Growly tone.

[M4L666]

How do I achieve a growly tone in terms of turning knobs etc? I love the bass tone of players like John Campbell (LOG) and Adam Duce (Machine Head). They both have a really awesome agressive growly tone and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I could get this type of tone. My bass has a bridge and neck pickup both with volume and a tone controls. My amp has all the regular, so volume, presence, 3-band. Thank you.

[JakeBrownBass]

Buy a warwick thumb

[M4L666]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='339665' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:48 PM']Buy a warwick thumb [/quote]
...

[johnnylager]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='339665' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:48 PM']Buy a warwick thumb [/quote]
Don't be daft - buy a Spector! Or just dig in and give it some on whatever bass you have. I'd favour the neck PU, but not roll the bridge off completely.

Remember, when asking 4000-odd bassists, you'll get 8 or 9000 answers though.

[OutToPlayJazz]

Yes, Warwick & Spector give you a big growl. I really like my Warwick for thatr very reason. But the most gutteral growl is from the graphite neck of a Status. Nothing sounds like it and nothing cuts through the mix like it.

On the subject of getting growl out of an existing bass, you need a good balance between the pickups, play midway between the two & make sure you have plenty of treble and bass eq'd in either on the bass or the amp.

Bright new strings help, too. As strings age, they become smoother, more like flats. You'll get a bigger growl with rougher strings. (The cheaper option to try!)

Rich.

[Josh]

The easy answer is to favour the bridge pick up when you play, and regarding controls, well I don't know what bass you've got exactly man but the best thing for you to do would be to sit down with your bass and get 100% comfortable with your eq, and then when you are it is then a simple case of making sure the bridge pick up is louder than the neck pick up but make sure you haven't got too much treble rolled on and that there is enough bass pushing the mids across.

Or as Jake said, save up for a Warwick Thumb bass

[Kiwi]

This question of growl is something of a life long quest for me. I still haven't worked it out but it depends very much on the neck and the manner of dampening. The maple/wenge combination in AGC, Sei, Shuker and other basses is a bit of a sure fire winner. However although the wenge is consistent, the maple isn't and its the maple which holds the key.

Other experiences Ive had:
Status Series 2000 (numerous), because its an all graphite instrument, the neck was as rigid as a Tory PM who has died from a viagra overdose, firm sounding and growly as hell.
Smith BSR5GN (was mine), deliberately designed with maple and bubinga neck to be giving, and growly as hell but the growl is quite soft sounding and warm.
AGC 4 bass (I don't remember which one), firm growl with a really nice maple and wenge combination neck, almost like a status but less aggressive
Sei 4 string headless (Bass Gallery), very firm growl with a nice maple and wenge combination neck, sounded similar to the AGC but slightly more aggressive. Still less aggressive than a Status Series 2000.
Celinder Update J (mine), birdseye maple neck, fairly growly, lots of player wear and the growl is quite soft. Most jazz basses sound growlier on the bridge pickup but this bass actually sounds growlier on the neck pickup!
Musicman Stingray (mine), slab cut maple neck, very growly, loads of player wear, but the growl is quite soft.
Ped's Vigier, the best of Status and Sei, very growly bass with nice firm midrange but not too aggressive in attack.

Seems to me that the sound of wenge or some other wood to soften the mid range response of maple (perhaps by lowering one of the frequency peaks?) works quite well. The other thing I found was that Mark Bass speaker cabs are coloured to enhance the growl of jazz basses. However they don't suit all basses unfortunately, particularly if you have an instrument whose tonal character is significantly different to the colouring of the Mark Bass gear.

My theory is that all instruments have a series of resonancy peaks and by managing the way in which the wood is combined allows some peaks to overlap at some points and other peaks to be dampened. Where this happens in the lower mids (250Hz or so) this gives the instrument its characteristic growl. However this is far from a science as every bit of wood is different and so the results can be unpredictable. There is one theory about tuning the 'knock' frequencies of selected woods which some luthiers subscribe to.

Basically the frequencies of the ringing sound of a piece of wood when knocked with a knuckle is in some kind of harmonic relationship with all the other pieces of wood. What I don't understand is how this relationship is maintained when we all know that when you saw off chunks of a piece of lumber you make its resonancy frequencies change. It would change things in the same way that filling a glass with water changes the frequency of the glass when knocked.

