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Bassists whose tone floors you


Funky Dunky
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most bass tones floor me, if I can hear them above the drums.
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/250318-how-do-i-mic-up-a-kick-drum/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url]
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/250059-bass-mix-in-live-concerts-disappointing/page__fromsearch__1

Edited by PaulWarning
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Mark King's tone during Children Say on the Live At Wembley DVD/video was my standard for a long time. Over the years I've discovered it was from combination of the Jaydee bass, heavily pushed, mic'ed, 10" cones and DI feed into FOH. Not exactly something I could achieve in my home studio without disturbing the neighbours.

Jimmy Johnson's solo'd graphite neck Alembic with Lee Ritenour is particularly nice, too.

More than four strings...John Patitucci in the early days on his Smith was lovely. Ironically, Nathan East's Yamaha BBNEII has never impressed me on his recordings but I've played them in shops many times and loved what I heard.

My Spector NS5CR takes the cake for tone so far though. Lovely, warm, growly sounds...I've yet to play it live but am pretty confident that it would sound amazing. My recent Status purchase has impressed me also - a surprisingly versatile instrument capable of some convincing p-bass tones as well as the classic Status snarl. While the Spector has more growl, the Status is probably a more suitable work horse.

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Can't believe I didn't mention Chris Wolstenholme from Muse. Whether clean or fuzzed-up, his bass always sounds huge.

Duck Dunn

Robert DeLeo -maybe a stretch to say it floored me, but it always stuck out - nothing extra special, but always nice.

Ed Friedland - ok, it's his job to make basses sound killer - but he always makes basses sound killer! All in the fingers etc - Ed has fantastic technique.

Edited by Funky Dunky
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Rancid's Matt Freeman always has such a great tone, people seem to get turned off by tracks like Maxwell Murder and Axiom but his playing and tone on stuff like
Roots Radicals, Detroit, Time Bomb, Sidekick, Soundsystem, Up to no good and so many other tracks is just fantastic. Getting to hear him live is always a blast.

Journey to the end of the east bay in the clip below, such a nice line, great tone and really fun to play.

[media]http://youtu.be/pph1tnEydQM[/media]

Edited by Subbeh
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[quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1417974210' post='2625648']
Rancid's Matt Freeman always has such a great tone, people seem to get turned off by tracks like Maxwell Murder and Axiom but his playing and tone on stuff like
Roots Radicals, Detroit, Time Bomb, Sidekick, Soundsystem, Up to no good and so many other tracks is just fantastic. Getting to hear him live is always a blast.

[media]http://youtu.be/pph1tnEydQM[/media]
[/quote]

I used to cover Journey in my old band back in school. So much fun to play, and as you rightly say, Matt has a killer tone. I always thought it was interesting that he used to use GK amps in the AOCTW era, as opposed to the usual Ampeg fare that most punk players plump for. He's all Fender (and Squier) these days though.

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[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1417908934' post='2625117']


I would agree. I think a lot of the classic Chris Squire tone comes from studio compressors racked right up. Their engineer Eddie Offord definitely knew how to get a good tone out of Squire's bass. Offord is absent for Chris's Fish Out of Water album, and his bass tone is muddier and less distinct as a result. Still high in the mix, but lacking the sizzle of Fragile.

The most 'flooring' tone I can think of is Joe Preston with his one-man project Thrones. His rig is deceptively simple, being an old Ibanez Axstar bass into a Supafuzz, a Korg guitar multieffects unit, a Line 6 delay unit and a Sunn beta bass amp through some ratty cabinets.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th9s4seys1I"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th9s4seys1I[/url]

Not the clearest bass tone, but I love the midrangey girth to it. Alongside the squeals of feedback, the incomprehensible vocals and the sporadic electronic drums I think it creates a really lively sound.
[/quote]

Actually Chris had his sound set up differently for FOOW as you'll find if you read interviews he's given; he wanted a different flavour. I can't remember the specifics but I think he had his treble tone rolled off - whatever, the sounds on that album were on purpose.


For me:

Chris Squire on any of the early albums
John Entwistle Alembic
Glenn Hughes Made In Europe
Robert Glover Made In Japan
Mike Rutherford Rick & Shergold
Stanley Clarke
Lemmy
Early JJ Burnel
Geezer Butler Heaven & Hell / Mob Rules
Leigh 'Leroy' Gorman (Bow Wow Wow)
Stu Zender 1st 3 Jamiroquai albums
JPJ Jazz Bass
Gary Thain Uriah Heep
John Deacon
Bernard Edwards

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Well the sound that got me hooked was Jamerson's playing but this tone from Martin Turner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUolWNHxRiM&list=PLHUOhawG5U2JW49r2Y11cIO8syOskd7j-&index=9

With a bit of this from the same man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia73dAETiGk

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