How to make bass guitar growl?

kartikbala

New member
I was wondering....any of you heard live at leeds (who). How did Entwistle get that kind of growling tone from his bass guitar. Is it the amp? The guitar? Or can it be done using a distortion pedal?

TIA

kb
 
_Live at Leeds_ is widely considered "the greatest live rock album of all times," and though those kinds of statements are pretty pointless, it sure was a great album by anyone's standards.

I am not positive, but I believe John Entwhistle was using vintage Gibson Thunderbirds at about that time, and since. I really don't know about the amps and effects.
 
I was under the impression that he just overdrived his amp or something but I'm not sure anymore. But what tone.....something to really get high listening to!

kb
 
Try a RAT distortion pedal. I always liked to put a fuzz on the bass (foxx tone machine). Better yet a RAT pedal with the addition of a wah pedal. That would be pretty nasty and nutty.
 
Nice heavy strings, some sort of fuzz or a booster into a nice tube pre like an ampeg or alembic. If you are looking for a somewhat simpler solution, you can try something like the tech21 sansamp bass driver, almost infinite possibilities there.
 
My guess is that it's just a bass into a tube amp, at extremely high SPL.

We can do this a little in the studio going direct with Incanus' Rickenbacker 4001, so it's probably hot pickups and a loud amp.
 
My guess is that it's just a bass into a tube amp, at extremely high SPL.

We can do this a little in the studio going direct with Incanus' Rickenbacker 4001, so it's probably hot pickups and a loud amp.

Yep - Mike's Rickenbacker 4001 has that distinctive growl...through a SS amp too...
 
Use to know some guys in the stoner rock type stuff. I always noticed the bass amps being the old Sunn SS Concert or Coliseum. I don't remember if those amps had a drive circuit on them or not. We played once with a band call "Weedeater". The guy always used those sunn amps and a fender p bass.
 
Try to take away the bassists food!
Supercreep's righh about the sound he gets with Incanus on LPC stuff - proggy growly excellence.
Me? I roll of the bottom end a bit & throw a defiinition peak of 3 - 5 dBs at 3Khz using round wound strings & the tone on the bass turned to 8 on the treble end.
I wouldn't say my bass osunded proggy growly but it sometimes sounds quite good.
Oh, the Behri BDI21 tweaked to personal taste also helps somewhat.
 
I was just playing around with something I'd copied and save a while back - it began with a reference to a Bob katz post somewhere yet is based on experiments and practice at Motown that were extrapolated by Bob Dennis into something that has long worked for him:The cut at 100 clears the fundamental & the boost at 200 ups the harmonic.
I tried it on an existing track where I'd applied the method I mentioned above - I used the below method instead and it sounds really good & a l growlie. BUT when I applied my process & this one it was a REALLY growlie tone (again begining with roundwound strings & a liberal tweak to the tone knob on the bass.)

With apologies & acknowledgements to all who own, thought up, posted etc this info...:
OCTAVE REPLACEMENT EQ - TYPICAL SETTINGS
Frequency: 100 Hz
Level: -6 dB
Q: 1.4
Frequency: 200 Hz
Level: +5 dB
Q: 1.4
Give it a whirl can't hurt!
to which I added
Freq: 3000 Hz
Level: +8
Q: 5
 
Huge Who fan here.

I think it is just a loud tube amp and an aggressive style of playing. Also, I seem to remember Entwistle once saying that he dimes out the treble on whatever amp he's using. Not sure but they may have been using Sunn, Hi-Watt (did they even make bass-amps?) or maybe Marshall.
 
Back
Top