Billy Sheehan, Rex Brown, Frank Bello, and David Ellefson at Bass Player LIVE! 2013

[Music] Markie for Markie Markie from Harkey shut up so let's kick this off first question starting with Billy and down okay you guys are honoring Jesus Butler tonight at the tribute yeah what does keys are mean to you starting with me Donna what you oh just a one of the ultimate heavy metal foundations and a founding father of what launched hundreds of careers and millions of Records so it's pretty pretty awesome oh is it starting we're going down Francis just learning this bar calls me Francis because he loves me hi everybody these are Butler for me is one of the reasons I want to play but I still want to play bass for that reason because even when he did with 13 the new record hyping that record now he still plays great he Vince he tells a story in his bass lines and I love that about geezer butler there's a story within the story of a song that makes me want to play more and he makes me want to learn more that's the ultimate compliment I can give to a bass player he's still that guy to this day and I just look at him I'm friends with him now I bother him about every Black Sabbath song in the world and he's going to not be my friend soon I know that but he's literally the he's the best I love him so that's he's everything man he is bass for me well the same goes how do you that's nice it's the wife perfect timing excuse me geezer what'd he say the legend and he seems to ever just his playing is just seems like it effortlessly just happens it's magic his bass lines to me or you know with the story and everything they dissipate the picture for the generations of people that have listened to Sabbath so it's a big honor for me to be up here and blame this on and absolutely cool big thing for me yeah Sabbath are my Led Zeppelin and because they are metal whereas Epling was bluesy and rock and roll you know Sabbath was nothing but metal and to me they they're to me there are people who like Zeppelin and Aerosmith and then there are those of us that like kiss and Sabbath right and way blacker and darker and that's me everything was dark in their world and what's interesting about learning there too you know geezer but basslines is that I thought he played everything really low because it was really dark and heavy and tuned down geezer plays everything from about the fifth fret on up and all the guitar parts are fifth fret and below which was a real eye-opener to me learning his tune so we're going to be playing tonight yeah I have a question about that too lucida if you don't already know all these guys are going to be playing tonight at the Fonda theater for our tribute to geezer giving him a Lifetime Achievement Award long overdue but hey it's happening and I wonder it in you know when you go to learn a song you dive deep into it and I wonder in the process of getting getting these songs together what kinds of geezer isms did you get hip to that maybe you weren't before well for myself I was amazing he didn't just stock follow the guitar riff I'm gonna play super not tonight that did it come on you didn't hear that did they and I thought the bass is going to follow that exactly and it doesn't it kind of weaves in and out of it which I loved because he didn't just that constant unison the guitar players often insist upon just sometimes sounds like they're just stepping on an octave pedal and there's as low note tracking them exactly or anything where geezer moves around and gets that counterpoint which one of my favorite things favorite things of a first time I heard Bach that one line is doing one thing another lines doing something else but they create a third unknown line in your mind you know that that counterpoint creates that thing and I thought it was really cool about I didn't notice it as much about about him until I really dissected the song so it was it was a revelation to me very interesting see a song like I'm item not be playing this tonight Marcos don't get mad at me the wizard this plan not that I'm playing it might be playing this wizard today uh i I've studied geezer I know what he does is is how he does the rhythms but instead of the guitar parts he'll do something completely different like in the put it this way the wizard I might not be playing this tonight so he does the lead part he'll do chords he'll do chords instead of the main part and he'll do it three times he won't do it for just to bother me just and I have to learn that it's three and my mind say no it's got to go again no geezer does it three it's not the fourth one but that little thing I have to learn and tonight he doesn't chords during you'll hear it I probably screwed up but um it he does three during the lead tonight so he's going to be watching he's is one of the guys who watches to you as he played that wrong good times to me it's all about the song and the way he plays it you know it's for did he was a Quintus you know Sabbath was the quintessential three piece fan but he kept the low end down with Tony but then he added that dimension you knows and that's what I'll try to do do my career not follow him but try to you know this when not to play you know and he does it so just easily and works perfect with the song so that's what can you say about the man I mean geez you know for me he's just got yeah the one thing I've noticed is that guitar players get very nervous holding a chord right and to me I noticed especially probably the early 80s probably started with maybe some of the Ozzy solo stuff the Randy Rhoads you know they get to get down to go down dig down to get the gun doo-doo-doo-doo right there's always a lick Tony to his credit can stay still on a chord and not have to grab a Wang bar mess with this you notice guitar players they hold the chord they start messing with their knobs they get nervous right because it's all about them cuz their guitar players right so I can say that in a room full of bass bigs all right yeah but Tony to his credit he can just play riffs and I've played mostly in riff bands my whole life and I loved the riff the riff is a very intense thing because the key centers change within riffs and melodic centers move around a lot in riffs and one thing that I love about geezers bass playing is that because Tony outlines the tune with a riff and he can hold on chords it gives geezers the guy playing the licks and he can move all over and I've probably never heard anybody maybe him and Geddy Lee are probably the two most melodic pentatonic bass players I've ever heard I mean they geezer has done more with the pentatonic lick at a time when you know music was just being developed and explored and I think probably digging back into these Tunes you realize they were the first ones doing this it wasn't like that like we now have a ton of people ahead of us but at the time Sabbath were carving this whole new thing and and geezer you know was was just had this huge room to move around and play and be real artful in his licks and most of them are