Both of these are recorded using a fretless jazz style bass but are different from the classic Jaco tone
This is with half wound strings I think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwht3dDPL_Q
And this I believe with rounds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCVtl4jNqkk
How do you set the pickup balance and EQ for these tones ?
Haw can I achieve these tones?
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FretLessSince68
- Posts:307
- Joined:Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:29 am
- Location:On an Island, WA, USA
Both bass sounds are studio sound manipulation even though the first is from a live performance.
Re: sound quality: These are both compressed for Internet as are MP3 files so the fidelity is compromised to start with.
Nice work by Gilmour, always musical. The first clip is an honest fretless performance, what you are hearing is at least partially the result of post production "sweetening" of the recorded live performance, you are probably not hearing the actual stage rig sound. I hear added low frequency sound at about 50Hz or lower, possibly a sub-bass enhancement effect, and reduced high end giving it a mellow acoustic quality that blends well with the acoustic guitars. It is hard to tell if the bassist is using roundwound strings but probably is, so may have a coated fingerboard too. To get something similar to this sound you need a two pickup bass with P/U selector set in the middle, boost the low end way down at the bottom, trim the highs. Play with gentle right hand technique, add compression to reduce the likelihood of blowing your amp with the added lows. You will also need a speaker that is capable of reproducing very low frequencies.
In the second clip, where the guy who looks like Kenny Too Many is playing soprano, the bass doesn't sound like fretless to me although there are two places where it does sound like fretless. I can hear fret noise, it is possible that the bass track is a comp of both fretless and fretted. This would explain the heavy chorusing effect that mashes sonic detail. The track has a lot of high end content about 7KHz atypical for fretless, with an added heavy dual chorus effect. The instrument sounds like a graphite neck ZON, Status, Modulus or similar. The bassist (Val?) does a couple of glissando but these work on fretted too. The clip ends with a tenth using no vibrato which is a big tip-off that the instrument (at that moment) is probably fretted or the player has great double stop intonation. In the studio you can do anything given sufficient budget.
I hope this remote ear helps analyze the sound for you.
Re: sound quality: These are both compressed for Internet as are MP3 files so the fidelity is compromised to start with.
Nice work by Gilmour, always musical. The first clip is an honest fretless performance, what you are hearing is at least partially the result of post production "sweetening" of the recorded live performance, you are probably not hearing the actual stage rig sound. I hear added low frequency sound at about 50Hz or lower, possibly a sub-bass enhancement effect, and reduced high end giving it a mellow acoustic quality that blends well with the acoustic guitars. It is hard to tell if the bassist is using roundwound strings but probably is, so may have a coated fingerboard too. To get something similar to this sound you need a two pickup bass with P/U selector set in the middle, boost the low end way down at the bottom, trim the highs. Play with gentle right hand technique, add compression to reduce the likelihood of blowing your amp with the added lows. You will also need a speaker that is capable of reproducing very low frequencies.
In the second clip, where the guy who looks like Kenny Too Many is playing soprano, the bass doesn't sound like fretless to me although there are two places where it does sound like fretless. I can hear fret noise, it is possible that the bass track is a comp of both fretless and fretted. This would explain the heavy chorusing effect that mashes sonic detail. The track has a lot of high end content about 7KHz atypical for fretless, with an added heavy dual chorus effect. The instrument sounds like a graphite neck ZON, Status, Modulus or similar. The bassist (Val?) does a couple of glissando but these work on fretted too. The clip ends with a tenth using no vibrato which is a big tip-off that the instrument (at that moment) is probably fretted or the player has great double stop intonation. In the studio you can do anything given sufficient budget.
I hope this remote ear helps analyze the sound for you.
One good note makes my day.
Hi FretLessSince6,
I agree that a lot has been done in the studio to get the particular tones, even for the live track there's been a lot of post production work. Reading an interview in Bass Player, Guy Pratt playing with Gilmour uses Status half wounds on a Lakalnd fretless. It’s a fuller, darker tone so I think you’re right about both pickup selection set to the middle.
The secand clip is Justin Medal Johnson and again reading Bass Player he uses a Schecter fretless jazz with rounds.
The reason I chose both of these clips is that they are both playing a passive fretless jazz style bass but get quite different tones.
Many thanks for the very interesting and knowledgeable comments.
I agree that a lot has been done in the studio to get the particular tones, even for the live track there's been a lot of post production work. Reading an interview in Bass Player, Guy Pratt playing with Gilmour uses Status half wounds on a Lakalnd fretless. It’s a fuller, darker tone so I think you’re right about both pickup selection set to the middle.
The secand clip is Justin Medal Johnson and again reading Bass Player he uses a Schecter fretless jazz with rounds.
The reason I chose both of these clips is that they are both playing a passive fretless jazz style bass but get quite different tones.
Many thanks for the very interesting and knowledgeable comments.
Here’s another tone from a fretless jazz, this time it’s Mike Mills of REM playing the song Animal from 2003. He’s better known as a Precision bass player and in later tours plays this song on a fretless Precision but here he gats a Precision type tone from a fretless Jazz. My guess is he’s favouring the neck pickup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmwOCn7ldhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmwOCn7ldhw