Entwhistle, anyone?

[CaptainRobbie]

Can anyone help? I am attempting to achieve a combo "Roto-sound" & melodic sustain capability, similar to John Entwhistle's sound--but at a low volume.

I am performing a Hofner 63 Design Beatle bass in a pub duo, playing fairly loud pop music, but there are times when the volume is extremely soft. The bass is going directly into a Mackie mixer, and the output is through 2 powered JBL Eon 15's, & a Mackie 15" subwoofer. Heavy gauge flat-wound strings, 5 steel finger picks.

Any suggestions in terms of equipment, technique, or approach, would be appreciated! Thanks, R

 

[WalterBush]

You're going straight into the mixer, no direct box? You're probably missing an awful lot of your bass's sound, both tone and volume.

Also, switching to actual Rotosounds will go a long way towards copping the Ox.

 

[PBass101]

Well, besides the fact that there's no h in Entwistle, a Hofner loaded with Rotosounds is not going to give you automatic Ox tone. I don't know if he ever even used a Hofner. Which era of his playing are you looking for? The Precision + overdriven Hiwatts sound, the Status Graphite Buzzard + Ashdown sound?

John Entwistle always worked to seperate the high and low end frequenices coming out of his bass. Even in the early days with Hiwatts, he would use the onboard EQs to send the clean low end from one amp into cabs loaded with 15"'s and the tube-overdriven mids and highs from another amp into cabs with 12"'s. He always used overdrive on the high end range, which I doubt you'll be able to emulate by simply plugging into a mixer.

Remember, amplifiers and cabinets can be set at lower volumes too, and a tube amp will give you plenty of sustain despite how you set the output knob.

The Ox's technique changed all the time - just watch any Who video form different eras - but would typically persist of hitting the strings in a downward motion (towards the fretboard instead of across it) with a very light touch - felt he got more trebly response this way. He kept his strings as low as he could get them to make fast fretwork easier. I don't know how a Hofner would respond to his tapping technique, though.