pentatonic yet it's just tastefully knowing when to and when not to play perfect all right yeah so there so they have people moving on to a completely different subject tone starting with Billy what do you look for as far as tone and your tonal options what defines bass tone for you I got to hear the notes I could hear the notes that are being played that's simple the definition of what notes are being played because the notes here of choosing are a musical statement and I remember a couple of times I saw bass plays with a big smiley curve super bright high and tons of low-end and clickety clackety clickety in a big Rumble too but I couldn't tell what notes they were playing and I remember just thinking man I you're killing it bro but I can't hear what you're doing you know and for bass players a it's the most difficult thing I believe in a especially in a big room an auditorium a 3,000 seater to articulate and be able to hear what notes the actual bass player is playing you know so it just turns into a rumble so for me my primary goal as a player tone wise just to be able to hear what notes I'm playing so they make sense musically you know later on but just articulation and being able to hear what's going on well that's why you use the compression the way you use it I think you described it as sitting in a bathroom or a kitchen where you could hear you could actually hear the notes what playing in the bass not plugged into an amplifier yeah well plugging into an amp changes your dynamic range from the normal base as you play it sitting in a quiet room you can hear everything that's happening plug it in the quiet sounds are inaudible and the loud sounds are overwhelming so to me compression just brings it back to the the level that you hear when you it's alone in the room Wood strings in your fingers and I could go on about that for a long time but that's that's basically one of the aspects of them because and a little bit of mid-range Jacko's tone was a mid-range e tone Entwistle had a grind to his tone where he could really hear the notes he played really well so you know a long list of people who had their methodology to go out about being heard and I think they made made a mark because of that because people could hear what they were doing better Amy it's just about cutting through yeah tone is cutting through and being heard being heard hearing the notes and to play in a band I played this band anthrax that uh sidekick I'm an idiot so I have Charlie bananas kick drums and Scott Ian's rhythm and there I am in the middle otherwise you screw it you can get lost really easily and if you don't make the attempt to cut through you're screwed and you really have to work at it I mean even from the beginning we had to do it I you need to hear bass and it's really easy to lose it in this music oh it really is it and and they don't care they don't care I mean that's the way that's the way it roll so a space place we all have to stick together and be heard sampled for them for me it's about tone man in every grin any group you're in you got to be heard then so majority of my career was playing with the riff so was so hard Darryl had such a with Pantera don has such a big huge guitar sound that it was so hard you know I'm playing every whiff riff with him but at the same time it was so hard to get that bass out there then we started putting the mid you know and trying to get it to at least you know crackle the smell but um it was a you know you're talking about the smiley face well that's that's what we kind of started at first then you gradually you know try to put stick those mids in where you can and and but I use a lot of you know for Kay's and and stuff like that to really hip of my ears as you progress and the plane as loud as I do that's really kind of not hearing out so I'm in the smooth part of the town now and I'm really getting that out lehoczky's a lot yeah really I mean it's it's really but the smoothness of the the top-end has been a lot easier for me to get that across without having that you know on everything everything and that bit kind of Rose it but that's what I had to have you know for maybe getting that the top part in when when I was playing with Duncan so you know for me there's two kinds of tones there's the one that sounds good in your living room by yourself that you can compliment yourself on and then you get in the band and you can't hear the bass at all because that HiFi tone and I used to buy PA systems and do my amp and try amp and all this crap and I go this tone sounds awesome by myself at my house you know and then I'd get in the band in the bass would just disappear it would just be completely transparent and it gave me an appreciation for a block of 10-inch speakers because there's this mass you know eighty ten or eight tens is eighty inches of mass blowing at you you know and I started to look at all of them you know two 15s there's thirty inches you know four twelve there's forty eight inches you know of just massive bass blowing at you and the more mass the bigger the bass and you don't necessarily have to have bigger speakers in fact a bunch of smaller speakers do the same thing especially when you couple them together and when they're touching the floor one of the things I hate in a lot of the kind of professional settings we all have to do is we do these thrown go festivals and we've got these carts where it makes it easy for the festival to put bands on and off quickly but the first thing you do it they put them on a cart in the basis up Florence and immediately it's like where my face go what happened you know and it's it's just I I it's you know you do it because you're you're supposed to go out and rock the audience and play the show so you suck it up and deal with it but it's my preferred one I mean even a stage just like this it's hollow you put the base on it man it just couples with the floor and it sounds great and I look down the line up here and every one of us has a very distinctive tone that fits very distinctively with the musical settings that we play in and after a while you kind of become known for your tone I mean Billy's very distinctive tone for sure in every setting he's played and I know it's him playing you know when I hear Rex's stuff either Pantera the new Kill Devil he'll beg I can tell it's him playing same with Frank and not of the things that he's been involved in you and and that comes in your hands because that's really where your tones and once you get good tone off of your approach to the instrument dialing the amp is just the icing on the cake right on question with what you guys do your logic playing places where the big part of the job is feeding the front of house engineer the right sound and I wonder if there are any lessons you've learned along the way to sort of expand on that about giving a good clean signal that can then get sent to the front of house well I have a special problem because I have a couple of different sounds and and I'm at the mercy of the sound man