Jason Newstead's tone

[AwesomeMcBadass]

You need to grow your hair out and get the Newstead haircut.
Otherwise, there's no hope.

 

[TheHegemon]

Man, I miss watching Jason play with those guys, gonna have to break out the old Cunning Stunts dvd.

I always suspected a little light overdrive in his tone.

 

[jenderfazz]

it's easy to get his tone on ...and justice for all. just turn down your amp a little.





as for his live tone, i'd second the sansamp vt suggestion. seems like it would nail his overdrive sound and it has more mids than the bddi.

 

[Demonator]

Everytime "Wherever I MAy Roam" comes on my dad askes me if I can Play it. Im sure he knows I cant because I dont own a 12 string bass. Its insulting..

 

[PBass101]

From Metpage.org:

"Old Ampeg SVT head and cabinet for the meatus of the sound."

"Several old men Ampeg SVT 8x10 cabinets"

Old men and meatuses. You'll have his tone in minutes.

 

[motionkid]

Funny how I found this because I just got a very Newsted-based sound...

I'm playin a Charvel 2b bass with the tone knob on full and both pickups up all the way through a Crate BT1000 combo.

EQ'ing is:

Bass: 11 o' clock
Low-mid: 1 o' clock
Hi-mid: 2 o' clock
Treble: 11 o' clock

Basically just take the mids up slightly more than the treble and you should get in the ballpark...

 

[Sliza]

Is it just me or is Jasons' sound a bit mid-scooped in this video?

 

[SiReZ]

i was reading that article in the newsted bass player interview. i cant find anywhere that talks about his picking style

 

[Sliza]

It really depends on if you are going for Jason newsted on garage II and ...and justice for all (1987-1989) or if you are going for the load/reload/garage I newsted (1995-2000). For both sounds you need a SansAmp Driver DI and Dunlop Tortex Blue (1mm) pics (and yes what the pic is made of really makes a difference in sound).

For the late 80's newsted sound your gonna want to have brand spanking new Ernie Ball nickel strings not broke in at all, your gonna want to take your Sansamp pedal and turn the knobs like this: BLEND-all the way up (5 o'clock)....TREBLE-10 o'clock...PRESENCE-3 o'clock (warning its very bright and twangy).....BASS-11 o'clock.....DRIVE-1 o'clock. That will give you almost the identical late 80's and justice/garage II newsted sound.


For the load/reload/garage late 90's newsted sound, you will want your Ernie Ball nickel strings to be a bit broken in, mainly loosing the twang you get from brand new out of the box strings. On your sans amp pedal you want to turn the knobs like this: BLEND-anywhere between 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock (his late 90's sound not only had more broken in strings but he also blended his sans amp pedal sound with his clean bass sound too)....TREBLE-12 o'clock....PRESENCE-anywhere between 10 and 12 o'clock....BASS-12 o'clock....DRIVE-between 10 and 12 o'clock (he used less drive in the late 90's). But that will give you almost the identical late 90's newsted sound.

I hope this has helped you.

That's quite interesting! But I have a question regarding the Sansamp. Would a Behringer BDI 21 do the job, too?

 

[rockstarbassist]

I detune my Jason-correct '85 NS2 a half step and I nail the tone of the Black and Load/Reload days.
On Black he also used a Wal and fretless EB/MM you can see in the Year and a Half In The Life Of... VHS/DVD.

 

[Sliza]

For the load/reload/garage late 90's newsted sound, you will want your Ernie Ball nickel strings to be a bit broken in, mainly loosing the twang you get from brand new out of the box strings. On your sans amp pedal you want to turn the knobs like this: BLEND-anywhere between 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock (his late 90's sound not only had more broken in strings but he also blended his sans amp pedal sound with his clean bass sound too)....TREBLE-12 o'clock....PRESENCE-anywhere between 10 and 12 o'clock....BASS-12 o'clock....DRIVE-between 10 and 12 o'clock (he used less drive in the late 90's). But that will give you almost the identical late 90's newsted sound.

