I've found on my old early 90's Sadowsky pre & a newer Aguilar that boosting the bass about 20% is perfect. leave amp flat. it ends up doing that "fatter AND tighter " thing that I love about these pres.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
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.
Marcus Miller's tone....secret revealed?
- Thread starter apcbassist
- Start date
also, I just put some DR Marcus Fat Beams on my Squier Franken 5, and, lo and behold, my slap got more Marcus-y. this is with a rosewood board and a light body, nordstrand MM/ big split setup. great strings, flexy AND hefty.
Before I started playing Phil Jones amps, I used to have an EBS HD-350 head & 4x10 cab. My Fender Geddy Lee Jazz through that amp absolutely nailed the Marcus Miller tone.
the first time I experienced Marcus tone was on a friend's mid 70s *heavy* Jazz w a rosewood board thru an acoustic 360! slapped one note and voila! instant MM. I think it's mostly the heavy body weight/ JJ pickup setup more than anything else. now if only copying his genius/pocket/ note choices were that easy. LOL. also found that tone on a Schecter J w EMG's and a rosewood board. wish I'd bought it.
The MM posts always amaze me. Honestly, no offense meant, but communities like these have sort of created a mystique where there need not have been one. I am a huge Marcus fan, but it's more about his musicianship than the sound. Coming close enough to his sound is not that hard. I'm old enough to remember when Marcus first started doing his thing. I knew several bass players that could easily reproduce what we heard on the records, and didn't know it was a big deal. Unfortunately, black music kind of moved on, and the MM sound fell out of vogue. Little did we know that Marcus's well of creativity is much deeper than we realized, but that's a different conversation. Those early recordings were done without the fancy stuff we use in pursuit of the MM sound, and his playing still shines. I'm not against anybody trying to capture the MM sound, but I think is chops, writing, and production skills are the bigger story by far.
I'm seeing the Miles tribute tomorrow night. They're going to perform kind of blue in its entirety, & the electric band w/ Miller is also performing. Should be chill.
- Jan 12, 2011
- 4,578
- 2,460
- Disclosures
- Artist, Trickfish Amplification Bartolini Emerging Artist, MTD Kingston Emerging Artist. Artist, Tsunami Cables
why would any one of us want to sound like someone else besides ourselves.That is the secret to any Signature Bass players sound. They sound like themselves. Ha Ha!! I sound like myself. My wife even tells me that when I play you can tell the difference between me and other bass players. This my friends is the secret. Get your own thing going on and stop with all this bass player idol worshipping and whatnot. That's how Marcus gets his sound, Victor, Stanley, Jaco you name them and that's their secret they sound like themselves. Whatever place you're in, there are others around you that speak the same language, say the same words etc, but we all have different voice qualities and when we speak we sound like ourselves. The secret is in understanding what you sound like and developing this.....even on the bass guitar. Do you know what you sound like? If not, play and record yourself. develop what it is that you like, and get rid of what you don't like. Kind of like hearing yourself speak for the first time when you make a voice recording. We all have our own signature sound and we just have to develop it. and to the guy who asked if he hit a G note and Marcus hit a G note on the same axe would it not sound different? I should hope so. I don't know about you guys but I often practice hitting one note over and over and often you don't hit it the same every single time. I should hope that my E sounds different than your E. even if we played on the same axe etc.
Usually people take on their favorite artist's sound or style, then eventually develop their own. It happens in painting, photography, acting, comedy, hellfire even in business & physics.
Anyway the Miles Davis tribute show was the nuts. I don't know if it's touring but if it is, or if you get a chance to see Marcus Miller live, I would highly recommend.
Jimmy Cobb played in the first band/set--they played through all of Kind of Blue. That was nice to hear it live & to see a living legend. The second band played songs from Bitches Brew, also incredible. I believe it was none othher than Daryl Jones on bass! I'm pretty sure it was him. I know he has history w Davis.
Miller's band really tore it up. Can't explain. They played jams from Tutu & some new work. Bottom line, my three favorite Miles Davis albums, & one of the greatest albums in the world, performed w James Cobb in the backline, at the Hollywood Bowl, under the stars with my girl & a bottle of wine. No complaints here.
Bad pic as proof:
Anyway the Miles Davis tribute show was the nuts. I don't know if it's touring but if it is, or if you get a chance to see Marcus Miller live, I would highly recommend.
Jimmy Cobb played in the first band/set--they played through all of Kind of Blue. That was nice to hear it live & to see a living legend. The second band played songs from Bitches Brew, also incredible. I believe it was none othher than Daryl Jones on bass! I'm pretty sure it was him. I know he has history w Davis.
Miller's band really tore it up. Can't explain. They played jams from Tutu & some new work. Bottom line, my three favorite Miles Davis albums, & one of the greatest albums in the world, performed w James Cobb in the backline, at the Hollywood Bowl, under the stars with my girl & a bottle of wine. No complaints here.
Bad pic as proof:
Tone is in the fingers mostly, not entirely but mostly, i bet even if you had a MM Model Fender, very few could sound just like him! This topic comes up a lot, practice what he plays and his style and it would still take many years to sound EXACTLY like him.