turning off all my high-end and just using the low end so all you don't hear a note I'm playing I've been I've been I got screwed of a couple of tours pretty badly where they just would not cooperate and they but on other tours I got where the guy would bring my distortion in the Soliman eventually every every band they did after that they insisted the bass player have distortion on a separate channel that they can bring in because it is an effective thing and it works and when you give it a try it does so I give the cell man less and less options i Sigma is a clean signal here's a direct signal here's my low-end and here's a mic distortion now I go here's my low end here's the distortion - got to be together and that's it and I got lucky the last few times getting guys that that cooperate and when they do there response when people afterwards they they seem to respond very positively to the sound on the tone the way it works with the band the band likes it you know the recordings we've done that works but I try to give this all men unless it's somebody you're working with over a long period of time you can really talk with them give as few options as possible to screw up what you're absolutely when they have an option to mail tickets my thing is with that is no disrespect to sound man I I mean that direct box is the devil right right or wrong it's the devil it's like yo I don't want this sound you hear the amp I want it to sound that's my sound no direct box they keep the direct box and it just flattens everything out and all of a sudden you sound like [ __ ] yeah and it's not true it's not your true sound and that's what drives me crazy so what I do is the amp that's the sound you want to cheat with the direct box underneath it is fine fatten that up that's that's perfectly fine but that is my sound that's what it has to be out there and you know what's great about wireless systems you can go out there and check it you know and that's that's what we got you really have to do that during sound check I said ah there's no direct down you know you have to do that because you it's your thing this is your gig or so you it's really important for all of us I mean we've all done this but Rick well you took the words out of my mouth you know the DI I told how to hate it for so many years and I but I usually what the DI with that cell man I'd let him just take the high pass off you know and just use that for your bottom in and then of course I want to hear the mic cab because that's what you're really playing and that's what you feel right that feels home so but you got to learned you know to start liking that di and there's somebody cooled the eyes out there now that do you have distortion with them or you know a little compression with them that you can you know I'm starting to dig it a little more but in fact de saucé record I did killed up a hill record we just went straight into the board and just use plugins but it was mostly out of that direct sound and we got that really really good sound off the record and so you start to like it a little more the eyes always been the bass flares nightmare yeah like you said I know so it's it's a necessary evil but at the same time you know it is equal mix Posie yeah there's I mean two parts that really is is recording and live and and you know even the last Megadeth record that we did we we threw the Harkey attack pedal in freebase into the attack pedal and that attack pedal added this really nice kind of vintage distortion and then I was able to still add some more bottom into it kind of akin to the old dbx subharmonic thing but it tracked really well its thing when you get those sub harmonic things is you get this nice with this sub but they don't track the notes very well they're they're very slow and if you start playing fast you can hear it wobbling around in there so but that in front of the head and then I just di doubt of the head quite honestly and then a couple of couple of mics on the cabinet so we did some mics off the cabinet and the DI and and it printed two tape good and I'm like Billy I like to kind of print as many different microphones as possible because then you can mix it in however you want one track you may need it to just be really growling and another track you may want to have that pullback and it gives you the option to mix and act not just for you know the kind of records we make but home recordings all kinds of things and plugins have saved the day of supporting absolutely but live on i'm the DI and i throw with fifty seven a shure sm57 on my high drive the Harkey hydride 810 cabinet and it's really specific when you start miking cabinets when you can move that microphone you put it straight at it you get one tone you start angling it you get a different tone if you put it in the center on the where the voice coil is it's one type of tone if you move it slightly off-center to get more of the cone and especially the high dr because it's both paper and aluminum i mean you can really get detailed and I'd have my tech Fred he's pretty good at it he knows right the because if I want to hear more of the pick you know in my case it's like if we start to get more on that aluminum part of the speaker man you think start spanking great you know and if he gets it on the paper it kind of smooths out a little bit so neck and for me I hear it in the ears because I use in here so it's like I can hear it immediately because having in yours is like being in the studio cool so this is an interesting question and I'm going to kind of run it down one by one Dewey Shane you favor Steve I Franky Scott Ian rec Steinbeck Darrow David Dave Mustaine how do you cope not so much with the personalities loaded question did really but more so on the musician standpoint how do you cope competing with I mean there for that event ah pitar players there ever was how do you set yourself apart and not only cutting through it your tone but just finding that that happy place well for for myself I main job of course is that bass drum and Hatton and I watched drummers more than guitar players but I also once once I'm really established with a drummer I can put attention on guitar players more and with steve with richie kotzen now with paul gilbert and guys that play with it's kind of a a push-pull you know occasionally I'll be in there with him doing a thing and other times I'm back I remember with Steven we started doing for the love of God I should get this callus on the side of my thumb was just holding an e hold the e note don't change just but you know don't play any other no just to e talkable just and and that's what he want us is it got the amethyst when I give up that's exactly what I did and and it was cool and I'm down with that sometimes I got oh you got to do your thing everybody every instrument has its purpose guitar in the world today has kind of uh it's kind of unleashing and they and very rarely do they ever take up a specific job they're kind of always spread over everything all the time it's a guitar