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John Paul Jones ROUND tone

C

chief redcok

Mar 17, 2012
162
3
Ft. Lauderdale
#1
Im a huge fan of JPJ and all the incredible things he did with Zep, but as most of you may know, LZII is probably one of the greatest rock albums for any bass player.. Now my question to you is simply what were the settings on his amp to get that ROUND tone? In songs such as-

What Is and What Should Never Be
The Lemon Song
Thank You
Living Loving Maid
Ramble On
Moby Dick
Bring It On Home
and even Dazed and Confused
 
#2
I presume you don't mean ROUND as in 'roundwound' strings right? Me and my mates grew up calling it the Big and Brown Sound :)

JPJ got his sound back then from a Fender Jazz strung with flatwound strings and an Acoustic 360 bass amp. As for his AMP settings.. Who knows? I guess he just used his ears and dialled in what sounded good to suit his surroundings. As we all should!

Hope this helps.
 
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#5
There are many peeps on here who claim JPJ used rounds to get that tone. I have never heard from the horses mouth directly what type of strings he used, however...........

Having basically learned the bass by playing along to those albums, and spending years seeking that tone, I came closest with Rotosound Flats on my jazz bass. Really close!
 
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#12
Personally I think you turn the mid range off, the bass almost on full, and the treble almost on full, push in the "high" button (no pun intended– really do it.) If it's an Acoustic 320 with the parametric eq make the V shape just like the knobs, bass high, waning %, mids off, waxing%, treb high, you play your bass almost full open very little cap in the mix.
He used acoustic 320 head too.
 
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#15
chief redcok said:
I know its flatwound strings I just need some help with the Mid section of his tone
Click to expand...

To my ears, it's a pretty hefty boost around 200-250hz. But it's such a subjective thing too. The recording gear was so different back then that I'm sure everything in the chain added some of its own color.

He also seems to play with a pretty heavy attack. I think that's part of it.
 
#18
what about the controls on that Jazz? did he favor the neck pup? tone knob rolled quite a bit?
I never considered JPJ's tone to represent the Jazz Bass tone, I simply never played or heard a Jazz which had even the slightest nuance of his tone (maybe except Van Morrison's Black Eyed Girl which shares a J-bass tone that's in the same ballpark).
 
#19
I think the JPJ Jazz bass tone is a tone that can only be achieved with an MIA Fender Jazz...

but with that being said, you made a really good point on the pickup settings.. Does anyone know which pup he had higher or lower, I feel like he had the bridge pup rolled off just slightly and I'm sure he messed with the tone
 

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