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Bassists who use distortion

#102
I lose respect for people that lose respect for pick players. Steve DiGiorgio said it best:

"When speed/death metal was in its early days every band had drummers that could fly on double bass drums and guitarists that could pick so fast their hands looked blurry. But unless the bassist was using a pick the not-so-fleeting fingers trudged along half speed."

That's the exact truth. In any sub-genre of metal, if you listen to a lot of the earlier stuff you'll hear a pick slashing against the string instead of the bassier tone of fingers. Cliff and DiGiorgio and Harris and Trujillo and a lot of other people played/play with fingers, but don't diss pick players (specifically in metal) for playing with a pick.

It's one thing if it's in jazz where you're "supposed" to play with fingers, then I'd say "okay, his lines aren't that difficult but he plays with a pick, what's the deal?" but I still wouldn't be all like "OMGZORZ RESPECT LOST LOL"

I respect Newsted because he played balls to the wall with a pick. Playing with a pick is harder than it looks because playing with a pick for 2 and a half hours straight every night for two years takes it's toll on your hands, no doubt. Maybe it's just because of my computer use, but playing with a pick makes my hand hurt pretty badly after 15 minutes.

David Ellefson is a hell of a bassist, but when you're playing Holy Wars, it's kind-of hard with fingers, trust me. Pick playing is about tone and comfort. Pick playing is easier to notice as well, because if you take somebody playing one riff with a pick and then take somebody playing the same riff with fingers at the same volume, fingers will be lower.

I can ramble on here but I won't...people have to learn that pick playing was a must at one time because people had seemingly robotic legs that could pump out double bass for seemingly an hour straight and people had arms/hands that could make their hands look blurry.
 
#104
GTBASS said:
My 2 cents on the whole Cliff/Jason/Trujillo thing......

I first heard Cliff AFTER hearing Billy Sheehan, so of course, I was somewhat unimpressed with him at first, but when you look at his vision of the band(IMO, he would've quit the band before the Black album, had he lived) and his attitude, really, comparing him to Myung or Sheehan or anybody is like comparing Angus Young to Yngwie--I like both for different reasons, and for non-pick playing with balls and tone in the early days of thrash, man, he was head and shoulders(and neck and HAIR too lol) above everybody else.

Newstead I felt stepped into what had to have been the most difficult sitch in the world and did the best he could. I'm not a pick fan but YOU try to play what he played and you'll gain new respect for him. I think Lars and James held him WAY back and after he made bank he bailed to do what he wants. Good for him!!!

Trujillo hopefully won't be a Newstead rerun--this guy can play and it would be CRIMINAL to hold him back(tho I don't wanna hear popping and slapping in Metallica songs), so we'll see. I wish he would've stayed with IG and after a few Metallitours I suspect he will wish that too(for musicality's sake, as we know the Metallimachine will fatten up his bank accounts, deservedly so).

Has no one mentioned Billy Sheehan for distortion? Listen to the live half of "The Talas Years" and drool over the harmonics he gets and how he makes a bass scream like EVH one octave lower....his secrets for his tone include notching out the really obnoxious lows in the distorted part, but also using FET-type distortion AND(never saw this specifically mentioned by Billy, but I figured it out for myself) more than one gain stage of distortion.

He still uses Pearce preamps for distortion (I think) before his signature Ampeg preamp (which I owned, but sold before I realized what he was doing-it by itself didn't nail his tone) to get that gnarly meaty tone......
Click to expand...



Jason was the heart and soul of that band from the minute he joined. Why? Because you could see in his playing and his attitude what he was about. That dude was given more **** than any bass player deserves (especially one at his level- watch that pathetic excuse for a flick Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and see what really took place), and still managed to make it happen for years. When I saw him last summer on Ozzfest, with Voivod, then later on in the evening with Ozzy, people were cheering as loud for him as they were for Oz himself! And in the Voivod signature line, the other guys left b/c everyone was just talking to Jason. I got the meet the guy and talk to him for a few minutes, and he was as real a-mega star as you'd ever meet. Zakk was over a table or so, and was throwing stuff around trying to wrestle Jason on the ground, etc.., acting all dumb. Jason was cool, calm, collected and talked to every fan with sincere interest. He was the only reason I stayed with 'tallica as long as I did, and was a helluva lot better bass player than their ex-third guitarist. When James says about Cliff, "I couldn't believe what he was playing was even bass, not some funked up weird guitar", I have a hard time seeing you as a "bass" player... And Trujillo? The wannabe samurai whiskey monkey thing crap? Please. James should've stayed away.
 
#105
heath_the_great said:
but what made him great? thats what i wanna know...everyone says he's this great bassist and they can't seem to back it up....someone said to me that the orion solo is the best bass solo they've ever heard...its just 4th's 5th's and octaves for christs sake..not very hard...he can play fast....so what?...who wants to hear someone play fast when they cant play slow?

he's pretty average if you ask me
Click to expand...
you forgot major thirds
 
#106
Jimmy Fernandez from The God Machine ! A major influence for me.
He played an all black a Fender Jazz Bass through an Ampeg SVT II Pro,with an 8x10" cabinet.
R.I.P.

The only made two LP's, the second came out after his death...

"scenes from the second storey" and "one last laugh in a place of dying..."

Listen to the first song "dream machine". It begins with a distorted (Digitech PDS-1550) bass !

The rest is just pure rock with a lot of energy and rhythm.
 
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#113
I guess I'll add myself to the list I have always had a distorted sound going as far back as I can remember. For years I ran Marshall Majors and SVTS together. I still have that stuff but run Hiwatt most of the time these days. My first distortion was a Ibanez Tube Screamer bought when they first came out. In my pedal board now I have a Soviet Electro Harmonics Big Muff and a Ibanez Bass Tube Screamer.
 

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