world and we just live in it you know so that's kind of the way it works but but I don't mind I'm pulling back and giving a real solid foundation of the guitar player to do this thing and then I usually find out that if they're happy with that you get some cool interaction and some things together and you get your spot you know but I'm more about the drums I think then the guitar and watching a lock into the drummer's is the it's the first thing I learned before I even owned a bass is that you got to be kind of when the bass drum hits a thing you got hit a note do at the same time and that's 90 percent of it once you get that down you're okay for me with the two characters I play with 31 years in you better know what you're doing right we've been together for a while so what I do now say anthrax is writing the record now we're writing a new record I'll put my bass lines flat I'll follow the riff I won't tell them what I'm doing I'll go home and write my bass lines so what I do is I kind of I kind of surprise them I do my bass tracks alone and we'll battle a little bit that's in the way over it but I respect the rift I've learned to respect the riff and the song because it's all about the song at the end of the day you can't be let the ego down and it's all about the song so I'll write my bass lines to help the song like geezer taught me geezer taught me to write this story within the story but don't get in the way that's that's the whole thing with me now so it really is about that so now I think we're pretty comfortable Scott Charlie and I well we know we respect each other enough to do that and not um they know I'm not going to go overboard but I still want to be tasty I want it I want to be creative you know I want I wanted to be fun you know so that's what's important and add to the song and not be in the way of the song for me it was just about the riff and the teamwork it had to all work together and we were very very conscious very conscious about getting that riff as tight as we could possibly get it but keeping the power so but it's also you know if like you said you got a lay back it's not about there you go no not when not to play and let him shine over the top and then when it is your turn rip it you know so we get to the point even the studio we just have it kicking a snare and we would we call it the microscope and we just put the guitars and we get every single attack and this is back in 2-inch days you know so it was just about every note and that grind you know that it was almost too perfect but it worked you know so it really it's really about does it what works for you you know but it's it's it's also about teamwork and you know the drummer you have to follow around with you know and has to be solid and and then everything else can shine above you the bass players role as I had told that anchor down and in my you know mine where I'm at and I know it changes we're all different players so a replay in an approach to bass but that's for me that's all what it's all about cool you know every musical setting has roles and those roles are defined pretty early on whether it's just kind of a one-off thing or it's longtime bands like like we've all been in and in Megadeth would Dave you know his rhythm guitar style is the defining sound of Megadeth and even if I write something or someone else writes it when it goes through Dave's fingers and comes off his finger board it's now the way he played it is that's the stamp of what is the the mark of of the Megadeth sound and fortunately because he and I played together from the beginning my role as the bass player and as that complement to that sound is now if for nothing else people have heard that for so long that that's not what they get used to it's like the Fender P bass we've heard that in recorded music for so long that how that sits with drums is now just what we've come to accept is the standard right whether it's good or it's bad it doesn't matter it's now the standard and so for I think for you know in the Megadeth setting when Dave and I get in a room together there's kind of a there's sort of an established relationship of when he plays it I come in and around that in some ways even the drums come in and around it I mean Dave's rhythm guitar playing it's it's the rhythmic groove of the tune as well there's a swagger and a push and a pull and and it's something that even Chris Broderick you know who learned what eighteen Black Sabbath songs we write he you know it's something that that that's that's just the dynamic of what it is and it's one of the reasons I really hone down playing with the pick because the pick just works better and tone wise I fought against with Bill first brought up about the boosted bottom boosted top and I had to get out of the way in the mids because that's where all the martial guitar is in our van you know a martial guitar amp just sucks up all the mid-range you know whether you like it or not it's what it is so I had to find a way to do that yet get you know be able to have because the notes are in the mids like we talked about earlier that's where them that's where the notes are it's usually in some kind of a mid-range boost but the power comes in the bottom end and in my case the clarity comes in the top which is where the pick and the the bright switch on the part key amp work really well together that's what kind of helps me be good exciters Ellison's part I know we can hear him now you know so it's kind of a lot of those different things part of it is in the playing and part of it is in certainly in the tone well you actually I think you called it the Rustin piece which on the back of the high drive cabinet the rest in peace which yeah yeah turn the knife switch on that's the knife that cuts through the guitars yeah so tonight again to circle back obviously paying tribute to a guy who has a very unique style and you each all have your own your own voices too and I wonder how you in getting it together negotiate that like how much of it is you know you don't wanna be a poser and pretend to be geezer butler because there's only one geezer butler but you want it kind of how much of his style has sound you to try to cop in this kind of a situation and how much of did you just get up there and be you well that's a balance you um anytime you learn especially another artists song you want to pay tribute to them that you want to do your thing I don't mind sometimes being completely selfless and for getting me completely and just doing the thing and getting that guy and doing it like he does it and have that be the challenge then when that's done and I'm off doing my own thing I now have a bigger vocabulary I now have more things that I can do and I just forget about everything I did when I just throw it all the way and do just that just do that like that no other way sometimes I enjoy doing that because uh I I think like I said when you come back you can have a new perspective on things but for myself whatever song it is I'm playing tonight from