paulbuzz

So... it's fairly clear that his characteristic grindy sound would come out of a cranked valve amp, whether Hiwatt, Marshall or whatever; but when he switched to more hifi-ish gear later (eg Trace Elliots from early 80's on, through to Ashdown Lab Series stuff today ), what did/does he use to get the dirt for his early classic sound? Personally, I've never found a really convincing way of getting that sound [i]except[/i] via the cranked-up-valve-amp route. ( Oh no, perhaps I shouldn't have said that - let's not have the thread degenerate into a valves-versus-trannies argument... )

In about 1986, I humped gear for a Level 42 gig. At the end of the night, as we were packing and loading PA, Mark King's guitar tech was restringing EVERY ONE of the dozen or so basses that he had on the tour. Apparently he did this EVERY NIGHT, whether the basses had been played or not. The "old" strings were simply discarded on the floor of the hall. Me and the other bass players on the humping crew gathered them up and split them between us. I got about four sets that were essentially brand new. Since I had no money to buy new strings, these ones kept me going for a good couple of years... Nobody ever said that his strings made me sound like him though. (Just as well, since they were one of my least favourite bands ever...) The strings budget for their tours must have been unbelievable...