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best bass for cliff burton sound

#2
i'm an old fart and was around when "kill 'em all" came out. cliff was using a modified Rickenbacker early on. he had a gibson ebo and fender jazz pup stuck in it if i remember correctly. he was endorsed by aria pro II on "master of puppets". i saw them on that tour and cliff played the aria. i'm fairly certain he was using mesa boogie bass gear with a crybaby wah, not sure what distortion pedal. anyways, you will have a hard time sounding like cliff due to his modding of gear likely. aria has made a cliff burton bass, but it is very expensive. Rics are very expensive. my recommendation would be to look for an '80s aria on ebay. they aren't that much nowadays, and they were built better than tons of new basses that are 2-3 times as much, maybe more. there are threads/diagrams of his signal/sound also, and you could invest in his pedals/gear and likely get the tones pretty close. i always loved his distorted tones and stuff like the intro to "for whom the bell tolls". he was maybe one of the coolest players ever! good luck!
 
#4
Cliff was pretty burried down in the mix. I wouldn't stress what bass to get to sound like him, but rather, make sure you play whatever bass you get through some distortion and wah pedal.

For under $800, I say go for a used bass, a nice Fender Jazz, Precision, or P/J
 
#13
I'd say a stingray you can add treble by adjusting your amp you can slap and pop and all that crap on it and you can add pedals to the mix and tweak the pre amp on the ray for clairity.

I'm not really a good advisor on Metallica bass tones though. Sorry just not really into their bass tones or in this case Cliff but, I respect him to death I just never heard him as much as I guess I should've.
 
#14
remember he moved to a single pickup aria pro. I'd say the criteria is 4 strings and at least 1 humbucker. add distortion to taste with a dash of wah.
and to those of you that think he was burried in the mix, listen again. it wasn't till Newsted that the bass vanished. he's all over the mix on Kill 'em All, strutting his musicallity on Ride the Lightning (especially the intro to For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade To Black, Creeping Death and above all Call of Ktulu) and Master was his finest hour (many people still don't realize what the bass solo really is in Orion, but here's a hint... it's not the middle bass ostinato, it's the 4th SOLO as the liner notes say.
 
#15
h60 said:
remember he moved to a single pickup aria pro. I'd say the criteria is 4 strings and at least 1 humbucker. add distortion to taste with a dash of wah.
and to those of you that think he was burried in the mix, listen again. it wasn't till Newsted that the bass vanished. he's all over the mix on Kill 'em All, strutting his musicallity on Ride the Lightning (especially the intro to For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade To Black, Creeping Death and above all Call of Ktulu) and Master was his finest hour (many people still don't realize what the bass solo really is in Orion, but here's a hint... it's not the middle bass ostinato, it's the 4th SOLO as the liner notes say.
Click to expand...

This is true.
 
#18
Im pretty sure he used a rickenbacker, dont know for sure but im pretty sure it was.

Make sure you have a wah-wah and a crybaby pedal, I have a bad flanger and that's about it, you'll need more than that.

with that you should be good to go. If you need the tabs for anesthesia let me know.
 
#19
h60 said:
remember he moved to a single pickup aria pro. I'd say the criteria is 4 strings and at least 1 humbucker. add distortion to taste with a dash of wah.
and to those of you that think he was burried in the mix, listen again. it wasn't till Newsted that the bass vanished. he's all over the mix on Kill 'em All, strutting his musicallity on Ride the Lightning (especially the intro to For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade To Black, Creeping Death and above all Call of Ktulu) and Master was his finest hour (many people still don't realize what the bass solo really is in Orion, but here's a hint... it's not the middle bass ostinato, it's the 4th SOLO as the liner notes say.
Click to expand...

Yeah, puppets was his highlight. Top 10 best Cliff Burton songs.

1. Anesthesia
2. Orion
3. Call of Ktulu
4. For Whom the Bell Tolls
5. Fade to Black
6. The Rest of Kill Em All
7. The Rest of Master of Puppets
8. The Rest of Ride the Lightning
9. and OF Course,... oh wait
 
#20
EHX big muff for distortion and cry-baby wah. then get a shecter stiletto studio and you'll be fine. you dont need to copy his gear to get his sound.


and to all the jerks above, cliff wasnt buried in the mix. u can listen to him in every single track.
 

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