is a yeah you don't know not even better I'm just gonna try and get in there in the middle and do the best I can to do to play the song and the spirit that he played it and and that's about it totally I'm not going to get too elaborate it's going to be a set of the double signal to make it easier everything just go to single right into one amp like we did a soundcheck last night and and just make it easy get in there lock in with Charlie from on drums and I love his plan so he's a riot to play yeah you guys play great together he's awesome he's awesome he's really good for you yeah good and and do my best to pay tribute to one of the founding fathers for me this is a thank you to geezer its geezers within me my playing this is how I learned how to play through geezer butler I by listening to those records over and over and developing my style that just went my ear just went to his playing that's how I learned how to place one of the top three guys in the world so it's there already it's it's within me so I just want to say thank you it's a compliment to you this is it I just II passed the torch and whatever way you want to look at it but I just want to say thank you for making me love this and it really is a special thing for me with geezer because it's it's it's more than music I think he brought me he taught me how to play he really he's one of the guys that just meant this is what I want to do it I kept saying it and had to learn and it's really a thank you that's that's what this is for me it's bigger than that are you gonna cry tonight I'm crying now but I mean it from my heart and he knows because they don't let him up on it just it's a thank you too big thank you well the influence is always it's there for me so you want to play it as sure as you can but of course it's you play in it you have your own distinct the way you tackle basically you know we're pick players over here that's why you set us over here right yeah did you notice that so that England just it's did you want to take the original one but yeah you don't want to be it's already there for me you know so I just tried to play it as true as I can to that but you're gonna make a challenge to you know you want to be up there like I said to clone not cool I'm pretty much exactly whatever but he just said when I first started playing you know getting into these tunes and we were just on tour with Black Sabbath for a month down in South America and I realized I probably should have paid a little closer attention to what was going on out there but you know it's but it's interesting because we were very much in our artistic world with our performance our show and when you're on tour you have to really be in your world and paying attention in fact broderick kept calling me dude so what song you want to play these rock you want to play these I'm like I don't know I can't even think about Black Sabbath right now I know we're live you know ten feet from the guys but it's like we're on a Megadeth tour right now and I got to be honest with you that was probably the biggest challenge with these tunes was you know focusing on everything that we're doing as a group yet knowing you know in about 10 days I got to get these tunes down and and really you know not being able to kind of partition the two apart and sometimes those things come easy other times they don't and quite honestly I had to finish the tour last week stop go home you know hug the wife kiss the kids hit the reset button and go okay now I'm into bass player mode bass player live let me start learning geezer tunes and that was really how I had to learn these songs and I drove Broderick crazy because I think he's learned these couple of songs I'm playing in like three different tunings and keys and and porcha he has the capability to do it but you know when I started listening to him I wanted to get every note you know because you know the geezers watching it's important you know he's a friend he's an influence he's a contemporary of ours and it's important to honor him and then at some and I'm on ultimate guitar calm and I'm doing what you know looking at tab and I'm going the computer bases playing these parts wrong and you know what I mean and I should have thought of that right I mean I'm like music geek and downbeat man I'm deep into it you know and I'm just going I want to get this right and and finally I just went I thought of my own learning my own songs that I haven't played in 20 years some of them you know and I go God did I really play like that and is that really what I played and you know and and and what I realized with Geezer is I think it's more about the spirit of what it is you know and I'm not playing with Bill Ward I'm playing my charlie and Charlie's my piñon one of the finest drummers in heavy-metal period I mean just a fantastic musician and glad he's on the deck because I know that he knows what he's doing at least he at least he does you know and Broderick's great so again I think it was kind of more about just capturing the spirit there's a lot of licks and things on those recordings that icon and just can't hear you know and when you've played your own songs over and over for 30 40 years like geezer has he knows him of course but there's things in that there's things in that stuff I could never pick up in just a couple of weeks time did you just can't you know and I realized it's not about necessarily the note and the lick it's about the spirit of it and and that's really what we're doing tonight is we're we're hosting a great big huge party for geezer you know so just get behind that and just let it flow and just let the spirit carry it excited yeah so I have to ask this question because I do represent it not oh no need but simple why Harkey um for myself I I played another brand for a long long time prior to that I had all components stuff actually started out with that brand they went out of business like did all components stuff for years custom preamps and power ramps and JBL cabs and all kinds of nonsense racks and racks of stuff then I went back to that company and then they made a huge change and kind of broke my heart because I lost two companies that I endorsed so I had to lead the company sadly and Larry Hartke gave me a call and said you know I don't not even for endorsement but if you'd like out sent you anything you'd like to try out and use and have or whatever you know he was just a very generous kind to me so when I got the heart case stuff I had it was in a room like this only in North Hollywood and I had all this about eight manufacturers sent me stuff and I went down tried them all three of them failed in the three of the camps died in the trial oh not going to mention any names the heart key stuff was just rock rock solid so I did what I normally do and I started pulling it apart pop the front covers off and check - how the speakers are mounted they're actually mounted correctly with a proper speaker nut on there the proper wood nut underneath holding the thing in whereas and this