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Gear off: Led Zeppelin or the Who

whose gear choice would you pick?

  • JPJ's Jazz bass and Acoustic rig

    Votes: 67 48.6%

  • Entwistle's Thunderbird and Sunn rig

    Votes: 71 51.4%
  • Total voters
    138
N

Number27

Mar 29, 2008
967
14
41
Framingham, Massachusetts
#1
inspired by the Muse vs Tool thread i thought it'd be cool to see who's gear is admired/sought after most.

so, to start things off we've got two heavy hitters: John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and his tried and true Jazz Bass and Acoustic (w/18" vega) rig, versus John Entwistle of The Who. Enty used like... a billion different basses and amps over his career so i'm going to go with what he used in the early 70's (when both bands were at their height): the Gibson Thunderbird bass and Sunn Coliseum amps.

vote + discuss
 
#3
A-Step-Towards said:
I am going with John e., i know your just taking about 1 set up but my main reason is that guy was one of the first bass players with major G.A.S , he would fit in here just right.


JPJ is badass but i would rather own any of Entwistle's main basses over JPJ's
Click to expand...

True dat! The T-Bird/Sunn set up massive as it might have been was just a temporary stopover on his never ending journey. I'm going with the Ox as well.For alot of reasons,one being that JPJ (to his credit)played bass, and most everything else. JE PLAYED bass.
 
#9
They are both tops on my list, I gave JPJ my vote with the J Bass and rig but John is probably my biggest influence as a bass player. JPJ though had such a great sound with his J….One song that stands out for me with JPJ is Heartbreaker. The mix of Jimmy’s guitar and John’s Bass is a s good as it gets.
 
#10
Both are in my top 5. I would say the Alembic sound John found a little later is a little bit more magic to me than his Tbird or P sounds. But I think a lot of the differences stem from the very different roles each guy played in his band. From what I understand, the Who evolved an arrangement where Townsend was not originally a strong lead guitarist and JE was expected to fill more of the lead space than traditional bassists would. Hence all the melodics and forefront fills in his bass. On the other hand, to my ear, JPJ would never have been confused with the lead guitarist role in Zeppelin. I think the space he created and the way he blended to the band was absolutely superb and unique - but definitely a different role than JE's, requiring different sounds. Now I've got to find some Zeppelin to complement the Who CDs in my car for the ride to work... ;)
 
#16
Tough choice as both rigs have some sentimental value to me. I had a sunn in the late 70s, and regrettably sold it. The tubes were ringing, and at the time the cost of 4 kt88s was quite high...

OTOH, I always thought the acoustic folded horn cabinet was pretty cool.

I know zepp has pretty good bass tone in the studio, live their sound quality isn't very good. I would guess the who has good studio bass tones, and live no better sound quality than zepp. But I will give the nod to jones--though that might just be a nod to jimmy page and the studio engineers.

I doubt either rig measures up very well to modern gear, which is why I was talking about sentimental value.
 
#17
Have to say Entwhistle, not for any specific set up but for overall tone over the years, I really liked his. I also liked JPJ's tone, but I can't resist Entwhistle's crunchy tone. It's too good. And his strumming technique?
 

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