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Bass Sound On N.I.B - Black Sabbath


ash_sak
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Morning.

I've been trying to work out what settins my fx pedals should be on to play some songs i wrote a while back, but despite fiddling about i just can't seem to get the right noise on one of them.
It sounds very much like the bass from N.I.B - Black Sabbath

So does anyone know how to recreate that sound?
(preferably using any of the following pedals...
flanger
eq
limiter)

If not them then any other fx pedal, i have a multi-fx n i might've done it using that but to name all the sounds on that could take a while

Thanks.
Enjoy.

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you're in luck my friend, this song was a staple of the setlist in my covers band....

At the time I managed to do it pretty well with a russian big muff and a crybaby bass wah, drive and wah are the basics, but if I was doing it now, I'd use my bad monkey (tube sounding overdrive), as it sounds like a cranked tube amp on the record, fuzz is probably too full on and you'll lose the regular bass tone, which is a major part of the sound, you can hear the rubbery thump of his P bass, if you haven't got a P bass (like I didn't) some flatwound strings will probably give you a good impression.

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Man Im feeling old...

P-Bass...into a Vox Wah...then into a Solid state amp with Bass/mid ramped a bit....look for a natural overdrive...Summat with 15" speakers for that early 70s vibe.


The Bass distorts heavily,because Roger Bain (and the band) didnt realise how much the Wah dropped the signal in volume,hense how the track slowly raises in volume for the solo,and when Geezer switches the pedal off it was this big classic fuzzy overdriven tone.

The Wah would return for 'The Writ'

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[quote name='AM1' post='492845' date='May 20 2009, 12:07 AM']You're all incorrect!

:)

I will be very interested to see if anyone else knows what really happened on that recording![/quote]

Carol Kaye came in and redid the bass track after Geezer left, then didn't tell him?

[quote]Q:You've always experimented with effects. Can you name some of the units you've used in the past and what you 're using now ?

GB: I don't use anything at all now except for a chorus pedal and a flanger, just in the Ozzy stuff. I used to have this Yamaha pedalboard, I think they only made a few of them. It was like an experimental thing - I don't think they ever went on sale. I used that particularly on the Born Again album. There was lots of stuff on that - all those weird, bloody things that everybody thought were keyboards! It was bass! I tend to sort of try something and then once I've done it I really don' t go back to it - [b]like the wah wah on "NIB," for instance.[/b] Unless it works really well I won't bother with it. I just prefer playing straight bass.[/quote]

Geezer has mentioned in other interviews he used a Tychobrahe 'wah'.

Edited by dlloyd
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[quote name='SickPuppy' post='496704' date='May 24 2009, 05:28 PM']Didnt have bass wah's back then, and those Tychobrahe wah's are very hard to find

All he did was use one of Tony's wah pedals and turned his amp all the way up (he used a guitar amp or head I think)[/quote]

He uses a clone of the Tychobrahe now, it was in an interview, so they are available, have to go find the interview to find who makes it, some dude in america, probably a schematic online too.

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[quote name='steve-soar' post='505139' date='Jun 3 2009, 10:35 PM']Tell us. :)[/quote]

I think she was being a smart-alec :rolleyes:

It was the Tychobrahe Parapedal that they used (unless I'm barking up the wrong tree). Although it was referred to as a 'wah' pedal, it was a bit more than that and didn't work or sound quite like, say, Vox or Crybaby wahs.

I don't know if it's the same pedal that Mr Foxen was referring to, but Chicago Iron market a clone of it called the Parachute...

[url="http://www.chicagoiron.com/parachute.html"]http://www.chicagoiron.com/parachute.html[/url]

It's not cheap!

[quote name='Chicago Iron']Chicago Iron has painstakingly re-engineered the famous 1970's Tycobrahe Parapedal circuit with exacting detail and precision. You can tell a Parapedal when you hear one. It is the one with the huge sweep and a phaser-like or synth-like second effect that tracks with the first wah tone. The circuit has a built in volume dive that no other pedal has. At the end of the heel stroke, the pedal creates a loss in volume and brightness that has to be played to believe. It swells your sound with a combined sweep that is very human-like. It is referred to as a wah pedal but it is so much more. Many recording artists of the '70's fame used one back then. There is not another pedal that sounds like the Parapedal and it is unfortunate that such a small amount were produced- hence it's value as a players and collectors item!

The Tycobrahe Parapedal was unique in that it used two pots to create it's own incredible wah type sound. The Parapedal was made in the mid seventies by Tycobrahe Engineering and has become quite a collectors item, that is - if you can find one. They were made in such small quantities that their value has sky-rocketed. Ask any vintage effect dealer for one(if they can find one).[/quote]

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