Chris Squire's effects history

[yesmrsquire]

Yes music allowed Chris to use the bass in which he did. That's whats so great and original about it. Steve Howe was not a selfish, overpowering, rock guitarist, which allowed Chris to come through as the main instrument with some great lines. When you are in a position like that, there is no way you can just play clean bass. It needs to sound interesting. Also the mood of the music required some great bass effects. Just imagine Ritual bass solo with no effect. It wouldn't have sounded as half as good. When i first learnt Heart of the sunrise, it took me almost 2 days to perfect and remember all the notes. It's one of those very rare songs that the bass played the lead all the way through. I just can't think of any bass player that plays like Squire. Plus there's the effects and to sing harmony parts too. Very, very challenging. I'm sure Pete Greenwood would agree. I love Dream Theater and John Myung is a great, fast 6 string player, but i don't think he has the creativity that Squire had.

[pacealot]

Speaking of "Ritual" and effects, I don't suppose anyone here has any factually-based insights as to how he got the "Jack Bruce" tone on that and "Hold Out Your Hand"? It doesn't sound like Brassmaster fuzz to me. Myself, I've been keen to be able to switch in and out a Bruce-like tone, and I've thought of putting a simple passive tone cut and a pair of diodes in a box and sticking that in the treble pickup chain and seeing what that does....

[pacealot]

Even when all CS had was fuzz, wah, and tremolo, he used them so colorfully that it's hard to imagine the tracks without them. Imagine "Starship Trooper" without the tremolo, or the fuzz/tremolo at the end, or "Heart Of The Sunrise" without that tiny ripple of trem in his "feature" section. Subtle, but perfect.

[2112]

I have nailed the Tormato "bwahh, bwooo bwah" etc.. sound!
I'm running in stereo through my amps and into a mixer with headphones.
The neck pickup running through the left side with my Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus and the bridge pickup running through the right side with my Mutron III +. I have worked with the individual tones on each amp, set the Rick's volume and tone controls the way Chris usually does with the bridge pickup being aroun 8-9 and the tone around 4-5 with the bridge volume and tone up at full. I mix each pickup through the mixer panning the right and left channels a bit into each other as to not have a hard right and left for a better blend of the sound, and it's sooo unbeliveable. The combination of the Mutron and the chorus is perfect. I just can't stop popping in Tormato and playing Future Times/Rejoice, Don't Kill The Whale, and "On The Silent Wings of Freedom" over and over again.

And I'm using my 1980 BG 4001 for all of it as I have not yet wired my CS for stereo yet. I'm so friggin' lazy.