another manufacturer they were taking drywall screws jamming them in at different angles some of them caught the wood some of them didn't and it was a catastrophe so the Harkey suffer right away it was just rock solid real made with care Larry is available anytime there's any problem with anything you can find Larry our key the guy whose name is on the thing so that to me was really important so but ultimately the ability to play it and get the tones I needed out of it right away I use it for some use that live was on a tour with um who's the violinist from UK Eddie Jobson and I had to get the the John Whetton tone which to me is one of the greatest bass tones ever and it was grind in a way and we're doing a starless to that tune down down danger do and it was just was perfect so I was sold from then and have you said ever since and very very pleased with it mmm that's a hard key works they don't break down the last anthrax tour is 207 shows not one problem that's just that says it all for me not one problem that one breakdown I never had the bug I just like bugging you I like calling but I didn't have to call him I just say how you doing I hate saying how I want to say something wrong but there's nothing wrong with hard key its look he showed me hockey we that we've toured together a lot throughout our three years and um I plugged into his rig and he was on me he said just try this and it was it was out that day was obvious it was it was was it a big for show maybe was a big for sure I don't remember what it was might have been a big for show and I plugged into his rig I knew it was done I knew it was going to happen so we we made it happen then it it's it's the best there's a new standard I say that my clinics because I mean that Harkey is the new standard I'm telling every day do not go down there thank you every every penny you spend on these apps and this isn't a kiss-ass it's the truth it's the real deal this is the new standard here all right for me I was you know like Billy was saying with you know 22 years with the company very loyal to and always had that sound and Mark has sent me some stuff and I didn't want to know but I've checked it out and mmm actually played a show this year in the first of May and I should play through your rig and if you see the video you keep me see may I keep going back and what is what is what is that so long story short the versatility of the amps and intimate the possibilities within the kilo that I'm using in the hard drive and the high drives it's it's just endless every day is it you know every room is different so I can I can dial in exactly what I need for that room a lot easier than just say oh well just plug in a go you know and always make a conscious effort to you know we sound check every day and it just it's almost overpowering for me it's like hard you know you get to that point you don't want to turn it up because it sounds just right but you needed a little more level but it just it's just a great it's just great product and what else would you ask for in the staff that gives you what you need and you know it's just unbelievable very very lucky and blessed to have encountered that some daddy vote cool to be a part you know to me I started with Harkey probably 25 years ago I went to the Guitar Center down here on Sunset Boulevard and plugged into they didn't even make heads at the time so as a different manufacturers had and I just plugged into I think it was a 410 and a single 15 and it was the full aluminum speakers and of course playing with a pick and this thrash metal thing I think I pulled a Jackson base off plugged it in and bang it's like I'll take all of it and that was my tone was born really I mean it was really just defined right there in that moment it had all this top in the thing was back in those days our key was kind of a one-trick pony because it was this aluminum speaker which I loved but a lot of people it didn't work for them because they just wasn't right for their musical styles but then fast forward to 2010 we were getting ready to do this Megadeth rust in peace toward I wanted to recreate the look and the sound all the way down to the stretch jeans and not you know the wrist bands and all the whole thing you know and and it was so funny because mark and I had Tim Ripper Owens that introduced me to mark at NAMM what just a couple weeks earlier something I think right and we were talking and all of a sudden I called mark up I said man this we're doing this tour and he sent some stuff down and I tried a bunch of different stuff probably like your experience Billy I had a bunch of different stuff and that some good sounding amps but I always sounded like I was sitting outside of the band and as soon as I brought the Harkey in I all of a sudden I was right inside the kick drum and I was right inside the pocket of the band and to me that was the thing that made the amp work and Mark is really pushing me to try the high drives and I was scared because God is he I don't care for neodymium speakers there was this trend a few years ago neodymium it's lightweight is it we don't want white it's bass supposed to be heavy you know a cabinet should be heavy The Voice girl should be heavy the magnet should be everything good magnet should be everything you know that's what it should be it's and I'm getting a look for X right now yeah Tim and I had a conversation with and it's and it's funny because I plug in and and the cabinets heavy as it should be and because to me that's a big part of the sound of basses it's heavy get someone else to move it for you if you're getting it up there your tech girlfriend whatever have someone else move within your mom whatever you know but but but it's I was blown away because I didn't I didn't expect to like it and a thing that worked about it is the Megadeth tone has changed a lot over the years we have this really kind of sharp pointy fast-speed thing from years ago which the aluminum works great with but then there was a period in the 90s where we wrote a lot of kind of slower bigger more groove melodic Tunes and the paper on the speaker works well so it's like you got the best I got 30 years of Megadeth right there in one speaker and it really it's just it's just it's done it's a it's a complete package and I've taken it around the world now for four years and it's just absolutely kill just great we had the Pepsi coke challenge last night with somebody and we did we may have converted another one the obvious single can't mention the name but yeah yeah I think so again yeah huh interesting you'll be getting a call any questions out there persons always don't be shy yeah first was always hard yes by right I'm in right here you had your hand up didn't ya this gentleman yeah this gentleman petals effects what's your take it's like I paid him to ask that because I got to do the EBS pedal and plug-in so I for years I was all rackmount everything I never did any pedals and because we're doing so many fly ends these days I just can't just can't