Deep bass tones like Preston Crump on ATLiens?

[AnalogousGumdropDecoder]

How do you record a super deep, thick bass guitar tone like the ones on the early Organized Noize productions like ATLiens by Outkast? There are several bassists on those records, but I think most of the best stuff is done by Preston Crump. "Elevators (Me & You)" and "Two Dope Boyz (In A Cadillac)" are great examples. It's not just one generic sub tone but a whole palette of deep, dark, thick, booming bass guitar sounds.

I imagine you'd have to play on the low strings as much as possible (maybe on a 5-string), EQ out a lot of treble, and pluck with your thumb and fingers far away from the bridge. Flatwound strings, maybe?

Is there some kind of pre-amp/compression/amplifier trickery going on?

Hmm...

[rashaan]

I never took the time to find out much about Preston Crump. It wasn't until this post that I took a moment to google him and realized I've dug a lot of his playing and he's on a lot of my favorite records. After some googling I found this.

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/prest ... chops/5646

I saw this sorta recent article in Bass player and then another older interview with yamaha. It seems over years he's preferred basses passive PJ basses with either nylon tapewound strings or flats. Sounds like a good starting point and then you could enhance the sound with processing.

[markjazzbassist]

yeah man a lot of those r&b and neo soul records i dig too. tons of 5 string bass work there, hence the low tones.

i think he (and others) use a lowpass filter. it's a good way to cut some higher frequencies but have that core low and low mid thunder still there. i used to try and emulate that sound (i'm primarily a bassist) and with the moog lowpass pedal i was able to achieve those deep thick tones. give that a shot.

[AnalogousGumdropDecoder]

Anybody have experience with tapewound strings?

[markjazzbassist]

yeah i have experience with them, they are sonically between a flat wound and round wound string tone. they have the bite/attack of a round, but the thump and low end of a flat.

i bet he uses flats, probably labella's, they are the thumpiest, thickest, bassiest flats out there, that probably adds to the super low end thickness.

[AnalogousGumdropDecoder]

yeah i have experience with them, they are sonically between a flat wound and round wound string tone. they have the bite/attack of a round, but the thump and low end of a flat.

i bet he uses flats, probably labella's, they are the thumpiest, thickest, bassiest flats out there, that probably adds to the super low end thickness.

Cool!

In the interview posted above he said he used La Bella tapewounds and TI flatwounds. I'm really interested to try both. I already use TI flats on some of my guitars.

[digital eagle audio]

i hated tapewounds. they were actually much "deader" than flats, and the tape doesn't survive even moderate gigging. people dislike flats because they have a much higher tension at the same pitch (making them difficult and even uncomfortable to play), but i searched around for a long time and found ultra-lite flats. i think they are ernie balls and they are my favorite strings ever.