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Wal Bass Club.

#10,501
Toolmybass said:
Google "Flea gear used on BSSM" results will show lots of previous conversations on the subject here, as well as other sites.
Click to expand...

I have tried that and there's a sea of misinformation mixed in with random comments and guesses. I was hoping someone would share the spoils of their digging around. Theres bound to be a few in here who were at one point obsessed with his tone. I may have to start yet another thread lol
 
#10,502
Hi everybody. I'm picking up this bad boy from Paul on Thursday. Can I be added to the Wal Club list at all please? Or do I have to somehow qualify first? Many thanks :thumbsup:
 

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#10,504
Mytt88 said:
I have tried that and there's a sea of misinformation mixed in with random comments and guesses. I was hoping someone would share the spoils of their digging around. Theres bound to be a few in here who were at one point obsessed with his tone. I may have to start yet another thread lol
Click to expand...


@j.kernodle made a demo vid and part of the vid was the bssm tone.

 
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#10,506
nibs208 said:
The cable snaps in affirmatively but any kind of contact shorts the signal out, making hideous crackling noises. Towards the end of practice it stopped giving output all together an would only work if held to the side of the jack.
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ya i'd do what mike said and remove the cover plate and just observe whats going on with the jack when the cable is inserted. shouldn't be too hard. if anything, post us pics or make a short video and maybe we can pinpoint how failure is occuring.
 
#10,509
Mytt88 said:
Anyone know what other gear was used to record Fleas bass on BSSM? particularly "Give it away", amps, cabs, mics, preamps etc. You can tell its a Wal but its just so aggressive like that particular mk2 was on steroids or something.
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I spent a lot of time years ago trying to figure this out exactly, but there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Flea has always been a big "plug in and play" kind of guy in the studio, and so if you look at what equipment he was playing around that time, it's likely that was the gear that was involved. Knowing how the producer (Brendan O'Brien) operates in the studio, he will sometimes record 3 bass tracks or more: a DI, a cleaner amp, and a distorted amp. With those options, the more aggressive songs were probably mixed with the more aggressive sounding amp turned up, etc. I've seen parts of the "Funky Monks" video where I can see an 800RB in the shot, but I don't see any bass cabs in the room with it. Also, to my ear, there is definitely a few songs at least that were recorded with an SVT 8x10, as that cab has a very characteristic sound. Take a listen to the bass master track of Mellowship Slinky, that sounds very much like an Ampeg 8x10 to me.

What it boils down to, is that it's probably a combo of a DI, GK, Ampeg, and Mesa. Even though he used the Wal on most songs, some songs are the front pickup only, some songs have both pickups but no filter engaged, and some are at least one of the filters engaged. It's all over the map really!

One other comment I will make is that you can actually another master track of Flea's Wal by googling / Youtubing the bass master track for "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. When you hear that, you can get an understanding of how much the studio can alter the core sound of an instrument, cause Flea's Wal definitely has the typical thick / "darkish" tone that all of my Wals have had. To me that track sounds like it was recorded with an Ampeg B15.

ANYWAY. More things to check out for you if you have a few minutes to kill! :)
 
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#10,513
bigsnack said:
I spent a lot of time years ago trying to figure this out exactly, but there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Flea has always been a big "plug in and play" kind of guy in the studio, and so if you look at what equipment he was playing around that time, it's likely that was the gear that was involved. Knowing how the producer (Brendan O'Brien) operates in the studio, he will sometimes record 3 bass tracks or more: a DI, a cleaner amp, and a distorted amp. With those options, the more aggressive songs were probably mixed with the more aggressive sounding amp turned up, etc. I've seen parts of the "Funky Monks" video where I can see an 800RB in the shot, but I don't see any bass cabs in the room with it. Also, to my ear, there is definitely a few songs at least that were recorded with an SVT 8x10, as that cab has a very characteristic sound. Take a listen to the bass master track of Mellowship Slinky, that sounds very much like an Ampeg 8x10 to me.

What it boils down to, is that it's probably a combo of a DI, GK, Ampeg, and Mesa. Even though he used the Wal on most songs, some songs are the front pickup only, some songs have both pickups but no filter engaged, and some are at least one of the filters engaged. It's all over the map really!

One other comment I will make is that you can actually another master track of Flea's Wal by googling / Youtubing the bass master track for "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. When you hear that, you can get an understanding of how much the studio can alter the core sound of an instrument, cause Flea's Wal definitely has the typical thick / "darkish" tone that all of my Wals have had. To me that track sounds like it was recorded with an Ampeg B15.

ANYWAY. More things to check out for you if you have a few minutes to kill! :)
Click to expand...


Thanks, makes a lot of sense. That is a lot closer to the sound of my bass.
 
#10,514
bigsnack said:
One other comment I will make is that you can actually another master track of Flea's Wal by googling / Youtubing the bass master track for "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. When you hear that, you can get an understanding of how much the studio can alter the core sound of an instrument, cause Flea's Wal definitely has the typical thick / "darkish" tone that all of my Wals have had. To me that track sounds like it was recorded with an Ampeg B15.
Click to expand...

I always thought he was using a fretless (Musicman?) on "You Oughta Know", and the isolated track that I found sounds to me like it has lots of little fretless slides in it, but I could be wrong...
( )
 
#10,516
mikezimmerman said:
I always thought he was using a fretless (Musicman?) on "You Oughta Know", and the isolated track that I found sounds to me like it has lots of little fretless slides in it, but I could be wrong...
( )
Click to expand...


Back when the song came out I knew that Flea and Dave Navarro played on this song, but I dont think its a Wal, I always thought it was his Alembic because Jagged Little was being recorded at exactly the same time in late 94 that the Chili's were recording One Hot Minute, both in Hollywood, and he was using the Alembic on One Hot Minute.
 
#10,520
ampegfuzz said:
Side dots and (lined) fretless: I’ve noticed that it seems like some older wals put the side dots over the “line” or where the physical fret would be. Instead of the “standard” of between the frets. Is this the norm for wals? The few lined (non Wal) fretless I have played are laid out like a fretted instrument.
Click to expand...

Standard issue regardless if it has unlined or lined board, is the dots are placed "on the line" spot. Only time you see them between the notes are if someone specified it built that way, or likey it had frets and was converted to a lined fretless.
 
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