80’s bass tones

[Raskolnikov]

I’d like to discuss 80’s bass tones pls what are your favorites whom do you recommend & how to achieve them?

 

specifically I’d love to mimic Bakithi Kumalo’s sound from “Boy in the Bubble,” on Paul Simon’s Graceland 

[Raskolnikov]

 

[Russ]

19 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

I’d like to discuss 80’s bass tones pls what are your favorites whom do you recommend & how to achieve them?

 

specifically I’d love to mimic Bakithi Kumalo’s sound from “Boy in the Bubble,” on Paul Simon’s Graceland 

Fretless. Bridge pickup. Lots and lots of compression. Midrange-heavy EQ, boost a lot around 800Hz-1kHz, cutting most of the bass and treble. Bakithi has a very particular touch on the bass though - he plays fairly hard, with high-ish action, and mostly plays over the end of the neck. I went to a bass clinic with him a few years years back and got to see it up close (as well as the original old Washburn bass he used on those sessions). 

 

Same applies to a lot of 80s bass tones - very prominent and punchy, but not actually all that much low end. That was often left to the synths and the Simmons bass drum. 

[Stub Mandrel]

My favourite 1980s bass tone:

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Pegg, Fender precision. 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by Stub Mandrel