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Phil Lynott: Effects on Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation album

S

Sneckumhaw

Apr 26, 2006
1,904
28
Earth
#1
Every bassist loves the little flanged intro to Dancing in the Moonlight, but it seems like he's rocking a little something on other tunes like Bad Rep and Opium Trail. The whole album his tone is absolutely fantastic, tough guy soul brother genius all the way through.

What kind of flange/other effect to achieve this rocking seventies sound? Amps and other factors too...

I know it doesn't hurt to be recorded by Tony Visconti either, but I would appreciate any help.
 
#2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qhtgxS6z9yo (Bad Reputation)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ufMzJ6Ntbvs (Opium Trail)

It does sound like there's a little bit of flange on his tone, but it's hard to tell because it also sounds like he's doubling the rhythm guitarist most of the time, and their sound is pretty intermeshed, so who knows. There's a little break in Opium Trail where it sounds "for sure" like there's flanging on the bass, but it just lasts a second.

I'd say blend a flanger with your clean tone, should get you there. Also he's picking close to the bridge, which can cause a lot of extra harmonic phase-y qualities.
 
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#3
bongomania said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qhtgxS6z9yo (Bad Reputation)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ufMzJ6Ntbvs (Opium Trail)

It does sound like there's a little bit of flange on his tone, but it's hard to tell because it also sounds like he's doubling the rhythm guitarist most of the time, and their sound is pretty intermeshed, so who knows. There's a little break in Opium Trail where it sounds "for sure" like there's flanging on the bass, but it just lasts a second.

I'd say blend a flanger with your clean tone, should get you there. Also he's picking close to the bridge, which can cause a lot of extra harmonic phase-y qualities.
Click to expand...

+1...Pick+Bridge+PBass+Flanger = Phil Lynott! :D
 
#7
Sneckumhaw said:
Every bassist loves the little flanged intro to Dancing in the Moonlight, but it seems like he's rocking a little something on other tunes like Bad Rep and Opium Trail. The whole album his tone is absolutely fantastic, tough guy soul brother genius all the way through.

What kind of flange/other effect to achieve this rocking seventies sound? Amps and other factors too...

I know it doesn't hurt to be recorded by Tony Visconti either, but I would appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
Not sure of the gear.
Similar effect on "Waitin' for an Alibi".
Mars Cowling(Pat Travers) used a similar effect near the same time known as a Jet Flanger. It's a flange I use in the Line 6 BassPODXTLive.
 
#11
Seems to me that almost any analog flanger will do the job, especially since it sounds to me like the signal might be blended with the clean signal, or at least the amount of flange is not intense. The only ones I can think of that wouldn't be my first choices are the Boss and Ibanez, as the ones I had always seemed more "metallic" to me than others. The ones that I've owned that were warmer and less metallic were early ones by DOD.
 
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#13
Johnny Crab said:
Not sure of the gear.
Similar effect on "Waitin' for an Alibi".
Mars Cowling(Pat Travers) used a similar effect near the same time known as a Jet Flanger. It's a flange I use in the Line 6 BassPODXTLive.
Click to expand...

Though Pat Thrall of Pat Travers band did use a Jet Phaser, arguably the best phaser ever sold, Phil used an Envelope Filter.
Similar to design in Flanger and Phaser however depending your "attack" (how hard you hit the strings) it determines the depth in phasing.
 
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#14
JR28 said:
Though Pat Thrall of Pat Travers band did use a Jet Phaser, arguably the best phaser ever sold, Phil used an Envelope Filter.
Similar to design in Flanger and Phaser however depending your "attack" (how hard you hit the strings) it determines the depth in phasing.
Click to expand...
An envelope filter is a wah wah that is dependent on attack for depth of wah. It is not a phaser or flanger.
 
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#16
JimmyM said:
An envelope filter is a wah wah that is dependent on attack for depth of wah. It is not a phaser or flanger.
Click to expand...
While that's correct, Roland also did a phaser that followed the envelope called the Phase 5. It had an LFO mode or touch control. Pretty cool.

2015-02-20_16-23-54_zps9fe44477.gif


Anyone know of a decent flanger with a blend? I'm not a huge fan of in your face flangers.
 

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