Kings of Leon New Bass sound

[jamesosullivan1]

Hi all,
I know this would'nt be everyones favourite band or cup of tea. I'd just like to ask the people who are into guitar sounds and Bass sound and rigs if they could help me achieve the bass sound or something similiar to the new Kings of Leon Bass sound on this song.

******//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF0Lq3P6peU

I have a Ampeg SVT 300 CL head and I know he uses this and I Also have a 6x10 cab and a fender Jazz Bass. I dont use any effects at all but would love to dirty the sound up kinda like this. I have tried a few pedals in my chain but the bass sound always gets a little muddy and unclear when the rest of the band kick in. I was hoping to get something rack (dont mind if its a rack unit i need to get) or pedal board I dont mind that is similiar to this for bass. If anyone knows exactly how he is achieving this sound that would be super.

I live here in Ireland and dont have something like a big guitar center to go to and try stuff out so really need some help on this one guys. obviously I dont want to copy the sound of the Kings of Leon but I would like to build on something from that kinda of sound.

Thanks for any advice and il be checking back on the thread as much as I can.

Guinness for everyone if we can get close to the sound

Thanks again I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
James

[MattHahn]

From what i can tell he is playing a Gibson Thunderbird thru Ampeg tube amp.
Not that easy to get that sound with a JazzBass, try a little compression and neck pickup.I dont think that there´s a Fuzz/Dist box involved....
Don´t know if this will give you the right direction.good luck
Matt

[jamesosullivan1]

Hi there, thanks for the feedback mate. So the Gibson Thunderbird can give that Fuzz tone and distortion without any pedals at all? Do you think its all natural guitar tone so? I thought he may be using a pedal at least to get this sound. I have never heard a Gibson Thunderbird so not sure if it sounds like this? Thanks for naming the guitar mate il try and look it up and see does it produce this kind of fuzz sound.

Cheers
James

[jamesosullivan1]

I had a listen again there and I would think he has to be using maybe a effect somwhere in his chain to get that sound. I own an ampeg SVT and it certainly does not sound like that unless you run some kind of effect into it? Again I never played the Gibson Thunderbird but I wouldnt think a guitar can create that kind of sound? Who knows I guess but maybe someone might be able to pin point that sound. The Gibson Thunderbird looks like a great guitar alright.

Nice one

[octatonic]

It's totally a fuzz pedal.

I'd suggest a ZVex Fuzz Factory.

[jamesosullivan1]

Cheers for that Jim - I was kind of guessing it was a Fuzz pedal - I know it might seem obvious but Im bad at spotting those things exactly because I always miss something.

My main concern I guess is that with this Fuzz pedal he still has very good clarity of every bass note. Does anyone think that one of the bass amps he has is clean and the other effected maybe by splitting the signal before the Fuzz pedal? Its those kind of things that I miss and that the pros seem to get right I dont want to get a Fuzz pedal and have all the tone sucked out of my bass and the notes to be muddy - I guess im not looking for a big muddy distorted bass - its the balance I guess of a clean bass with the dirty sound he has added. I guess its how these guys get that Fuzz. However maybe it is guitar - fuzz pedal - ampeg.

ZVex Fuzz Factory looks good though is that one of the best fuzz pedals?

Cheers mate.

[Methlab]

If it's for live playing a Big Muff can retain your low end if you dial it in right. Another way to achieve this live is to buy a Sansamp bass driver DI and utilize the parallel out by sending it to a smaller guitar amp that is miced with the fuzz pedal running through it.

[Josht]

You guys really think there's a pedal in there? I mean, the intro clearly has some distortion, but the rest sounds like an ampeg being overdriven (disclaimer, I have only played real SVTs a handful of times).

[PhilE]

Sounded like there's a RAT on the intro to me.

[Navigator]

You know, I don't know if anyone here does this on a regular basis, but I recently found myself plugging a bass into a Johnson J-Station (Pod-style unit). I haven't tried recording with it yet (I don't generally like modeling stuff myself), but I was close to blown away by how good the bass sounded going through distorted guitar settings. The sounds could get extremely distorted yet the bass retained a very high degree of clarity. For a point of reference, there are a number of distorted bass tones on Jane's Addiction's "Strays" album. That's kind of what it reminded me of. Next time I want to get some distorted bass, that's what I'm going to try. You might give it a shot, since I think you might keep some of the clarity you're after.

[jamesosullivan1]

Im trying the rat now with my SVT rig and il let you know how i go.

[jamesosullivan1]

Ok - I tried the Rat distortion pedal with my SVT ampeg and to be honest it didnt sound to bad and wasnt far from the sound on the Kings of Leon Single. It was pretty good and the distortion was pretty smooth. Now I had to have the filter on it fully open because even the slightest bit of filter on it and the tone was sucked right out of the bass. So the settings i could only use on the Rat was distortion half way, filter fully open, volume half way. Now this was pretty impressive obviously. Now what did happen was the tone of the ampeg got a little lifeless so I then put the Avalon U5 in the chain.