However I caveat that by saying although I've played hundreds if not thousands of instruments, and I've buggered about with swapping parts on the same instrument to see what happens, I've never made a bass yet. It just strikes me that anyone who can get consistent growl on a bass has to have been working with the same design for quite a long time because if there are different sized pieces of wood being used all the time its otherwise harder to predict using experience how mass, density and volume all interact with one another. Musicman are a great example of this, same body shape, same neck, more or less the same hardware, means that they can start to measure differences in weight and mass. They produce some very consistent instruments. Same with Celinder and they also produce some very consistent instruments.

This is all just opinion though.

[bremen]

[quote name='Josh' post='339724' date='Nov 28 2008, 03:31 PM']The easy answer is to favour the bridge pick up when you play, and regarding controls, well I don't know what bass you've got exactly man but the best thing for you to do would be to sit down with your bass and get 100% comfortable with your eq, and then when you are it is then a simple case of making sure the bridge pick up is louder than the neck pick up but make sure you haven't got too much treble rolled on and that there is enough bass pushing the mids across.

Or as Jake said, save up for a Warwick Thumb bass [/quote]

I'm still not really sure what's meant by 'growl'. The Geddy Lee sound? or is that more 'snarl'?

[Josh]

[quote name='bremen' post='339855' date='Nov 28 2008, 04:51 PM']I'm still not really sure what's meant by 'growl'. The Geddy Lee sound? or is that more 'snarl'?[/quote]

Jaco's tone is growl personified. Warm and very focused. Or more easily said, "The Non-P Bass tone". Geddys tone isn't what I'd call the classic growl, it's much more of a overdriven crunch.

[simon1964]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='339665' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:48 PM']Buy a warwick thumb [/quote]

That was going to be my advice!

Otherwise, I think it depends what you mean by growl. If you're after an aggressive crunch type tone, I would have a look at the Ashdown J Lomenzo hyperdrive pedal (or whatever its called!). Fantastic value, and gives some really good tones - everything from a crunchy aggresive growl, to full on overdrive.

[waynepunkdude]

If it helps it looks like he has a Tanglewood with a P/J config if that helps you guys figure it out.

I haven't got a clue what growly means.

[Tait]

buy an ibanez ATK, its £600 cheaper than a spector or warwick and really growls.

anything with a musicman pup id say. boost the bass and treble a lot, mids very slightly.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='339665' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:48 PM']Buy a warwick thumb [/quote]

IMHO as a bassist very much still in love with the sound of his old Warwick Thumb, the sound it makes is more of a purr. I know that the Thumb and the word "growl" became inextricably linked at some hazy point in bass history but they actually purr. I swear.

[simon1964]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='340093' date='Nov 28 2008, 09:58 PM']IMHO as a bassist very much still in love with the sound of his old Warwick Thumb, the sound it makes is more of a purr. I know that the Thumb and the word "growl" became inextricably linked at some hazy point in bass history but they actually purr. I swear.[/quote]

Have you been stroking it?!

I know what you mean - I love the sound of my Thumb, and ''growl'' means different things to different people. I do know my Thumb sits in the mix better than any other bass I've owned.

[waynepunkdude]

As much as you guys may love your Warwicks Sei's etc..... I think this guy is trying to get as close to that tone as possible with his current set up.

No offence like.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='340103' date='Nov 28 2008, 10:08 PM']As much as you guys may love your Warwicks Sei's etc..... I think this guy is trying to get as close to that tone as possible with his current set up.

No offence like.[/quote]
Oish, if I had noticed that first I would have saved myself a load of typing. *slaps forehead*

[WalMan]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='340103' date='Nov 28 2008, 10:08 PM']As much as you guys may love your Warwicks Sei's etc..... I think this guy is trying to get as close to that tone as possible with his current set up.

No offence like.[/quote]
In which case there's no point in me saying get an L2500, stick a new set of Elixirs on it, plug it into a Bass Pod with Ped's rather marvellous SVT Grit patch on it and the fire that through a PA - It sounded feckin' marvellous tonight [url="http://planetsmilies.net"][/url]