Coheed and Cambria's bass sound

[mancefine]

I thought it sounded alot like an in keeping secrets song. Very punchy like Faint of Hearts. I guess I'm not too disappointed, still a killer bassline. I just like the way fingers sound. We cover a few songs in my band that were played with a pick originally and I can play them just as fast and punchy finger style, so I guess that's where my critique came from.

 

[sonic assassin]

here's my assessment as a long time fan.

i can hear next to no bass on in keeping secrets. certainly not enough. scoopy hi-fi toilet noise.

with every album, the bass got better. maybe its because he switched to fender and lakland basses. maybe it was a better mix. but i can almost swear things got better when he switched to j basses.

i like the new guy plenty. very slick when he gets to be. ive seen both live, and the new guy can be heard significantly better.

and.. as it has been said, hes not a thieving drug addict

 

[CBNJ]

here's my assessment as a long time fan.

i can hear next to no bass on in keeping secrets. certainly not enough. scoopy hi-fi toilet noise.

with every album, the bass got better. maybe its because he switched to fender and lakland basses. maybe it was a better mix. but i can almost swear things got better when he switched to j basses.

i like the new guy plenty. very slick when he gets to be. ive seen both live, and the new guy can be heard significantly better.

and.. as it has been said, hes not a thieving drug addict

Really? For me, Second Stage is his best work - just go back and listen to Hearshot, Junesong etc - love the tone and playing. Even though GA1 isn't my favorite, some of his stuff is INSANE!

 

[silky smoove]

I think it comes down to the mix more than the playing. The early albums have much busier and more technical playing, but SSTB, IKSSE3 and GA1 are super thin sounding albums. More so on SSTB. By the time you get to No World for Tomorrow things are noticeably fatter in the mix.

 

[activebass]

Please tell me you're talking about Mic's sound (original bassist). I can't stand Zach. I LOVE Coheed and Mic.


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Earlier albums.

Whats wrong with Zach? He's every bit as good of a bass player as Mic, and not a thieving drug addict.

You can get Mic's tone with just about any bass, fresh roundwound strings, tone control all the way open, and kind of hammer at the strings, don't just pluck them. They need to sort of bounce off the frets, to get somewhere between a plucked and slapped tone.

Just find Mic's basslines much more creative and interesting to listen to, while Zach seems to mimic Claudio's parts.


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I've been a fan for years and seen them many times - I think it just comes down to preference. Zach is good, but I prefer Mic's playing and writing style. SSTB is one of my favorites of all time.



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Big fan of Mic Todd's playing as well (nothing against Zach).
For me personally (although there were indeed some good tunes after), Good Apollo was the high water mark of Coheed for me. Fantastic bass playing on that album, IMO.

I'm pleasantly surprised to find this thread, because I am a fan of Mic Todd's playing. I don't think we should let a musician's personal problems effect our judgement of his performance in the studio or on stage.

Mic Todd is a much more creative player for my money and I like his tone (and especially his live tone) MUCH more than Zach's.

I think you'll be able to get Mic's tone with a good American Jazz bass (passive), roundwounds and don't set the action too low.

Here's an interview with Mic Todd did for Fender disussing a lot of different things including his jazz basses and what Flamenco players refer to as duende.

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[CBNJ]

I'm pleasantly surprised to find this thread, because I am a fan of Mic Todd's playing. I don't think we should let a musician's personal problems effect our judgement of his performance in the studio or on stage.

Mic Todd is a much more creative player for my money and I like his tone (and especially his live tone) MUCH more than Zach's.

I think you'll be able to get Mic's tone with a good American Jazz bass (passive), roundwounds and don't set the action too low.

Here's an interview with Mic Todd did for Fender disussing a lot of different things including his jazz basses and what Flamenco players refer to as duende.

Invalid Link Removed

I forgot about that video - thanks! Wish we could hear him again on bass.. Doubtful though.

 

[mancefine]

here's my assessment as a long time fan.

i can hear next to no bass on in keeping secrets. certainly not enough. scoopy hi-fi toilet noise.

with every album, the bass got better. maybe its because he switched to fender and lakland basses. maybe it was a better mix. but i can almost swear things got better when he switched to j basses.

i like the new guy plenty. very slick when he gets to be. ive seen both live, and the new guy can be heard significantly better.

and.. as it has been said, hes not a thieving drug addict

I couldn't hear Zach either time I saw them live. It seems like Mic, as a founding member, had the clout to say "hey the bass is going to cut through the mix". When Zach joined the bass went to more of a "felt but not so much heard" place in the mix, at least when I saw them.

I disagree that Mic's tone got better with each album. SSTB it was very prevelant, but I think his tone peaked with Good Apollo Volume 1 From Fear through the eyes of Madness. That Spector was just...him. I took bass lessons from him after he got kicked out and he said he'd wished he stuck with Spector. He had actually started playing them again on the last tour before he got booted.

And Mic's never played a Lakland. He went from Spector to Fender and at the end was playing both.

 

[silky smoove]

but I think his tone peaked with Good Apollo Volume 1 From Fear through the eyes of Madness.

I'd say that it peaked in terms of being audible in the mix. For my taste his tone on that album has way too much going on in the 1-2khz region. It's very upper-midrange heavy, nasal sounding, and ganky (as others have described those types of tones). It works fine for the album in terms of making his parts heard, but pushing the midrange bump down to around 600hz and flattening out those upper mids considerably would have been my first move as the mix engineer on that album.

Different strokes I suppose. That's just my taste, and I can definitely see why you would prefer that tone over the other albums.