How Does Lou Get His Sound?

[PeripheralSenses]

Hey, longtime Dinosaur Jr fan/Freakscene.net reader from Guam here, but I’m a first-time poster.

I’m a guitarist/bass player who’s rocking a Jazz bass with an Ampeg BA115 with a Big Muff,and I’ve been trying for quite some time to get Lou’s dirgy bass sound. Are there any suggestions as to what pedals/amps I should be using? I’ll be switching to a Precision Bass within the near future, but is there more I can do to get that sound?

[tonas]

I know he plays it through a Marshall, that probably has a lot to do with it too.

[lizardjohnny]

rick 4001/4003
marshall IBS series amp most likely with the gain up full and alot of treble/high mids
ampeg 8×10 (live) or 1×15 (you’re living all over me)
stainless steel roundwound strings, i know lou uses DR hi beam 95-s nowadays.

believe it or not, in a jar was not recorded on his rick, it was on another bass… some gibson type.

you’ll have a hard time getting lous tone from the 80s-2005 with a pbass or a jazz I think… alot of his tone comes from the way that ricks chime out chords, they just sound excellent. also a fuzz pedal is the opposite tonally to what you want to use, go for amp distortion or a crazy overdrive pedal but not fuzz.

use a fat pick and strum near the neck.

[Matthoney]

Yeah, all of the first record and about half of the second (Raisans and In a Jar I know for sure) were recorded with a Gibson Grabber. Lou doesn’t speak kindly of it, but he said it happened to have a good day on the day of recording such songs.

[PeripheralSenses]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

I’ve been thinking of investing in a Boss ODB-3; Would that help? What pedals would you recommend?

There’s no way I can get a Rick at this point: It’s waaaaay out of my price range. However, I understand that a Jazz bass delivers a somewhat similar sound (Plus, Mike used it, and I think it sounded fine.) I think the only problem with my sound right now is the lack of a real overdrive pedal. So I’m having second thoughts about investing in a P-Bass, or just possibly replacing my crappy pickups/buying a better, newer Jazz bass outright.

Any other suggestions?

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