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a recorded bass tone that you love


mistersully

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Sly Stone...

 

[video=youtube;U3t9htxbIAc]

 

 

Larry Graham

 

[video=youtube;cDjnB_61k58]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDjnB_61k58

 

 

Dee Murray...

 

[video=youtube;3p_xAToFzck]

 

 

Chris Squire...

 

[video=youtube;-Tdu4uKSZ3M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M

 

 

James Jamerson...

 

[video=youtube;9pYux5-d1Es]

 

 

B. B. Dickerson...

 

[video=youtube;RFSWW4O6QNM]

 

 

Rocco Prestia...

 

[video=youtube;t9BRqGpppJw]

 

 

Paul McCartney...

 

[video=youtube;dJOz1ICnrnI]

 

 

I'm not sure... (if you know who played bass on this, please let me know!)

 

[video=youtube;eJmplWfWAPU]

 

 

 

I'm just getting started... :lol::o

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Some of my favorite "tones" tend to lean toward the more aggressive, as in your Chris Squire/Yes example. My tone tends more towards the later of my two examples. As much as I love the grindy, dirty tone on the first, I've never been able to incorporate it into my daily tone pallet in a cover band or playing for other people. The two that immediately came to mind:

 

Eddie Jackson from Queensryche

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love Duck Dunn's playing, groove... and tone!

 

[video=youtube;AREppyQf5uw]

 

 

[video=youtube;2Py37G9qsfY]

 

 

[video=youtube;0xEvsJtrl60]

 

 

[video=youtube;FGVGFfj7POA]

 

 

 

 

I'd love to hear some more suggestions pertaining to the OP - what other bass tones really knock you guys out? :)

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This ones hard to beat too. Its not so much how good the bass quality is on either of these. Much better bass can be recorded today for sure, but its all about how the bass fits in a mix and how the other parts are mixed as well. Of course having good vocals helps add mixing transparency, and having the guitars in the midrange instead of masking low frequencies keeps the bass out in the open easily heard.

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This ones hard to beat too. Its not so much how good the bass quality is on either of these. Much better bass can be recorded today for sure' date=' but its all about how the bass fits in a mix and how the other parts are mixed as well. Of course having good vocals helps add mixing transparency, and having the guitars in the midrange instead of masking low frequencies keeps the bass out in the open easily heard.[/quote']

 

Good points all around - and very true IMO. The bass part has to work with, and IMHO support everything else in the mix...

 

 

...although for me, the killer bass tone on Pepper is probably a toss-up between these two:

 

[video=youtube;eCss0kZXeyE]

 

[video=youtube;Se5JLYKQfDU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se5JLYKQfDU

 

 

Same era, and I think I like the tone on this one even more...

 

 

[video=youtube;wj0nIMyqPcU]

 

 

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Of course good playing and good tone work for me too. Stanley Clarke is one of the artists that deserve praise as a Musician's Musician. I had this album Journey To Love on 8 track back in the late 70's and bought it again recently. It still floors me to hear his Crushing power over the instrument on songs like this.

 

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I'm not sure... (if you know who played bass on this, please let me know!)

 

[video=youtube;eJmplWfWAPU]

 

 

 

I'm just getting started... :lol::o

 

"Los Angeles-based session musicians" is all I've been able to find. NOT the Funk Brothers

 

http://www.allmusic.com/song/neither-one-of-us-wants-to-be-the-first-to-say-goodbye-mt0010900373

 

 

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"Los Angeles-based session musicians" is all I've been able to find. NOT the Funk Brothers

 

The album had to be good given the talent on it. I did find some of the studio musicians.

It was tough digging these three up because the Pips were having issues like many with Motown and were in a legal battle over royalties. The album done to fulfill their contract and like many Motown recordings, the studio musicians were simply hired help and got no credits.

 

Larry Carlton began his career as a studio musician in LA and was at least one of the Guitarists on that album and that song in particular. https://books.google.com/books?id=60...icians&f=false

 

David Sanborn played sax on the album. He's released 24 albums, won six Grammy Awards and has had eight gold albums and one platinum album https://books.google.com/books?id=1yXVEjS-j8IC&pg=PT1113&lpg=PT1113&dq=studio+musicians+on+Gladys+Knight+%26+The+Pips+-+Neither+One+of+Us&source=bl&ots=WCerxwhQPE&sig=Dt7tyWUZuzVTEAD2r0XYi5lO_v8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAjgKahUKEwjqqNLSwfHGAhWFmYgKHX94DAY#v=onepage&q=studio%20musicians%20on%20Gladys%20Knight%20%26%20The%20Pips%20-%20Neither%20One%20of%20Us&f=false

 

James Jamerson was the bassist on that song. You can see the list of song credits at the bottom of this page. http://www.bassland.net/jamersonhits.htm

 

James did play with the Funk Brothers for many years until Motown moved to LA. He did follow Motown's move to LA and did session work for them, but the music business changed and demand for his studio work declined. His health eventually failed and he died of cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia on August 2, 1983 in Los Angeles.

 

I actually thought he died sooner then that because you don't hear him on many recordings after the early 70's. He did allot of gigs but you don't see many of the credits. Motown was a meat factory and typical of its era where musicians were paid low wages and were virtually unknown by the public.

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Just about anything by Earth, Wind and Fire. I think the bass is heavily compressed, though I may be wrong about that. Please advise if the tone is not compression but rather, something else.

 

Thx,

 

Stephen

 

I'd say that's talent....tone is in the fingers, and Verdine White is quite talented....and a healthy dollop of compression in the recording.

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Just about anything by Earth, Wind and Fire. I think the bass is heavily compressed, though I may be wrong about that. Please advise if the tone is not compression but rather, something else.

 

Thx,

 

Stephen

 

Verdine White used a Pre CBS Fender bass, A Tele bass in the beginning and a Jazz bass later, and an Ampeg B15. He regularly used the Ampeg recording most of his early works. The tube amps nails the Motown/Stax sound of that time. Of course there were allot of studio tricks used recording am mixing too. They used "real" hardware EQ's like the Pultec and Comps lie a Fairchild 670. Got to remember it was recorded to tape too and at high volume levels it compresses too. Allot of that hot bass sound came from hot track saturating that made it sound like it was in your face about to explode. I agree with Craig though, you got to be real good too, especially in that genre of music.

 

B-15.jpg

 

 

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My high school had a B15, and when I joined the jazz band I was "a rocker" and way too cool for such a lame amp. It's no good unless it's got a hundred watts and a pair of 15's or eight 10's, you know.... Well, I learned about bass tone and great amps, along with a thing or two about jazz. That little amp was a tone monster, and made even my weak skills sound pretty awesome.

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I love the Ampeg sound for bass. Even their name come from amping the bass, Micing the bass at the bridge pin or "Peg" lead to amping the Peg and Ampeg for short.

 

I bought one of those new Class D Portaflex heads and It does capture that vintage tone. I especially like it on my Folded Sunn cab like this one. I put a single 15" JBL in mine. It barely fit because of the magnet size but I love the way that cab projects the sound. The 2X15" version was run with the Model T head and it had warnings on it about hearing loss. My bass player had one and the warnings were well correct.

 

 

sunnrhfront.jpg

 

 

I'd easily trade all three of my bass amps for this Head.

 

v4b-2.jpg

 

 

 

 

On top of this B25 cab (mine was new with 2X15" Altecs)

 

Photo006.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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