How do we get that Lemmy/Motorhead bass sound?

Man of Honour
Joined
29 Mar 2003
Posts
57,394
Location
Stoke on Trent
My bass player is moaning that Ace Of Spades sounds crap because its not the right bass sound.
A Rickenbacker is out of the question because we borrowed one last year and it was a load of rubbish.
So, what does Lemmy put his bass through or what can emulate that sound because we're thinking about doing at least 2 more Motorhead songs?
 
Isn't his sound just brought into the treble end more, lose the lower frequencies a bit and really push the bass amp for some v.slight overdrive?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy#Equipment

He uses the bridge pickup exclusively and turns everything on the bass up full. On the amplifiers, he turns the bass and treble off, and the midrange up all the way, with the volume and presence up to 3:00. The result is a biting midrange sound which is distorted but not fuzzed out and blurry, a formula well-suited to Lemmy's use of open-string drones and power chords, all of which is played at hell-for-leather tempos.

Anygood? :confused:
 
beat the crap out of the bass! its the only way!

we've tried to play a few motorhead tracks in our band (namely Iron Fist and Ace of Spades) and we can never get the same sound, and the actuall picking pattern is mental too!
 
William said:

Yeah, but no.

In the past we have broken speaker cones when doing Motorhead stuff because our bass player did something with his tone for the one song and it causes the speaker to go mental. After a couple of repairs we tell him not to touch the tone but that sound is now gone.
We were wondering if we could emulate it somehow without forcing the speaker to do it.

(On the speaker there is a little wire that goes from the cone to the magnet and I think its called Pigwire. If the speaker is overdriven too much the cone can vibrate too much and the pigwire can break).

(pigwire is more than likely the wrong word - can't even google it).
 
I bought the latest issue of Guitarist mag today, flicking through it and on page 24 guess what.. "Tone Up! The signature thunder of Mr Rock 'N' Roll himself # 30 Lemmy Kilmister". I saw it and remembered this thread..

Guitar: Fender Precision Bass
Pick up: Main single coil
Amp: Overdrive
Setting:
-Gain: 5
-Volume: 3
-Bass: 10
-Middle: 10
-Treble: 2
-Reverb: 0

.. at least, that's what it says in the text, but the mock-up of the amp settings shows a slight variation:

Setting:
-Gain: 7
-Volume: 3
-Bass: 7
-Middle: 8
-Treble: 3
-Reverb: 1

I would put up a pic of the article but it's copyrighted.. but you get the gist!!
 
Last edited:
Forgot all about this thread and what a coincidence.
Only yesterday evening we ran through Bomber and it goes in this weekend.
We also did From Out Of Nowhere by Faith No More but I think it will go over our 'classic rock' followers heads.
 
dmpoole, ever seen a band called the notorious brothers, from around the midlands ?

Think you'd like them dude if you can get to one of their shows
 
hilly said:
dmpoole, ever seen a band called the notorious brothers, from around the midlands ?

Think you'd like them dude if you can get to one of their shows

Can't say I have but I've just read a review of their album.
 
Back
Top Bottom