I've been trying to find out what all Ben Shepherd used to get the tones he did on all the Soundgarden stuff, this I know so far from talkbass: He uses Fender Pbasses w/ Dean Markley Flatwounds, Peavey amps/speakers, then moved to Mesa w/ Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil and used a 400+ w/ 2x15's live along w/ a Fender Jazz bass (geddy lee style w/ the bound maple fret board but w/ mother of pearl block inlays, not black block). I dont know what he used on what album, but I found a post on here that said he used a pbass w/ the dean markley flats for that "slaves and bulldozers" tone off of badmotorfinger. If anyone knows for certain what he used on what albums, i'd apprecaite it. The more specific the better......
I liked his sound too--thought it was cool he was using flats in that band. You can get that sound with a P or J with flats and similar amps to what you mention, most likely the Mesa I'd say. I read a lot of posts like this and I always wanna put in my unsolicited two cents so here goes: speaking as a producer/engineer, if you're trying to approximate a tone you like from a record with your live rig, keep in mind everything that happens to the bass tone AFTER the bass and amp(if he even used much amp sound in the studio). A mix of amp and DI signals, a great DI, mic pre, through the channel on a great board like an SSL or what have you, nice limiting like an LA-2A, etc.--whatever additional tone-shaping and dynamics were used all color the tone. And then the mix engineer gets to have his way with it . . .
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