Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby RayL » Sun Sep 09, 2018 9:14 am

For how long did Jet use the Pepe Rush cabinet for recording?

When the 'bass' version of the AC30 was available (to give the classic 'three AC30s on stands in a row' look on stage) did Jet switch to it for recording?
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby JimN » Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:03 am

MMStingray54 wrote:I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that Paul McCartney's bass may have been DId at least some of the time at Abbey Road - there again my memory may be askew or it may have been the later era - JimN??


What I have heard is that Paul's bass was amplified in the studio via a Leak (hi-fi) amp, which would have been the doing of George M and Geoff Emerick.
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby cockroach » Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:20 am

JimN wrote:
MMStingray54 wrote:I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that Paul McCartney's bass may have been DId at least some of the time at Abbey Road - there again my memory may be askew or it may have been the later era - JimN??


What I have heard is that Paul's bass was amplified in the studio via a Leak (hi-fi) amp, which would have been the doing of George M and Geoff Emerick.


I think it was the Leak amp plus a Tannoy speaker, as the amp Paul had at the time wasn't the best for recording..
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby Iain Purdon » Sun Sep 09, 2018 9:02 pm

Again, I doubt that McCartney’s bass was DI’d in the 60s. There weren’t a lot of fundamental frequencies to be heard/felt.
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby cockroach » Mon Sep 10, 2018 3:41 am

Iain Purdon wrote:Again, I doubt that McCartney’s bass was DI’d in the 60s. There weren’t a lot of fundamental frequencies to be heard/felt.


I always thought Paul's bass was usually very prominent on Beatles records. More of a mixing function than whether it was Di'ed or the amp was mic'ed etc..
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby MMStingray54 » Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:51 am

Iain Purdon wrote:Again, I doubt that McCartney’s bass was DI’d in the 60s. There weren’t a lot of fundamental frequencies to be heard/felt.


I've heard today that it's recorded that the bass began to be DId from Revolver onwards (1966). I'm surprised the Vox bass amp set up wouldn't have been used prior to this as well.
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby cockroach » Tue Sep 11, 2018 7:45 am

MMStingray54 wrote:
Iain Purdon wrote:Again, I doubt that McCartney’s bass was DI’d in the 60s. There weren’t a lot of fundamental frequencies to be heard/felt.


I've heard today that it's recorded that the bass began to be DId from Revolver onwards (1966). I'm surprised the Vox bass amp set up wouldn't have been used prior to this as well.


If you mean the Vox AC30 Bass model used by the Shadows, maybe it was used often mic'ed up for Shadows recordings...however, for larger venues for live work, maybe the AC30 bass model wasn't very effective..after all, wasn't one of the reasons that the Live 1962 Kingston performance was not released at the time, was due to distortion from Jet's bass amp?

Regarding the Beatles, apart from early use of the EMI studio Leak amp+ Tannoy speaker, IIRC, Paul started using first a Vox T60 transistor bass amp setup, then an AC30 or Ac50 valve amp head with the 1x15 plus 1x12 cabinet of the T60, which was not a reliable amp unit.
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby MMStingray54 » Tue Sep 11, 2018 11:40 pm

One can only imagine the frustration playing through a 30 watt valve bass amp (the sound of which breaks up way before maximum output), competing to be heard in the mix with two 30 watt guitar amps and a drum kit, and without PA support.

When I played in such an ensemble in recent times I used a 500 watt class D transistor amp with 2 X 2 X 10 high output cabinets - plenty of headroom, but bass sound similar to recordings on less than half output/input volumes - and even then sometimes had difficulty hearing myself above particularly the rythmn guitar - bassists often moved to solid state amps from the 70s (eg J P Jones - Led Zeppelin with Acoustic) as they produce clean sound without break up until very high output (unless using something like an Ampeg SVT - hugely powerful valve bass amp weighing a huge amount - and getting there by brute power and not getting to the point of sound break up simply by huge power thus not needing to turn up that high!!)

Back to the Beatles and Shads - there would have been no need to run the bass amps at high volume for recording purposes so I can't see any reason why they wouldn't use them, miked up, to record (once they had them of course!!).

As far as DI for bass in the UK is concerned, much of what went on at Abbey Road with The Beatles, Martin and Emrick was ground breaking. Some of us take for granted the ability to plug straight into the desk, or live, use our line out amp facility to pump our sound straight to the PA mixer - back then they had to develop a DI. As I said, apparently started in the UK with the Revolver album (also introducing the Rickenbacker bass) - unless someone else has other info??!!
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby cockroach » Wed Sep 12, 2018 4:02 am

MMStingray54 wrote:One can only imagine the frustration playing through a 30 watt valve bass amp (the sound of which breaks up way before maximum output), competing to be heard in the mix with two 30 watt guitar amps and a drum kit, and without PA support.

When I played in such an ensemble in recent times I used a 500 watt class D transistor amp with 2 X 2 X 10 high output cabinets - plenty of headroom, but bass sound similar to recordings on less than half output/input volumes - and even then sometimes had difficulty hearing myself above particularly the rythmn guitar - bassists often moved to solid state amps from the 70s (eg J P Jones - Led Zeppelin with Acoustic) as they produce clean sound without break up until very high output (unless using something like an Ampeg SVT - hugely powerful valve bass amp weighing a huge amount - and getting there by brute power and not getting to the point of sound break up simply by huge power thus not needing to turn up that high!!)

Back to the Beatles and Shads - there would have been no need to run the bass amps at high volume for recording purposes so I can't see any reason why they wouldn't use them, miked up, to record (once they had them of course!!).

As far as DI for bass in the UK is concerned, much of what went on at Abbey Road with The Beatles, Martin and Emrick was ground breaking. Some of us take for granted the ability to plug straight into the desk, or live, use our line out amp facility to pump our sound straight to the PA mixer - back then they had to develop a DI. As I said, apparently started in the UK with the Revolver album (also introducing the Rickenbacker bass) - unless someone else has other info??!!


Indeed!

The bass player in my first group in the '60's had a 20 watt valve 1x12 open back bass combo..I had a 60w valve 2x12 combo for guitar, so he had to trade up to a 60w 2x12 sealed cabinet bass amp...these days bass players often use rigs which far exceed the output of lead guitar amps..different world!

Regarding DI in studios, Bill Wyman said in his book that when the Stones recorded at Chess studios in the USA in the mid '60's, he was amazed when they plugged his bass into a jack plug set in the wall! This was a DI connection direct to the desk in the control room and he'd never seen anything like it before!
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Re: Solid, beefy lows - but where is the pickup?

Postby MMStingray54 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:52 pm

Yes I've seen that Bill Wyman interview - clearly US practice was fundamentally different - certainly for bass.

You may find the attached article - which I stumbled across - interesting in relation to The Beatles though the period is mid 60s. Bass recording is also mentioned in it.

https://reverb.com/news/the-true-story- ... eppers-amp
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