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Cliff Williams (AC/DC) bass tone
- Thread starter iSteen
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- cliff williams
I think Jimmy's like to the comment has left the building
Now now, boys...don't fight...there's enough of me to go around
Don't remember what posts I liked, nothing personal if I did or didn't. I don't claim to be the arbiter of all things AC/DC. For that you'd have to go to Angus.
What?
You mean ACDC had a bass player?
Nah seriously, Cliff's great, but Malcolm was such a strong rhythm guitarist that the role of the bass chair in ACDC has only ever been filling-out the bottom end of Malcolm's guitar which, I might add, Cliff did exceptionally well. The epitome of a disciplined, 'play for the song - never play a single unnecessary note - do so in perfect rhythm and meter - with great tone' rock bassist. I mean he had no choice. He was playing underneath the best rhythm guitarist in hard rock.
The boys in their hey day. WHAT A BAND !
You mean ACDC had a bass player?
Nah seriously, Cliff's great, but Malcolm was such a strong rhythm guitarist that the role of the bass chair in ACDC has only ever been filling-out the bottom end of Malcolm's guitar which, I might add, Cliff did exceptionally well. The epitome of a disciplined, 'play for the song - never play a single unnecessary note - do so in perfect rhythm and meter - with great tone' rock bassist. I mean he had no choice. He was playing underneath the best rhythm guitarist in hard rock.
The boys in their hey day. WHAT A BAND !
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This is the single most important part to nailing his tone. He palm mutes A TON. Watch him live, his right hand never leaves the bridge.
It sounds like absolute garbage solo'd, but when it's in a mix it takes on this magic warm, rich tone.
Pick, flats, and palm mute with the tone rolled off most of the way and you've got Cliff's sound.
Yeah, this is an isolated bass track of back in black played by me. Unfortunately, im not that much of a flatwound player, so it had rounds on. It wasnt one of my better performances, it was quite sloppy with a few mistakes, try to excuse that. Played with a pick also.
Hey man, that's still some great playing.
I did one too...turns out palm muted picked flats sound really fat when they're in a mix even if they sound really thumpy and woody on their own. Weird how that works. I'll post the vid when I get it squared away
Might be a while, for whatever reason YouTube has blocked the video under copywright...I guess AC/DC is one of the more crazy bands about this? I have a ton of other cover videos up online. Not even the zeppelin cover I did got blocked.
What?
You mean ACDC had a bass player?
Nah seriously, Cliff's great, but Malcolm was such a strong rhythm guitarist that the role of the bass chair in ACDC has only ever been filling-out the bottom end of Malcolm's guitar which, I might add, Cliff did exceptionally well. The epitome of a disciplined, 'play for the song - never play a single unnecessary note - do so in perfect rhythm and meter - with great tone' rock bassist. I mean he had no choice. He was playing underneath the best rhythm guitarist in hard rock.
The boys in their hey day. WHAT A BAND !
man, Angus must have sick neck musculature
Yes, so annoying, I had a cover of hells bells and shoot to thrill on yt that both got blocked, I was actually planning on covering the whole album for the album's 40th anniversary, but that obviosly never worked out. Its all because AC/DCs music is owned by SME. Which means if someone uploads content on yt with acdc music in, it will instantly be blocked within 10 mins of upload. All because of SME. Did you know that about a year ago, every AC/DC song was taken down on youtube by SME, obviosly sparking outrage. SME then agreed to reupload. I think you'll be ok if you either dont have any music in the video, or have it bit really low volume. Either way, SME are so god damn annoying.
Daniel
I get the need to protect your intellectual property, but just like...that's insane. Being that aggressive and overbearing is only going to damage your IP's value in the long run because you're essentially killing word-of-mouth and organic, natural support for it.
Screw YouTube, I'm putting it on my personal Google Drive instead.
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Guitar is a Squier CV 70's, stock pup has been replaced with an Epic Custom Shop Black Gold pup, using Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats, running through my GT-1B pedal with a patch that's running some light compression and Fender Bassman 100 simulator.
As a side note, the GT-1B is a freaking insane pedal once you dig under the surface. You can do basically anything with it if you're willing to put in a little bit of time messing around with settings.
[This invalid link has been removed]
Guitar is a Squier CV 70's, stock pup has been replaced with an Epic Custom Shop Black Gold pup, using Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats, running through my GT-1B pedal with a patch that's running some light compression and Fender Bassman 100 simulator.
As a side note, the GT-1B is a freaking insane pedal once you dig under the surface. You can do basically anything with it if you're willing to put in a little bit of time messing around with settings.
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If you get so aggressive with your copyright enforcement that you stomp down every little dinky cover video some rando on YouTube makes, what you're inadvertantly doing is sending the message that you don't want people to play your songs or teach others how to play them. You end up essentially turning the up and coming generations off of your music completely, either by being a massive douche or by preventing it from spreading around organically like it used to.
