- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,894
- 142,206
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
This must have been last Summer, light dress, practice room with some of the Birds and my Washburn.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- club thunderbird
Composition & Tone:
Paul McCartney (Revolver through Abbey Road)
John Entwistle (Live at Leeds/Quadrophenia)
Mike Watt (Double Nickles on the Dime)
John is in the mix for me, for sure, although I started listening to the Who a bit later.
Yeah there are always "more" when stop and think about it. The three I listed are examples of who I have tried to steel the most from!
Most people look at me funny when I say this, but I have ZERO influences on tone. Maybe it's why I'm a member of the mediocre bassists club, but I've just never once listened to anyone and said "that's what I want my tone to sound like". From the very first time I plugged in a bass and struck a note I "heard" my tone in my head and that's what I have always shot for. It's more a matter of "Do I like the way I sound?" and if the answer is no, then I make some small changes like rolling the tone on or off or maybe panning to one pup or the other. For years I literally played an active EMG P/J setup, with the pan set dead center between the pups, the tone dead centered and with no effects, plugged straight into a Fender amp with the EQ knobs set to 12 o'clock. That's apparently what "I" sounded like. Now days I find myself favoring a little chorus and delay, but the pup, tone and EQ settings have stayed basically the same. I recently acquired a Rumble 150 and on rare occasions I might hit the "scoop" button. I just don't chase tone, never have. But then again, like I said, I'm not that great anyways. If you need some roots pedaled, maybe a 3rd or a 5th here and there (used sparingly of course) then I'm your guy.
But endless hours of chasing tone seems like a lot of work to me.That being said, there was this local guy, back in the day, whose band practiced in the room next to mine and he had the coolest tone I've ever heard. His name was Mark Fletcher and he played bass for "Mr. Grinch". You can check out a song called "Apple" here, this is the tone I speak of -
WoodShed | MISTER GRINCH
But he also had a ton of money in rack effects, amps and cabs and I always looked up to him just based on the amount of money he had in gear at a time in my life where I literally slept in the band practice room for a month because I was homeless. So there's that too.
Side note, Mr. Grinch's singer, Nick Summerville, was my former singer. Amazing voice, died way too young. Also, guitarist Ron Walvatne was in another band with my little brother. The local music scene is a bit nepotistic.
As a kid, McCartney was what I knew. Then Squire and his Ric got me paying attention to different tone. While Paul played a Ric, it didn’t sound much different than his Hofner; pretty sure that was intentional. Martin Turner started playing a bird and that was noticeable. And Killer played a bird sometimes. And Overend too. I liked the tone Dunn got from his P with the MGs. Since I’ve been back at it, my favorite is Nikki Monninger’s from her birds.
Who's looking at you funny?
That makes sense to me.
I can point to influences in my writing, but I don't try to write like any of them.
I'm not necessarily trying to sound like anyone (a good thing, because I'm not even close[1]), but they still influence the tone I hear in my head as mine.
[1] Every member of the Who inspired me to want to play their instrument (vocal chords count), but they were so far in the stratosphere that it also made me want to avoid playing music altogether. Keith Moon is one of my all time favorite drummers. He plays freaking melodies, all the while driving the song with John (OK, except when he was too fried). And he's a BLAST to watch. Most of my favorite musicians are very kinetic on stage. John was one of the exceptions. He's like the physical anchor.
Yes! I love Nikki's tone and her playing.
I hardly ever noticed Paul's playing back in the day, but that was probably because it was just perfect.
Dunn, of course!
Lemmy in Hawkwind to an extent, but when I was hearing them a lot I was usually tripping, and I could almost never tell you after what they played, only what I experienced, which wasn't always even wordable.
I kept waiting for nebula to show up and kick all their butts. She could TOTALLY rock a Thunderbird.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I wanted to be Entwhistle, or at least play like him. I cannot stand still like that. His tone doesn't work that well in all circumstances. Then I wandered off in other directions, so saying there's any specific influence would be wrong. Whatever happens, happens.
Who's looking at you funny?
That makes sense to me.
I can point to influences in my writing, but I don't try to write like any of them.
I'm not necessarily trying to sound like anyone (a good thing, because I'm not even close[1]), but they still influence the tone I hear in my head as mine.
[1] Every member of the Who inspired me to want to play their instrument (vocal chords count), but they were so far in the stratosphere that it also made me want to avoid playing music altogether. Keith Moon is one of my all time favorite drummers. He plays freaking melodies, all the while driving the song with John (OK, except when he was too fried). And he's a BLAST to watch. Most of my favorite musicians are very kinetic on stage. John was one of the exceptions. He's like the physical anchor.
Oddly enough, after not listening to Hawkwind in decades, and not really remembering anything beyond the general feel of things, when I went back and started listening to Space Ritual, DoReMi, etc., I remembered many of the songs and knew where some of them were going almost the whole way through. Lemmy had been an influence in both tone and style, albeit subconsciously.
Standing still while playing is not in me. OTOH, I would break all sorts of things were I to try Townshend's moves. That was true when I was 15, 20, 25, and 30, not just now. I'd just take a little longer to recover now- were I crazy enough to try.
As a friend from elsewhere used to say, "I not that kind crazy you".
Glad you are liking it. What's not to like about the finish? The wood is beautiful.
You'll like it even better once you find the ideal string for it. I took what came on the VP new off. Some kind of fake Rotos it seems. I don't go for the angry piano sound on any of them. Big, fat, thick. I'm in the no clank zone and not trying to cut through anything, compete with the space of guitars, keys or vocals. I go for surround sound that everything else sits in. (Think Leon.) If you want a warmer tone, but with some bite: GHS Boomer Round Cores sound huge with a touch of bite. Regular Boomers a little more bite. I'm really liking Fender Flats on the one burst like yours.
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Just stop. Don't you have some fire ants or gators to deal with instead of being a source of temptation?
I guess. Never saw whatever it was coming.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
No windmilling for me. Going wireless solved a number of problems, though. I have a tendency to stalk around the stage like an ax murderer at times, and there are other times when I jump all over the place. Tripping over a cord spoils the effect.
These are real Rotosounds- RS66LDs that @DWLANG had put on the bass before selling it. I wasn't looking for the angry piano sound, but since it's there, I'm experimenting with it a bit. I'm typically much more looking for a space like you are talking about.
