Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm really in love with the bass tone on Kyuss's Welcome To Sky Valley, and it's making for some really good listening as I work on a project. I got to wondering though, how is the nicely fat, punchy sound being produced? Can anyone take some time to listen to some of the tracks either online or from their own collection and let me know what they think? That would be great. Scott Reeder is handling bass, and he has been seen with a lefty Ric 4001 (or two) and what looks like a lefty Ibanez ATK bass. I'm not sure what's on Sky Valley but it's certainly within the realm of Rickentones. I'd really like to learn a thing or two about getting "his" sound--any help? It's hard to recommend singles, as the album was done in more of a "suite" format, but "Demon Cleaner" definitely has its own video to be found on YouTube. However I think the best tunes for bass tone are some like "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop" and "Gardenia". You can also get some idea of Scott Reeder's tone from other records if these tracks are hard to find online, so you could instead look up, say, "Un Sandpiper" from Muchas Gracias.

These guys are outside my experience, but since I was already procrastinating, I did a little research. I found three videos of "Gardenia":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciJoHpXi ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gEQAFyNJLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pMfqZGg-FA

They're all live and very compressed, so the sound isn't really good enough to tell what his tone is like, but there are a couple of things to be gleaned. In the first two, he's playing a Rick (one appears to be FG, the other JG, not that that has anything to do with tone, especially since everyone knows that MGs sound the best ). In the third, I can't tell what he's playing because he doesn't stand still long enough to get a good look. It has a Fender shape, though, and indicates that he must think that he can get an acceptable sound on either bass.

The other thing I noticed was he has a vicious three-finger/one-thumb attack, which he applies about an inch up the fretboard regardless of the instrument he's playing.

Hope that helps.

I often play over the fingerboard; you get a nice big round tone there and you can flail away without getting too out of control because the board keeps your finger tips in close proximity to where they need to be.

I have to agree that playing over the fingerboard gets a lot of his tone going.

Perhaps the rest is f a r t i n g up a drainpipe?

jingle_jangle wrote:Perhaps the rest is f a r t i n g up a drainpipe?

I disagree completely; it's the hair.

Count me in for the BARC brunch, and let me know if I should pack/bring my fancy waffle iron....

You can pack it, and be the waffle chef, too...no idea yet how many are coming in total.

Attendees, PM me if you want to join the brunch crowd (see post above for some details...)