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Was Nirvana's Nevermind Recorded With a Malfunctioning Bass?

So what's going on here?

  • Faulty pickup/wire

    Votes: 1 0.9%

  • Midrange pedal randomly being clicked on/off

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Two different-sounding takes interwoven

    Votes: 42 39.3%

  • Tone doesn't change at all, you twit

    Votes: 6 5.6%

  • Carrots in the jack socket

    Votes: 26 24.3%

  • Technique change

    Votes: 30 28.0%
  • Total voters
    107
#41
I never noticed all the cool lines going in this song till now, I appreciate these guys more every time i hear them as I get older and especially as someone who didn't get them when I was first discovering music!!

I should listen with headphones, but I only *really* noticed a tone change a little after the 2 minute mark. And like others said, its probably a punch in!
 
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#45
hintz said:
I never noticed all the cool lines going in this song till now, I appreciate these guys more every time i hear them as I get older and especially as someone who didn't get them when I was first discovering music!!

I should listen with headphones, but I only *really* noticed a tone change a little after the 2 minute mark. And like others said, its probably a punch in!
Click to expand...

I always doubt if this is the real track found on the album or if this is from something like Rock Band videogame which isn't played by the original artist or if it is some random dude played it and clamed it was from the original album.
 
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#46
SunnBass said:
So, he's not a perfect player is all we've learned here.
Most of those things you're hearing, to me, sound like a little imperfect fretting.
It's things like that, in the mix, that make recordings feel alive.
You're over-analyzing.

Oh, and on In Bloom @ :16, it's supposed to drop out like that.
Click to expand...


Don't agree with that. I listened to the tracks on both my Bose and Sennheiser over-ear headphones and the difference is quite noticeable. Picking placement can speak to some of that but it really sounds to me like the neck pick-up is cutting out because when it's gone, it's really gone. The low warmth disappears as if that pick-up had been turned off.
 
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#47
A. D. Fairhurst said:
Another bassist who plays a 1974 Ripper and an Acoustic 360 Stack. Crazy coincidence.
Click to expand...

My 360 stack is a thing of the past - although I still have one of their old 18" folded horn cabs. I unloaded the 360 head quite awhile ago. It was just too big for what I needed, and after a while it was just taking up space and violating my number one rule, which is: if it ain't being played it ain't being kept.

I am planning on getting an another stage wattage amp one of these days. I've currently got an SWR SM400 head and 2x10 Goliath Jr II cab - which was motivated by the fact the company was founded by Steve Rabe (formerly of Acoustic Control Corp. hmm...do you detect a certain pattern here? :laugh:) for louder situations. But I'll wait until my next band before I get something with serious grunt since I don't know what I'll need - although I'm 90% convinced I'll go with an SVT and one or two BagEnd S15B-Ds if I know me. ;)

For everyday use, my trusty old '69 B-15N will do just fine.
 
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#48
Clef_de_fa said:
I always doubt if this is the real track found on the album or if this is from something like Rock Band videogame which isn't played by the original artist or if it is some random dude played it and clamed it was from the original album.
Click to expand...
These are definitely the originals. Tone is an exact match with the originals and all the little mistakes are all there.
 
#49
Likely a case of "sounds good enough" as a whole track. Cutting an album is time consuming at each level and I'm sure there's time constraints and budgets in mind as well. Getting the album ready for distribution by a certain date, etc. at some point someone says the finished track as a whole sounds good enough - and bass inconsistencies are not considered important enough to go back and correct.
 
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#50
ashtray said:
Likely a case of "sounds good enough" as a whole track. Cutting an album is time consuming at each level and I'm sure there's time constraints and budgets in mind as well. Getting the album ready for distribution by a certain date, etc. at some point someone says the finished track as a whole sounds good enough - and bass inconsistencies are not considered important enough to go back and correct.
Click to expand...
Well it was recorded in May/June and released in late September, plus at the time Butch Vig was incredibly talented at cutting tapes quickly, but I get your drift.
 
#54
40Hz said:
FWIW I think he's gotten a lot better as a Gibson bassist since. He nails the requisite Gibson bass "touch" - and you can really hear it around the 2:55 mark when it's soloed in this one:



(P.S. This particular performance will only annoy the real diehard Nirvana fans and old school grunge holdouts. ;) :cautious::cautious::cautious: )
Click to expand...

The All Apologies finale with Lorde was magnificent.
 
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#55
A. D. Fairhurst said:
Well it was recorded in May/June and released in late September, plus at the time Butch Vig was incredibly talented at cutting tapes quickly, but I get your drift.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not in the industry or anything, but I know there's recording, mixing, and then mastering is a whole other step that could add time. Then getting corp sign off on everything, making sure which songs go on the record and which don't, the order of the songs, the liner/cover designs, and finally getting them all printed (cd, etc) and distributed in time for release.

I have no idea how much time that takes, and a lot likely has to do with the talent of the people involved in those steps as well as whatever else is on their plate, but there's definitely a window of time between the last note recorded and the first album sold. 3 months actually sounds pretty short - but I have nothing to compare that with.
 
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#58
It could be a huge number of things. Different takes. Different eq on the track for different points in the song. I have no doubt everything you hear was knowingly put on tape that way. The studio is not the most truthful place in the world.
 
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