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Bassist with most UNIQUE tone

#201
Pearldiver said:
Billy Gould (Faith No More)
The classic Peavey grunt. I remember listening to The Real Thing in high school and realizing. "Oh, that's what the Treble knob on my amp is for"
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FaithNoMan said:
How could I forget to mention him - that guy's tone from "The Real Thing" has been one of my pursuits since I was 15 years old. His tone is really killer in the title track - it's coupled with delay and flanger, and is out of this world...I was really sad when he went to a Zon w/Bartolinis - his bass lost that edgy, glassy *zing
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i nailed all Billys sounds for years with my Ibanez SDGR and Peavey Mk VI rig. its not hard to get just gotta have the right setup :) his tone was brutal on KFADFFAL! THAT is my perfect bass tone right there, however live i felt his Zon/Peavy thing has never been captured well in many live recordings.

please dont mention ZON lol! :( im doin the painful waiting thing on a black Zon sonus 5er right now lol! :bawl: its arrived in AU and has been delayed for some reason :( (probably because tomorrow is cup day)

honestly, i think some of the most unique and amazing tones have come without a really great deal of effort or messing around with pedals ect
 
#202
Mikeus said:
i nailed all Billys sounds for years with my Ibanez SDGR and Peavey Mk VI rig. its not hard to get just gotta have the right setup :) his tone was brutal on KFADFFAL! THAT is my perfect bass tone right there, however live i felt his Zon/Peavy thing has never been captured well in many live recordings.

please dont mention ZON lol! :( im doin the painful waiting thing on a black Zon sonus 5er right now lol! :bawl: its arrived in AU and has been delayed for some reason :( (probably because tomorrow is cup day)

honestly, i think some of the most unique and amazing tones have come without a really great deal of effort or messing around with pedals ect
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The wrong setup for me was your exact "right" setup, haha - I found the Soundgear basses very dull sounding

I got really close to his early early tones with my Ric - I'm talking about the stuff before The Real Thing - I actually had a later version of his Aria Pro(along with the same Peavey Mark IV), but found that a solid maple bass will get much more aggressive than that, and that "mean" tone is easier to dial in than with a softer bodied bass.

My conclusion to using harder woods directly coincides with your last sentence - I don't want to have a bunch of gadgets to get my tone - when I first recorded my Ric through my Mesa Bass 400 and listened to it later, I was completely blown away by the tone - I had finally recorded a kick ass gritty rock tone that cut through with a great knife edge and still retained all of the low midrange thickness that hits you in the guts.:)
 
#203
FaithNoMan said:
The wrong setup for me was your exact "right" setup, haha - I found the Soundgear basses very dull sounding

I got really close to his early early tones with my Ric - I'm talking about the stuff before The Real Thing - I actually had a later version of his Aria Pro(along with the same Peavey Mark IV), but found that a solid maple bass will get much more aggressive than that, and that "mean" tone is easier to dial in than with a softer bodied bass.

My conclusion to using harder woods directly coincides with your last sentence - I don't want to have a bunch of gadgets to get my tone - when I first recorded my Ric through my Mesa Bass 400 and listened to it later, I was completely blown away by the tone - I had finally recorded a kick ass gritty rock tone that cut through with a great knife edge and still retained all of the low midrange thickness that hits you in the guts.:)
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i see, but what sort of SDGR was it? mine WAS and active MIJ SR800 (now passive) it has that loud accoustic/um-amped thing going on too and people i played with always said it sounded like a power saw cutting through steel among other descriptions lol! i dont think it had much depth to it but damn it could cut!
 
#204
Mikeus said:
i see, but what sort of SDGR was it? mine WAS and active MIJ SR800 (now passive) it has that loud accoustic/um-amped thing going on too and people i played with always said it sounded like a power saw cutting through steel among other descriptions lol! i dont think it had much depth to it but damn it could cut!
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Well there we go - haha, mine was my first bass about 14 years ago - an SDGR "400", not an "800" like yours.


My Ric cuts like that too - I am a believer in hearing a bass unplugged to see its potential.:)
 
#207
CodeYbassboy said:
I'm going to say Al Cisneros. He did the fuzz and the wah the thing and it rocked. Take a song like Dragonaut. You think its just another Sabbath rip off, and then the bass comes in, and it goes to a whole new level entirely. I know his new band is called Om, I wonder if they're any good.
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Om is, in my opinion, absolutely fantastic. Even though they're not really like Sleep pre-Dopesmoker/Jerusalem (according to Matt Pike "[Dopesmoker] was really Al's thing."

Their Link Removed does a great job of showing the two types of songs they play, On The Mountain At Dawn is the distorted song, while the ending of At Giza is the quiet song. I know that sounds a little bit simple, but when you listen to it, it'll all make sense. :D

Al definitely gets my vote for most unique tone, it reminds me of Jerry Garcia in that bell/chime-y sound he gets when it's not distorted.
 
#208
Deluge Of Sound said:
Om is, in my opinion, absolutely fantastic. Even though they're not really like Sleep pre-Dopesmoker/Jerusalem (according to Matt Pike "[Dopesmoker] was really Al's thing."

Their Link Removed does a great job of showing the two types of songs they play, On The Mountain At Dawn is the distorted song, while the ending of At Giza is the quiet song. I know that sounds a little bit simple, but when you listen to it, it'll all make sense. :D

Al definitely gets my vote for most unique tone, it reminds me of Jerry Garcia in that bell/chime-y sound he gets when it's not distorted.
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ive never heard these guys before...glad i have now! thanks! :cool:
 
#216
JackCasady69.jpg
 
#220
mellowgerman said:
+99999 thank you good sir. I'm truly surprised at the lack of mention of jack casady in this thread...
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I think that if you're looking to define a UNIQUE tone, it should be recognizable even if they're playing with others apart from their normal band. If that is the criteria, then Jack Casady and John Entwistle have to be on top of the list. I would also list Mick Karn as well.

It has been stated earlier here that there are certain amazing players who have become so iconic, that they have spawned countless imitators, i.e. the countless Jaco and Stanley Clarke clones, James Jamerson and Larry Graham devotees, et al. Even Chris Squire's sound was copped by Jon Camp of Renaissance (Ric 4003 through Sunn amps). I am assuming that we are talking UNIQUE TONE, not landmark tone. I think that's partially technique, but gear also plays a significant role too...
 

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