# Gojira bass?



## cyb

what kind of gear does gojira's bassist Jean-Michel Labadie use? his bass tone absolutely kills. I'm still pretty much a noob to the world of bass gear, so any suggestions on how to get a tone similar to his?


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## engage757

I know he plays a Fender American Deluxe Precision bass. The older version had a Humbucker in the bridge position, the new one has a Jazz pickup. He plays the older one.


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## Dionysian

I know he uses SWR amps.


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## DLG

engage757 said:


> I know he plays a Fender American Deluxe Precision bass. The older version had a Humbucker in the bridge position.



do they still make these?


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## cGoEcYk

I've seen him with SWR stuff on stage (Megoliath as the cab). He also uses some overdrive/distortion. To get his tone mainly the thing is to play with a pick. He probably uses some compression or just has amazingly good technique.


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## kamello

cGoEcYk said:


> I've seen him with SWR stuff on stage (Megoliath as the cab). He also uses some overdrive/distortion. To get his tone mainly the thing is to play with a pick. He probably uses some compression or just has amazingly good technique.




how do you set up a compressor for a solid bass tone? I tried to do some Gojira-Esque tone but the compressor made everything muddy as hell!


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## -Nolly-

His rig is pretty simple, Fender -> Ibanez TS7 -> SWR. No compressor in the chain


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## cGoEcYk

-Nolly- said:


> No compressor in the chain


Many higher end solid state bass amps have a built in compressor (unlike guitar where you'd use it on the front end, with bass it'll generally be post EQ). The head he uses (based on this pic... could just be a "backline" rig) has a compressor and limiter. Whether he engages it or not is another question. I assume he uses it somewhat since his volume is so consistent.


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## Dionysian

I think this live clip really demonstrates just how powerful his bass tone is. Listen around 1:38 - so thick and punchy.

I don't think he uses a lot of really low end in his tone, but rather lets Mario take care of the really low frequencies. Instead it sounds like he has quite a lot distortion centered around the low mids. And he picks pretty damn hard. Also they take to take a lot of the low end out of the guitars in their studio mixes, letting the bass dominate the low-mid area.


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## Ryan Duke

Yup, that's the goods.


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## facepalm66

cGoEcYk said:


> or just has amazingly good technique.


 
please, enlighten me - foolish mortal, what is so magical about his technique?


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## Nonservium

Pretty sure he's the inspiration behind this:


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## cGoEcYk

facepalm66 said:


> what is so magical about his technique?


Consistent attacks and volume level. Compression will even ya out.


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