I really like Les Pattinson's tone on Echo & The Bunnymen's stuff. I know he plays a Jazz with a pick, but can anybody tell me what kind of amp he tracked with?
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Les Pattinson's rig? (Echo & The Bunnymen)
- Thread starter mambo4
- Start date
Can't help you there I'm afraid, but it's great to see on of the eighties most underrated players get a mention. His unique, high strung upward picking action had me mesmerised when I saw them back in 84 or something....I remember they played about a 15 minute version of 'crocodiles'. The sweat poured off him, his eyes never left the fretboard and he didn't drop a note. Fantastic.
I am wondering how much of the tone is Ian Broudie's (producer) doing. Broudie's band The Lightening Seeds has a very similar bass tone.
sigh maybe time to use a pick...
sigh maybe time to use a pick...
Yeah, but nowhere near as good to listen to. Echo had more of a sinister edge to them, whereas LS were just a bit too mainstream melody driven popsters IMO.
Yeah, but nowhere near as good to listen to. Echo had more of a sinister edge to them, whereas LS were just a bit too mainstream melody driven popsters IMO.
I believe he used an Ampeg SVT 8x10 live and an Ampeg B15 in the studio. Very underrated bassist. His bass line on The Cutter is a favorite of mine.
One of my favorite bassists. He had a unique style and his tone was always fat and growling. Just the perfect Jazz bass tone for rock. I met him in 1987 as the Bunnymen had showed up at a gig I was playing. Les is an extremely cool dude. Very down to earth, without any pretense.
Pattinson had used a Fender Mustang short-scale bass and a silver-grill Fender Bassman head with an 8x10 cabinet on Crocodiles, but from Heaven Up Here forward he favoured a 1980 Maui Blue Fender Jazz Bass (sometimes swapping between rosewood and maple necks) playing through an Ampeg SVT head with an 8X10. This equipment and playing style gave Echo & the Bunnymen a distinctive sound. Pattinson has also been seen playing an Olympic White Fender Jazz bass, a black Fender Precision bass, upright and acoustic basses. He has always played with a pick and preferred to play in upstrokes.
Are you positive that’s a Mustang on the debut album? On Rescue especially the tone is a snarling Jazz bass 100%. I’ve never heard a Mustang even approach a tone like that. Maybe a Mustang on some tracks?
This is what I have heard, so I treat it as a viable possibility but not a surety. Either way, he's amazing!
On the inner sleeve of the first album, Crocodiles, he’s shown playing a Jazz, and that’s what I hear throughout the album.
I too ran into him, at a bar after one of their gigs, very approachable and matter of fact
