Sound of chris wolstenholme

[bram789]

Hey, i've already read topics here about how to get that sound. But they all are as good as chinese for me. Can someone cleary say what I do/buy best to get that sound?

I've seen things about big muff pi's, but different types?
Also a wah-pedal
A boss..(forgot the type)
2 big muff's in a loop
...

So a little help?

[cricketfever32]

well...he's got a lot of effects, and a lot of different basses for different songs. He used a rick for knights of cydonia and a few others, a status headless for uprising, and numerous jazz basses (am dlx), and on hysteria he uses this one pedal he found in a shop in china (afaik), but if you manage to find a source for that pedal feel free to hit me up :P

muse has wiki page with all of their gear, past and present. not quite sure how often it's updated, but it's accurate.

[fitz420]

this thread has it all if you spend the time.....honestly.

Chris Wolstenholme: The Sticky Ver. 1


this really needs to be a sticky.

[rr5025]

It's been so long since one of these!

[JamesHommersen]

Originally Posted by fitz420

this thread has it all if you spend the time.....honestly.

Chris Wolstenholme: The Sticky Ver. 1


this really needs to be a sticky.

+1 Sticky this thread already!

[MRDOOM]

Originally Posted by bram789

Can someone cleary say what I do/buy best to get that sound?

Be Chris Wolstenholme...

Just kidding

In all seriousness, his tone comes from his hands and an incredibly complex and expensive rig. To answer your other questions, he uses Electro Harmonix black russian muffs to get alot most of his overdriven sound, along with what is called a Human Gear animato(which is VERY rare) for his "clean" tone. He also uses an Akai Deep impact, which is similar to a synth pedal. The only Boss pedals that I know of him using are the OC-2 (octave) and the ODB-3 (overdrive on earlier work, since been replaced by the animato). The two Big Muffs are in the same signal chain and are layered on top of one another to create a more aggressive overdriven sound.

My suggestions for getting a similar sound are the following.
Chris plays with a light touch, which increases stamina for songs like Hysteria and New Born, and also contributes to his overall sound. Black Russian Big Muffs are becoming increasingly rare, but are still out there if you look. If you cant find one, a modern Bass Big Muff pi can be used as a substitute. For the Animato, a Boss odb-3 or a Behringer BOD-100 set for mild overdrive. In place of the Deep impact, I use a Digitech bass synth wah which, while not a master of any of the sounds it produces, gets the job done. If you have the money you can also try an EHX Enigma: Qballs for the synth sounds The OC-2 is easily acquirable, so no problems there.

Like what was posted in previous replies, the sticky on Chris is VERY helpful, so I also suggest studying that as well.

[OPBASSMAN1994]

I wish I could hear that tone a bit more!

He has some sweet sound, but I just can't hear it very well buried underneath the wall of backround effects, keyboard loops/sampling, and of course Matt's buzzsaw guitar...


However, on the note of Chris using a Ric on "Knights", you can DEFINITELY hear him better, and his tone has that distinct Ric clank, especially in the part that comes after "You and I must fight to stay alive" where it goes into that hard rock section.

[kkigstpy]

Originally Posted by MRDOOM

Be Chris Wolstenholme...

Just kidding

In all seriousness, his tone comes from his hands and an incredibly complex and expensive rig. To answer your other questions, he uses Electro Harmonix black russian muffs to get alot most of his overdriven sound, along with what is called a Human Gear animato(which is VERY rare) for his "clean" tone. He also uses an Akai Deep impact, which is similar to a synth pedal. The only Boss pedals that I know of him using are the OC-2 (octave) and the ODB-3 (overdrive on earlier work, since been replaced by the animato). The two Big Muffs are in the same signal chain and are layered on top of one another to create a more aggressive overdriven sound.