So, has anyone tried the above mentioned setting on a Sansamp and can confirm, that it gets you close to the late 90's Newsted sound?

 

[Qvist]

That's quite interesting! But I have a question regarding the Sansamp. Would a Behringer BDI 21 do the job, too?

Yeah, I'm doing it ;-) Although that again depends on the era. It nails his AJFA tone perfectly (and I'm basing that from hearing the bass tracks from Guitar Hero). I can PM you a soundclip sometime, if I get my mic recording stuff setup!

 

[Sliza]

@ Qvist: Yeah, that would be great!!!!

 

[Sliza]

So, has anyone tried the above mentioned setting on a Sansamp and can confirm, that it gets you close to the late 90's Newsted sound?

*BUMP*

 

[wicked_child]

he said in one of his interviews that he usually records with his workhorse, a '59 P. that plus some gain and treble.

 

[Ian Perge]

Everytime "Wherever I MAy Roam" comes on my dad askes me if I can Play it. Im sure he knows I cant because I dont own a 12 string bass. Its insulting..

One word - "MicroPOG". After over 10 years of using various electronic effects (Bass Whammy, Yamaha MagicStomp EB) for my "Virtual 10-string" as only extremely expensive custom models were available, I finally got to pick of the real thing when Dean came out with their fairly low-budget "Edge Hammer 10X" 10-string... and after a solid year of playing sold it. For my playing style it was extremely hard to play fingerstyle, my picking skills were nowhere up to snuff for it, and the neck was a bit too wide & outside my comfort zone. The MicroPOG easily is the best-sounding & tracking upper-octave effects unit I've tried thusfar, I can use it with any bass I'm using as opposed to a dedicated doubled-string bass, and I can kick the effect on-and-off for specific parts within a song instead of being "stuck" with a 10-sting for the whole thing. Add a touch of dirt and or Chorus after it (I use an Xotic Bass BB pedal for my overdrives) and you got Instant King's X/Jeff Ament tone at your fingers.

i was reading that article in the newsted bass player interview. i cant find anywhere that talks about his picking style

It's not his '96 BP cover where he was promoting "Load", it was his '91 when The Black Album came out that there's a half-page section regarding his picking. I remember it closely, as mine is extremely close to his: a lot of power and motion from your shoulder as opposed to your wrist.

 

[Sliza]

For the load/reload/garage late 90's newsted sound, you will want your Ernie Ball nickel strings to be a bit broken in, mainly loosing the twang you get from brand new out of the box strings. On your sans amp pedal you want to turn the knobs like this: BLEND-anywhere between 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock (his late 90's sound not only had more broken in strings but he also blended his sans amp pedal sound with his clean bass sound too)....TREBLE-12 o'clock....PRESENCE-anywhere between 10 and 12 o'clock....BASS-12 o'clock....DRIVE-between 10 and 12 o'clock (he used less drive in the late 90's). But that will give you almost the identical late 90's newsted sound.

So, has anyone tried the above mentioned setting on a Sansamp and can confirm, that it gets you close to the late 90's Newsted sound?

 

[officialjlox]

So, has anyone tried the above mentioned setting on a Sansamp and can confirm, that it gets you close to the late 90's Newsted sound?

I haven't tried it, but I was thinking of picking one of these up relatively soon so maybe I'll have some input. As a bassist who primarily uses a pick, I absolutely love Jason's tone in the late 90's stuff. The cunning stunts dvd was one of the main reasons I decided to switch to bass


Random side note- has anyone noticed he plays with his fingers in the "turn the page" video? odd because I thought he played that song with a pick? did he just do it for the video?

 

[Sliza]

Random side note- has anyone noticed he plays with his fingers in the "turn the page" video? odd because I thought he played that song with a pick? did he just do it for the video?

He's just doing it for the video. He does that in the "One" and "The Memory Remains" video, too.

 

[Elrend]

Get your own tone, please.