HMD: Cliff Burton Amp?

[luckynumber16]

What would be the best amp to buy in order to play Cliff Burton's songs on?

I already have the Aria ProII Black n Gold 1983 bass, the vintage Big Muff and Morley Power Wah pedals, but only playing with a little practice amp at the moment. What would be the best amp upgrade? (without buying the Mesa Boogie 4"x12" Cabinets & 1"x15" Cabinets and Ampeg SVT-1540HE Classis Series Enclosure - very big, expensive and hard to find!)

[derrenleepoole]

All valve tube amp probably is all you need to get that grit and girth in your tone. Have you considered the Ashdown Little Bastard series or perhaps the Orange Tiny Terrors (not all tube, but they have a tube pre)? They'll be more in line with a considered budget, which I'm presuming you'll have. They'll also put you in good stead for use across a whole range of playing, not just being a Cliff clone

Edited May 5, 2011 by derrenleepoole

[luckynumber16]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1220797' date='May 5 2011, 11:10 AM']All valve tube amp probably is all you need to get that grit and girth in your tone. Have you considered the Ashdown Little Bastard series or perhaps the Orange Tiny Terrors (not all tube, but they have a tube pre)? They'll be more in line with a considered budget, which I'm presuming you'll have. They'll also put you in good stead for use across a whole range of playing, not just being a Cliff clone [/quote]
I haven't started seriously looking yet, but I'm about to, which is why I've posted this so I'll go look into those now! Thank you!

[luckynumber16]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1220797' date='May 5 2011, 11:10 AM']All valve tube amp probably is all you need to get that grit and girth in your tone. Have you considered the Ashdown Little Bastard series or perhaps the Orange Tiny Terrors (not all tube, but they have a tube pre)? They'll be more in line with a considered budget, which I'm presuming you'll have. They'll also put you in good stead for use across a whole range of playing, not just being a Cliff clone [/quote]

Have just had a quick look at both, and I can just about afford them. Would I need to buy a separate cabinet for the Little Bastard? As you may have guessed, I don't know a huge amount about it all!

[AttitudeCastle]

[quote name='luckynumber16' post='1220811' date='May 5 2011, 11:22 AM']Have just had a quick look at both, and I can just about afford them. Would I need to buy a separate cabinet for the Little Bastard? As you may have guessed, I don't know a huge amount about it all![/quote]

You would for the Terror Bass or the Little bastard, or for any head.

Also, good idol choice

I've used a chain of muffs too get his crazy drive sound (Metal muff, that other metal muff, the english muff'n and a bass bigg muff to blend in the low end. Looked pretty odd but sounded tasty )

[Matt P]

are you looking at new prices?
definately check out the for sale adverts on there, both the little b@stard and the bass terror crop up regularly, and cabs are plentiful too.
you should save yourself a few quid, might even bring the head and cab into your budget.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=128454"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=128454[/url]


Matt

(edited for link)

Edited May 5, 2011 by Matt P

[Stag]

Im pretty sure he used to used old Sunn amps...

[Cosmo Valdemar]

To be honest, I think the Muff and Wah are the key to his tone. I don't think your choice of amp matters one jot.

[luckynumber16]

[quote name='Matt P' post='1220957' date='May 5 2011, 12:56 PM']are you looking at new prices?
definately check out the for sale adverts on there, both the little b@stard and the bass terror crop up regularly, and cabs are plentiful too.
you should save yourself a few quid, might even bring the head and cab into your budget.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=128454"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=128454[/url]


Matt

(edited for link)[/quote]

After a bit more consideration, I'm not sure I can really afford both the amp and cabinet, even used prices would bring total to minimum of about £700. Paying just under that for the bass itself was quite enough! Any other slightly cheaper options to recreate the Cliff sound?

[derrenleepoole]

Just remembered, check out the new Kustom range of amps. Seriously, they do a 300 watt hybrid head with valve preamp for £230!
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_de300_hd_head.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_de300_hd_head.htm[/url]

Also matched with a 2x10 Kustom cab for £150!
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_deep_end_210h.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_deep_end_210h.htm[/url]

These are meant to be really good for the money, but as they're so new there's little user feedback yet. I think there's some small clips on Youtube.

