Trying to sound like Nathan East

[essenceman]

I know I should try to sound like myself and I know that Nathan East plays Yamahas through Eden gear, but...he does have a fabulous tone!! I'm using an Essence with a Q switch through a F1-X and SF-2 and a Yamaha P5000S and EA 1x10 and 2x8 cabs (incidentally this sounds great with my settings), however, it would be nice to be able to emulate Nathan East's sound occasionally.
 
So if any of you guys that have similar gear to me have got suggestions for tonal set up I'd appreciate your thoughts.
 
Have a great Christmas!!
 
Rob

[David Houck]

Hi Rob; I don't know how to sound like someone else, it's something I've never tried to do.  There are folks on this forum who are good at it; and I imagine that it's a skill that gets better with practice.  So I'm not much help, but with your bass and rig, I would imagine that tone is in there somewhere.
 
It sounds like it's pretty scooped; not much mid but a lot of low end and a fairly narrow, and prominent, high end.  Running the SF-2 in mono parallel mode, Filter 1 on low pass should give you the low end and Filter 2 on band pass or high pass should give you that high end twang.  Although I run my Filter 2 on high pass, my guess here is that the band pass might give you that focused twang that's on all those pops and pull offs.  Just guessing.

[essenceman]

Hi Dave, thanks for the quick reply.
 
I currently run my SF-2 in the way you're suggesting, but with high pass on filter 2. I probably need to experiment with band pass on filter 2 a little more. It was really that gorgeous B & E string tone he gets that I was after. I'll have a play around after Christmas to see if I can find it before our next gig on New Year's Eve.
 
Thanks again and enjoy your Christmas.
 
Rob

[bigredbass]

I'd hazard a guess that Nate is using the 'Enhance' knob on his EDENs:  Low end boost, high end boost, cut mids.  A sophisticated version of the silly 'smile' curve that the unknowing set up on graphic EQs.
 
Dave's advice is probably the quickest way to get in the neighborhood of that sound.  However, an ALEMBIC bass and front end through the EA's are a considerably different setup than Nate's usual rig.  I'm a big fan (I own THREE BB5000's) but have routinely passed on all the Nathan East Signature basses:  For me they just sound thin and have more hiss than a bag of rattlesnakes, not much incentive for a $2200 bass, and I'm a Yamaha fan.  Too bad Nathan doesn't want to sound like Jimmie Johnson!
 
But I REALLY agree with Dave about this: There's already a Nathan East.  I want to sound like ME.
 
J o e y

[essenceman]

Hi Joey, thanks for that.
 
As I said at the beginning of the opening post on this thread, I SHOULD be looking for my own sound and I have found one that I'm reasonably happy with (I just need to get the top end under a bit more control - it can be a bit glassy at the moment).
 
However, that said, one of the beauties of Alembic gear - both basses and pre-amps - is its flexibility and the ability as Dave says to find a sound that's in there somewhere. Playing in a function band as I do (weddings, corporate events, etc,) we only perform covers and so getting A bass sound is part of the equation; getting the RIGHT sound for a particular song from a particular era is the bigger part.
 
Nathan East's tone is a wonderful modern sound and James Jamerson's is an equally wonderful vintage sound; learning how to approximate them is part of the SF-2/F1-X learning curve. There's a helluva lot of tonal flexibility in my current set up and I am sure that lots of experimenting trying to emulate other people's sounds will help me gain a clearer insight into the way my bass, pre-amps, power amp and cabs can work together, but more importantly as both you and Dave rightly point out, it will help me find Rob Rybak's bass sound.
 
Thanks again
 
Rob

[christov]

Nathan's tone is amazing.  I recently purchased a Yamaha Nathan East bass.  I use SWR amplifiers
but I can come VERY close with that combination.
The Yamaha bass is VERY nice.  I am quite pleased.