We've lost the old school sound.

[wolfkeller]

Not sure how to even tittle this. So I'm driving, whole lotta love comes on the radio. Ofcourse we all know and love JPJ's tone on it. Some old Marshall or hiwatt or orange or something but killer right. Then there's Glover's tone on good ol smoke on the water. Just to name 2 old songs with killer tones we just don't hear in new music.

So I ask myself, many times, what did so and so use? I look it up only to realize, it ain't happening. Who has the $ for one of those amps,If you can even find one.

Now, 2017 and we cannot get those old tones from today's gear. Maybe there is stuff I'm not aware of, but I've yet to come across gear that will faithfully reproduction those, and other vintage (and cool) tones. Even an SVT, they just can't get it after all these years. I like VT and other pedals, preamps but they don't cut it. Seems like by now this could be done.

I'd love to be able to cop those kinds of tones without getting the real deal.

 

[pcake]

you can, however, still buy vintage gear.

looking at it from the other direction, you also couldn't get some of today's clean and detailed tones in the 1970s.

 

[bholder]

Oh it can be done, it's just not cheap. There are pedals that can do a pretty good job, too, the Fulltone Bass Drive is one of my faves - not an outright fuzz, much more like an overdriven tube amp.

 

[bebass]

Just remember speaker cabs have as much to do with it as amps.

 

[wolfkeller]

I agree, far as clean and hi-fi. Listening to ISO tracks, most of those guys were distorted. Never really thought about cabs. I don't like fuzz. I was excited over the B3k but it was gone soon as I got it. I prefer a gk800rb as it gets rough and grindy but no fuzz

 

[crucislancer]

I think this is not only the gear the bassist used, but also what was used in the studio, the type of board they ran into, compression, mics and mic placement, etc.

 

[BassmanPaul]

In my mind bass playing, like many things, has evolved. Back in the "good old days" playing bass was an exercise in coping with distortion and general mud. Manufacturers considered that a bass player needed an 18 in a too small cabinet and no high range drivers. Some instrument manufacturers thought pretty much the same thing to whit the Gibson "tone coil" wired right across the signal path shunting all treble frequencies to ground. When I disconnected this in my EB2 the whole instrument came alive. Then it was stolen but that's another story.

I feel that the OP should go out and fashion a tone and make it his own. Down the road someone could well ask us how to get Wolfkeller's tone.

 

[wolfkeller]

Haha, I do have my own that's for sure! I would like to hear some of that Marshall thing these days. I get that everything is better for us now for sure.

 

[El Apestoso]

A lot of what you hear on the studio albums from back then is straight up DI. I know that live he's always preferred solid state amps, and during his time with Zeppelin used the Acoustic 360/361 almost exclusively. If you're after more of an old school sound, try playing flatwounds on a passive P or J.

 

[wolfkeller]

I gotta wonder how much studio magic there was back then to have a serious effect on bass?

 

[wolfkeller]

No, I'm not thinking that kind of old school, I'm thinking along the lines of Zeppelin. Heartbreak type thing.

 

[wolfkeller]

And I believe Glover used Marshall back then?

 

[Al Kraft]

I'll agree that the old tones are sometimes difficult to fully reproduce with modern gear. However, I actually like capturing the essence of that old tone character, but with a bit more clarity which to me sounds better in a live mix. That's what today's gear can do that I don't think the old equipment could do as well.

I'am typically an "older stuff is better" type of person, but today's equipment honestly seems like someone finally delivered on a "less calories with great taste" promise.

 

[wolfkeller]

For me, it would be really cool to get a sound like that from modern gear. Most of what I hear on recordings is pretty boring. I'd love to hear a new band with tones like that as it gets my attention.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

And I believe Glover used Marshall back then?

And Roto 77s

 

[wolfkeller]

I've never actually used flats. I'm a rotto 66 aggressive sound kinda guy

 

[matthewbrown]

Not sure how to even tittle this. So I'm driving, whole lotta love comes on the radio. Ofcourse we all know and love JPJ's tone on it. Some old Marshall or hiwatt or orange or something but killer right. Then there's Glover's tone on good ol smoke on the water. Just to name 2 old songs with killer tones we just don't hear in new music.

So I ask myself, many times, what did so and so use? I look it up only to realize, it ain't happening. Who has the $ for one of those amps,If you can even find one.

Now, 2017 and we cannot get those old tones from today's gear. Maybe there is stuff I'm not aware of, but I've yet to come across gear that will faithfully reproduction those, and other vintage (and cool) tones. Even an SVT, they just can't get it after all these years. I like VT and other pedals, preamps but they don't cut it. Seems like by now this could be done.

I'd love to be able to cop those kinds of tones without getting the real deal.

Basically, this is why I no longer own a Puch moped. Not so much the money, but the hassle.

 

[Matt O]

Quite a bit of the recorded tone you're talking about came from the board. A lot of bass was (and still is) just DI. Then there is the compressor that was in the chain to consider. Then the eq settings. Then if an amp/cab was used. A big old acoustic 360 would get you part of the way there. Definitely look into something with big slot ports for that wide sound.

I'd say the board, eq, and the compression type/amount is most of what you're after.

I seem to remember Zep using a Helios board on a lot of their recordings. I had a chance to record using some modules from an old Helios board and if you eq'd them just right, bonzo and jpj would materialize. Magic modules, those were.

 

[Johnny Crab]

You can get VERY close to those sounds with software or sims(i.e. Line 6 HD500X or Helix), or by lifting directly(Kemper). Part of the problem I've run into is FOH and studio engineers tend to cover tones like those up and dress them up in the "all bass must sound like this mundane bass tone" audio clothing. So your tone on-stage or in the studio is KILLER but FOH or the recorded version sounds......lame, lacking ball$, pedestrian(Geddy's term for this), tame.

I've heard more than once from a studio op and FOH op:
"Your sound is distorted sometimes".....with a look of horror or disgust or looking down their nose or.....
Gee, I set my sims up to be a screaming tube amp on the edge of distortion so IF I play normal, it is clean but has authority and IF I play hard it gets dirty.....same as my 70's SVT did "back in the day" if you had it turned up to 10 or 11 o'clock on the volume(there were no master volumes then).

Same applies to guitars. More than once at a multi-band gig, I've seen guitarist(s) come flying up to the stage to see what in the heck that guitar player is using that sounds exactly like a tube amp screaming its head off or this amp or that guy or....only to see a Line 6 Variax and Helix and full range cabinet. Check "Rig Rundown" for YES with Steve Howe's setup(HD500) and his explanation of it.

 

[matante]

I feel that the OP should go out and fashion a tone and make it his own. Down the road someone could well ask us how to get Wolfkeller's tone.

Amen. This applies to all of us.