carry RAC sagir anymore so I've done I've it took me a while but I basically get tonality from pedals now I got an e BS a distortion thing it is it works pretty well for me a couple mxr compression things but I leave them back by the amp though because for me I always drove me crazy when you run your your precious signal 40 feet out to the microphone right to go through all this mess than 40 feet more back again you're just as white oh yeah that just just just precarious and you know something to keep it all back there so I don't do a lot of changing of tone once it's there it's you know distortion on or distortion off and everything else with my hands you know so I keep it pretty simple in that respect so I know a lot of guys are doing the giant huge pedal board and the one thing I don't know if these guys will concur with me on this but I'll bet I'll bet you've observed the same thing I see guitar players up there with metals and I see him you know yeah they can't sit still man I don't hear any sound changing nothing changing nothing is stepping in porky kicking the right so I kind of to keep it as simple as well on now is that a discrete signal then and on itself do you have a clean signal and then it affects check that's what you were saying earlier with the puddles designed to split the signals let your clean normal bass tone through unaffected so it's just bass cool we got it then you can ghost in as much of whatever kind of distortion you want and it mixes in together and so you never lose that real bass tone which which is a the biggest problem with distortion as you take the beautiful sine wave and start to crunch it up with all these little destroyer things and it's no longer as the power you need to have I haven't just big big and beautiful and it says worked out well so I'll stop talking about it sighs so that's better stare thing is cool kept dancing this is true and I don't hear it except maybe it's a new function on stage to it but mine forever the sansamp stands out for me it's my sound that's I hear things at different rooms I have my Harkey have no problems it's all good it's just such a nice combination so it's always been forever sansan for me and it works with the sound man even when I go check it so yeah it's always been that I'm not a pedal guy but I've been experimenting maybe the new anthrax I don't know but uh I'm not really I don't want to keep pressing things I'm clumsy I'll trip it doesn't matter yes it's mainly a Santa I wouldn't peddle you out for years and but I've always used a wah and in fact I've had the same wall out with me for the last 13 years and I can't believe this thing is still working but it is you know if it's not broke don't fix it you know but first I just I get it where the gain is it look you get the solid you know the base attack for these heart keep that pedal of data that the mic set VR or whatever the attack panel and attack from the base attack is a is definitely what I just keep it in line of but it's always on but I you know use the wall and then if I use like this another company that I'm using now that it has it's kind of like a kind of like an exciter I like a little bit of let it breathe a little bit excited point of it but I make sure they gain it those pedals do not interfere with what's going on you know what for something jumps out at you you know I like to keep it where it's nice a nice and simple but you also have you know I'm not I'm not a foot stomper I just have them out there because I like that's part of my town you know and I know what works and what doesn't worry for me so I want to like pedals but they don't like me at all I was just at home right before I coming over I always get these grandiose idiots y'all bring some paddles for the clinic you know cuz live I use a little just a little digitech chorus you know my Texas turns it on when you play like Dawn Patrol or a couple little bass intro pieces and it kind of widens the tone out a little bit but but it's you know I think when you've got you know five hundred thousand watts of PA and hopefully ten thousand fans it's like who cares about the chorus at that point you know and it's like I said how I sat at home and I pulled all these pedals out that I have that I realize a bunch of my goddddd bass player life over the years right and I get on people are kind enough to check this out I go yeah I'll get into it and I get it home and the battery dies and then you can't find the power source then you try to plug them in and the two don't work together and you're just like I freaking hate these things man they just it says I find I'm a better bass player when I just plug straight in even with a cable and just go you know give me a pic give me a cable give me an amp and I'm good to go so right now it works best for me so there any other questions we all know very well that he was the chief lyricist for Black Sabbath plenty of very serious hit video you too taking a stab at lyrics I have I've written quite a few lyrics actually in the Megadeth stuff over the years and it see that's a really good point because I actually kind of want to ask you to this because I don't know that he he's such a just a calm understated guy you know yet you know we all know him as his bass playing but probably his bigger contribution to Black Sabbath over the years has been as literate writing right yeah to which you know you know we we those lyrics have probably changed the course of millions of heavy metal fans lives and we all thought it was the singer but turns out it was the bass player that was you know redirecting all these you know what does that mean that's so deep and heavy and it's dark and what is that you know it's it's done it myself when I was in when I was a teenager but you know lyrics are a tricky thing because their words you know it's not a poem it's definitely a story but a lyric is a very distinct style of writing and and I know because I write lyrics that I don't sing another guy sings them at least in Megadeth usually you know always in Megadeth but and same with geezer to write lyrics that someone else thinks he's not the singer that's a really tricky thing because when you're writing you have this story you have to write it it has to fit with the music so it has to have a cadence and a rhyme there's kind of a set number of syllables it needs to have and then also thinking and I got us write it in a way that heat this guy is going to be able to sing it and it's really a tricky thing to try to do and it's mental it's it's it's probably one of geezers biggest contributions to heavy metal yet it's the thing that he's probably not always some of us in the know know that he wrote those lyrics but a lot of people don't they didn't think it was the the singer the road no one else Rachel Eric's yeah I write a lot a lot of Sumerian lyrics and sang it a singing bass player is always a interesting thing because uh McCartney Lemmy sting Geddy Lee Phil Lynott Doug Pennock kind of you know I don't sing anywhere near any as good as