LeftyBassist.com

ive been playing along time and there is this ONE tone ive long sought out. that killer tone that mike had on the first 2 alice albums. Specifically, the intro to Would?. Now theres a simular tone on the original bass pod, but still not right. i myself here alot of compression and a non fuzz overdrive. I know he used spectors played fingerstyle. I know he used ampeg. Ive plugged into many ampegs...No even in the same zipcode. Maybe its STUDIO magic. It seems like a simple tone, yet, unknown. I play my spector thru sansamp di, mxr 10 band eq into an old peavey max 800 w head into 2 boogie 4x10s. Also a boss tuner and occasionally a Zakk Wylde Chorus (sounds great on bass)Its a killer tone, but the sans amp is fuzzy, not that "breaking up" tone as I like to call it. Ive searched and searched, maybe you guys can help. I did read that the tone is a mix of straight bass and acoustic bass.

Bass Northwest is currently selling the Ampeg SVT II head that Mike Starr recorded Facelift with.

wow! Now if i had $2500 laying around! Wonder if hed ttake my spector in trade???

in case anyone is interested, i got an email from Evan Sheeley from bass northwest in Seattle, he worked with alice in chains on facelift and dirt. He says " I did work with Mike Starr and Alice In Chains on their first two studio
albums. The tone you hear was from a Spector NS-2 bass, Ampeg SVT-II amp
head, SVT-810E cabinet and on the Dirt album I also used an ART SGX
Nightbass in addition to the miked up cabinet and direct box.

Right from the guy who was there!

Very cool. So you know what formula to aim for, but remember too that a lot of tone is in your playing technique. Lot's of guys used EMG equipped basses and Ampeg SVT II heads back then (ie. Eric Avery from Jane's Addiction), but different players still pull different tones out of those rigs.