LEMMY bass tone

[Julien63000]

what's he doing at 2:15?

Lemmy uses his fancy gimmick haha

 

[Wisebass]

hi Gluvhand

He was right where he wanted to be.

Just imagine Lemmy" s reaction to someone telling him:"Hey Lemmy you should use a metronome or a clicktrack"





greeetings

Wise

 

[Axstar]

boost mids and lots of distortion … and play the bass like it is a big nasty rhythm guitar ...

No need to boost mids. Lemmy might have had the 'mids on full' or whatever, but in those old Marshall heads the mids control was purely subtractive. He wasn't boosting any mids as such, he was only making sure that none were being scooped out. Boosting the mids too much would result in a weird vowel-like tone if anything.

 

[Ric5]

No need to boost mids. Lemmy might have had the 'mids on full' or whatever, but in those old Marshall heads the mids control was purely subtractive. He wasn't boosting any mids as such, he was only making sure that none were being scooped out. Boosting the mids too much would result in a weird vowel-like tone if anything.

That much distortion will remove low end …

lemmy bass tone - Bing video

 

[Julien63000]

That’s totally true ! The fact that his sound on the album has never been matched live is part of the studio magic I guess

 

[blocka]

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.

sorry to dig up an old thread it do you j ow the settings on the aftershock?

 

[grillman]

sorry to dig up an old thread it do you j ow the settings on the aftershock?

I'll try to share it tonight on the Neuro App if I remember how to do it.

This is my user page
Neuro Community by Source Audio

I'll call it Lemmy something.

Edit : Wow just realised my presets have been quite popular haha
Anyway there is already a preset called "Motorhead". That's something I did a while ago. Probably not relevant now.

 

[grillman]

sorry to dig up an old thread it do you j ow the settings on the aftershock?

uploaded

 

[Karli]

Hey all Lemmy-Tone-Lovers ,

we just played some Motörhead tunes during rehearsal for fun. Because I bought a OKKO Motörbass I was curious to try it with real Lemmy-Licks, and I have to say it really sounds like the Lemmy'esque tone.

Here is a little example of the sound:


Cheers
KARLI

 

[jw23mind]

No need to boost mids. Lemmy might have had the 'mids on full' or whatever, but in those old Marshall heads the mids control was purely subtractive. He wasn't boosting any mids as such, he was only making sure that none were being scooped out. Boosting the mids too much would result in a weird vowel-like tone if anything.

This is correct. If you play with the Marshall tone stack on Duncan Tone Stack Calculator, then only-mids looks like this, pretty flat with a -3dB around 70Hz:

 

[Karli]

Hey all you Lemmy-Tone-Suckers,

Does anyone of you have some more info on Lemmy playing a Gibson SG Bass (in 2012)?

Here is a pic of him in Wolferhapton live

Cheers
KARLi