Assuming JJ is playing Rotos and this is not a playback, do you hear any effects in his sound or is it just the Pbass and whatever amp he's using? This aggressive growl is crazy.
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Aggressive Pbass tone with or without fx?
- Thread starter Phaidrus
- Start date
My guess is it’s his technique and the basses he’s used over the years are just voiced more gnarly than most!
But in all seriousness… if you want to add some drive and bite on the cheap, try a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Rounds. They sound like nothing else… too much for what I play, but the NOISE I got out of my Fender with a set of them on was all shades of wrong, in the right way!
My other stock answer is “buy a Source Audio Aftershock for all the dirt you could ever need”
But in all seriousness… if you want to add some drive and bite on the cheap, try a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Rounds. They sound like nothing else… too much for what I play, but the NOISE I got out of my Fender with a set of them on was all shades of wrong, in the right way!
My other stock answer is “buy a Source Audio Aftershock for all the dirt you could ever need”
The Ernie Ball Cobalt Rounds is a good idea! I may as well give them a go.
From their early footage i've seen, it doesn't seem that he was using pedals. The Amp in the Video is clearly a Hiwatt. Also notable, that he seems to use a guitar cabinet. And Rumors are that in his early recordings a somewhat damaged cabinet was used, that added an extra portion of distortion.
JJ's tone is from the combination of his aggressive style, placement, bass, strings, amp and speaker especially from that era. If you are lookin g to capture the amp sound in a pedal @Sushi Box FX offers the Elementary and Dr Wattson based on the very special HiWatt DR103, capturing the sound of the fabled Marshall 4x12 however might be more difficult. JJ likely would not have used any effects back then, but he might now.
Jean-Jacques Burnel - Wikipedia
Jean-Jacques Burnel - Wikipedia
Interesting that a high gain guitar amp and matching cab are part of the equation.
He’s also playing with a pick very close to the bridge. Just to echo what the others have said, it doesn’t sound like there are any effects on this to me either.
It is not so much a high gain by today's standards and many bass players made good use of the DR103 as their driving tone.
Legendary Tones - The Hiwatt Custom 100 DR103
JeezyMcNuggles
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P bass. Heavy pick. New rounds. Tone knob dimed. That's all you need to nail that tone. I don't hear any overdrive at all. That's just a little fret buzz from plucking so hard. Nutn to it.
That whole thing is crazy! Glad I tuned in. I think you already have your answers. Now go beat on a P bass through an old tube amp!
Sounds like a P with new-ish Rotos, and the highs jacked up either on the amp, or even just a DI'd signal hit hard (but does sound kinda ampy though). Not a hard to sound to get at all IMHO.
Thanks for the insightful suggestions. Here's a video from HIWATT's site featuring a DR103 through a 4x12 cab and various basses (P, J, Rick).
Hiwatt Genuine Amplifiers UK
Hiwatt Genuine Amplifiers UK
I think this is the closest of all posts I read here. Passive tone to get as much ringing out of the strings as possible. There is some overdrive, but it's small and probably not intentional, or maybe just enough to get a biting edge on the sound. He had to cut through, so overdrive making mush wouldn't do it, it had to be the character of the bass, as played hard. He used celluloid picks as far as I know. I was using Tortex purple 1.14 mm but I find Ultex works better, at least when new, it's easier on the timing (and increasing arthritis).
One element in the early sound that is hard to do with effects is the extra low octave contribution, a damaged speaker cone or cab can contribute sounds that only happen on half-cycles, so their harmonics add the extra deep growl. I have found no way to replicate this with a bass, it's definitely to do with the cab. The hard high notes are much easier to get to sound right. I like low compression, 2:1, 1.5:1 makes weak downward slides, less sustain. If the overdrive that follows 'squacks' rather than grunts on the hardest hit notes, there's too much overdrive. I don't know if JJ used any compression beyond what the amp's valves and output transformer could give.
One thing I should add, it's not that easy.
If there were nothing to it, JJ wouldn't have had to try so hard to recover this tone years later when he tried. Even EQ can help a lot, to get the right kind of grunt out of it, it depends on what the bass is I think, whatever EQ is used goes with the bass. As to extra compression, I think Martin Rushent added plenty to get the hard downward slides in Nice And Sleazy.. If there'd been that much before the overdrive, the sound could not have been as tightly controlled.
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