Geezer Butler signature EMG pickups

[Psycho Bass Guy]

The Spector-branded passive EMG's in my Korean Kramer-era NS2C sound downright awesome, very much like the trademark active Spector sound but with more warmth and less clank. I loaned it to some buddies for recording and they nicknamed it "Meatball" because its tone is so beefy. I love the way it sounds but the 2 octave neck (IIRC) is set weird in the body compared to most Fender style basses and makes the bass more challenging to play because my muscle memory wants to move my left hand past the first fret. The way it hangs on a strap, first position is where third is on most of my other basses.

[gearHed289]

The difference to his sound of yore is that there is more ultra high presence which forms kind of a halo over the overall dark sound.

I wonder how much of this can be attributed to hearing loss?

[slinkp]

I always wondered that about Entwistle as well. Maybe he couldn't even hear that fizzy top end of his late-era sound?

[uwe]

Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.

[Andrew]

Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.

That'd be me then. Love his sound in later years (as well as his 70's Alembic era), and I'm definitely hearing damaged from years of playing music. 

[gearHed289]

Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.

I was not a fan. All fuzzy, and the worst part was that weird, rubbery chorus he always had on. The Alembic/Sunn sound set the tone for my future bass explorations.

[uwe]

His tone suffered for the lack of anything that could be sensibly described as action. The sound was all amplification. And noisy as hell. I thought the Alembic stuff still fine, but once he changed to Status Buzzards ...