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Chris Squire effects.

M

Meddle

Jul 27, 2009
2,520
87
Scotland
#1
Hello all.

I'm a secret Yes fan, and lately I've got back into them in a big way. It is only quite recently that I realised the full effect of what Chris Squire is doing on some tracks.

My big question is what was he using for tremolo? I hear trem on Starship Trooper, Heart of the Sunrise etc... used in a clean way. I also think he might be using it with a thick fuzz on Southside of the Sky.

Some of the things on The Yes Album that I thought was moog is infact just fuzzed out rick I think. For example on Yours Is No Disgrace during the near accapella "Yesterday a Warning Came a Smile Upon Your Face" harmony section. In the background is that fuzzed out rick or moog?

Either way I would like to know his 1970s tremolo source thanks.:help:
 
#2
Some amps had tremolo in them back then. Or he can even be doing it with the volume control on the guitar. Or he could be bending the notes. Or it could have been added from the soundboard. Who knows?

Chris used lots of cool tricks such as using two amps, one that was totally overdriven. Sometimes he'd double a part on guitar with distortion. You'll never get it exactly like him. But here he is using a straight sound live -- and it sounds pretty damn awesome.

 
#4
Its amazing how he cuts through even dodgy soundboard mixes and stuff. Maybe it was blind luck but he got a good tone a long time before other bassists imho.

I see he uses a 'custom built tremolo'. I'm running a Boss TR-2, but apart from the volume drop (even after you remove that pesky capacitor) I just cannot get the right effect somehow.
 
#5
Back at the time of The Yes Album and Fragile, Chris was using Sunn Coliseum guitar heads with 6x12 cabs. The reverb and tremolo you hear on "Heart" likely is from that amp. I don't have proof but Iseem to recall that his stuido sound at that time was noth direct and the Sunn with a mic on it. For fuzz he used the old Maestro Bass Brassmaster, which I see he is still using. It has two fuzz settings, one a bit raspier than the other. was one of the first bass fuzz units that allowed you to mix straight and fuzz signal so all the bottom wouldn't fall out of the bass. He also used a set of organ bass pedals before the Moog Taurus came along.

My band in 1972-73 covered a lot of Yes and I had a 4001, the Brassmaster and a crappy tremolo box that actually sounded pretty close to his. Can't recall what it was though. I didn't use reverb, His current rack has a Mutron III, which I also used later on.

The TC Electronics Chorus may be the one rack-mount one Roscoe Beck uses. Nice unit but I don't think it's available anymore. They do have a small delay/chorus unit for guitar that might work on bass. My sources at TC are hinting that they'll have several new bass products at Winter Namm 2011, but they didn't go into detail on whether they will be effects or more amps.
 
#6
Some of the things on The Yes Album that I thought was moog is infact just fuzzed out rick I think. For example on Yours Is No Disgrace during the near accapella "Yesterday a Warning Came a Smile Upon Your Face" harmony section. In the background is that fuzzed out rick or moog?
Click to expand...

A moog was used on The Yes Album. Tony Kaye didn't want to play it because in his mind he was an organist. Anderson sort of forced him to play it.
 
#8
Hoover said:
If you're talking about the "walking" line that's just Squire's bass.

For some reason I thought his tremolo came from a Morley pedal, but I could be mistaken.
Click to expand...

I don't recall Chris using a Morley, although they did have a rotating simulator pedal. I was pretty in to Yes & Squire at that time and, as I said in an earlier post, was in a Yes/Deep Purple cover band. The tremolo on "Starship Trooper" sounds very much like standard guitar amp tremolo of that era. And yes, the walking bass during the softer "Yesterday" section of YIND is the Rick, which is quite capable of sounding mellow as well as clanking. I used my front pickup for this section. Chris also kicks on the Brassmaster under the vocal when it first enters. There is Moog on the intro & outro sections under where Steve Howe is doing the fast licks. That's also Moog on the final ascending part at the end of the song. It's true that Tony Kaye didn't like synths, but he changed his mind later for the Owner of a Lonerly Heart-era Yes.
 
#10
Hoover said:
If you're talking about the "walking" line...
Click to expand...


Absolutely not talking about the walking line. Its neither fuzzed nor could it be mistaken for a moog (unless your name is Fieldy I guess).

1:30 in Yours is No Disgrace, right channel. The organ is in the left channel.

Actually I saw an old Beatclub performance of this track today (with a spinning head in the background no less) and Jon Anderson is playing a Clavioline or some other small keyboard like that. :eyebrow:
 
#13
One of the gadgets that Chris uses live to maximize the "effect of the effects" so to speak (i.e., minimize tone suckage) is, he has his effects on a rack shelf and routed through a Sound Sculpture Switchblade (which is controlled by a MIDI foot controller). That way, it isolates each pedal (although it can combine pedals too) and it minimizes the length of the signal path. This helps his effects come through much more prominent than the poor man's method of having a plethora of pedals on the floor in front of you.
 
#14
Meddle said:
Absolutely not talking about the walking line. Its neither fuzzed nor could it be mistaken for a moog (unless your name is Fieldy I guess).

1:30 in Yours is No Disgrace, right channel. The organ is in the left channel.

Actually I saw an old Beatclub performance of this track today (with a spinning head in the background no less) and Jon Anderson is playing a Clavioline or some other small keyboard like that. :eyebrow:
Click to expand...

Bass pedals. Chris used an Italian electronic organ pedal board made by Dutron. Later he got the Moog Taurus I,
 
#15
Lifelong squire fan here! I purchased a rickenbacker 4001 in the early eightys, i never could quite get his sound down. I read a few years ago that he painted, his rick many times in the sixtys. It has been stripped & refinished so many times, its sustantially thinner than a standard bass, thus giving it a unique sound of its own.
 

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