Nice. ESP makes solid instruments, and the Made in Korea ones are often as nice as Made in Japan.
2 Likes
Very cool - and Geezer was a Rickenbacker guy in the studio.
I still find that when people want the sound of the classic, first wave of metal, the P-bass delivers.
I’m trying to steer away from what specific players played, as if the focus is on what an individual played, the array of basses to choose from gets really big really fast.
The P-bass is my generic “classic metal tone” bass.
Also, my “classic rock tone” bass.
Also, my “classic soul/funk/pop” bass.
Anything that I want to fit into a more classic, vintage sound, I start with the P bass.
3 Likes
I get that, but JPJ, Ian, Gary Thain, Jason, Scott; a lot of the guys at the start of metal were Jazz players. I get that a P is a really solid choice. But my classic metal tone would be Jazz, all respect to Geezer. We’ll just have to disagree on that.
1 Like
I’m going to throw it out there that for classic first wave metal the style of bass matters very little but the punch of a P sure doesn’t hurt. I don’t think the J brings anything special to it to be honest, it’s just kind of there; it’s what they had.
Also Zeppelin is not metal, despite music industry wonks labeling them that. I will die on this hill.
1 Like
Agreed. 
Zep is Hard Rock–if you have to put them in a category. And even under that category they had a tremendous amount of variety in their sound. People get heavy metal and hard rock confused all the time.
2 Likes
Back in the 70s, we had three bands that were labeled heavy metal. Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Deep Purple because they all played around 125 decibels.
The genre and it’s definition of heavy sounds came later. Sorry but it wasn’t the labels
1 Like
Basically if it was rock and it was super loud it was called metal back then. It evolved
And yet the fact remains that Zeppelin is not, in fact, metal 
2 Likes
Led had various styles within the rock genre, including hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal.
I would say Judas Priest would be more defined as classic metal. Motorhead perhaps more speedmetal.
Bands like Led, Sabbath, Iron Maiden influenced metal in various ways tho!
2 Likes
The definition of Heavy metal is a bit tricky imo. I personally always related it to hard rock with more fantasy/mythology involved. Like Manowar 
But apparently subgenres of heavy metal are trash, death and black metal. Which in my book are much more metal than heavy metal.
Anyway, I can imagine people having a hard time categorising heavy metal bands 
1 Like
Yeah, that’s what I meant. Immigrant Song was/is metal sounding. But “Hot Dog” is a boogie woogie/honky tonk song with some crunch too it. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp vs Bron-Yr-Aur two very different variations on folk styles. One is a hoedown the other is a very pensive guitar thing that sounds so reflective.
2 Likes
Oh, back on topic: I few years back I watched this guy that had a frankenstein bass one time. He had a p bass pup, a J bass bridge pup, and what looked like a lipstick pup up near the neck. He had a switch that i think would completely bypass the p bass pup. Cause it was a combination of the lipstick and the bridge pups. Very beefy over all. I have no idea what he was running through on the floor (pedals, etc) though.
1 Like
Fully respected and acknowledged!
1 Like