Good evening, friends. I was listening to Heaven and Hell's Live in Radio City Music Hall and completely fell in love with Geezer's tone on that album. Does anyone know the secret to achieving that tone? I know Geezer used Lakland basses with PJ pickups and Ampeg amps back then. I have a Steve Harris Sansamp pedal, and there's a Geezer setup on it, and I have a bass with an EMG HZ PJ pickup. The tone is cool, but it's still not what I'm looking for...
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Geezer Butler's 2007 tone
- Thread starter Asllan Pizzatto
- Start date
I haven't seen the DVD of the Radio City show in years, and I forget what he played on it, but the bass in the bottom picture isn't a Lakland. It's a Yamaha 1024X.
Yeah, I know. It's a Yamaha BB1024X. The photo is to show the amplifiers, not the bass...
On most Live Rock recordings the Sound (tone) was taken of the board not Mic's keep that in mind
Yes a few may have used Miced amps connected to board even then there is heavy production involved
Yes a few may have used Miced amps connected to board even then there is heavy production involved
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To the OP, I’m wondering if what you hear is something that is not achievable with gear.
To me I can hear ‘him’ on anything he uses.
There are slight variations of course with gear…But some of it is in the hands.
To me I can hear ‘him’ on anything he uses.
There are slight variations of course with gear…But some of it is in the hands.
I suspect what we hear in this clip is a great bass sound achieved through great production, not someone’s mic’ed amp or raw direct sound.
I think that tone is mostly DI, EQ, compression, and Geezer.
That said, is there a microsynth or something on the bass during the guitar solos? At first I thought it was a backing track with rhythm guitar, but after listening for a bit I'm hearing a synth flavour to it.
That said, is there a microsynth or something on the bass during the guitar solos? At first I thought it was a backing track with rhythm guitar, but after listening for a bit I'm hearing a synth flavour to it.
The did have a keyboard player touring with them on that, and, IIRC, every tour since the late 70's. On this tour it was Scott Warren. The "flavor" may be him.
Bass, fingers, amp, amp settings, strings, and not least studio magic/mixing/mastering matters.
The pickup is only one little aspect of the while equation.
If you have the fundage, you could have his 2025 tone…
apple.news
Geezer Butler to sell signed amps used at rehearsals for Black Sabbath's final show — Guitar.com
The Sabbath-used Head of Doom Bass Magnifiers and made-to-order Cab of Doom cabinets go on sale 14 October.
Cliff and Newstead inspired me to play the bass, Geezer inspired me how I play the bass.
Right and left hand technique are everything
Plucking hand comes down hard on the strings to create a percussive harmonic.
Try slapping with your thumb and then recreate that with your plucking fingers. You'll know it when you get it.
It's fast and hard, but just hitting the edge of the string
Paired with that technique is the use of micro bends with the fretting hand.
As your plucking hits that harmonic, the fretting hand accentuates it with a small bend to get the note to sing.
Listen to his solo before NIB and you can hear it.
A compressor and fuzz/drive will bring it more to the forefront.
A P/J or dual split coil (Ibanez) really makes this technique sing, but I've achieved it on all my basses.
Right and left hand technique are everything
Plucking hand comes down hard on the strings to create a percussive harmonic.
Try slapping with your thumb and then recreate that with your plucking fingers. You'll know it when you get it.
It's fast and hard, but just hitting the edge of the string
Paired with that technique is the use of micro bends with the fretting hand.
As your plucking hits that harmonic, the fretting hand accentuates it with a small bend to get the note to sing.
Listen to his solo before NIB and you can hear it.
A compressor and fuzz/drive will bring it more to the forefront.
A P/J or dual split coil (Ibanez) really makes this technique sing, but I've achieved it on all my basses.
ThanksHappy to help the community
At 42:00, you can see this technique in action.
His right and left hands working in concert to make the harmonics sing.
It's not slapping straight down on the full string, it's coming down at an angle, down but towards yourself, while hitting somewhere between just-off the middle of the string towards the inside and a near-miss.
Then using your fretting hand to accentuate that harmonic with a slight bend.
Very similar to how Santana plays. He started as a violin player and said his teaching was all about vibrato to achieve sustain. So when he switched to guitar, he did the same thing as Geezer found.
Once I got this down, it became my sound no matter what bass I play.
At 42:00, you can see this technique in action.
His right and left hands working in concert to make the harmonics sing.
It's not slapping straight down on the full string, it's coming down at an angle, down but towards yourself, while hitting somewhere between just-off the middle of the string towards the inside and a near-miss.
Then using your fretting hand to accentuate that harmonic with a slight bend.
Very similar to how Santana plays. He started as a violin player and said his teaching was all about vibrato to achieve sustain. So when he switched to guitar, he did the same thing as Geezer found.
Once I got this down, it became my sound no matter what bass I play.
At 1:40 has a good angle of his technique.
His left hand makes almost imperceivable bends, and his right hand makes a fast and forceful velocity but hits off to the side so it's not moving the strings a great deal like playing with a pick would do.
The way I developed this was to slap with my thumb and work on the 1/8th bend with my fretting hand to get that harmonic.
Then once I got that, I worked on getting my plucking fingers to achieve the same sound I got by slapping with my thumb
His left hand makes almost imperceivable bends, and his right hand makes a fast and forceful velocity but hits off to the side so it's not moving the strings a great deal like playing with a pick would do.
The way I developed this was to slap with my thumb and work on the 1/8th bend with my fretting hand to get that harmonic.
Then once I got that, I worked on getting my plucking fingers to achieve the same sound I got by slapping with my thumb
Once you get those two techniques down, you can get different tones by shifting where you pluck - anywhere from just over where a P pickup would be up to the 17th fret, and everywhere in between.
Over the fret board is more of a Ten Years After and Robin Trower's Bridge Of Sighs sound.
Over the fret board is more of a Ten Years After and Robin Trower's Bridge Of Sighs sound.
