How does Fieldy get his sound?

[arabassist]

I know a lot of people think he's awful (korn fans think hes the god of bass), but meh, bass is bass - how does he get his distinct sound? does he just use really light guage and bright strings and thump the crap out of them?

first vid is slapped (it loops for some reason) and second vid is not slapped:





p.s. in the 2nd vid hes just playing 1st, 5th and octave notes right??

Edited August 17, 2009 by arabassist

[Higgie]

Sounds like he has low action to get a little fret buzz, a little bit of Overdrive in the first vid. New strings, scooped mids. That's about it really. Never been a fan of him or his playing.

And yes, second vid is just root 5th octave.

[lemmywinks]

Sounds like an extremely low action with scooped mids

EDIT Beaten to it!

Edited August 17, 2009 by lemmywinks

[arabassist]

ah, so no mid, and loads of treble and bass....sounds like my snoring

[Josh]

A low action, with a seriously low tuning and odd technique.

[waynepunkdude]

Sounds terrible.

[Jono]

Seem to remember reading eons ago he close mikes up his tweeter...

Whatever you think of his playing you have to admit he's got a pretty unique sound (as have Korn really)

[Moos3h]

There's a chorus and possibly flanger on that second one too, no?

[arabassist]

[quote name='Josh' post='572260' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:33 PM']A low action, with a seriously low tuning and odd technique.[/quote]

does he drop tuning and loosen the strings to help get that tone?

[steve-soar]

Smoke a load of skunk, jam for years with your best friends, get a flange pedal and don't give a sh*t.

[d-basser]

Hate mid frequencies, attack the strings with spoons

[budget bassist]

i think korn are ok, and i STILL think fieldy is awful. Get a real bassist.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='arabassist' post='572269' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:36 PM']does he drop tuning and loosen the strings to help get that tone?[/quote]


I'm not really sure (never paid much attention to Korn when i was of the age), sounds like [i]really[/i] low tension strings though

[Higgie]

I seem to remember him playing a downtuned 5er, so that would help with the string tension.

[d-basser]

Pretty sure he plays his 5 string tuned to A

[arabassist]

[quote name='Higgie' post='572288' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:43 PM']I seem to remember him playing a downtuned 5er, so that would help with the string tension.[/quote]

yeh i think 'freak on a leash' requires drop A

[arabassist]

[quote name='d-basser' post='572276' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:38 PM']Hate mid frequencies, attack the strings with spoons[/quote]

make sure theyre not magnetised!

[eightball]

[quote name='Jono' post='572264' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:34 PM']Seem to remember reading eons ago he close mikes up his tweeter...

Whatever you think of his playing you have to admit he's got a pretty unique sound (as have Korn really)[/quote]

bingo - mike on the tweeter. has a really complex setup of 10's. 15's and 18's as well.

[Bassmingo]

korn hit big when i was 20, so i studied his style at the time, from memory i can remember:

as mentioned, no mids, low tuning.

think of him as a percussion player first. with two 7 string guitarists in the band, he has to fit in somewhere. with that in mind there are a lot of times when his lines are all left and right hand mutes. he's also used a flamenco styled right hand rake at times. the "got the life" verse section is a good example of this.

I'd always assumed he tuned a full step down like the guitars (ADGCF) and you certainly can do the same, but i remember reading an article saying his tuning had some flats in it....but i'm not convinced.

never heard of him miking the tweeter, but it doesnt surprise me.

[HMX]

Low action, low tuning, slap and scoop the mids.

[4000]

[quote name='Jono' post='572264' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:34 PM']Seem to remember reading eons ago he close mikes up his tweeter...

Whatever you think of his playing you have to admit he's got a pretty unique sound (as have Korn really)[/quote]

Yep, that's correct, he scoops all his mids and just mikes his tweeter.

[alexclaber]

Yes, scoop the mids, boost the lows and highs, tune down a tone or a tone and a half (first two albums a tone, third three semitones, I stopped taking notice after that). Mesa Boogie M2000 amp, four 4x10"s, miked tweeter (that'll still pick up all the lows from the 10"s, just minimal mids). The first and third album were brilliant and his playing completely unique and deeply badass. Problem is how many one-two bar percussive patterns can you come up with without repeating yourself? He slaps, pops and strums, often multiple strings at once. Lots of muting. The big change in tone between albums 1&2 and album 3 is that he took the 180Hz EQ slider down, so there's much less low midrange in his tone - personally I think that sucked too much punch out of his sound and left him relying on thump and click.

Alex

[EdwardHimself]

The thing about his tone i think is that it's very difficult to hear the bass over those guitars. That's why many metal bass players use high amounts of treble to hear it over the guitars and stuff. It could use a bit more mids so you don't have to guess what note he is playing though. I can't really suggest anything to get the tone apart from the fact that the bass is pretty important, my mate actually wanted to get that sort of tone from an epiphone EB-0. No chance! Your best bet is a 5 string bass with an active equaliser so you can ramp up the treble. An amp with a tweeter would be good too.

[51m0n]

The only thing I have to add is thats a brand new set of strings....

[Dropzone]

I have the fieldy K5, with 5 different knobs on it. All seem to do the same thing differently.

The band hate it when I take the mid out, but it is an awesome instrument.

We play Freak on a leash in B flat and I think it is the same as the original.

Cheers

Mike