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For all you bass-playing Metallica fans out there...


calypsocoral

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And to think I advised a friend of mine in the 90's to buy a second hand AriaProII for £100. We cleaned the frets and adjusted the truss rod and it was like new.

Feel the groove internally within your own creativity. - fingertalkin

 

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I had no idea the intro to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was played on the bass. Go figure...

 

Yeah, you have to listen closely to the studio recording. At first glance, it sounds like a lone guitar playing the notes in an upper register. After you hear the song a few times, though, you can figure out the dominant voice is actually Cliff's bass, with Kirk's (I think) guitar doubling it an octave higher.

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If there's any doubt left, check this out:

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwHYPmjTBb0

 

It's the bass master track for the song. There's a few of these floating around...

 

... I just wish someone would dig up the one for "Call of Ktulu."

 

On another note, Bass Central (www.basscentral.com) is carrying both the SB-1000RI and the SB-CB, so now there are multiple online retailers facilitating Aria's re-entrance into the mainstream US market...

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I had no idea the intro to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was played on the bass. Go figure...

 

Yeah, you have to listen closely to the studio recording. At first glance, it sounds like a lone guitar playing the notes in an upper register. After you hear the song a few times, though, you can figure out the dominant voice is actually Cliff's bass, with Kirk's (I think) guitar doubling it an octave higher.

 

Burton uses a distortion pedal in the intro riff. If I'm not mistaken, I think it's a Big Muff.

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The SB-1000RI and SB-CB are labeled "Aria Pro II" on the headstock, whereas they have many inexpensive models with just the "Aria" name on the headstock.

 

If I'm not mistaken, I think the "Aria Pro II" basses have more hand-crafting involved, kind of like Ibanez's "Prestige" line. On talkbass, a few Aria owners have mentioned that the SB-1000 is made in their "custom shop..."

 

The next step down (available in the US) is the Aria SB-404, which is neck-through, with an Ovangkol body. That goes for $600, about what you would expect for an Ibanez or ESP-LTD with a similar feature set.

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I always felt indifferent for Cliff - and rarely heard him.

Buried in the mix is an understatement; it happens when a guitarist and drummer are at the helm.

 

Cliff was a huge influence on early Metallica, injecting some 'musical' elements in a thrash setting. Listen to three instrumentals off the early albums, Anaesthesia, Call of Ktulu, and Orion, for examples.

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I always felt indifferent for Cliff - and rarely heard him.

Buried in the mix is an understatement; it happens when a guitarist and drummer are at the helm.

 

Listening to that master track, I think it's more a problem of Cliff being so in love with overdriven bass. If the bass is just as distorted as the guitars, it's going to get lost in the mix. Keep it clean and it stands out and supports the bottom end in a metal mix.

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You're a bottom end in a metal mix.

 

Good point, though. Clean bass might of churned out an entirely different sounding animal.

 

 

Believe me, on all these mashups I've done, I've tried the bass both ways, and it just disappears when overdriven.

 

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=850556&songID=8034634

 

Great example. Bass is present, but not overpowering.

 

(yeah, yeah, I'm present, but not overpowering. Gotcha. :thu:)

 

Oh, and you churned out an entirely different sounding animal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is the last clip I'll post on this thread. Appropriately, it was Cliff's last bass solo. EVER.

 

He was killed in the tour bus accident just hours after this was recorded.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I think it's his best solo on record, IMHO. I can't help but wonder what metal bass would have become had he survived the incident.

 

And yes, bringing the topic full circle, it is, indeed, his black Aria SB-1000 that you're hearing.

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