Hey everyone. Anyone know what sort of effect Geddy uses in this live performance for the bass solo at the 3:20 mark.
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Rush song, effect pedal?
- Thread starter Rnr..........4
- Start date
To me it sounds like his usual touch of overdrive and heavy plucking hand along with a bit of chorus.
I don’t think Geddy is using an actual chorus effect. If I had to guess (which I am), I would say that Geddy’s pickups are set a little high, so when he plays higher up on the fretboard he gets some magnetic pull on the strings that causes that chorus effect. In “guitar land” this is commonly referred to as “stratitus”.
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Well what I mean is not the entire song but that portion where it sort of echoes. Sounds like reverb and chorus
Very possible. Especially for the studio recording if it sounded like this. But I would think for live they’d use an effect for consistency sake. But who really knows. Ged has never been all that forthcoming about the bass effects he uses, or doesn’t.
I always loved that sound, more, even, on the original studio version. It is, to my ears, a light chorus effect. I’ve heard Geddy used the original Boss CE-1 in the 70s.
I think you are right. Although it doesn’t sound like a typical chorus. Curious what it is exactly.
Definitely uses a chorus or some similar modulation on that bass break. You could get away with using a flanger if you don't overdo it.
Its a phaser not a chorus. Paul Northfield has mentioned it in the past. You can hear it a bit clearer in this isolated track starting at 3:00
Edit
I found my notes from 14 years ago. One of the R30 magazine interviews in 2005 – Geddy said Paul Northfield would take Geddy’s signal (for Moving Pictures) and use a LOFT delay. Paul would pan the effected sound wide and out of phase which would give it a big sound. Despite there being no *modulation* happening, there is a bit of delay which can give it a big ‘chorusy tone’. Granted this was for the record, not live performance.
** No Pitch Modulation** which likely accounts for the uniqueness.
Edit
I found my notes from 14 years ago. One of the R30 magazine interviews in 2005 – Geddy said Paul Northfield would take Geddy’s signal (for Moving Pictures) and use a LOFT delay. Paul would pan the effected sound wide and out of phase which would give it a big sound. Despite there being no *modulation* happening, there is a bit of delay which can give it a big ‘chorusy tone’. Granted this was for the record, not live performance.
** No Pitch Modulation** which likely accounts for the uniqueness.
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Yeah, I wasn't aware Geddy used effects at all. It sounds like a flanger to me but chorus and a phaser are all pretty similar.
Isolated it sounds just like a normal bass track. I can't hear the effect at all, especially a phaser. But in the studio track I can hear it for sure. Sounds like a classic chorus.
It is a regular bass track...until 3:00 when the phaser kicks in. Its subtle for an effect in general but it certainly is not subtle to hear. If you honestly can't hear that change at 3:00, you might consider a different listen environment/speakers etc.
You guys might enjoy Rick Beato’s review of Limelight. He doesn’t talk about Vital Signs or that solo but he does analyze Geddy’s overall tone on Limelight, which I think was consistent across the album. That bass sound has beguiled me since I was 14 in the 80s. It sounded so much different from anything I was getting. I love it.
Still… I’m not sure it’s a phaser or if it is, I’d like to know which. There’s a doubling effect just like in a chorus.
Perhaps you could email Paul Northfield who engineered the album? As a 35 year Geddy Fan and engineer, I own a few books. There is a book that mentions a 'chorus-effected' bassline in Vital Signs... but it is not an official recording document, just a description of the line and 'chorusy' is a phrase used to describe most modulated effects by default with laymen. There is an interview with Paul that mentions the use of a phaser on Vital Signs, I'll try to find it. Today - through my own high-end pro audio system ($5K speakers or phones), I do not hear the delay of a chorus but I can easily hear the filters of a phaser. Phasers are often mistaken for chorus unless they are set to extremes. I suppose in the end, its a guess. If you find out, let us know.
As a person who does interviews with people professionally for a living, I have seen many people make wrong recollections about something that happened 35 years prior. You seem to have a real personal dog in this fight, which is strange. I just don't hear a phaser, no one else seems to, and it's universally referred to as chorus. I get it, Northfield said something, but unless I see actual track notes I will assume that he just simply forgot, like so many other people do when recalling a 35 year old admittedly obscure event. Remember, to us fans, stuff like this is the stuff of multi page internet posts. But for an old head like Northfield, the effect he plugged in on an albumk he did in 1980 probably didn't stay too solidly in the memory banks. But by all means, prove me wrong. It seems to be an obsession with you.
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