Mike Herrera - MxPx bassist

im pretty sure he plays with a pick, so do that, as for the amp i have no idea, ive never even heard "at the show"

 

nope he plays with his fingers. To get a good punk sound put your lows and highs at about 75% and mids at about 25%. I have a stingray and i do those setting on my amp and i set my stingray to a little backed off on the mids, a little over halfway on the highs and flat on the lows. He used ampeg amps too, hope this helps.

 

Mike plays with a pick. The only weird thing was that in one of their videos (I think Teenage Politics) he plays with his fingers. He used to use a Peavey T-40, then a P-bass, and now and for a while has used EB Music Man basses, through Ampeg heads and usually a 2x15 and a 8x10. In all of their pictures on their website www.mxpx.com they show him using a pick, and you can pretty much tell by the sound. Just mess around with the tone knobs a lot and you will find a similar tone.

jtbp

 

hey, i'm about the biggest MxPx fan you can find, and Mike Herrera is my freakin idol! I've even got the stingray with the mxpx head on the pickguard. Mike used to play with his fingers, i believe up till "Slowly Going the Way Of The Buffalo" but he then switched to picks. On At The Show he's playing with a pick, definantly, and he played out of one Ampeg 8x10 and one Ampeg 2x15, teamed with an Ampeg SVT Classic head. I know that when he plays he doesnt play near the bridge like lots of punk bassist's do, he plays more towards the neck, sort of like Mark Hoppus does, but different. I have a video of MxPx with him playing and i noticed that he plays almost like he's playing guitar (mike also plays guitar in a band called arthur, so i guess that would explain this).
I think his live tone is a lot different then his recorded tone, especially on the new album. On The Ever Passing moment his bass sounds very full, he might have used his fingers on some songs even, but live its back to that At The Show tone, which I agree is killer! All in all, just screw with your eq, try the 3/4 high, 3/4 low, 1/4 mid method, although i think he may have a little more mids in his sound.
Mike used to use a P-bass, The last time he used a P on a whole album was almost definantly Slowly Going the way of the buffalo. OKay, i've said enough, Good to knwo someone else likes mike's tone. And i'm not obsessed! see ya later
Chris

 

Mike plays passive sting ray music man basses through an Ampeg SVT 4 Pro and a Ampeg 8x10.

Gain: 2 o’clock
Compression: 2 o’clock
Bass and mids: 2 o’clock
Treble at 3 o’clock