Man I Need Your Guys Help!!!
jeffamentfan
Posts: 7
Ok, i have been playing guitar and bass a while now. But it has always got me mad that my bass sounds so much different than jeffs. i got a small harke bass amp, with the bass, high and low tone setings and a ibanez GSR 200 bass. i need help!!!!!! anyone know anything about changing those settings to sound like jeffs sound (jeremy for example). i also have the zoom bass effects. if you know anything, help me out
thanks a ton guys,
thanks a ton guys,
NEVER TO BE TRIED NOR BE A JUDGE
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Reading 2006 - WOOOOW!!!!!
Paris 2006 - Fucking amazing
Wembley 2007
You can achieve a semi-fretless tone by switching to flat-wound strings.
To emulate the 12-string sound from Jeremy, you could try to use a chorus effect... it wouldn't be the same, but it might get you closer.
As for songs like Jeremy as someone stated before you need some specialist gear. I though it was an 8 string bass he used? Certainly it has paired octave strings to achieve that sound.
It's certainly true that a lot of tonality comes from the way your fingers interact with the instrument... that idea is lost on some people... "I have everything that SRV had, why don't I sound exactly like him?"
He has a 12-string for Jeremy. From the gear database on Sony Music:
"Q: I have heard that the bass part to the song Jeremy is played with a 12 string bass. Is that true? If so how is a 12 string bass set up? Do they exist in stores anywhere or was it specially made?
A: True, the bass line to Jeremy is played on a 12-string bass. Additionally, so are the bass lines to Deep, Why Go, and Drop the Leash. Jeff owns two 12-string basses; both were manufactured by Hamer guitars. (http://www.kamanmusic.com/hamer/) How is a 12-string bass set up? Well, it's tuned just like a normal 4-string bass, although each open string (E, A, D, G) is actually a group of 3 strings. There is the normal roundwound bass string (in Jeff's case, gauges .48, .67, .84, 1.06) plus two additional "harmonic" strings (gauges .20 [unwound], .25, .35, .45, respectively). The two "harmonic" strings are tuned to the same pitch two octaves higher than the thicker bass string. So, when you play a note, you're actually having to fret and strum (yes, the only realistic way to play a 12-string bass is with a pick.) a total of 3 strings. It takes a lot of practice and hand strength to play it well. But the resulting sound is similar to having an upward dividing octave pedal attached to your bass. THICK!!
Are they available in stores? Sometimes... 12-string basses aren't exactly high in demand, so neither is the supply. Matter of fact, I'm uncertain as to whether Hamer is still currently in production of them, or if they've been discontinued - although Hamer isn't the only manufacturer of 12-string basses anymore. But aside from having it custom built, finding one is usually a case of stumbling upon one at a music store. Most of the time, though, I see them mostly at used music stores. Both of Jeff's were custom made - the first in approximately 1990, and the second more recently in 1995. The second 12-string was built with a partial hollow body cavity and given a piezo bridge-saddle pickup in addition to its electro-magnetic pickups, much like the design and function of Hamer's Duo-Tone acoustic/electric guitar. The theory was the same too - that it would be cool to achieve both an electric tone as well as an acoustic tone from the same instrument - but unfortunately, the bass didn't seem to achieve as much of the acoustical properties as Jeff had hoped. All was not lost, however, as the electric tone was great and the style was a nice aesthetic change from his original 12-string bass."
Many have already said it, his fingers and soul are 99% of what you hear.
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Thank you for saying this, it gets so hard trying to explain this.
Just the way a player plucks or picks or taps the string can make for a radical difference in tone. A person who plucks a string lightly with their index finger will not get the same tone as a person who pulls it hard with their thumb; and a pick will sound much different, even the attack angle and up- vs. down-stroke, and thickness of a pick. Hammer-ons, pull-offs, slaps, taps, and slides will all make for radical differences. This is true of a guitar, a bass, a violin, a cello, a bull fiddle, a piano, a drum set...
The piano is probably the best example. Finger velocity, key sustain, pedal sustain, mutes... there are so many tonal variables on that one instrument. You can have two players play the same piece on the same piano, one after the other, and really hear the difference in the tone if you know what you're listening for.
I recently have switched my '62 reissue Jazz Bass over to flatwound strings, and yes it does take some characteristics of a fretless tone, but it won't be what your looking for. One can never match a tone perfect, its life, go fine your own tone!
I like the flatwounds because its more low and mid punch, no more brights, which is cool to me for that bass.
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