Chris Squire's effects history

seyesbass · Post by **seyesbass** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:11 am

Chris has always been a renowned user of effects pedals with the bass guitar.
From the first album "YES" we were treated to a fantastic Wah-Wah bass on the intro to "Survival".
Since that opener Chris has used such effects as Fuzz,Tremelo,Phase,Flanger,Mutron to name but a few.
I cant name another bass guitarist from 1968 to the present day who has been as radical in his use of effects or has used such a broad spectrum of colours in his sound as Chris.
Added to the effects pedals his early use of organ pedals which led to the Moog Taurus units that became obligatory for any Rock bass player of the late 70s Chris was experimenting with new sounds that we take for granted these days.
To get an idea of how far he had taken the bass guitar,in 1973 I was getting into Topographic Oceans and at the same time I read an interview with the great Herbie Flowers who played bass on Lou Reeds "Transformer" (in between sessions for BBC's "Playschool" kids programme!).He said that he had only changed the strings once on his 60s Jazz Bass to keep that mellow sound.Dont get me wrong I love that sound too but for me as a teenager it was Chris Squire going crazy onstage during "Ritual" with his fuzz bass solo that really spoke to me.
I would love to hear some comments from Chris as to how and why he started using effects with the bass and of the way it would shape the song for him as a writer.
For now though I would like to start by getting some thoughts and history from us mere mortals on the forum.
Any pictures of Chris's set up over the years would be of interest to us all.....lets hear it from the Floor!

relayer · Post by **relayer** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:34 am

Great topic, Pete. I can't really add anything other than to say that I too *love* Chris' use of effects. In fact, I've seen threads in guitar forums that request great wah performances, and the usual suspects are always mentioned - Hendrix, SRV, etc. I'm always the only one to bring up a bassist at all (CS's Yessongs version of The Fish). In fact, IMO this performance smokes those guitarists'!

pekka · Post by **pekka** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:49 am

I read somewhere that Squire's autowah pedal he used (a lot, should I say!) on "Tormato" was a Colorsound Dipthonizer.

just_bassics · Post by **just_bassics** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:41 am

On TORMATO, Chris is credited with using a "Harmonized Rickenbacker" on many of the tracks, but by DRAMA, the Westone Electra, with its built in effects packs had made its appearance, especially on Tempus Fugit - Does anyone have information to clarify how the TORMATO sounds were actually produced? Elys?

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:00 am

Chris?

gearhed289 · Post by **gearhed289** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:06 am

I think the harmonizer was an early Eventide, little half rack sized thing. Basically set up like a heavy chorus. I've gotten that OTSWOF sound with an envelope filter and a chorus with the depth all the way up, and the speed a little faster than normal.

Check out the tune Angels on my myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/tomheslin

Definitely NOT very Yes-like, but you can hear the influence in the bass sound. Bootsy was another big influence. His 90s stuff with Bill Laswell is very interesting.

just_bassics · Post by **just_bassics** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:22 am

Sorry, Jeff, I almost forgot he's a member now! If he were to write a book describing his recording sessions in detail, I know I'd buy it!

pekka · Post by **pekka** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:48 am

"I've gotten that OTSWOF sound with an envelope filter and a chorus with the depth all the way up, and the speed a little faster than normal."

Me too.

cheyenne · Post by **cheyenne** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:03 am

Good topic Pete!

"On The Silent Wings of Freedom" is one that always kept me wondering. What the heck is that anyway? The effect (whatever it is), seems to get more intense with heavier attack.

pekka · Post by **pekka** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:38 am

Scott, check this out:
http://filters.muziq.be/model/colorsound/dipthonizer

cheyenne · Post by **cheyenne** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:50 pm

Thanks Pekka.

Boww....thats what it sounds like alright.

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:35 pm

Cool music Tom. I liked it a lot.

seabass · Post by **seabass** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:07 pm

IIRC, I read somewhere that Chris said he used a Mutron on Tormato....

pekka · Post by **pekka** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:41 am

I read from All music guide that the effect was a Dipthonizer. Where they got the info is a mystery to me and of course it's possible they got it wrong.
Anybody here has the Colorsound Dipthonizer?

gearhed289 · Post by **gearhed289** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:23 am

Thanks Dane for listening. Glad you liked it! Now that I think of it, I think I recorded that track (Angels) with my 4001CS.

Envelope filters can be really expressive due to the dynamic control of the wah. I could never get the hang of a regular rocker-style wah wah pedal.