[derrenleepoole]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' post='1221060' date='May 5 2011, 02:07 PM']To be honest, I think the Muff and Wah are the key to his tone. I don't think your choice of amp matters one jot.[/quote]

You're probably right, but an all valve amp or valve hybrid is probably going to help more in getting that tone without the need for masses of pedals and effects, which can cost a small fortune in of themselves!

[luckynumber16]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1221084' date='May 5 2011, 02:22 PM']You're probably right, but an all valve amp or valve hybrid is probably going to help more in getting that tone without the need for masses of pedals and effects, which can cost a small fortune in of themselves![/quote]
I will definitely check those out, and you are right about the pedals given that I spent about £200 or so on just 2 pedals. *cringe*

[stingrayPete1977]

I will let you Cliff fans into a secret, I posted this in bass guitars a while ago with no response but here we go.

I practice through a Marshall MG10 watt guitar amp at home as its only at a really low volume in the box room for reading and scales and stuff, I do enough stuff in the week with a proper rig and have become less bothered about "my tone" at home. One of the advantages of my setup are that the marshall has a cd line in where I put my Alesis drum machine in to play along to and it has an emulated headphones out socket incase the wife is trying to watch Coronation street below. Well a while ago for a laugh I engaged the gain channel which when coupled to the sort of chorus effect that the emulated headphones have it was spot on Burton! Im not an expert on his songs but was a big Metallica fan back in the day. I think if you took a line out from the phones socket into a desk it would sound awesome and have people searching for that sound for ages. If I was more of a tech head I would do some sound clips but I wouldnt know where to start.

Edited May 6, 2011 by stingrayPete1977

[Cosmo Valdemar]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1221084' date='May 5 2011, 02:22 PM']You're probably right, but an all valve amp or valve hybrid is probably going to help more in getting that tone without the need for masses of pedals and effects, which can cost a small fortune in of themselves![/quote]

My point was the Cliff tone everyone always goes on about was not so much his amp sound, but his heavily distorted wah sound, which is quite easy to achieve with a couple of pedals. Once you have those the amp doesn't really factor into it. I think th only time you ever really heard Cliff 'clean' was on Kill 'Em all, and that sounds like a very dry DI sound to me.

Not trying to bash Cliff in any way here, I love his playing and sound, I just don't think the amp plays too much of a part in recreating that tone.

[AttitudeCastle]

Ride the lightening and Master of Puppets have lots of clean cliff! Just its pretty hard to hear at times.

For whom the bell tolls (after the iconic bass distortion intro!)

and Orion i think are too best places to hear his clean tones (and yes probably his two most famous distortion sections are in those tracks too!)

[cheddatom]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' post='1225317' date='May 9 2011, 05:19 PM']My point was the Cliff tone everyone always goes on about was not so much his amp sound, but his heavily distorted wah sound, which is quite easy to achieve with a couple of pedals. Once you have those the amp doesn't really factor into it. I think th only time you ever really heard Cliff 'clean' was on Kill 'Em all, and that sounds like a very dry DI sound to me.

Not trying to bash Cliff in any way here, I love his playing and sound, I just don't think the amp plays too much of a part in recreating that tone.[/quote]

A guitar practise amp would always be great for some filth to run along side your bass rig. I've done that a few times.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='1225351' date='May 9 2011, 05:55 PM']Ride the lightening and Master of Puppets have lots of clean cliff! Just its pretty hard to hear at times.

For whom the bell tolls (after the iconic bass distortion intro!)

and Orion i think are too best places to hear his clean tones (and yes probably his two most famous distortion sections are in those tracks too!)[/quote]

Fair point. But if you listen to the isolated tracks on Youtube, the RTL stuff is still pretty distorted. The MoP isolated bass tracks (with the exception of the incredible Orion solo) sound pretty bad IMHO, and make it clear why he's pretty buried on that album. He plays this crazy angular line in the chorus of Master that's all but inaudible in the album mix - even knowing it's there it's hard to pick out.

And yes, the quiet section of Orion is clean bass, but that tone could just as well be DI - what I mean is, there's no distinct amp characteristic being heard.