player, but I'm not sure that his technique is too complicated and think it's his set-up that gets him his sound. He uses a pick with very limp wristed alternate strokes. It's quite comical to watch.

Kevin P. Ryan · #9 10-21-2007, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grooVWy

He is awesome player with awesome tehnique. Learn that and you have his sound.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

Someone care to post some clips?

Hope these help

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Traver · #10 10-21-2007, 08:58 AM

Lots of distortion. I can't recall a single of his basslines without any distortion, and most of them are quite heavy on distortion. Play with a pick (obviously).
I'm using an Ashdown Overdrive Plus pedal, and I find it quite easy to get approximately the same tone as Marco's.
No clue if that helped, but at least I tried.

bongomania · #11 10-21-2007, 09:30 AM

Hi Kevin,
Just as a heads-up we don't use re-posts here; instead we ask you to "bump" your old thread up to the front page. You can do that with any appropriate text you like, even just the word "bump".

**Adam Barkley** · #12 10-21-2007, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

Hi Kevin,
Just as a heads-up we don't use re-posts here; instead we ask you to "bump" your old thread up to the front page. You can do that with any appropriate text you like, even just the word "bump".

Thanks bongo.

Niff · #13 10-21-2007, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin P. Ryan

Hi Niff,

All the songs you have quoted were performed by Sami Vänskä. Marco didn't join the band until 2002 and has featured on the the albums 'Century Child', 'Once', and 'Dark Passion Play'. He's tone is hard to describe; but good examples can be found on 'Wish I Had An Angel', 'The Siren', 'Bye, Bye Beautiful. Let me know if your Sansamp can do aanything like this with the bass.

just gave "i wish i had an angel" a listen through. you could definitely get that tone with a GT2, or at least a close approximation. it has that crunchy tube-emulating breakup goodness that it's famous for on bass. you're gonna have to boost the lows on the amp and pedal a bit, however, and play nearer to the neck.

just went out and gave it a try. center channel, clean, california, 12 o'clock drive, max lows, flat highs, pick right inbetween the bridge and the neck works rather well.
another one i found that works too (and is a bit closer than the other one) was off-axis, hi-gain, tweed, with max drive, max lows and highs at about 2 or 3. the off-axis setting cuts the mids a little naturally, i believe. picking in the same position as the last time. i played that all with a .88mm nylon pick, through an ibanez SW35 practice amp with my ibanez ATK300. there's a ridiculous amount of settings, some tweaking will get you the sound you want. his tone is probably quite dependant on his bass and amp as well - the GT2 is ridiculously temperamental when it comes to what it's being used with. but, it still has that core sound, that can be changed easily to what you want with some EQing.