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John Paul Jones's Bass?

#23
You see how Rick just pops in, blows minds, and then goes back underground? Bless him, it' so cool to have him show up on here once in a while.

I've seen a lot about his Jazz bass and that's absolutely THE JPJ tone in my mind. The sound from the first few albums, which is heavy as all hell. The thing is, I've seen articles where it said he was using Rotosound roundwounds, but it just doesn't sound like that to me at all. It sounds like the epitome of a jazz bass with flats on all the early stuff. It could be just an EQ thing, but there's no roundwound edge on it to my ears. It's all just heavy bass.
 
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#24
Watching Zeppelin's live DVD's, it's obvious his signature sound comes from a 60s Jazz with a big Acoustic rig. That is the epitome, in my opinion. In studio, he has used P basses on certain Zep songs, like Immigrant Song and Black Dog, and after Houses of the Holy or so, he began playing Alembics till the end of the 70s.
 
#26
corinpills said:
You see how Rick just pops in, blows minds, and then goes back underground? Bless him, it' so cool to have him show up on here once in a while.

I've seen a lot about his Jazz bass and that's absolutely THE JPJ tone in my mind. The sound from the first few albums, which is heavy as all hell. The thing is, I've seen articles where it said he was using Rotosound roundwounds, but it just doesn't sound like that to me at all. It sounds like the epitome of a jazz bass with flats on all the early stuff. It could be just an EQ thing, but there's no roundwound edge on it to my ears. It's all just heavy bass.
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Check out the Zep BBC Sessions Disc 2. Clearly rounds. But you can see the flats in the DVD first disc, though.
 
#27
corinpills said:
The thing is, I've seen articles where it said he was using Rotosound roundwounds, but it just doesn't sound like that to me at all. It sounds like the epitome of a jazz bass with flats on all the early stuff. It could be just an EQ thing, but there's no roundwound edge on it to my ears. It's all just heavy bass.
Click to expand...

That's what I have always thought. I always assumed that he played Labella Flats or something similar, and when I heard he played roto rounds I couldn't believe it. If he does, he does a great job of EQing and must have quite the formula for deadening strings. I'm sure that technique has a lot to do with it, too.
 
#30
I saw JPJ at a small club in Boston on his solo tour. I stood off to the side of the stage and found myself about 3 feet from the table set up for instrument tech work. The guy doing the work was Hugh Manson for JPJ ofcourse. I got to talking to him before the show and between songs and I asked if JPJ still had his Zeppelin Jazz. He said it just got it's 3rd refinish which Hugh did for him. I asked about current string use he said JPJ is using strings Manson puts out.

About 3 months later I went into a small music store that is a few blocks from that same nightclub. This shop is known for always having good used older Fender stuff. On the music store wall were some autographed Led Zep pictures with JPJ signature on them. The guy running the store said JPJ and Hugh Manson walked in the afternoon of the show and played a bunch of the older stuff. JohnPaul came to the counter with a 70's Tele 6string and some other guitars. They swiped his credit card and it got denied. Turned out that he had a problem with the credit card security where it was a large overseas purchase. I'm sure he's got the money to back it! I found it all interesting since I think the man is the best. I'm in that shop quite often playing all my favorite Zeppelin bass parts on ther cool older Fenders. Can you imagine if I happened to be doing it the day those two walked in. I look up from my Zep riffing and there's John Paul Jones standing there looking at me.
 
#31
jpjlz_69b.jpg
 
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#34
chiplexic said:
I saw JPJ at a small club in Boston on his solo tour. I stood off to the side of the stage and found myself about 3 feet from the table set up for instrument tech work. The guy doing the work was Hugh Manson for JPJ ofcourse. I got to talking to him before the show and between songs and I asked if JPJ still had his Zeppelin Jazz. He said it just got it's 3rd refinish which Hugh did for him. I asked about current string use he said JPJ is using strings Manson puts out.

About 3 months later I went into a small music store that is a few blocks from that same nightclub. This shop is known for always having good used older Fender stuff. On the music store wall were some autographed Led Zep pictures with JPJ signature on them. The guy running the store said JPJ and Hugh Manson walked in the afternoon of the show and played a bunch of the older stuff. JohnPaul came to the counter with a 70's Tele 6string and some other guitars. They swiped his credit card and it got denied. Turned out that he had a problem with the credit card security where it was a large overseas purchase. I'm sure he's got the money to back it! I found it all interesting since I think the man is the best. I'm in that shop quite often playing all my favorite Zeppelin bass parts on ther cool older Fenders. Can you imagine if I happened to be doing it the day those two walked in. I look up from my Zep riffing and there's John Paul Jones standing there looking at me.
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and then you'd proceed to profusely wet your pants. I know I would.

:eek:
 
#35
ElBajista said:
That's what I have always thought. I always assumed that he played Labella Flats or something similar, and when I heard he played roto rounds I couldn't believe it. If he does, he does a great job of EQing and must have quite the formula for deadening strings. I'm sure that technique has a lot to do with it, too.
Click to expand...

Having played my Precision with broken in rounds through a mid scooped Ampeg, I can get pretty close to his jazz bass tone - not identical, but certainly not brighter sounding. That's why I assumed he used a Precision - it's such a fat, deep tone. Of course the genius runs he played sure agreed with his tone, but even something fairly simple like "Rock & Roll" - that's what I call commanding tone.
 
#36
I have to say though, It's been years since I've seen "The Song Remains the Same", but I remember being very let down by that. I thought everything sounded kind of wimpy, for lack of a better word. "Whole Lotta Love" sounded really bad to me - but I guess it would be pretty difficult to reproduce that sound.
 
#37
Skel said:
I have to say though, It's been years since I've seen "The Song Remains the Same", but I remember being very let down by that. I thought everything sounded kind of wimpy, for lack of a better word. "Whole Lotta Love" sounded really bad to me - but I guess it would be pretty difficult to reproduce that sound.
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Dude, you need to see the "How the West Was Won" DVD.

by the way, with all respect to Alembic, I much prefer the tone if his jazz.
 
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#38
Skel said:
I have to say though, It's been years since I've seen "The Song Remains the Same", but I remember being very let down by that. I thought everything sounded kind of wimpy, for lack of a better word. "Whole Lotta Love" sounded really bad to me - but I guess it would be pretty difficult to reproduce that sound.
Click to expand...

It's generally ackowleged that "The Song Remains The Same" is a terrible representation of the band in action- Robert Plant has moaned about it for years. They filmed it at the end of a long tour and Plant's voice was tattered.
 
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#39
eh?? i thought it was great ....if he doesnt like his performance in that one ..well he may as well shoot himself for some of his post zep vocals.

i thought jpj and page were amazing on that video although the sountrack is better ...if they sounded better earlier in the tour then thats great but this was still a fine performance in my book.:bassist:
 

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