Jason Newsted's tone

[Crawdad_95]

Hi everyone! First post here, hoping to one day be able to afford a couple Series IIs. Are there any Series II owners out there that have successfully gotten Jason Newsted's live tone that he had with his Series II Spoilers & Europas from 1991-1993? I've seen plenty of discussions on his Seattle '89 solo tone, his Spector tone on the Black Album, & his Cunning Stunts tone with his Sadowskys, but nothing on that direct to soundboard tone he had. Wondering if anyone can estimate what settings he used on his tone controls. If I had access to a Series II, I'd do this myself of course! Ever since I heard the way his S2 Alembics sounded I've been craving that distinct tone. Thanks in advance!

[JimmyJ]

Hey Matt,

Welcome to the club. 

Specifically referring to your question, a quick look at G00gle images allowed me to grab the small screenshot below from a photo of JN which shows how he had the controls set.  Assuming he hadn't moved the knob positions ... it looks like he rolled off the treble on both pickups a bit (marked knobs at 1-o'clock where 3 is wide open) and added a slight Q-boost at the rolloff frequency (pointer knobs at 9-o'clock where 5 is "no boost").  Like my demonstration in the second pic below.

Now having said that, I can assure you that I won't sound anything like Jason with these settings.  For one thing because I'm not licensed to operate a pick.     But I'll also add that while it's interesting to see the detailed preferences of various players these things mostly make a difference to the guy playing the bass.  He has set it up the way he wants to hear it but that doesn't mean the same settings would be anybody else's choice.

Furthermore, in a live situation his bass was running through a wireless system, then likely had some (or a lot of) processing added at the sound board.  I've never heard him live but I'm sure the results of that entire signal chain sounded amazing!

The Series instruments have a very wide tonal response and thus can be shaped into whatever sound pleases you.  Plus they feel great to play, are super even up and down the fingerboard, and easy on the eyeballs too!

Keep thinking about it and someday a Series axe will come your way.

Jimmy J

[StephenR]

Hi Matt,

One of the members here, FC Bass (Flip) plays in the Dutch Metallica tribute band "Damaged Justice" and is probably the most knowledgeable one here about Jason's Alembics and tone. He may be selling a new Series II bass. If he sees your post I am sure he will respond to your question.
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=27769.0

Meanwhile hopefully Jimmy's post will give you some food for thought about the Series II electronics. FWIW... I totally agree that even if you picked up Jason's bass and played it through his rig it wouldn't sound like him. That is pretty much true for any player with a unique tone regardless of type of bass played. Good luck chasing the sound...

[Crawdad_95]

Hey Matt,

Welcome to the club. 

Specifically referring to your question, a quick look at G00gle images allowed me to grab the small screenshot below from a photo of JN which shows how he had the controls set.  Assuming he hadn't moved the knob positions ... it looks like he rolled off the treble on both pickups a bit (marked knobs at 1-o'clock where 3 is wide open) and added a slight Q-boost at the rolloff frequency (pointer knobs at 9-o'clock where 5 is "no boost").  Like my demonstration in the second pic below.

Now having said that, I can assure you that I won't sound anything like Jason with these settings.  For one thing because I'm not licensed to operate a pick.     But I'll also add that while it's interesting to see the detailed preferences of various players these things mostly make a difference to the guy playing the bass.  He has set it up the way he wants to hear it but that doesn't mean the same settings would be anybody else's choice.

Furthermore, in a live situation his bass was running through a wireless system, then likely had some (or a lot of) processing added at the sound board.  I've never heard him live but I'm sure the results of that entire signal chain sounded amazing!

The Series instruments have a very wide tonal response and thus can be shaped into whatever sound pleases you.  Plus they feel great to play, are super even up and down the fingerboard, and easy on the eyeballs too!

Keep thinking about it and someday a Series axe will come your way.

Jimmy J

Still learning the ropes with forum posting so bear with me lol. Thank you for the insight and kind words Jimmy! I've spent probably several days' worth in hours of searching through posts, threads, images & videos to figure out his control settings. There are several higher resolution images where you can somewhat make out where the arrows on the knobs are oriented at. That being said, he did modify a few things on his Series IIs, like the layout of the controls & the body shape & contour. But with that, I always second guessed myself when trying to determine where "knob A" was set to, because I had no idea where "all the way down" started and "all the way up" ended, in relation to where the white pointer was at. Same for the pointer knobs for the CVQs & p/u selector.

As for his live rig, the wireless system was a Nady something. The backline manager has said his signal was sent directly to the soundboard. If there was any EQing they likely bumped up his mids to fill out the scooped EQ of James & Kirk. But thats just my speculation. But he did have Crown power amps, as well as compressors of course. His signal then left the mixing board to the PAs. His basses were mostly all maple, with the 5 & 6 string Europas having purpleheart laminates, & the 4 string Spoiler(s) had a zebrawood veneer on the back of the peghead. He used Dunlop Tortex 1mm triangle picks and primarily used LaBella steel roundwounds. Thats about the extent of what I've been able to find lol.

And only he and his techs would know exactly how he had them set up, so that's anyone's guess 🤷🏽‍♂️. Your keen eye on the controls has helped me alot to understand what he had going on, so thank you for that! There's plenty of videos on the ole youtube where you can prominently hear Jason, a bunch with direct soundboard audio too! I actually got a quote for a JN S2 Spoiler a little over a year ago! Aaaand yeah, that's going to have to wait 😅. But I know it'll be worth it!

[Crawdad_95]

Hi Matt,

One of the members here, FC Bass (Flip) plays in the Dutch Metallica tribute band "Damaged Justice" and is probably the most knowledgeable one here about Jason's Alembics and tone. He may be selling a new Series II bass. If he sees your post I am sure he will respond to your question.
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=27769.0

Meanwhile hopefully Jimmy's post will give you some food for thought about the Series II electronics. FWIW... I totally agree that even if you picked up Jason's bass and played it through his rig it wouldn't sound like him. That is pretty much true for any player with a unique tone regardless of type of bass played. Good luck chasing the sound...

Hey Stephen, thanks for the response! I agree 100% with you on the chances of getting his tone exactly. Some of the equipment used then isn't hardly around anymore some 31 years later. But hopefully I'll eventually be able to get CLOSE.

Ah yes, Mr Flip! I haven't reached out to him directly but I've seen alot of his posts here, as well as his YouTube channel. The mans got the ultimate Metallica bass collection and most certainly knows his stuff in this subject!

[jazzyvee]

Don't forget the preamp trim pots for each pickup may have been adjusted at the back of the bass to change the balance between the pickups. So setting the pickup volumes to positions shown of the front of the bass may still not result in you getting the 'same' settings as Jason has on his bass.

[pauldo]

.... and Alembics are very nuanced, any variation on attack or position of said attack will create tonal variance.