Favorite Bass tone for rock/metal??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tone Monster
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Don't know the rigs but Benjamin Orrs tone on Heartbeat City and Eddie Jacksons tone on Mindcrime are my two absolute favorites.
 
Always loved spector basses into ampeg svt classic with the graphic eq, along with the 8x10 fridge, and of course sansamp.... one of my favorites!

Also a huge fan of a pbass into a mesa 400+ with the 15 and 4x10 cabs .... massive

Honorable mention to a stingray into a Galien Krueger rig!
 
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Rickenbacker bass split to 2 amps like a cranked Marshall and an Ampeg SVT. Chris Squire did something like that and his tone on Fragile for example just kills imo. I think Geddy Lee did something similar.
 
Off the top….
John Paul Jones on the early Zeppelin.
Gene Simmons on early Kiss.
Andrew Weiss in Rollins Band
Entombed in their Death n Roll period.
 
Any JPJ in Zep. Also, on a few Radiohead albums like OK Computer they got some amazing bass tones. Forgot who the engineer and producer were, but that album sounds SO good!!
 
Probably most things either recorded with an early 70’s SVT or a GK800RB. My two favorite bass amps. Throw in a lot of earlier punk recorded with SS Peavey amps. Not sure if Kira played on Damaged but there’s a fat, gnarly tone (sounds like a P-bass) on that Black Flag record.
 
Gary Meskil from pro pain and the crumb suckers has a killer bass tone to. Mostly stingrays and I think an aria on the earlier stuff.
 
skoora said:
Probably most things either recorded with an early 70’s SVT or a GK800RB. My two favorite bass amps. Throw in a lot of earlier punk recorded with SS Peavey amps. Not sure if Kira played on Damaged but there’s a fat, gnarly tone (sounds like a P-bass) on that Black Flag record.
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Yeah, a Spector with their HAZlab preamp and EMGs into either an SVT or 800rb and an Ampeg 810 cab is going to give instant killer rock/metal bass tone. This was the late '80s/early '90s standard. Queensryche, Skid Row, Alice In Chains, Pantera, etc.

Bass set up matters too. Low action IMHO gives that clanky/grinding sound that works best for this stuff.

After using Spectors for a while, I've ended up just using Jazz basses. I usually slightly favor the bridge pickup to give that growling sound. Nothing I've used tops the old SVT/800rb sound, but some of the Aguilar stuff is nice.

The Darkglass overdrive units get some eye rolls, but IMHO they sound freaking awesome. That's why everyone and their brother uses them.
 
DD Verni - Overkill - Peavey Mark 4 (Solid state)
Frank Bello - Anthrax - whatever he used on Got the time - killer!
David “Sticky fingers” Ellefson - Gallien Kreuger
Tool - Justin Chancellor - massive W/D rig feeding 3 signals to PA - mic‘d dry cab, mic’d wet cab for FX and finally a DI signal

Regardless the tone, the bass should always be placed high in the mix like all those bands do. Sounds heavier, supports the guitars better and adds much more dimensionality to the music when the bassist plays interesting and complimentary lines.
 
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