any of those guys but you have a nice voice I told you this was very kind that's the truth that no wine what the lyrics who wrote the lyrics to shy boy me see see there you go so you know but uh that lyric Dave's absolutely right that the cadence and writing writing for a singer because some words sing and some words don't write and you got to know that and so it's an important thing so I actually I did not know that geezer wrote the lyrics for Black Sabbath oh yeah very impressed with that because it requires therefore a huge knowledge of the entire big picture of a piece of music when you once you start layering lyrics in there it's really the final icing on the cake so many pieces of music are done guitar bass drums ready to go except for the lyrics even at blah blah melodies no no words but you got a lot a lot a lot you know we got to think of something just final the final thing that goes on it really requires a you to be able to permeate that entire piece and insert those lyrics in a proper way I'm impressed with that is pretty pretty interesting to me well that's all he reads you reads novels after novel and thousands and thousands of novels great it's probably home right now preparing reading a novel right that's what he does you know I mean that's what he does any other questions yeah is when especially right correct when shootings gotten lower did much of you gear change or did you just hit it hotter or like sort of had you know about asked a question you know I think when you're tuned lower and you worried about being heard and just based in general I think it's in your fingers I really think I think tone is in your fingers anyway here you know and then how hard you play how soft you play bring out parts a little bass run you play a little harder you know and you'll really emphasize that you bring it out but I try not to mess with my tone I try not to really you know maybe a little more sustained something like that but if I want more it's got to come out of here and I mean these fingers you know I feel like this is a continuation of myself so it's got to come out of your finger play so you get that it's just really the way that I feel that's why I'm so comfortable my fingers guys I know I can get that tone right here you know and no matter what tunings we do it when we covered Sabbath bloody Sabbath as for actual years ago remember it's so friggin low I'm even that one that won't have it don't don't no no no I remember I had to really bite down on it you know and not change the tone so much but it is all within you know for me for me I got a five string just to experimentation on a record that we were doing things about the time the whammy bar came out and Donna's using the hell out of it and so it just in it but I like what I heard because there's all different kind of stuff but I'm a four string player that's what I enjoy doing that but that having a fifth string I used for a long time you know what not a long time probably six or seven years that was really crucial you just got that extra bone sound great out of you know so since then I've gone you know of course back to a four string but for me was just experimenting with using the Fasching there's all kind of cool stuff you can do with it but me yeah no one so we have a time for one more question as a bass player I'm gonna kind of go back to the like the same songwriting thing you guys actually maybe live whatever sing and play and with that there's a big difference between playing a guitar and playing a bass and sing it so how do you guys approach a great bull shout loudly with mr. big back in the nineties been a bunch of tourism rush and I was at the great honour of becoming a acquaintance a little bit with Getty who's one of the best singing bass players around and he said that he you know before a tour he's got to go into rehearsals and and work it out because you can do it but it's it's a it requires a lot of coordination and to sit and strum and play guitar you can sing anything all day that's that's a breeze but then as soon as you go like that you know that's why I always say to bands I mean hey you want me to settle down and stop playing so much give me a part to sing quarter notes the whole time you know with anthrax I sing a lot of backgrounds especially with Joey back I know when it does take work Getti i'ma get II think about what Geddy does this that the bass pedals on the floor and he's singing like hi it's crazy I mean who does that but it's it takes me a while to get used to playing the right stuff in you you could fake it within whatever you know you'd not do your runs and stuff but I'd like to do it the right way I I want to cheat but uh it takes me a while at home to learn to coordinate that so that does and I have a little pathetic I have a mirror and I have a mic and I'll do it in front of my alright I might you know you know it's so pathetic what I do but I have a process mentally and it works for me so everybody has their thing I'm in therapy one great exercise TNT by ac/dc just played air bat dare dare dare dare dare dan dare and sing yeah table that go go home and try it you gonna blow your mind it's impossible great answer I'll go with that way well that concludes this panel on ever right there one last question what's what's the best way for people to find out what you guys are up to in the coming months uh winery dogs for me we've got stuff booked in the next year we just finished a tour we got a new record out websites Facebook Twitter my website I'm going to finally update it my website hasn't been updated since the internet ran on propane so it's been quite a long yeah anthrax calm at the Frank Bello that's a Twitter thing that's the only thing I do I don't know the rest of it but San Thrax calm said well we're writing a record we're gonna be doing more - it's what we do so Kill Devil hill um out on the road now just got a record out gonna check it out and you go to Facebook killed up with hill music or he check out the Rex Brown pages and stuff like that I'm basically cool cool David Allison comm has all my stuff everything pushes through that band tour dates of course Megadeth calm had a book that came out last week life with death so I'm out doing some yeah it's kind of our story is how I look at all I wanted all my buddies in on it too you know so but anyway so that'd be doing some of that while I'm out on tour summer in the middle of a world tour right now so it's Megadeth calm David Olson calm so david Ellefson Rex Brown Frank Bello Billy Sheehan thank you are thank you thank you guys thank you [Applause] thank you guys [Applause]

Channel: Bass PlayerMag

Views: 62,109

Rating: 4.9423327 out of 5

Keywords: 2839934281001, panel, Bass Player, 2013, clinic, Bass Player Live!, bp youtube, Bass Player Live 2013, bpl13, artists, bass, BPL, bp artists, bass player live, Megadeth (Musical Group), Pantera (Musical Group), Anthrax (Musical Group)

Id: 0wF4FbAf1FU

Length: 57min 39sec (3459 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2013