What's you favourite Bruce Foxton tone?

RandallFlagg · June 2016

I love Bruce's tone with his Fender Precision in The Jam in particular on the Sound Affects album

Gassage · June 2016

Bass opening to When You're Young

StanleyAccrington · June 2016

His tone in A Town Called Malice. Dunno what was used in the studio but was it his Ibanez Ricky copy when played on the Tele?

RandallFlagg · June 2016

StanleyAccrington said:

His tone in A Town Called Malice. Dunno what was used in the studio but was it his Ibanez Ricky copy when played on the Tele?

Doesn't aound like the Ric on the record, more like the Precision, to my ears anyway

RocknRollDave · June 2016

Funeral Pyre. Massively underrated player. Good to see a mention for Sound Affects, it really is a great album.

Wazmeister · June 2016

Scrape Away

JezWynd · June 2016

Tube Station At Midnight.

ESchap · June 2016

RandallFlagg said:

StanleyAccrington said:

His tone in A Town Called Malice. Dunno what was used in the studio but was it his Ibanez Ricky copy when played on the Tele?

Doesn't aound like the Ric on the record, more like the Precision, to my ears anyway

I can get remarkably close to that tone with my old EB2 with the baritone button on and using a plectrum. Funnily enough he uses an EB2 in the video.

axisus · June 2016

I never liked the Jam when I was young and they were all over the charts, but I look back now and think that they were a bloody good band. Bruce's bass playing was superb, with a three piece the bass player really needs to earn his money and Foxton certainly did.

ICBM · June 2016

Eton Rifles

Too obvious really, but it's an absolutely amazing bass tone - and so is the playing. When You're Young is great too, although a bit less aggressive.

Foxton really carries the music in The Jam, more than almost any other bass player in any band I can think of. He's usually providing the main melody while Weller's guitar is the contrast, not the other way round.

TonyR · June 2016

JezWynd said:

Tube Station At Midnight.

+1

RandallFlagg · June 2016

I love the way Bruce's bass and Rick's bass drum were mixed together, especially on Sound Affects, they blend into one sound at times with the bass drum adding a percussive thud to the bass melody

EricTheWeary · June 2016

StanleyAccrington;1105053" said:
His tone in A Town Called Malice. Dunno what was used in the studio but was it his Ibanez Ricky copy when played on the Tele?

I'm trying to hum a The Jam bass line and see what comes out: Town Called Malice is the winner.
Never a big fan of The Jam but Foxton was probably my favourite element. He wrote my favourite song (by quite a big margin) by them as well: Smithers Jones (IIRC).

Glooper · March 2021

..

JezWynd · March 2021

ICBM said:

Eton Rifles

Foxton really carries the music in The Jam, more than almost any other bass player in any band I can think of. He's usually providing the main melody while Weller's guitar is the contrast, not the other way round.

Very true. Private Hell is another great one. Actually, everything on Setting Sons is driven by the bass.

munckee · March 2021

Down n the tube station at midnight and Start. Start seems to be a 335 style bass looking at the video.

Neill · March 2021

Every time I watch "Mock the Week" I think Paul Weller must be sick of hearing that intro given that Bruce Foxton is getting the royalties and IIRC Weller thought it was one of The Jam's weakest songs.

I like "Setting Sons" myself, Saturday's Kids and Girl on the Phone would be my faves.

Love a bit of The Jam reminiscing.

russpm · March 2021

My first ever gig was the Jam in 1979 aged just 10 with my older brother. Mind blowing just so loud and so much energy. I saw them again in 1980. Great band.

Funkfingers · March 2021

ICBM said:
more than almost any other bass player in any band I can think of.

How about the late John Alec Entwistle?

russpm · March 2021

Funkfingers said:

ICBM said:
more than almost any other bass player in any band I can think of.

How about the late John Alec Entwistle?

Peter Hook

ICBM · March 2021

russpm said:

Funkfingers said:

How about the late John Alec Entwistle?

Peter Hook

Both close, and The Jam were certainly hugely influenced by The Who, but I think Foxton still edges it for melodic ‘lead bass’.

PaulWarning · March 2021

Neill said:

Every time I watch "Mock the Week" I think Paul Weller must be sick of hearing that intro given that Bruce Foxton is getting the royalties and IIRC Weller thought it was one of The Jam's weakest songs.

not sure that's true, it was reasonably successful single

rze99 · March 2021

Precision. Apparently Phil Lynott advised him to switch. When I play bass on tracks I literally start by getting a Foxton type tone. Always sounded superb and frankly most live Jam recordings without him would be unlistenable because Wellers live tone was mostly not very good.

