LeftyBassist.com

love his sound/tone its just amazing was just listening to Bargain off Who's Next how does he get those tones anyone ?!?

Using his live rig in the studio, with just of hint of compression and EQ in the mastering process.

Also, don't discount the 3 quarts of scotch used while warming up LOL.

and a carton's worth of cigarette smoke at each session

whats a good but affordable compression pedal?

I like using Demeter Compulator's. Used, you can get them for $125.oo give or take a few $$$.

Bongomania from TB has a wonderful page on compressors. If I get a minute I'll post the link here. Or, you can search TB for one of his posts. The link is in his signature.

If compression is very important in the studio most people don't use it live because the sound will compress naturally at high volume anyway and you lose the dynamic (i.e. if everyone start to play softly on a part, the bass will still be pounding like a mofo and it'll draw at you some bad looks) . Another thing you need to know is, cheap compressors pedals (Ibanez, Boss...) are major tone-suckers so unless you get something like a Demeter/EBS... you may want to save your cash. Compressor rule of thumb: a compressor is like a baseball umpire, if it's a good one, you should barely notice it. In my studio rack I have a DBX160 XT, it's a classic for bass but I bought an IK Multimedia Fairchild 670 plugin which works fantastic too.

My guess on his tone: It's a combination of his bass skills and his knowledge of equalization, no "magic box" will supersede this. Gear-wise, a P-Bass with Rotosounds and an Ampeg tube amp should take you right there. AzWhoFan should be the authority here though.

There's a vid on Youtube of JE's bass soloed from the rest of the song. Such cool bass tone.

... and here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lf10U0yZrs

Here's some various things that I've read/seen over the years...

He liked incredibly low action and a very straight neck with steel roundwounds and even gold plated strings... it helped him acheive the aggressive "buzz" he was known for.

In addition to this, he played with a pretty percussive style close to the neck... his fingers would almost tap on the strings as he played them, giving each note a percussive slap tone.

I've also heard YouTube clips where's he's using a full-bore overdrive and/or distortion of some kind. Not sure whether it was from an external pedal/preamp or if it was through his head... I know in the old days, before speakers designed specifically for bass were common, some of his grit came from the speakers themselves distorting.

Anyway... other than my personal observations, here's a shitload of info... more than you'd ever need.

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass.html

what he said

Brilliant observation! I never heard that one before.


Right on. As Glynn Johns said in 'The Making of Who's Next' vid (or whatever the heck it's called) "the band were at the peak of their powers". since Who's Next was essentially cut live a lot of the tone/tambre of the disc reflects how they were feeling on that particular day.


The gold plated strings started appearing around '89 on or before the Tommy tour; a.k.a. "The Who On Ice"


Also around the same time (late 80's) he started using Digitech rack boxes as well as yamaha SPX900's or 1000's. when I saw him in a 150 seat club in the mid 90's he was using his full tri-amped stage rig. In stereo of course. When I took a peek at his rig after the gig, I did notice the amps were wide open, as were the input knobs of the effects boxes. It would be very un-John like for him to play at any level other than 11.

I have been meaning to mention that there is a lot of room mic'ing that's heard on JAE's tracks on Who's Next, to varying degress in each song of course. More so on Bargain than on WGFA for example.

99 % is his fingers and attack of the bass....Yeh I love his gear but you could stick an Ibanez in his hands in the day and would be unmistakably him. He was a self proclaimed bass guitarist and played as loud as he wanted and as many notes as he wanted and cranked everything up but that entirety aside it’s almost all completely in his hands or sadly said was...just my 2 cents

Agreed - especially in studio situations where there are so many more variables. That's why G.A.S. - although fun!! - is ultimately a bit of a chimera for the recording musician in terms of how much it can help you.

Hey, I'd say it's more like 101%. But I am totally biased!

I am of the philosophy that tone is in the fingers and is a reflection of the musician.

However, having Glynn Johns (sp) as an angineer, a wonderful room to work in, and 2 inch tape doesn't hurt either.

Some interesting thoughts on compression in this thread. I'm pretty much agreed for the most part with Frenchy's observations. I use a DBX160A (top of the rack in pic) and it is an essential piece of gear for me in studio- as extremely transparent and invisible in the signal chain as you want it to be (as Frenchy said- if it's a good one, you should barely notice it). However, assuming you are using a really good compressor, I do also find the judicious use of compression to be quite effective in a live setting to variable degrees-- depending on playing style, amp tone, stage volume, and the bass itself. 30 years ago I started out professionally as an agressive, high volume, high attack pick player on an aluminum neck Kramer DMZ 5000 going thru a Sunn Coloseum 880 head and two 18 inch folded horn bottoms. Compression? Aside from the permanent compression of my eardrums (which I regret to this day) I didn't even know what freaking compression was, nor would I have been able to do anything with it if I had. Nowadays I am pretty much exclusively a low action, light touch finger player and I find that a bit of live compression can be quite useful in balancing out variations in string response on some of my old passive basses without impairing my comparative ability to control the dynamic at today's more reasonable stage volumes. For example, my '78 Rick 4001 I wouldn't want to play live without it-- whereas on the other hand playing my '70 P bass thru a warm old all tube head needs nothing at all. And rarely do I use compression live on an active bass.