Who's sound were you aiming for?!

[ilansgroove]

i hope this will be an interesting thread ....

I was wondering , which songs or bassists were your influences for your sound research, and how you achieve them or better yet , they got you somewhere unexpected and you found a different sound that you had to keep!?

My first search was the John Wetton overdrive sound on the album Red by King Crimson ....
I think the closest I ever got was with my B3K into B7K , but I'm still wondering if the VMT will be a more propriet pedal to get that sound ....

I remember searching a lot to get the "Sir psycho sexy" by the RHCP , and eventually having the You're Doom into the wonderlove is the best sound I ever found to play these kind of grooves, although it's not the closest one to Flea's sound .... By the way, I also love to add to this sound an octaver in parallel .... Damn that's sweet ...


Go ahead people , share your influences and search results

 

[ilansgroove]

Sorry for messing up the title ... Heheheheheh

 

[FretNoMore]

I hear sounds I like on recordings, and try to do something similar when we play covers, but like most people (!) I hardly ever know who the bass player is ...

 

[ilansgroove]

No matter who the bass player is, but certainly heard sounds you liked and search to get it ...
I'm interested to know the song on which you like the bass sound, and the pedals you used to get to that sound

 

[Jazz Ad]

Jannick Top and Tony Levin had a huge influence in my tone.
They both manage to fit enormous, raw bass tones in otherwise gentle pop songs without being obnoxious.
It is what I try to do. Sometimes I succeed.

 

[FretNoMore]

My memory is bad ... but usually it's mostly EQ and choice of where to fret and pluck ... some other examples - Sledgehammer as mentioned above (Octaver and mild filter), Gotta get out of this place (EQ, playing high up the neck and damping strings), many rock/blues songs (EQ, slight overdrive), Crossroads (fuzz), Stormy Monday and other slow blues (no effects, roll back treble for smooth sound) ...

 

[AndreasK]

From this:

To this:

And anything in between.

Play mostly cover songs and I´m not manic about copying the original sound, but within that range I´m pretty happy doing most things. Plus a bit of chorus/flanger when called for.

 

[ilansgroove]

Jannick Top and Tony Levin had a huge influence in my tone.
They both manage to fit enormous, raw bass tones in otherwise gentle pop songs without being obnoxious.
It is what I try to do. Sometimes I succeed.

So , which pedals did u use?

 

[ilansgroove]

I almost got that QOTSA sound with my B3K ... But it is still a little too aggressive

 

[AndreasK]

I almost got that QOTSA sound with my B3K ... But it is still a little too aggressive

The closest I can get, so far, is using my Joyo American as a slightly dirty boost into my Barbershop with some light compression. I can get it pretty hairy and aggressive, while maintaining that solid P-bass foundation. If I could I would always play a cranked tube amp

 

[jasonmitsch]

When I first started playing bass I wanted the U2/Adam Clayton tone. It was pretty easy to accomplish with P-bass>Ampeg. Sure there are a hundred exceptions to this over their catalogue, but that was my attempt.

Then somewhere along the lines I got into Muse/Chris Wolstenholme and it has been a rabbit hole since then. I don't have any specific songs off the top of my head, but a few years ago I spent a lot of time trying to imitate his tones. Both "standard" and "synth".

This lead me to the facebook group Organic Bass Wobble, where people share ideas and methods for how to create dubstep and synth bass tones using the bass guitar as the primary sound. It has revealed a lot of cool tricks that I'm still finding ways to incorporate.

 

[ilansgroove]

I guess me playing a MM stingray also adds to the "aggression" of the bass .... Hehehehe

 

[Jazz Ad]

So , which pedals did u use?

Octaver and compression mostly, then I started blending very heavily distorted or fuzzed bass with clean tone and fixed wah to get extreme EQing. Nowadays to get these massive tones I mainly use synth sounds, from an EHX BMS and Zoom B3.

 

[Lebowsky]

These are the tracks I listened to the first time and thought "holy sh!t I need this dirt tone":







I own both a Rat Tail and Blower Box but don't even use either heh

 

[Thunder_Fingers]

A version of this wich my Peavey's can do something similiar to, but I try to keep my own touch of it.

 

[NeckPickup]

Lee Sklar's sound on James Taylor's songs (both Frankenbass and '62 Jazz from what I've read). I think it's also in the way it is mixed, not just the basses, but that's most fat (and phat!), and lush sounding tone, plus really smooooooth - mando frets plus soft hands.

 

[Ewo]

Jamerson, on the Detroit Motown singles. Got me playing P basses.

Then Jaco, on his first solo album and Heavy Weather. Got me to switch to Js.

(Yeah, I'm an old cat. And I still play Js, but figured out how to approximate a P tone on 'em.)

 

[MrSidecar]

Jamerson, on the Detroit Motown singles. Got me playing P basses.

Then Jaco, on his first solo album and Heavy Weather. Got me to switch to Js.

(Yeah, I'm an old cat. And I still play Js, but figured out how to approximate a P tone on 'em.)

Happened to me the other way round. First Jaco, had me buying a ridiculous J-copy and bang the frets out. I was a teenager. Eventually, switched to double bass, where it was mainly Dave Holland's recorded tone that first pointed me in a direction. Since then, it's anybody with a huge acoustic tone.

At some point, I started playing electric again and got me a sponge and a P-bass, ever since really diggin' into Motown. Nowadays the sponge is mostly gone but always ready in my back pocket when I play my 51ish P.

best
Sidecar

 

[ilansgroove]

Don't know how many of you know this Israeli song, but the bass player is a killer , Yossi fine .... Did a lot of fusion in NY in the 80's and even played on a David Bowie album ....

I've had many Env. filters the past few years, my current pedal is my favorite filter I've ever tried , the 3leaf Audio Wonderlove... I get close to this sound but still ,always , just a few tweeks away .... I guess it comes down to the different basses we play , and the best effect each bass player has - his/her own Fingers!!!!!

 

[Kaden Daniels]

Right Now Im trying to get the Overdrive bass sound of Elephant by Tame Impala