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Tony Levin's great Chapman Stick sound

Les Fret

Les Fret

Sep 9, 2009
7,212
6,916
nextlevel-slapbass.com
#1
I always was and still am a big King Crimson fan.
This week someone gave me the Neal and Jack and Me DVD.
It is live footage from the Discipline etc. lineup.

Excellent DVD!

I was wondering how Tony Levin gets that amazing Stick sound. It has such a nice growl to it. His bass sound on the Stick is better then any other Stick player that I know.

I also played Chapman Stick for 6 years intensely and have owned two of them. The sound Tony got was what drove me to the Stick in the first place. But I never achieved such a good Stick bass sound as Tony.
Especially playing it in a band I always found it less full and heavy sounding then my electric bass.

How did Tony get that growling and heavy Stick sound. What effects did he use for that?
Is there a website that lists Tony's gear over the years?

Thanks
 
#10
Thank you all for your help!

I can find what he uses for pedal these days but I can not find what he used in the Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair days, especially the live gigs.
That is the tone I like the most

I think his compressor has to do a lot with the sound he had those days.
I read somewhere he used a MXR Dynacomp. Now he uses an Analog Man Bi compressor.

Has someone here used any of those two compressors on electric bass (since I have no Stick anymore)?
 
#11
I saw Tony on the StickMan tour and he was using two volume pedals along with the AnalogMan and a Big Muff. he was running the bass side of the Stick into one of the new SVT mini's with 210 cab and the treble side into a small Blackheart guitar amp. Can't say what he used back in the 1980s, though. He has been using the Big Muff for some time -- used it when I saw him in 2001, too.
 
#12
Les Fret said:
Thank you all for your help!

I can find what he uses for pedal these days but I can not find what he used in the Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair days, especially the live gigs.
That is the tone I like the most

I think his compressor has to do a lot with the sound he had those days.
I read somewhere he used a MXR Dynacomp. Now he uses an Analog Man Bi compressor.

Has someone here used any of those two compressors on electric bass (since I have no Stick anymore)?
Click to expand...

As I mentioned above, he used an Ibanez UE-303B Multi-Effects at least during 1981-82 tours. He had two at the shows I saw in March 1982.
 
#13
I've had a few sticks too - and I could never sound that good, even when I played a part well. The older sticks really just didn't sound that great - but Tony had great engineers to help him get the sound he wanted. I'll be he had a butt-ton of stuff in a rack for that old tour (I have that DVD too)
 
#15
jblock said:
As I mentioned above, he used an Ibanez UE-303B Multi-Effects at least during 1981-82 tours. He had two at the shows I saw in March 1982.
Click to expand...

was that all the gear that you saw?

@RoboChrist: yes, I love that Phaser sound on his Stick he uses on some songs. I think I read somewhere it was an MXR phase 90, But I am not sure.

@BigOldHarry: yes that is exactly what I experienced. I never could get that same growl out of the Stick like Tony has. Even when he plays one simple note is sounds great. Yes probably his techs also helped him a lot to achieve this sound.
I like the way the original Stick pickup sounds (like the one Tony used and still uses). It has the typical sound that I associate with the Stick. I don't like the sound of the newer Stick pickups, it sounds more artificial.
 
#16
I have read on Trey Gunn's website that he uses a Retrospec Squeeze box compressor on advise from Tony. So Tony Levin must have used that in the past.
Is that sort of the same compressor as the AnalogMan Bi comprossor?

I am thinking of buying a compressor for my electric bass and I am not sure what to buy yet.
 

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