• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

John Paul Jones tone

#81
Well that's one good way to listen to the bass runs in a tune. I have been working on the tone for the last year playing in a tribute band. I didn't have to work too hard at it since it's close to the same tone I have been usuing for years. I have however gained much respect for JPJ. He gets many different tones for different songs. A little more highs, sometimes distortion, mid growls, and at times lots of low end. With a jazz bass and DiMarzio pups, an added Steve Harrris P neck that's nice and thick, I come pretty close. I also use a 62 AVRI P bass for some tunes. Some fretless work thrown in on my Alembic works well. Last night I tried a Hot Rod P/J bass and it sounded awesome. Just backed off the J pup about 25%. I use a combination of a 69 SVT amp or my Messa 400 with a sealed 810 ampeg cab and a 410 ported ampeg stack. The rest is in the fingers. I will apologize in advance for this crappy flip video quality. It was shot in a bar last week. The bass is a little hard to hear if you don't turn it up on your eq.
VID00011.MP4 - YouTube
 
#82
If you watch footage of Jones playing his Jazz, he tends to pluck up around the neck most of the time, and he plays fairly hard with lots of attack. I spent lots of time pausing my VHS copy of The Song Remains The Same to watch what he was doing. Unfortunately the camera shots of Jones were very brief, since 98% of the concert footage is of Plant or Page. You get a 20 second shot of Page, then a 20 second shot of Plant, then a 3 second shot of JPJ, then back to Page. :scowl:
 
#84
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
If you watch footage of Jones playing his Jazz, he tends to pluck up around the neck most of the time, and he plays fairly hard with lots of attack. I spent lots of time pausing my VHS copy of The Song Remains The Same to watch what he was doing. Unfortunately the camera shots of Jones were very brief, since 98% of the concert footage is of Plant or Page. You get a 20 second shot of Page, then a 20 second shot of Plant, then a 3 second shot of JPJ, then back to Page. :scowl:
Click to expand...

Every cameraman that works in entertainment should be sat down at one point in their apprenticeship and have it explained to them what a bass is, how to identify it and thus the person playing it. Then they should be whipped raw until agreeing to film him or her at least 1% of the time accorded everyone else. It would still be an improvement.

Then I suppose you'd still have the editors and producers to educate, too. Losing battle...
 
#85
Man...how could that early stuff NOT be flats? Dazed & Confused? Sounds to me like big ol' flats and a healthy dose of tube compression. I don't see how it could possibly be Rotosounds!

I also recall hearing the "flats on the Jazz, rounds on the P" rumor. Makes sense to me - "Heartbreaker" sounds like a gritty old P to me, underneath all the doppler.
 
#86
The only time Jones used a P Bass was the fretless one he played on In my time of Dying live in 75', which he later switched to the Arco Upright. His 2 recording basses were the 62' Jazz, and the 52 Telecaster bass. The Jazz bass was his ONLY bass in later 72' and 73' as he had no backups. He played the fender bass 5 on the 73 tour on a few shows, but he couldn't get into it. He retired the Jazz bass after the 75' tour because he said it was starting to rattle and fall apart, but he continued and continues to use that same bass in the studio. You can hear it all over In Through The Out Door.
 
#87
#88
JFLbass said:
I play a lot of Zep songs! For me it's a Jazz with SS rounds, neck pickup all the way on, bridge pickup depends and I roll off the treble a bit. Sometime, I'll put a a string mute(foam) under the strings, because I'm sure JPJ used it in studio and somes songs live. Those old JAzz Bass had those strings mute, and in some video of early Led Zeppelin shows, we saw the full bridge with the string mute!
Click to expand...
In this video you can see the string mute foam and the right hand plucking where the neck and body meet:

The amp gain seems to be slightly overdrived
 
Last edited:
#89
Don Corleone said:
The only time Jones used a P Bass was the fretless one he played on In my time of Dying live in 75', which he later switched to the Arco Upright. His 2 recording basses were the 62' Jazz, and the 52 Telecaster bass. The Jazz bass was his ONLY bass in later 72' and 73' as he had no backups. He played the fender bass 5 on the 73 tour on a few shows, but he couldn't get into it. He retired the Jazz bass after the 75' tour because he said it was starting to rattle and fall apart, but he continued and continues to use that same bass in the studio. You can hear it all over In Through The Out Door.
Click to expand...
Telecaster basses didn't exist in 52. The natural maple with 'tele' headstock (71-72) is in fact an early precision. He used the 'natural' P for the songs where he preferred using a pick instead of finger style.
And he did use the Hagstrom 8 string live occasionally until 1973. The Framus and Arco EUB's were used in the acoustic section on 75 EC and 77 US (Bron Y Aur Stomp)
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back