The Last Bass Outpost

From his website:

"During the 1960s, Jack plugged his EB-3 into a stack of Marshall amps (Marshall 4x12s with Marshall 100 heads).  His desire for greater volume induced him to crank up the volume control, unwittingly producing the heavy, distorted tone that became so popular in the ensuing years.  Later, Jack had instrument technician Dan Armstrong install a diode into the EB-3's wiring to produce the same effect without overdriving his amplifiers."

Yup, you could get there by replacing your tone control's capacitor with a low forward voltage diode. It sounds like a farty fuzz thing, and you must have hot pickups.

Okay... Kinda EB-0F :)

Quote from: Chris P. on April 19, 2013, 11:56:57 AM
Okay... Kinda EB-0F :)

The fuzz on my former EB-0F sounded terrible. Jack got the effect he wanted, and fortunately it sounded a lot better.

Quote from: Dave W on April 19, 2013, 09:32:33 PM
The fuzz on my former EB-0F sounded terrible. Jack got the effect he wanted, and fortunately it sounded a lot better.

I put an arbiter fuzzface cct. in my EB0F, sounds better I think.
Rarely used though, but with the attack low you can use it as a boost to push the front end of the amp a bit.
I can see that the original ´maestro´cct. is not for all.

Most ' schottky' diodes will do.  You can use 1 for a half-wave distortion effect (not my bag personally) or 2 in parallel (one inverted polaritywise) for full wave distortion.  You will loose a little bit of volume when you use it either way you go.

I receomend having it on a switch vs a pot because it sounds best full bore.

Yes, you need hot pups for it to work (should be no sweat with the mudbucker - haven't tried that yet actually).

Same idea as the 'Black Ice' onboard passive distortion, but don't pay $20 for one of those; I sell Schottky 1N5818s locally in TO for 75cents each (+ install if required) and you can get them on ebay for about as much (or even less if you buy in qty).

Quote from: Dave W on April 19, 2013, 09:32:33 PM
The fuzz on my former EB-0F sounded terrible. Jack got the effect he wanted, and fortunately it sounded a lot better.

My EB-0F sounds like an electric fart................., but it's a gas to play!

There's something very nice about the short scale EB-0 layout and balance.  It's really a light, fun instrument.

I play in a Cream tribute called "Tales Of Cream" and use a 1962 Gibson EB-3 through a 1969 Marshall Major into two 4x12 cabs.
When I go through the 2nd channel of the Major it gives me that major overdriven "Live" Jack Bruce Cream sound.
...If I go through the 1st channel I have to have the volume up a lot to give me that growl.

...I tried a Marshall Plexi 100 watt clone that gave me a nice growl at lower volume.

That EB-3 is a fun bass to play!

Wow that's cool as hell. You can sing Jack's vocals and everything? You play "those were the days"? I always wondered how you're supposed to count in that one.

Quote from: dc10bass on May 15, 2013, 08:18:49 PM
I play in a Cream tribute called "Tales Of Cream" and use a 1962 Gibson EB-3 through a 1969 Marshall Major into two 4x12 cabs.
When I go through the 2nd channel of the Major it gives me that major overdriven "Live" Jack Bruce Cream sound.
...If I go through the 1st channel I have to have the volume up a lot to give me that growl.

...I tried a Marshall Plexi 100 watt clone that gave me a nice growl at lower volume.

That EB-3 is a fun bass to play!

How can anyone person be JAE and  Jack Bruce and not go insane? Are you Paul McCartney too?  :mrgreen:

"Jack Bruce, an EB3 and a diode."

When I read the title of this thread I flashed back to Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent...

(http://s4.hubimg.com/u/7089187_f260.jpg)

The question I had in mind was "Name an old face, a old bass and an old gate."

My favorite Carnac moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=263eG7HfwBM

They were really good at making something out of nothing with those shows, although I must say this is quite a distance from the Jack Bruce/EB-3 original topic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwcfDa0gEPQ

Quote from: westen on May 26, 2013, 11:00:30 AM
They were really good at making something out of nothing with those shows, although I must say this is quite a distance from the Jack Bruce/EB-3 original topic:

We are nothing if not expert in creating diversions!!   ;)

Quote from: Pilgrim on May 26, 2013, 11:33:38 AM
We are nothing if not expert in creating diversions!!   ;)

Totally agree.  LOL. 

A full routine...note that the audience is full of NBC executives, which gives meaning to a couple of answers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRTtLvKAKgk

Quote from: uwe on May 16, 2013, 12:56:18 PM
How can anyone person be JAE and  Jack Bruce and not go insane? Are you Paul McCartney too?  :mrgreen:

HA!!
...Sorry for the delay with a response, just finally saw this post.
I've been called insane... but no, I only obsess over Entwistle and Bruce.  ;)
...Although funny enough, I am left handed like Paul, but play right.

Here are some clips of "Tales Of Cream"... audio quality is ok, working on some better produced clips.

Sweet Wine


Politician

Nice! Politician is no easy bass line to sing over. Love that drum kit!

Quote from: 4stringer77 on June 10, 2013, 07:35:44 PM
Nice! Politician is no easy bass line to sing over. Love that drum kit!

Thank you!
Yes, the kit is great!

Nicely done.  :thumbsup:

Great work!!

Nice work, Kurt... you get Jack's voice and playing style pretty close too...

Thanks!
The three of us have been playing together since this past December... it's been a lot of fun as we all are big Cream fans.
...I'll be putting together a better set of video clips with much better audio quality soon.

 :popcorn:

Is JAE still up and running too...?

Quote from: CAR-54 on June 11, 2013, 02:08:06 PM
:popcorn:

Is JAE still up and running too...?

Ha... yes, ALWAYS!
Although due to issues with band member availability, "Live The Who" does not get to play nearly as much as I wish.
...Everyone from "Tales Of Cream" lives within 30 minutes of each other.

Due to my obsession with John Entwistle & Jack Bruce my basement is becoming too full of their gear.

Quote from: 4stringer77 on June 10, 2013, 07:35:44 PM
Nice! Politician is no easy bass line to sing over. Love that drum kit!

Great tune.  You sound great too!!!!

actually one of my all time favorite bruce tunes to do.  Not as tough to sing and play as some of the other cream stuff.   In general the bruce bass parts and vocals  seem to work well together .   I usually have  more trouble with some of the clapton sung  tunes and the way he sings them such as Outside Woman Blues.   
And Felix's vocals have always given me total fits but live he usually changed the bass parts.   

Quote from: dc10bass on June 11, 2013, 02:19:13 PM
Ha... yes, ALWAYS!
Although due to issues with band member availability, "Live The Who" does not get to play nearly as much as I wish.
...Everyone from "Tales Of Cream" lives within 30 minutes of each other.

Due to my obsession with John Entwistle & Jack Bruce my basement is becoming too full of their gear.

It can never be too full!

I was fortunate to talk with Kent Armstrong through the guys at WD Music. His father Dan Armstrong was Jack Bruce's techie. It is commonly said Dan put a diode in Jacks bass. Kent said it was a by-pass filter(capacitor) to drop off all the bass frequencies and the high frequencies. jack turned the mids all the up on his amps. Thw  cabs used G-25's back then, G-30s used later in Marshalls. He regularly blew them and they distorted giving him his hard edged sound.

Thanks for the info, and welcome.

Any of you has any idea how a pedal can be done reproducing Jack Bruce tone?

The Tech21 Marshall emulator would probably do the job.