WARNING - Tedious gear content inside:

It’s weird, ’cause I get way more messages about my gear or settings than I would ever think. In general, I’m pretty terrible about replying to messages, so I figured that I would take the opportunity to post a blog about it for those who have asked previously, and for those who will be curious in the future.

This blog will probably be pretty long and involved, so I apologize in advance.

I guess I’ll split it up into sections. My setup hasn’t really changed that much over the past few years, but every recording has different variables.

First, I’ll do the live setup, because it’s pretty consistent:

Now, it all begins with this bass:

I’ve used it on every recording that has been officially released, and on almost every recording I’ve done, period. It’s a ‘91 or ‘92 Fender Precision Bass Plus. No those aren’t 2 input jacks. My tone knob broke off during the recording of GJ’s EYEWTKAS, and I’ve been too lazy to fix it. I can still change the tone if I want with a small flat head screwdriver, but I pretty much have the tone up all the way, anyway, since it’s passive. It has both a Precision pickup, and a Bridge Jazz pickup, but I only use the Precision pickup. The Jazz pickup is only used for when I play along with some Sade shit. =)

The bass originally came with Fender Lace Sensor pickups, but the precision pickup stopped working, and at the time, I couldn’t order new ones. My solution was putting in passive Bartolini pickups. they are a little cleaner than the Lace Sensor pickups, which was fine, because they are a lot harder to overload and distort. Another reason I went with the Bartolini pickups was the fact that there are no exposed pole pieces. I dig in pretty hard, and if I play a bass with stock Fender pickups, I get a lot of loud clicking from the strings hitting the pole pieces.

It’s strung with DR High Beam Strings (.45-.105). They are stainless steel strings, so they’re pretty bright. They are the longest lasting strings I have ever used, as well as my favorite sounding. I play exclusively with my fingers now, and they are also very comfortable strings.

The Rig:

Ampeg SVT II Pro Bass Head:

And an Ampeg SVT 8×10 Pro Cabinet:

My pro cab has been retired to my room for now, so I’ve been using 8×10 Classic cabs, instead.

As far as the settings for the head go, I have the just about all the buttons pushed in except for the decible cut button. The level on the graphic EQ is set flat, but all the frequency faders are pushed all the way up. It pushes the gain in a way that I like.

My gain knob is about 1/4 of the way up, my drive knob about 1/2 way up, bass knob all the way up, midrange knob all they way up, mid frequency knob in the middle, treble knob a little less than 1/4 of the way up, (because of the stainless steel strings), and my master knob around 1/4 of the way up, depending on how big the stage is.

I used to use Zoom 506II Bass pedals:

I’ve since switched to Fulltone Pedals. I started on the STD tours with a Full Drive 2 guitar pedal:

And have now switched to the Bass Drive pedal:

The Guitar pedal was fine before I started switching between the dirty and clean sounds. The Bass Drive pedal works better for that, because the low end is more consistent between the 2 sounds.

O.K.. Now the settings for Glassjaw’s Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence, and Saves The Day’s Sound The Alarm records, which are the ones I get asked about most:

EYEWTKAS:

My P Bass Plus,

A clean DI channel, mixed with a dirty channel using a Pro Co Rat distortion pedal,

which ran into an old Ampeg Portaflex combo:

I don’t really remember the setting on the amp. I usually let the producer use the settings that they have found work best in the room previously, and I’ll go fudge around with it.

Sound The Alarm:

Again, my P Bass Plus,

A clean DI channel, mixed with a dirty channel using a Virtual Sound Route 66 Pedal:

which ran into an Ampeg B100R Solid State Combo Amp:

Yes. I said solid state. I HATE solid state circuitry, but for some reason, this amp sounds amazing.

And so that this doesn’t come off as me advertising these products, I have not received anything I’ve used listed here for free. I use these products because I didn’t have any of my own gear when I started, and I’ve pretty much used everything out there from borrowing from other bands and players. I’ve turned down endorsement offers from companies who’s products I don’t prefer. I don’t care if I get something for free, or if someone pays me to use their product. Not that I’m at that level, anyway, but you get the point.

So that’s pretty much all I can think of right now. If anyone has any further questions, please reply to this blog, and I’ll do my best to answer.

And if you made it through this whole thing, God Bless, Sen.