Players with High Bass Turnover yet Consistent Tone

[Green Knight]

When I think of my favourite bass players, I almost always associate them with a particular bass. Tony Levin, for example, I associate with Stingrays and sticks even though he played a Jazz on Gabriel 1. I even remember him saying he has less direct effect on his tone with EBMM basses than he would on passive ones, so distinct is the Stingray pre. It got me wondering ...

Is there a player who switches basses and brands, passives and actives, all the freaking time yet still sounds recognizably themselves no matter what they're holding?

 

[hbarcat]

Geddy Lee.

Ric. Fender (Jazz and P). Wal. Steinberger.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Joe Dart
Carol Kaye
Louis Johnson
Larry Graham
Bootsy
Anthony Jackson
Mono Neon

 

[Al Rivera]

Proves my point,It's the player not the bass that really matters. I sound like me no matter what I play.

 

[mapleglo]

Chris Squire always sounded like Chris Squire no matter what bass he was playing, from his iconic Ric, to his Fender Precision., and everything in between.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Trying to correlate this with those having the greatest number of endorsements. Michael Anthony is the first to come to mind.

Riis

 

[ClusterFlux]

When I think of my favourite bass players, I almost always associate them with a particular bass. Tony Levin, for example, I associate with Stingrays and sticks even though he played a Jazz on Gabriel 1. I even remember him saying he has less direct effect on his tone with EBMM basses than he would on passive ones, so distinct is the Stingray pre. It got me wondering ...

Is there a player who switches basses and brands, passives and actives, all the freaking time yet still sounds recognizably themselves no matter what they're holding?

I'm skeptical of a lot of the claims about unique tones. That said, it is rarely the instrument's tone that makes a musician distinctive. It's how they play the instrument.

I don't think that means "tone doesn't matter at all." Tony Levin isn't likely to play in his usual playing style if you take away his amps, effects, finger sticks, and hand him a P with flats and a foam mute.

Rather, I suspect it's that the tiny nuances of tone which often compel people to spend inordinate amounts of time and money on gear don't matter all that much.

 

[Green Knight]

I'm skeptical of a lot of the claims about unique tones. That said, it is rarely the instrument's tone that makes a musician distinctive. It's how they play the instrument.

I don't think that means "tone doesn't matter at all." Tony Levin isn't likely to play in his usual playing style if you take away his amps, effects, finger sticks, and hand him a P with flats and a foam mute.

Rather, I suspect it's that the tiny nuances of tone which often compel people to spend inordinate amounts of time and money on gear don't matter all that much.

For bedroom shredders like myself, those who only jam on weekends, tone is a kind of aesthetic pursuit one falls into because you spend so much time with the sound of the bass alone.
Were I playing out all the time, I doubt I'd care about much besides being heard.

 

[fnp5150]

Flea is the first to come to mind for me. He always seems to sound exactly the same.

 

[Green Knight]

Adam Clayton too yo

 

[chiphaleonbass]

For bedroom shredders like myself, those who only jam on weekends, tone is a kind of aesthetic pursuit one falls into because you spend so much time with the sound of the bass alone.
Were I playing out all the time, I doubt I'd care about much besides being heard.

Being heard is great, but passing off a pleasing sound to a FOH is more important to me than anything else. Means that the band I'm playing in has a sound engineer with one less thing to have to correct and thus can spend that much more time on ensuring the group sounds good and thus I can be heard. That being said my rig doesn't completely change if I'm playing a P, J or my Serek or anything in between, although minor tweaks could be made to accommodate the room or specific band I'm performing in

 

[JRA]

Is there a player who switches basses and brands, passives and actives, all the freaking time yet still sounds recognizably themselves no matter what they're holding?

hmmm...i think that's just about everyone...all of us! ergo: "i sound like me no matter the ax/amp/EFX/etc."

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Flea is the first to come to mind for me. He always seems to sound exactly the same.

I just returned to this thread to edit my post to include Flea.

 

[2thAche]

Certain players above sound like that player no matter what they pick up. I wasn't as big a fan of Geddy's Steinberger sound, but it still sounded like Geddy. I'd also argue that all the little details that get hashed out on this forum (wood, string spacing, etc) wouldn't mean squat when you hand one of these guys a bass. Hand Geddy a squire JB with a half-way decent setup, and he'll sound like Geddy.

 

[seang15]

Three very different players come to mind: John Entwhistle, Phil Lesh, John Taylor.

 

[tlc1976]

Paul McCartney

 

[Shlabotnik]

Geddy Lee.

Ric. Fender (Jazz and P). Wal. Steinberger.

While I agree with those who say Flea and a number of others who have a similar tone regardless of instrument, I must vehemently disagree here. Stylistically yes, but tonally these sound vastly different and I think that most bassists would win the "Geddy Challenge" if they had to pick out which was the the Wal or the Jazz/Ric. The J and the Ric do sound similar. The Steinberger was only on one record and even that doesn't sound like either of the others.

 

[brianrost]

Jack Bruce. He's still known for the bumblebee sound when with Cream, usually attributed to a Gibson EB3.

Except "Fresh Cream" was all Fender Bass VI, "Disraeli Gears" was all Danelectro and he stopped using an EB3 altogether in the early 70s, playing Dan Armstrongs for a while. I saw him twice, once in 1980 where he payed an Aria SB-1000 (the "bloody good axe") and a fretless Spector. The second time he was playing a fretless Warwick Thumb. I also have a Kip Hanrahan album he played on and the session photos show him using a StingRay!

I think he just played hard.

Jazz bassist Steve Swallow saw Jack play with Cream in NYC and decided to try bass guitar. He bought a Gibson EB2 the next day and stopped playing DB altogether. His sound did change when he switched from the EB2 to a P-bass which he had modified a few times, then he switched to a custom bass built by Froc Fillipetti, then to a Parker Fly then to a Guild ABG and finally to today's custom built Citron ABGs. His sound remained pretty consistent from the P-bass to the Citrons.

 

[ardgedee]

John Entwistle? I couldn't tell you what he was playing, from album to album.

 

[Swerve]

Bobby Vega.