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Who's sound were you aiming for?!

#81
Geddy Lee - Moving Pictures. I used to own a Ric 4001 and P basses (and J basses), so I had it opretty close.

But now I play Yamaha RBXJM2 basses and the sound is more Music Man-ish, so the Ged sound has evolved into a Ged meets Music Man, with extra nastiness, growl and aggression.

Me likee.
 
#82
I mostly do my own thing, when I was growing up but my favorite tones came from John Wetton of King Crimson and John Entwistle of The Who. Wetton's tones are a bit out there to use very often in my cover bands, even when I'm playing hard rock/metal. I totally love Entwistle's Alembic tones, but I've never wanted to own an Alembic -- and again, those tones have limited application (for me).

So, I am mainly influenced by Entwistle's Live at Leeds tone: it works for many kinds of rock, and also works well with a P-bass. There's some debate about what bass(es) Ox played on Live at Leeds. Most say Fender P-bass, but some say it was his "Fenderbird" (Thunderbird with P-bass neck).

Entwistle was one of the first to mix a dirty rig emphasizing mids and highs with a clean rig emphasizing lows. I'm not going to drag all that gear to my bar gigs ;) so I've used SansAmp rack rigs and now various OD pedals to get in the Live at Leeds ballpark.
 
#84
Like many, I've always chased the overdriven Geddy/Squire sound - it's what I try to achieve when I try out OD pedals, but while I don't have one now, I think the BDDI has gotten me the closest over the years. But I also really, really love Chancellor's bass sound - for modern stuff, that would be my ideal.
 
#85
I have odd tastes but here's a few tracks that the bass tone inspired me to obtain a similar sound (or at least try to). I seem to be mostly attracted to filtery synthy things.

Bootsy Collins on "Munchies For Your Love" Wicked filter sound.

Cass Lewis on "Charlie Big Potato" Mad cool intro

Stuart Zender on "Kids" Nutty Filter

Tim Commerford on "Calm like a bomb"
Double wah

Greg Philligaines on "We Can Work It Out" mean synth bass
 
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#87
gnarlyWarlock said:
Crikey. Well, were I to record something bright, like a T-40, through a B7K, and then just copy it in my DAW, would I at least be able to get that thicker sound? (though I assume I'd have to detune it half a step, or would that make it sound flat??)
Click to expand...

I think the B7K sounds excellent for "modern" metal tunes -- and I include Pantera, even though they've been around awhile. You have a T-40, he plays Spector... heck, even strings make a difference in tone. Even so, I say go for it. One great thing about the B7K is that it has a blend control to balance dirty and clean. On top of that, it has a parallel output in addition to the normal output, so you could put the normal (dirty) output on one channel, and the parallel (clean) output on another channel, then blend together to your taste, as is done in the studio. Experiment with EQ on each track. One YouTube video I saw said to scoop the clean tone, and make the dirty tone mostly midrange, then blend together... but whatever, just experiment to get whatever sounds good to YOU.
 
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#89
thabassmon said:
I have odd tastes but here's a few tracks that the bass tone inspired me to obtain a similar sound (or at least try to). I seem to be mostly attracted to filtery synthy things.

Bootsy Collins on "Munchies For Your Love" Wicked filter sound.

Cass Lewis on "Charlie Big Potato" Mad cool intro

Stuart Zender on "Kids" Nutty Filter

Tim Commerford on "Calm like a bomb"
Double wah

Greg Philligaines on "We Can Work It Out" mean synth bass
Click to expand...


Did u ever get close to the "kids" sound?
 
#90
I've tried to replicate a few songs over the years. I don't try to buy exactly what the bassist uses—I just use what I think will achieve the result. Here are some of the songs I've tried to replicate.

Red Fang's Humans Remain Human Remains. I love how the bass distorts in a way that almost sounds like a sweeping filter—like a wah effect. This is something I was able to get with my modded DS-1.


I've gotten that droning, echoing, pitch shifted bass sample behind Portishead's Cowboys. I just change the speed on an analog delay pedal. I use a Moog MF Delay with an expression pedal.


I love UNKLE's Runaway. The bass has an artificially short release, a buzzy solid state distortion, and a lo-fi wash all over it. It almost sounds like a cassette tape recording. I've been looking for lo-fi pedals that do this, but most lo-fi have a different idea of 'lo-fi' than I do. I found one that is a bit crusher, another that does modulation effects (Zvex's Lo-fi junky, I think?), and another that makes everything sound like an AM radio (something from Penny Pedals, iirc). I might roll my own pedal. lol.
 
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