"French" Bass sound?

DannyP · November 2014

I really love that clicky bass sound you get on 60s French pop records - Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall etc.

Is there a trick to achieving that sound?

wayneirie · November 2014

Double the bass line with a bass vi.

EricTheWeary · November 2014

I'd imagine that ^^^ you get doubling the bass with bass VI or guitar on a lot of country and reggae ( an odd connection I always thought) from that period. Often it was a doghouse bass or quite woolly bass ( precision with flatwounds into an 18" speaker type thing) so a second instrument was needed to give it definition. Any YouTube links to any particular songs? The bass line to Walk on the Wild Side comes to mind - double bass with electric bass playing a higher harmony part IIRC- and that sounds like the kind of thing you are describing.

DannyP · November 2014

OK, that makes sense. All the more reasons to have another look at those Squier VIs!

I guess I mean stuff like this, although I'm on my laptop at the moment, so I can't really hear the bass too well just now!

I'm a 6-string guitarist, but I do have a P-bass copy. My amps are 410 tweed deville, AC30 and a home made SE5a with 12" speaker.

I guess I need to use a plectrum and have a play about with my compressor and tone settings.

wayneirie · November 2014

Try an octave pedal on the guitar and picking right by the bridge perhaps and crank the treble, experiment with palm muting that might give you some of it.

albanov · November 2014

It's great sound for sure. An old hollowbody - Eko, Hofner, Guild Starfire etc - palm muted and played with a pick will get there. With your precision flat wounds as mentioned would help, also turning the tone down and try muting the strings with a bit of foam. A higher action, for that 'plunky' sort of tone, could be good.

For what it's worth Herbie Flowers, who played on a lot of the Serge Gainsbourg material, usually played a jazz bass - although I have read it was a Burns Bison on Histoire de Melody Nelson which is a pretty classic example of this sound.

EricTheWeary · November 2014

Remembered another famous one - These Boots are Made for Walking by Nancy Sinatra ( not the Megadeath cover!). Ignore the double bass only on the intro and the main bass line is tic tac bass ( the classic Nashville term I believe) which is double bass + electric bass ( Carole Kaye on a precision) in that case. If you google tic tac bass lots of info on examples and variations. Patsy Cline comes up a lot as having tic tac ( double plus baritone) on a lot of her stuff.

ICBM · November 2014

Can't really add much to the suggestions made already, but I have to say thank you for the Bardot clips

.

DannyP · November 2014

@EricTheWeary - interesting stuff, many thanks.

@albanov - I love Melody Nelson - but I thought it was your man out of Manfred Man on bass for that one?

I had previously suspected that it might have been one French session bassist responsible for all of those Ye-Ye era French Pop records. A sort of "Canard" Dunn type-character, if you will.

DannyP · November 2014

ICBM said:

Can't really add much to the suggestions made already, but I have to say thank you for the Bardot clips .

No worries

Could compression play a role, do we think?

wayneirie · November 2014

Some gentle compression might help. Most of the compression would of probably come from hitting the tape or the valves in the console. If you have a tape simulator plug in try that. Or if you do use a comp try the soft knee setting and a gentle reduction rather than hard and squashy.

DannyP · November 2014

Great thanks @wayneirie

Basher · November 2014

Oooh. Got all excited then as I thought you were on about the same sort of "French" bass tone I love.
Listening to your YouTube samples, I realised I'm thinking of a different sort of tone.

For anyone who is interested, this is the sort of thing I had in mind:

I've found that I can do a passable impersonation by damping my bass at the bridge using a strip of foam and using a pick and plenty of compression. I'm guessing the original might be a proper, doubled "tic-tac" bass or maybe something with flatwound strings.

DannyP · November 2014

Yeah I kind of meant that sort of style too I suppose.

Basher · November 2014

Sorry @DannyP if I came across as an even bigger tosser than I usually do!
I was just excited as I've always wanted to know how to get "that" sound myself. Didn't listen properly to your samples - the Bardot sounds like an upright to me but the Gainsbourg has it but without the same treble/click content as the Stereolab (the Dots & loops is one of my favourite albums btw).

Seriously though, try some foam or even a scarf or something under the strings. You'll get the attack but a very muted "thwock" and no sustain that sounds very 60s to my ears. I would do a sample on my cheap Yamaha bass but I'm knackered and off to bed. Will try and record something tomorrow, if it helps?

dogload · November 2014

I think @Basher has hit the nail on the head (appropriately) as I always imagined that classic Gainsbourg bass sound to be made by string damping. Must have been a common technique back then as Rickenbacker 4001s came with a built-in mute.

It also sounds like it should have been made using a big hollow bodied bass coz it's really' plummy' but certainly damped.

DannyP · November 2014

Yeah, great suggestions.

Fretwired · November 2014

You can get that on any bass. Cut the bass, boost the mids and roll off the treble [depending on the controls of the amp/guitar] and play high up the neck with a pick. Add compression and a touch of reverb. Herbie Flowers has been doing it for years ...

jonnyburgo · November 2014

The ultimate 60s bass sound here, Rickenbacker I think *EDIT* having googled Carol Kaye who played on this, most pics show her playing Fenders, so could be that. I had a keeley comressor that could make my guitar picking have a similar "clicky" attack.

DannyP · November 2014

Yeah @jonnyburgo that's the sound right there!

impmann · November 2014

I thought that was achieved with flats, a flatpick and lump of high density foam shoved under the strings near the bridge.

impmann · November 2014

My fave example of that sound:

ThePrettyDamned · November 2014

Yeah, that's what I used to do for that sound. It works really nicely for finger funk playing too, let's you attack the strings a bit without it sounding like your slapping the bass.

impmann · November 2014

A lovely live version showing... a Hofner Bass!!

DannyP · November 2014

Yes @impmann bloody gorgeous!

I'm certainly trying the foam thing too.

Basher · November 2014

I was messing about with the foam thing on a recent idea. Just a loop that goes nowhere but gives and idea of the sound.

http://www.brendanashbrook.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/frenchie.mp3

impmann · November 2014

/\ I like that. :-)

Mykesbass · December 2014

Not French, but a nice example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DuWOMqc9-M

Ramirez · December 2014

That's the sort of sound I'm often aiming for when using a pick. I think I get close - Fender P with flats (LaBella), and the mids CUT (almost completely) on my Orange Bass Terror (though with my P there's still some left!) some compression and a 4/5kHz lift. I also have roll-your-own cigarette filter tips underneath each string at the bridge; gives just the right amount of muting for my general pick & fingers playing, though I often use a sock when recording if I need something more extreme. It's not quite the same style, but if it's of interest it's the pick sound in this video I made -

- though that is without my usual compression and EQ lift. Mind the sloppy playing... drum loop was added after the fact!

Sarge · February 2015

Another example of this bass sound, never managed to get this down myself.

ICBM · February 2015

Can't believe I forgot to add a 'proper' reply to this thread before - distracted by Bardot, probably

- but there's another way of getting that 'doubled' - one very muted and the other very clicky - sound, with a Rickenbacker 4001/3... use the 'Rick-o-Sound' split outputs, and run the neck pickup with the tone all the way off through a bass amp and the bridge pickup (particularly with the 'vintage cap' if it's an old one or a new one with the push-pull switch) through a guitar amp. Or just DI both through separate channels and EQ.

Unfortunately there are very few other basses with this feature.

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"French" Bass sound?

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