So what I ended up using was Fender Jazz - Rat - U5 - Ampeg SVT

Because I was able to use the booster on the Avalon U5 I was able to get a bit of life back into the ampeg and the tone wasnt bad at all. It is stil a little dull obviously. Maybe the Rat is not built for bass Im not sure. This is about all the gear I can get my hands on right now. Anything else I would have to get on ebay or something.

I wouldnt mind trying something else if someone has a sure way of getting that fuzz tone. I wouldnt mind trying the Big Muff if people think its better for bass than the Rat - not sure.

Thanks to everyone for there time on this - appreciate it.

cheers
james

[Blast9]

That sound is a neck pickup >>> clean amp sound + fuzz/distortion. use an A+B pedal to blend the sounds.

I do this all the time.

The rat will get you there, as will big muff/zvex woolly mammoth/fuzz factory!

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by jamesosullivan1

Cheers for that Jim - I was kind of guessing it was a Fuzz pedal - I know it might seem obvious but Im bad at spotting those things exactly because I always miss something.

My main concern I guess is that with this Fuzz pedal he still has very good clarity of every bass note. Does anyone think that one of the bass amps he has is clean and the other effected maybe by splitting the signal before the Fuzz pedal? Its those kind of things that I miss and that the pros seem to get right I dont want to get a Fuzz pedal and have all the tone sucked out of my bass and the notes to be muddy - I guess im not looking for a big muddy distorted bass - its the balance I guess of a clean bass with the dirty sound he has added. I guess its how these guys get that Fuzz. However maybe it is guitar - fuzz pedal - ampeg.

ZVex Fuzz Factory looks good though is that one of the best fuzz pedals?

Cheers mate.

Could be another amp- or maybe just a direct feed out.
I like the Fuzz Factory- it is completely insane pedal- it will do things you don't want some of the time- but it is one of the reasons I love it so much.

[Blast9]

Good point... Looks like he does have 2 amps and 2 cabs in this session.

Billy Sheehan pioneered this approach way back:

bass >>> splitter >>> dirty amp sometimes with a Pearce preamp for OTT distortion
----------------->>> clean amp

He also used (uses?) 2 SVT classics.

PS

From ******//www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?storycode=8362

GEAR
Basses: ’68 Gibson EB-O, Fender Precision Bass, Gibson Thunderbird, D’Addario strings
Amps: Ampeg SVT Classic head, Ampeg 8x10 Cabinet
Other: Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI

I have to say, that distortion doesn't sound like a Bass Driver DI t me. I've never got that type of distortion out of it.

[edit] Excerpt from wikipedia article: ******//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Followill

He used to play a 1968 Gibson EB-0 or Fender Precision bass guitar but now uses a Gibson Thunderbird with D'Addario strings. His favoured amplifier tends to be an Ampeg 8x10 Cabinet with an Ampeg SVT Classic Head, and uses a Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI (along with a Big Muff when playing live).

Woohoo!

[Kiwiburger]

I think John Entwhistle pioneered this a lot earlier ... playing through a dirty Marshall guitar amp as well as a clean bass amp.

I have a MXR M80 pedal that has a distortion that can be blended with the clean sound - gets a similar sound through a single amp. It's a lot fiercer than my Sansamp BDDI.

In that clip I can definately hear distorted and clean layers. You need both.

[Blast9]

Ah yes... How could I forget John Entwistle and Chris Squire... Duh

[Methlab]

Originally Posted by Blast9

Good point... Looks like he does have 2 amps and 2 cabs in this session.

Billy Sheehan pioneered this approach way back:

bass >>> splitter >>> dirty amp sometimes with a Pearce preamp for OTT distortion
----------------->>> clean amp

He also used (uses?) 2 SVT classics.

PS

From Jared Followills Royal Bass

GEAR
Basses: ’68 Gibson EB-O, Fender Precision Bass, Gibson Thunderbird, D’Addario strings
Amps: Ampeg SVT Classic head, Ampeg 8x10 Cabinet
Other: Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI

I have to say, that distortion doesn't sound like a Bass Driver DI t me. I've never got that type of distortion out of it.

[edit] Excerpt from wikipedia article: Jared Followill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He used to play a 1968 Gibson EB-0 or Fender Precision bass guitar but now uses a Gibson Thunderbird with D'Addario strings. His favoured amplifier tends to be an Ampeg 8x10 Cabinet with an Ampeg SVT Classic Head, and uses a Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI (along with a Big Muff when playing live).

Woohoo!

I guessed right..do I win a prize? lol.

Love this record.

[tiny333]

im pretty sure that that is a z vex fuzz/probe/factory

the gtr player uses one so they have one...

also it sounds just like one..

best fuzz box imho

[mjf]

Just incase anyone is interested in this old post...

For this song, Jared is using a Electro Harmonix Russian Big Muff, and running it through a high volume on an Ampeg SVT Classic... You won't get this sort of sound through a standard Ampeg solid state amp.