How do I get this totally brown tone

[Guitalia]

Oddly enough, the record came out in 2021.

It sounds very EB-0/mudbucker-y to me, so I did some digging and it looks like their bassist plays a Telecaster bass with the big neck humbucker through an SVT with the gain absolutely dimed. I'd be pretty surprised if that didn't get you there. Maybe a big muff on top for extra fun.

Sure. But it's probably from a found tape recorded in 1968. Maybe recorded by dad or granddad. (I once bought three tube consumer-grade reel-to-reel tape recorders in a thrift store for $15 each. All three came with several reels of tape recorded at parties or off radio shows.)

Believe me, I know what plugging a bass into a cheap reel-to-reel sounds like. You can get close with a fuzz box, obviously, because the first fuzz circuits were designed to mimic the sound of an overdriven microphone preamplifier. It's a much nastier sound than overdriving a guitar amp's because of the greater impedance and sensitivity mismatches.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Get a cheap guitar practice amp, and play it too loudly.

 

[mcnach]

I hate to disappoint, but that sound like a regular ol' geetar in drop-D, overdriving a tube amp.

I wasn't sure at first, but later on at around 7 and a half minutes those chords sound like a 6-string guitar to me. Whatever guitar they used was probably using the neck pickup with the passive tone tontrol all the way down, add fuzz...

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Ran across an interview with the band that basically said that they don’t use effects to maintain the natural sound of the guitar. The lead guitarist uses a distortion boost occasionally and a wah pedal on a song or two.

 

[CJAZ]

Blow out your speaker and bingo...

 

[superheavyfunk]

Honestly, I think this is a guitar through an MXR Blue Box. Maybe it’s tuned down to D or something.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Honestly, I think this is a guitar through an MXR Blue Box. Maybe it’s tuned down to D or something.

Is there anything similar but without the octave effect?

 

[Williethump]

I thought that was an isolated bass track so I went to Youtube to hear how the bass sits in the mix with the rest of the instruments. THIS IS THE ENTIRE SONG! 9 MINUTES OF THE SAME RIFF PLAYED ONLY ON BASS - NO DRUMS, NO VOCALS, NO OTHER INSTRUMENTS! I WANT THOSE 9 MINUTES BACK!

It's a cool sound but it never goes anywhere.

 

[andare]

Absolutely wild guesses here. I thought I was on The Gear Page for a second.

 

[MotorCityMinion]

Put a blown or torn speaker into your cab. Run an active bass thru a boost pedal, then into the passive input on your amp.

 

[Guitalia]

I wasn't sure at first, but later on at around 7 and a half minutes those chords sound like a 6-string guitar to me. Whatever guitar they used was probably using the neck pickup with the passive tone tontrol all the way down, add fuzz...

Pretty sure it's a bass. Where the strings were hit harder to get more distortion, guitar strings would have gone sharp for a fraction of a second. The pitch is too stable throughout the recording for guitar. If my guess is correct and the "1968" of the title refers to the year that some ("incompetent") kid recorded this by plugging his brother's bass into a cheap reel-to-reel tape recorder, it would probably have been a Precision with flats.

 

[Guitalia]

Pretty sure it's a bass. Where the strings were hit harder to get more distortion, guitar strings would have gone sharp for a fraction of a second. The pitch is too stable throughout the recording for guitar. If my guess is correct and the "1968" of the title refers to the year that some ("incompetent") kid recorded this by plugging his brother's bass into a cheap reel-to-reel tape recorder, it would probably have been a Precision with flats.

Starting at 1:20, electric guitar plugged into a mic preamp input. Imagine this, but with a bass with heavy flats and double or triple the signal strength.

 

[Grinderman]

Later today, maybe, I'll send a link to this thread to Endless Boogie through their contact page on Bandcamp to initiate. What's the worst possible outcome that could happen... nothing?

 

[Obese Chess]

Sure. But it's probably from a found tape recorded in 1968. Maybe recorded by dad or granddad. (I once bought three tube consumer-grade reel-to-reel tape recorders in a thrift store for $15 each. All three came with several reels of tape recorded at parties or off radio shows.)

This may sound standoffish over text but I assure you it isn't intended to be - what makes you think that this is a 50+ year old recording, "probably from a found tape recorder in 1968?"

 

[PBO Blues]

Ran across an interview with the band that basically said that they don’t use effects to maintain the natural sound of the guitar. The lead guitarist uses a distortion boost occasionally and a wah pedal on a song or two.

Looking through their online performances, I saw no other example of the bass playing through effects. Always a pretty clean, albeit heavy, tone. The rhythm guitar, however, wanders to the fuzzy side occasionally. Granted, my sample size was small.

Later today, maybe, I'll send a link to this thread to Endless Boogie through their contact page on Bandcamp to initiate. What's the worst possible outcome that could happen... nothing?

A marvelous idea!

 

[deep_ruin]

some great ideas here, thanks guys, it's funny to see no consensus on guitar or bass - personally I'm most convinced by a heavy tube amp overdrive with a blown speaker, maybe a baritone guitar.

to my ears, the most similar thing is a germanium fuzz, but the thing that throws me off is the higher harmonics are totally damped and there's that heavy low-mid resonance. It sounds like the speaker cone is soaked in oil!

for the people that are asking, I use a P-bass with flat wounds... but I'm not sure this guy is using flatwound cos I think you can hear his hands moving.

 

[gregmon79]

some great ideas here, thanks guys, it's funny to see no consensus on guitar or bass - personally I'm most convinced by a heavy tube amp overdrive with a blown speaker, maybe a baritone guitar.

to my ears, the most similar thing is a germanium fuzz, but the thing that throws me off is the higher harmonics are totally damped and there's that heavy low-mid resonance. It sounds like the speaker cone is soaked in oil!

for the people that are asking, I use a P-bass with flat wounds... but I'm not sure this guy is using flatwound cos I think you can hear his hands moving.

If you like using flats only, try the Fender green wrapped flats. I can't remember the number on them. They are flats but you can still get some finger noises on them.

A P bass would help get you there IMO. Roll the tone back a bit and use a muff possibly. If you do have a tube amp, that'll help. A boost dimed into a tube head could get you there.

 

[mcnach]

Starting at 1:20, electric guitar plugged into a mic preamp input. Imagine this, but with a bass with heavy flats and double or triple the signal strength.

It could well be! Agh, I don't know anymore, I keep flip-flopping

Cool video, by the way, thank you!
Takes me back... My first electric guitar was a really bad stratocaster copy I bought from a friend, who bought it from a friend, who... you get the idea, this guitar had seen and been places, and it showed. But it was all I could afford, and while playing AC/DC riffs on a nylon string Spanish guitar sounded cool, it really wasn't the sound I was after. Hence the strat copy. But now I needed an amplifier, and I had zero money left. I started using our family Hifi system... it was a very distorted sound, a lot like in the video, and to the ears of a 16 year old IT RAWKED