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Anthony Jackson's TONE?

#22
I love Anthony's playing, especially his groundbreaking work with Chaka Khan. I love his tone on his recordings, but his live sound (from what I've heard) has been uneven, probably because of the soundpeople and venues.

I saw him with Al DiMeola in NYC back in 2003, and he was totally buried in the mix. When I did hear him, he sounded thin and weak. I was so disappointed that I finally got to see one of my bass heroes, but the mix was so bad that he might as well have not been playing. I wanted to slug the soundman.

I saw him again at the Iridium in NYC sitting in with Bass Extremes (Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, and Oteil), and his sound was fine - very clear, deep, and present. Though he was only laying down the groove, he was showing up the other flashier guys. I got to shake his hand, and he signed my copy of Bass Player. Oddly enough, that night I liked Oteil's tone the most, followed by Anthony.
 
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#23
Anthony's tone is IT for me. So many times I've sat back in awe of that huge sound. So much presence. Very organic and hi-fi at the same time. Some may call it sterile but you can't argue that what you hear is what you get. There's no trickery or fancy EQ'ing going on to tailor his tone. It's all between Anthony's fingers and that amazing instrument he's developed over the years.

I'm a huge fan of the P bass tone so I'd love to try out a bass that had a dual coil in the P position. I think it would match the tone I dig.
 
#24
It's interesting to me to read some of these posts commenting on Anthony's tone live... which like all of us is great sometimes and not so great other times. As I've posted previously, I had the honor of seeing Marcus Miller live and hearing both his 'backline sound' and his front of house sound.... night and day. Marcus backline sound reminded me of 'me' with my backline tone.... trying very hard to achieve the tone 'in my head' but many times not quite getting there. Of course, his front of house sound with a couple of hundred thousand extra watts and multiple subs, mid speakers and horns sounded pretty much like his recordings.

My point... (finally:D )... it is almost impossible to consistently reproduce a tone achieved in the studio or even with a top of the line front of house system with a backline rig... no matter how good that rig is. Even players like Marcus, Victor, Anthony, etc. who have 'signature tones' that many of us use as templates in deriving our own tone have a hard time reproducing that tone live, even with 'state of the art' backline.

It's frustrating... but I'll keep working at it! And... it's somewhat comforting to know that some of these great players seem to experience the same issues we all fight with!
 
#25
harmolodic said:
I think at times his tone can be a bit dark, but its always clear. You can hear the notes.
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Very true, one of the reasons I love his tone, it's distinctively dark yet very well defined, almost like the low register of a grand piano. My favorite recorded tones of his are on Michel Camilo's "Suntan" and on guitarist Steve Khan's live album "Modern Times".
 
#26
I love Jackson's playing, but his tone is beyond bizarre. It's like the thickest thin tone you can get. The low notes are particularly odd, as they sound like you can almost hear both the fundamental of the note and its harmonic. I have a love/hate thing for it.
 
#28
Bryan R. Tyler said:
I love Jackson's playing, but his tone is beyond bizarre. It's like the thickest thin tone you can get. The low notes are particularly odd, as they sound like you can almost hear both the fundamental of the note and its harmonic. I have a love/hate thing for it.
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That's a great way to describe it IMO, and I'm with you.... while on some recordings it sounds great, others seem like the tone 'has a hole in it'... plenty of upper mid definition, and huge low end, but very little in the middle. That's the sound I hear on the Lee Ritenour retrospective DVD on Anthony's cuts.

To me... Lincoln Goines is more consistent on recordings of delivering what many consider that 'Fodera tone'.... fat and big, but articulate and punchy at the same time. His tone (and playing) on the somewhat recent Bill Connors recording 'Return' is the finest example of this type of tone I've ever heard.
 
#29
I don't think a youtube video is the best way to judge his (or anyone's) tone. Listen to a CD. Check out some of the Michel Camilo recordings. His tone is fat, distinct, and growly. I love it. Live his tone is amazing - even better. Room filling bass without being muddy. Punchie - fat - buttah. So far the guys who don't dig his tone keep refering to live recordings - maybe his live sound doesn't translate to a recording that well.
 
#30
basss said:
I don't think a youtube video is the best way to judge his (or anyone's) tone. Listen to a CD. Check out some of the Michel Camilo recordings. His tone is fat, distinct, and growly. I love it. Live his tone is amazing - even better. Room filling bass without being muddy. Punchie - fat - buttah
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+1... I love those Camilo CD's. However, check out the Bill Conners CD I mention above.... the bass tone is just stunning on that.... to me all the 'good' about Anthony's tone (fat, warm, big), but also with a ton of mid definition and a more balanced (IMO) treble response that I find sometimes missing in Anthony's recording (I'm sure Anthony is not losing any sleep over my comments on his tone, by the way!).

Again... pure personal preference... all these guys sound great in their own way.
 
#31
KJung said:
+1... I love those Camilo CD's. However, check out the Bill Conners CD I mention above.... the bass tone is just stunning on that.... to me all the 'good' about Anthony's tone (fat, warm, big), but also with a ton of mid definition and a more balanced (IMO) treble response that I find sometimes missing in Anthony's recording (I'm sure Anthony is not losing any sleep over my comments on his tone, by the way!).

