Van Halen 1 - flats or rounds

"Van Halen 1"... Got a media on this to make it a little easier for the rest of us to take part in the discussion?

 

With all the studio "magic", you may never know.

 

My guess is rounds with some treble roll-off or similar EQ applied in the studio. Just a guess though.

 

Skilled producers and recording engineers using very high end equipment (of the day) that was not, and generally still isn't, available to the everyday player. Not that hard a concept.

 

Just off the top of my head; In 1977 you could take a bass and run it through the recording console’s EQ and then patch it into an 1176 to completely change the characteristics of the source signal with relative ease. Run the signal in and just play with the attack and release controls, and you can drastically alter the feel of a note’s initial transient to appear like a different input had occurred to the listener. That, to me, is pretty magical.

 

Mike wasn’t known to use flatwound strings. For the first Van Halen record it was a Precision bass through SVTs generally played with a pick.

 

van halen is totally roto 66's. Hard rock with big amps, p basses, a pick? Rotos 100%

 

Old Roundwounds on a P-bass, pretty much same bass tone on first 3 albums.

 

Studio competency might be a more accurate term. Engineers who knew their way around a mixing board, mic placement, room acoustics & outboard processing gear. Good quality monitors for mix down. Really no alchemy involved at all.

 

You say that, but put someone inexperienced in front of an actual hardware 1176 and the results are often anything but magical.

 

Some interesting stuff . Studio magic of a Ampeg B50R on some albums .No mention of strings .
Michael Anthony’s Advice To Up And Coming Musicians - Head Above Music

 

It's an expression dude...

If anyone could've done it, then everyone would have...

 

Um yeah…

 

Rounds.

Quadrophenia; Flats or rounds?

 

Aah, thanks for posting that. Mike is one of my favorite players. He's a no B.S. dude.