Mudvayne bass sound

GeertSamuel

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Jan 29, 2006
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Nieuw-Buinen, The Netherlands
Ok, first of...gotta say...very underrated band!
It's really a shame they sometimes have these really commercial MADE songs, but I really dig a lot of their stuff.

Anyways. Listening to that last "single" Dull Boy it really struk me again that these guys have a really great bass sound.

Also on Lost & Found the bass sound was really well done, and I really liked it.

Offcourse the most important thing is that their bassplayer has an extrodanary technique and doesn't use a plectrum.

Just curious if some of you guys might know some of the gear used for recording his bass. I know Lost & Found was done by Dave Fortman.
 
the end of all things to come had a dvd with it, didn't really go into much details about the bass, but did show them recording Not Falling.
On that album they used an ampeg B-15 with the speaker replaced with one from the guitar cab (12" from a Mesa I think), with a DI.
That album was with Dave Bottrill (Tool, Nothingface, Peter Gabriel)
Ryan uses Warwick basses, changes his strings every day. He has awesome technique too.
Back in the day when I was in a band I'd try to steal his style.
 
Yeah I've got that DVD. I've got all their cd's + special edition DVD's that we're supposed to come with it.
Apparently I've read somewhere that they also may "reamp" the bass tracks through a guitar amp..not sure tho..
 
I believe I recall reading about him splitting his signal into a Marshall JCM 800 guitar head and Marshall cab between his normal direct and miced bass sound for their debut album. Used it to get a little more gritty high end for all the slap and pop and intricate high scaled runs he did on that album... He was all over the fretboard on that disc...
 
Loads of bridge pickup signal with Mudvayne....it's like a more aggressive fusion-ish/uber-Jaco tone. That cutting bridge pickup J-bass thing (even though he's a Warwick man). Don't like it myself but loads of shredder bass players use it as it cuts through a mix like a knife thru butter.
 
Man I've always wondered how they got that bass sound on the song "trapped in the wake of a dream". If you listen closely, especially where the bass is the predominant sound, you can hear the strings as if the strings themselves were mic'ed. It's hard to describe, but to me it sounds really "springy" as if the strings sounded more like springs. I think it's the coolest bass sound I've heard, but I have never been able to figure out how to do it. I even tried mic'ing the strings once w/o any amp connected but I couldn't get that sound.

Does anyone know how they got that sound?
 
I've recorded a ridiculously talented bass player in my area. He is a beast on bass, and very song-oriented although he can pull out a trick at the drop of a hat. He loved (and still does I'm sure) Mudvayne back in the LD50 days. He is one of those guys that plays in a prog-metal band that the crowd will stand still in the middle of the pit just to watch him play.

Anyways, when we did some tracks he used his Warwick bass through his SVT4 (I think... one of those tube preamp Ampeg heads) through a single 15" Ampeg cab. He did the hair-scrunchy trick to mute the strings that were not being played.

I have to say, that the bass tone seems to be the Ampeg + Warwick combo because not trying to get the Mudvayne sound it was very close. It just happened. The guy plays very much like Ryan, so it's also obviously the way he plays the bass.
 
I've got a couple magazines to scan for you guys with interviews with Mudvayne, one from Bass player and one from Guitar world from around the time The End Of All Things To Come came out.
Today or tomorrow I'll do that.