Again... pure personal preference... all these guys sound great in their own way.
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I'm not going to argue with you there. I have that CD and Linc's tone is awesome. They are both great in different ways and I have to say that I like them about the same - different voices with different sounds - both beautiful. I would have to say that in the grand scheme of things they are more alike than different. They sound closer to each other than to Patitucci, Gary Willis, or Matt Garrison (to compare guys from roughly the same genre).
 
#32
basss said:
I'm not going to argue with you there. I have that CD and Linc's tone is awesome. They are both great in different ways and I have to say that I like them about the same - different voices with different sounds - both beautiful. I would have to say that in the grand scheme of things they are more alike than different. They sound closer to each other than to Patitucci, Gary Willis, or Matt Garrison (to compare guys from roughly the same genre).
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+1... I'm just enjoying the discussion:)
 
#33
Something to consider in his tone is the fact that he changes his strings something like.....every day!!!!
I have heard from a number of people who said he does in fact change his strings ridiculously often; maybe it's every 3-4days, but still...
I remember my first bass teacher told me a story about how when he was a kid AJ gave him a bag of his "used" strings; my teacher said they were brand new.
 
#34
musicman5string said:
Something to consider in his tone is the fact that he changes his strings something like.....every day!!!!
I have heard from a number of people who said he does in fact change his strings ridiculously often; maybe it's every 3-4days, but still...
I remember my first bass teacher told me a story about how when he was a kid AJ gave him a bag of his "used" strings; my teacher said they were brand new.
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I also change my strings quite often. If you like either that 'piano like' tone that AJ goes for, or the sizzly/grindy slap tone that Marcus goes for, of the very modern tone that, for example, Norm Stockton achieves, you can really only get there with virtually new strings. I know Marcus changes strings very often.. I've heard sometimes within a single concert/gig.

This also goes to the point I made in an earlier post on this thread.... it's VERY difficult to reproduce the sound we hear on recordings live with backline. The string issue also has an impact. I assume that bassists (at least those that prefer some sort of articulate roundwound sound) on important recording gigs make sure the strings on their basses are at what they consider 'optimum sound'.. whether that be brand new or a few hours of playing on them or whatever.
 
#35
KJung said:
It's interesting to me to read some of these posts commenting on Anthony's tone live... which like all of us is great sometimes and not so great other times. As I've posted previously, I had the honor of seeing Marcus Miller live and hearing both his 'backline sound' and his front of house sound.... night and day. Marcus backline sound reminded me of 'me' with my backline tone.... trying very hard to achieve the tone 'in my head' but many times not quite getting there. Of course, his front of house sound with a couple of hundred thousand extra watts and multiple subs, mid speakers and horns sounded pretty much like his recordings.

My point... (finally:D )... it is almost impossible to consistently reproduce a tone achieved in the studio or even with a top of the line front of house system with a backline rig... no matter how good that rig is. Even players like Marcus, Victor, Anthony, etc. who have 'signature tones' that many of us use as templates in deriving our own tone have a hard time reproducing that tone live, even with 'state of the art' backline.

It's frustrating... but I'll keep working at it! And... it's somewhat comforting to know that some of these great players seem to experience the same issues we all fight with!
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth;)
I've heard Marcus FOH and backline in a couple of venues and the sound definitely varies. At the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA he sounded great. At the Carter Barron outdoor theater in DC... yeesh. Fine from onstage, mud out front.

I too wouldn't judge AJ's tone from a low quality web video. AJ is probably my favorite bassist with a unique vibe that shines on most recordings. Something I'd describe as more of a "big guitar" sound... check out "Race With Devil on Spanish Highway" with Al DiMeola, where he doubles Al. Sheesh... and that was almost 30 years ago. The Chaka Khan projects kill too.

I have a 92 Contrabass, 36" scale and it easily nails AJ's signature (to me) sound. Now if it could only nail the note choices:rolleyes:

:bassist:
 
#37
Brad Johnson said:
I have a 92 Contrabass, 36" scale and it easily nails AJ's signature (to me) sound. Now if it could only nail the note choices:rolleyes:

:bassist:
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I've yet to hear another bassist who makes better note choices than AJ. They all sound so perfectly right that they would be the obvious choices you'd make yourself, but they're anything but.
 
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#38
20db pad said:
Here's a good example of some AJ stuff that I've never seen until now. In this YT clip, he's in trio with drummer extraordinaire Simon Phillips:

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The tone on that clip is a lot more "normal" than it's been in a long while (is that his very first singlecut?). The Hiromi albums, the recent Camillo stuff, and the Ritenour CD/DVD really exhibit the bizzaro tone he uses now.

Badass playing on that clip, btw.
 
#39
Bryan R. Tyler said:
The tone on that clip is a lot more "normal" than it's been in a long while (is that his very first singlecut?)
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The timeline of when I think that Simon Phillips trio project was together, along with the word-of-mouth rumors about this weird-looking bass that Anthony Jackson was playing around NYC lead me to believe this was the first Fodera SC bass. Early nineties.

I'm always intimidated and starstruck by AJ, so I never asked him the rationale behind the SC design. Later on, it was said that it was an effort to get more neck and fingerboard in the body component to allow the neck to be more flat and straight. An effective lack of any relief on the neck enabled the "higher nut" setup approach he devised.
 

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