Especially the tracks from Signals. Considering that album pissed off a lot of the Rush faithful for not rocking hard enough, he had some serious overdrive going on that record.
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Bright? I wouldn't associate bright tone with AJ! His tone is extremely mellow and deep sounding.
True, not always but I still wouldn't consider his tone bright. Sounds normal to me. To me, bright is Mark King.
This last year when he changed cabs/ and heads I was not a fan of his new tone with the Winery Dogs.
I don't like his tone from Counterparts onward. Probably because that was the album he introduced the flamenco playing and his lines became less melodic and more just flurries of notes. Very clanky now, whereas it was meatier on the earlier albums.
That's funny, I almost completely agree with you but I draw the line after Counterparts, not before it. I though Counterparts was about right.
The first time I said this, I was severely chastised by the band I was with, but what the heck. I can't stand the bass tone on the Dire Straits Live LP.
Sorry for going off topic but that AJ clip... Unlike a lot of modern jazz bassists who base their soloing on phrases transcribed from horn or guitar lines, who I do really like, especially the likes of Feraud, Tony Grey, etc., Anthony really does have his own thing going on. Never heard that before. I've been lucky enough to see him with Hiromi twice. His tone was better the second time round with the hollow Presentation II.
Back to the topic in hand, I have to say I far prefer Mark King's tone pre-Status. Statii are just too bright. I also think Patitucci, despite having an alright tone, would benefit from ditching the Yamaha. I'm not anti-Yamaha, I like Nathan East's tones, but Patitucci's bass just sounds wrong to me.
Kelly Groucutt from Electric Light Orchestra
Excellent rock/pop player but - between J.Lynne's love for The Beatles and being in a band where the bottom-end was in competition with strings and keyboards - Groucutt's sound was reduced to a thin one-dimensional rubber-band fundamental
....+1 to Sheehan from me as well
Excellent rock/pop player but - between J.Lynne's love for The Beatles and being in a band where the bottom-end was in competition with strings and keyboards - Groucutt's sound was reduced to a thin one-dimensional rubber-band fundamental
....+1 to Sheehan from me as well
First, I agree on Sheehan, and Pastorious but not to the same extent. Jaco was in some ways limited by the gear that was available at the time.
Mine haven't been mentioned:
Steffan Lessard with Dave Mathews Band. A great player but his dark tone absolutely buries him in the mix
Whoever's got the Bass chair for John Mayer. Both Pino and David LaBruyere don't have enough definition in there sound and they get lost especially in live mixes. Seeing both with Mayer was disapointing, neither had enough punch to cut thru the mix. It was amazing how much better Willie Weeks showed up in the mix when playing with Scofield and Mayer on Ray Charles tribute gig.
Jeff Berlin, another absolutely great player. But the bassy chorus sound with no trouble would be an absolute nightmare to reproduce live in any less than perfect setting. It might work in a small dry sounding club, but any boominess in the room youd have to seriously strain to hear him.
Mine haven't been mentioned:
Steffan Lessard with Dave Mathews Band. A great player but his dark tone absolutely buries him in the mix
Whoever's got the Bass chair for John Mayer. Both Pino and David LaBruyere don't have enough definition in there sound and they get lost especially in live mixes. Seeing both with Mayer was disapointing, neither had enough punch to cut thru the mix. It was amazing how much better Willie Weeks showed up in the mix when playing with Scofield and Mayer on Ray Charles tribute gig.
Jeff Berlin, another absolutely great player. But the bassy chorus sound with no trouble would be an absolute nightmare to reproduce live in any less than perfect setting. It might work in a small dry sounding club, but any boominess in the room youd have to seriously strain to hear him.
I'd agree about Entwistle's later years tone. His tone on Quadrophenia is soooo good--that's the quintessential Ox tone to me ---but once he started adding all that sizzly high end and I guess playing the Alembics I just couldn't dig it. And the comment about Sting too---love his early Police sounds, but most of what I hear on his more recent work is just sort of…eh..very indistinct.
I'm in love with that airy tone. I wish he would take a chill pill and not hammer out 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 notes a second, but I guess he wouldn't be Sheehan if he didn't, eh?
Also, I will agree on the Jaco thing. Sometimes, I just loved his tone. Other times, I couldn't handle hearing it. But it was his sound, and that he could make it his own was revolutionary.