Thick as Thieves is pretty near perfect in every respect and they opening section is percent. The all mod cons onward tones are all spectacularly good.

PaulWarning · March 2021

rze99 said:

Precision. Apparently Phil Lynott advised him to switch. When I play bass on tracks I literally start by getting a Foxton type tone. Always sounded superb and frankly most live Jam recordings without him would be unlistenable because Wellers live tone was mostly not very good.

Thick as Thieves is pretty near perfect in every respect and they opening section is percent. The all mod cons onward tones are all spectacularly good.

there's a few bass players that have switched from Ric to P bass, Michael Bradley from the Undertones is another, can't recall anybody that's gone the other way.
Agree with Wellers tone, way to trebly and undefined for my tastes

EricTheWeary · March 2021

PaulWarning said:

rze99 said:

Precision. Apparently Phil Lynott advised him to switch. When I play bass on tracks I literally start by getting a Foxton type tone. Always sounded superb and frankly most live Jam recordings without him would be unlistenable because Wellers live tone was mostly not very good.

Thick as Thieves is pretty near perfect in every respect and they opening section is percent. The all mod cons onward tones are all spectacularly good.

there's a few bass players that have switched from Ric to P bass, Michael Bradley from the Undertones is another, can't recall anybody that's gone the other way.
Agree with Wellers tone, way to trebly and undefined for my tastes

There’s a Jam gig on Sky Arts I was watching a bit of, Weller’s guitar was just fizz as I recall it. May have been lots of reasons of course but it just sounded better when he didn’t play and it was vocals, bass ( Precision) and drums.

rze99 · March 2021

PaulWarning said:

rze99 said:

Precision. Apparently Phil Lynott advised him to switch. When I play bass on tracks I literally start by getting a Foxton type tone. Always sounded superb and frankly most live Jam recordings without him would be unlistenable because Wellers live tone was mostly not very good.

Thick as Thieves is pretty near perfect in every respect and they opening section is percent. The all mod cons onward tones are all spectacularly good.

there's a few bass players that have switched from Ric to P bass, Michael Bradley from the Undertones is another, can't recall anybody that's gone the other way.
Agree with Wellers tone, way to trebly and undefined for my tastes

I like wellers recorded tones a lot especially before he got too into the harsh Peavey distortion on eg Private Hell. The Vox tone and the parts were Much more controlled and defined.

Neill · March 2021

EricTheWeary said:

PaulWarning said:

rze99 said:

Precision. Apparently Phil Lynott advised him to switch. When I play bass on tracks I literally start by getting a Foxton type tone. Always sounded superb and frankly most live Jam recordings without him would be unlistenable because Wellers live tone was mostly not very good.

Thick as Thieves is pretty near perfect in every respect and they opening section is percent. The all mod cons onward tones are all spectacularly good.

there's a few bass players that have switched from Ric to P bass, Michael Bradley from the Undertones is another, can't recall anybody that's gone the other way.
Agree with Wellers tone, way to trebly and undefined for my tastes

There’s a Jam gig on Sky Arts I was watching a bit of, Weller’s guitar was just fizz as I recall it. May have been lots of reasons of course but it just sounded better when he didn’t play and it was vocals, bass ( Precision) and drums.

I think most The Jam fans know that "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" almost never saw the light of day because Paul Weller didn't rate the version the band had recorded. But I recall Bruce Foxton saying in an interview that the specific reason was that Weller thought there was too much "space" in the song.

Much as I like The Jam, I do think that Weller's guitar sound threatens to overwhelm the sound sometimes, "Dig the New Breed" could have been a classic live album but the guitar sound is just too sloppy. I think Weller at that time was afraid to leave "space" in the songs.

Having said that, when he formed the Style Council there was too much space... What about their dreadful performance on Live Aid.

Funkfingers · March 2021

PaulWarning said:
There's a few bass players that have switched from Ric to P bass … can't recall anybody that's gone the other way.

Barry Adamson alternated between both throughout the first five album releases by Magazine.

Yes. I know that Barry's R-type bass was an Ibanez copy.

Paul_C · March 2021

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What's you favourite Bruce Foxton tone?

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