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LEMMY bass tone
- Thread starter Julien63000
- Start date
Hehe
Yep I know but I’m really keen on those VBA . I heard great reviews from fellow talkbass users over the past days.Hehe
I wouldn't kick one out of bed for eating crackers, that's for sure!
I know right sir Haha ! I think I’m gonna go with this vba and his vbc 4x12 . Paired with my rick that should do the trick 
Careful not to blow the cab. With 400w RMS, if you crank it into the red, you can put out as much as 800w in peaks. That should be plenty to blow any 412 on earth, especially one that'll blow with 400w. That's also a major reason why Lemmy used 100w heads...so he didn't blow the cabs all the time.I know right sir Haha ! I think I’m gonna go with this vba and his vbc 4x12 . Paired with my rick that should do the trick
Ya, I don’t think it’s all that complex. When I play Ace of Spades, I crank the drive on my Sansamp BDDI and I get a very reasonable facsimile of his tone. Don’t overthink it!!!
I can go in similar sonic territory using bridge pickup and Green Rhino overdrive, which is very mid proeminent.
This pedal will get you there as well without the ridiculous volume
Well you got me
Cranked Marshalls. That’s a start.
Legend has it that the unusual grills on his 412 and 415 signature cabs were requested by the road crew to make swapping speakers easier (because he was still blowing them frequently enough with only 100 watts).
That said, I use a VBC with an SVT, which by all accounts has higher peak wattage (despite being nominally rated 100 watts lower) than the VBA and haven't blown a speaker yet. (Yes, I have run it wide open, albeit only briefly and while safely behind several layers of concrete in a recording studio).
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I have been trying to emulate Lemmy’s sound for a Motorhead tribute band I’m part of.
I have watched a lot of interviews and videos, including the one with his 90’s era producer Cameron Webb.
After a year of working on his sound here are my obervations. They are not perfect but I hope they will help you.
The bass : Sonically almost any bass will do. If you can better to work with humbuckers. Aesthetically only a Ric will really do. I know Lemmy used other basses but the Ric is just so strongly associated with him.
The rest : If like 99% of us you cant get your hands on a signature amp then you will have to work your way around. I gig in different places that have very different amps. And the most efficient way I could find to emulate his tone in all those different places was using two amps. I use a Source Audio aftershock to send 2 different signals.
The left is a fairly clean bass tone going to the bass amp. That amp will be quite low volume. Motorhead doesn’t require a lot of bass but contrarily to what most fans will tell you it does requires some. The interview of Cameron Webb I mentioned earlier comforted me in my choice to put some bass, as he was also using a clean signal when mixing. Lemmy didn’t like it but Lemmy also had damaged hearing (duh!) and was not able to hear all the frequencies properly. I tried playing gigs with mids only and it was no fun for the band nor for the audience.
The right is a gritty Marshall type distortion with a lot of mids indeed, no bass and almost no treble. I send it to whatever guitar amp the venue has and then I correct the tone with the amp EQ.
Finally as mentionned earlier you need to be loud and to have a guitarist who knows how to EQ his guitar to stay out of your way.
I am still learning, the journey is not over but it is a fun ride. Hope you enjoy yours.
Edit & PS : If using 2 amps is not an option, use the guitar amp & cab.
I have watched a lot of interviews and videos, including the one with his 90’s era producer Cameron Webb.
After a year of working on his sound here are my obervations. They are not perfect but I hope they will help you.
The bass : Sonically almost any bass will do. If you can better to work with humbuckers. Aesthetically only a Ric will really do. I know Lemmy used other basses but the Ric is just so strongly associated with him.
The rest : If like 99% of us you cant get your hands on a signature amp then you will have to work your way around. I gig in different places that have very different amps. And the most efficient way I could find to emulate his tone in all those different places was using two amps. I use a Source Audio aftershock to send 2 different signals.
The left is a fairly clean bass tone going to the bass amp. That amp will be quite low volume. Motorhead doesn’t require a lot of bass but contrarily to what most fans will tell you it does requires some. The interview of Cameron Webb I mentioned earlier comforted me in my choice to put some bass, as he was also using a clean signal when mixing. Lemmy didn’t like it but Lemmy also had damaged hearing (duh!) and was not able to hear all the frequencies properly. I tried playing gigs with mids only and it was no fun for the band nor for the audience.
The right is a gritty Marshall type distortion with a lot of mids indeed, no bass and almost no treble. I send it to whatever guitar amp the venue has and then I correct the tone with the amp EQ.
Finally as mentionned earlier you need to be loud and to have a guitarist who knows how to EQ his guitar to stay out of your way.
I am still learning, the journey is not over but it is a fun ride. Hope you enjoy yours.
Edit & PS : If using 2 amps is not an option, use the guitar amp & cab.
What you really want is a JCM 800 Bass Series. Also, Lemmy mainly used the neck pickup in the old days, which was from a Gibson Thunderbird. If I ever get a Ric, I may yank the neck pickup out of my T-bird.
edit: missed the earlier post about the pickup
edit: missed the earlier post about the pickup
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From the interview:
"What made you gravitate toward the Rickenbacker as your main instrument?
The shape. I’m all for the image—always. If you get one that looks good, you can always mess with the pickups if it sounds bad."
And there you have it.
"What made you gravitate toward the Rickenbacker as your main instrument?
The shape. I’m all for the image—always. If you get one that looks good, you can always mess with the pickups if it sounds bad."
And there you have it.
The VBA400 is not going to get the overdrive needed, where the JCM800 Bass version has a harder preamp gain/drive.
But the VBA400 is a hell beast, I have one with the VBC810 cab.
Here is Motor Head when they first came out with this new song..
notice he is playing chords.
We play Ace of Spades, but my secret weapon is the Roland GR-55 on the end of my Jazz V, where I add distortion effect, more distortion to the top 2 strings, and guitar modelling to those strings too for the grungy power chords at the end.
But the VBA400 is a hell beast, I have one with the VBC810 cab.
Here is Motor Head when they first came out with this new song..
notice he is playing chords.
We play Ace of Spades, but my secret weapon is the Roland GR-55 on the end of my Jazz V, where I add distortion effect, more distortion to the top 2 strings, and guitar modelling to those strings too for the grungy power chords at the end.
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madbass6
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- Jan 13, 2009
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With all do respect to lenny (RIP)
to me (just my,opinion) his playing always sounded more like noise then music ! Especially when performing live .
I dont think that at the time when Ace of Spades was released there was that much processing involved. You can easily tell that the bass and cranked Marshall's did the bulk of the heavy lifting on those early records.
That being said, today you have a variety of options to achieve such a tone. I personally got it when using a Vintege Microtubes pedal by Darkglass, craking it into heavy drive with just a little bit of the clean tone blended. Then of course you need a set of fresh steel rounds and a good picking technique.
Also, Lemmy mentioned that he used the bass like a guitar with heavy use of chords, particularly in the studio.
That being said, today you have a variety of options to achieve such a tone. I personally got it when using a Vintege Microtubes pedal by Darkglass, craking it into heavy drive with just a little bit of the clean tone blended. Then of course you need a set of fresh steel rounds and a good picking technique.
Also, Lemmy mentioned that he used the bass like a guitar with heavy use of chords, particularly in the studio.
