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Do you play primarily with a pick?
I actually use both a pick and fingers, but this record was almost all fingers. Now that there are two guitars, the fundamental is more important than the attack.
What do you look for in a bass tone?
I like to get some of that pick sound with my fingers by barely clicking the strings; there’s a point between strumming the string and whacking it that’s just enough to make the click. Both in the middle of a set and in the studio, it’s important for me to hear the windings of my strings scraping. To me, most bass cabinets sound like crap; the fidelity is horrible, and the tweeters sound like someone’s crinkling a potato chip bag. I use JBL horns, and I have two SVT cabs that Ampeg custommodified for me. They each have two 18-inch Electro-Voice speakers and are run with no crossover. Without a crossover they have a really rich midrange. I do not like ported speakers; the transient response is horrible. I need to feel that pump every time my finger touches, leaves, or mutes the strings.
I like purity of sound. My favorite sound is plugging my bass right into the input of my power amp with no preamp. I don’t want anything that adds any sound to my bass. That way it’s so much clearer, and you realize how much junk your preamp is actually adding. For my live rig, though, I go into an Avalon 737sp, which is a studio tube preamp, using no EQ. There is some difference between adding the Avalon and plugging straight in, but it’s very close and the Avalon adds very little of its own tone. Most of the bass boost and stuff like that comes from the active electronics on the bass. If the bass doesn’t sound good by itself, then fiddling around with all the EQ on the preamp is just adding another set of tone controls, phase shifts, pie smears, and all kinds of crap.
How do you approach creating bass lines?
It doesn’t always work, but the first thing I always do is listen to the guitar player and try to play something different, whether it’s a different rhythm, trying to get away with playing a different note, or seeing if I can fit in a riff without being obtrusive to the vocals. When we’re writing a song, often we don’t know what the vocal will sound like yet, and it’s nice to know just when there’s a space in a verse where you can put a cool little slide or something that will stick out. So I just kind of go by feel and where I think that place might be.
CAN BE HEARD ON
Staind, The Illusion of Progress [Atlantic, 2008], The Singles 1996–2006 [Atlantic, 2006], Chapter V [Atlantic, 2005]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. [Interscope, 2004]
“That record sounds very good and I love her voice. I’m kind of an audiophile; I listen to a lot of stuff purely for the sonics of the recording. I’d almost rather listen to a shitty song with excellent sonics than a great song that was poorly recorded.”
GEAR
Basses Spector 4-strings with EMG soapbar pickups, strung with GHS Boomers.
Rig Avalon 737sp preamp, Crown Microtech power amps, two Ampeg SVT810 8x10 cabinets, two custom Ampeg 2x18 cabinets, four JBL Horns.