Nothing's Carved In Stone, for fans of growly bass.

[Asomodai]

Hey guys.

For years I have been chasing a very growly cutting tone with little success. I have been aware of this band for a while, but the bass plaayer really is something else. He uses a variety of basses but seems to get a signature style growl that I absolutely adore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqIoZr8j9cU

This being my favorite one of all (Intro is fairly standard but wait til it gets into the song!). From the video it appears to be an Orange Valve stack, overdriven with a Lakland Jazz bass. Obviously whatever he recorded the track with could be different, however I reckon it was probably with some sort of valve amp with a J bass with a soloed neck pickup, anyone else care to chip in? Whatever it is, seems to be heavily compressed as his tone is very constant and present in the mix.

Scooped mids you think? Flats, rounds? 60's or 70's Pup spacing?

Either way, great player and fantastic tone. Looks like the rest of the band are geared towards making him sound fantastic balance wise.

Here is another track that you may enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8f7jGVaymY

Sounds more P bass to me, but hard to tell.

Current gear is a Fender P-J all maple P bass with Dimarzio Super Woofer and Ultra Jazz and a Gibson Grabber. VT Bass Deluxe, Ampeg PG-500, Barefaced S12T. Cant get anywhere near this tone! Ideas?

[mattbass6945]

very cool tone indeed!

[DeltaPhoenix]

I have growl in gobs with a Warwick Corvette STD (I had EMG JX pickups and ACG EQ-01 preamp in it), EBMMs like 25th anniversary (basically a Reflex with a pretty top) and a Big Al sss, Dingwall ABI into my Orange AD200B. Don't scoop those mids, give them a little bump.
Maybe try a DarkGlass B3K or B7K too.

[Bassist4Eris]

Originally Posted by Asomodai

Scooped mids you think? Flats, rounds?

I'm no tone guru, but the mids sound boosted to me. And I think rounds.

[Asomodai]

Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris

I'm no tone guru, but the mids sound boosted to me. And I think rounds.

Sounds odd to me, Maybe boosted low mids with hardly any treble? Maybe some compression trickery? Maybe hes turned down his tone control...

[funkingroovin]

Originally Posted by Asomodai

Sounds odd to me, Maybe boosted low mids with hardly any treble? Maybe some compression trickery? Maybe hes turned down his tone control...

I think you may have hit it...'My' tone sounds very close and that's how I tend to run my EQ..slightly boosted bass and low mids,neutral high mids,and the treble rolled back to about 1/3 from 'zero'. I play a Fen. J w/Fralin single coils wired in series with the tone control set a little less than halfway..

Whatever his secret,it sounds great!

[FretlessMainly]

The round mids made me think flats, but there are some pops during a short break that say rounds. Great tone indeed.

In response to a different recent thread, that guy's got chops and groove.

[Asomodai]

Someone reckons it is mostly the Orange. Though in my experience Oranges are just overpriced compared to lets say a Matamp.

[unclejane]

I can get a good 85% there with my El Cheezmo Roland Micro Cube BassX using the SWR amp sim, compression on and gain knob a little under maxed out. The bass doesn't make much difference with those settings. Both my L2K and Bunny cop it fairly well. Frets would probably get it a little closer tho.

So don't spend a lot of money trying to get this tone . A more authentic one you could probably achieve with a tube-type preamp and just overdrive the tube stage a bit.

You probably already have the gear to generate it, maybe just twiddle with the EQ some and you should be pretty close?
PS: does remind me of the Bassman I used for a while when I was gigging...
Very different from my normal tone, but I like it...

LS