My suggestions for getting a similar sound are the following.
Chris plays with a light touch, which increases stamina for songs like Hysteria and New Born, and also contributes to his overall sound. Black Russian Big Muffs are becoming increasingly rare, but are still out there if you look. If you cant find one, a modern Bass Big Muff pi can be used as a substitute. For the Animato, a Boss odb-3 or a Behringer BOD-100 set for mild overdrive. In place of the Deep impact, I use a Digitech bass synth wah which, while not a master of any of the sounds it produces, gets the job done. If you have the money you can also try an EHX Enigma: Qballs for the synth sounds The OC-2 is easily acquirable, so no problems there.

Like what was posted in previous replies, the sticky on Chris is VERY helpful, so I also suggest studying that as well.

hi uh...sorry if this is a pretty old post. and i know wolstenholme sound threads come up like REALLY often. but i was just wondering...would the ehx bass micro synth be of any good to contribute to that epic sounds??? i own a boss odb3 and am probably getting a jazz bass soon...either mim standard or the deluxe active. the bms has octave down (and octave up too ) distortion, and of course it can be used as synth and i think with the start/stop frequency knobs can also get an auto wah sound.. what do you think??

[MRDOOM]

Originally Posted by kkigstpy

hi uh...sorry if this is a pretty old post. and i know wolstenholme sound threads come up like REALLY often. but i was just wondering...would the ehx bass micro synth be of any good to contribute to that epic sounds??? i own a boss odb3 and am probably getting a jazz bass soon...either mim standard or the deluxe active. the bms has octave down (and octave up too ) distortion, and of course it can be used as synth and i think with the start/stop frequency knobs can also get an auto wah sound.. what do you think??

Honestly, I have no idea about the ehx bass synth, never having any experience with it. The octave down function should be helpful in getting close to the sound since he uses his octave pedal A LOT.

[davepikey81]

he still uses a zvex wooly mamoth aswell. and he also lists a digitech synth wah.....there a you tube video somewhere

[kaputsport]

No offense to anyone out there, but if you are not going to take direct quotes from the sticky, please don't post misinformation.

Originally Posted by MRDOOM

Be Chris Wolstenholme...

Just kidding

The human Gear Animato is nothing close to "clean". It is a very Nasal sounding distortion, which is too extreme to be used without a clean blend, as it drops all the low end.

The Akai SB-1 (Deep Impact) is a synth pedal. It uses 9 presets to allow storing sounds. He uses the pedal in Time Is Running Out, Apocalypse Please, I Belong To You, Space Dementia and others.

The Boss ODB-3 has not been used since the first album, and honestly is not really needed.

The two big muffs were only used ONCE when recording "Absolution" for "Ruled By Secrecy". You DO NOT NEED TWO BIG MUFF PEDALS!!!!

The Bass Big Muff will not work as a substitute.

The Animato settings he uses are anything but "mild". The closest thing I have heard to the Animato are an old Rat, and even then it is missing the character of the Animato.

He also uses the Digitech BSW in his rig. This pedal is not going to copy any of the Deep Impact tones honestly.

Get an OC-2 or an EHX Octave Multiplexor. The Enigma: Qballs will cop the Q-Tron tones he has, but not the synth tones.

Originally Posted by cricketfever32

hysteria he uses this one pedal he found in a shop in china (afaik), but if you manage to find a source for that pedal feel free to hit me up :P

Ishibashi Music

[kaputsport]

Muse Bass Tones Vol. 1: YouTube - ‪kaputsport's Channel‬‏

Muse Bass Tones Vol. 2: YouTube - ‪kaputsport's Channel‬‏

[JimmyM]

You know, you just never get enough info about Justin Chancellor and Chris Wohlstenhome in the effects forum. Here those guys use effects, and nobody ever talks about them on here.

[vegas532]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

You know, you just never get enough info about Justin Chancellor and Chris Wohlstenhome in the effects forum. Here those guys use effects, and nobody ever talks about them on here.

Thanks, Jimmy. Now I have to clean coffee off of my laptop!!

[groooooove]

ever since they made the sticky these threads sort of disappeared for a bit..

[kaputsport]

Not really. They keep getting posted, but someone saves the day and posts the sticky thread we made, and then it fades into oblivion.