There is much debate on what a proper smooth ’70s bass tone is supposed to sound like. Some believe it’s nothing but P-Bass with the tone rolled off. Others believe it’s J-Bass with a 60/40 blend of rear and front pickup with the tone 3/4 of the way off. And then there’s the active/passive debate since preamps of the era did color the tone quite a bit.
Now although this song may sound cheesy to some, Look Alike by Bob James featuring Gary King on bass (who also played bass on Blame It On The Boogie by The Jacksons a.k.a. Jackson 5) pretty much dictates what a smooth ’70s bass tone is supposed to be.
You can hear every single note Gary plays as the mix is flawless. Treble has some roll-off, there’s plenty of midrange and the lows cut through with ease – and that’s even with a bass-heavy dry snare drum in the mix.
Gary goes all over the fretboard in Look Alike and doesn’t stay pegged to any one particular place for too long. Whatever bass he was using, it was definitely set up right.
The point here is that if it’s the smooth tone you’re going after, the studio mix of Look Alike by Bob James is a great guide to go by.
How can you “go smooth”?
There are several ways to go about getting the smooth tone. The quick/dirty way is a passive P-Bass strung up with flatwounds with the tone rolled off and playing through a compressor pedal of your choice such as the Aguilar TLC. However, there’s a reason that’s the quick/dirty way as you may encounter compressor “blaring” here and there.
The more advanced way is through use of an on-board preamp. We have plenty of those.
However, no matter how you go for the smooth tone, everything starts with a properly set up bass with low action that’s comfortable to play. Whether you have a low cost Squier or a high end custom build, the bass absolutely must be set up correctly first before any other consideration.
Look Alike
Again, this song will sound cheesy to some, but pay attention to the tone and the mix. This is pretty much as good as it gets where ’70s smooth tone is concerned.
On a final note, for those of you who are thinking, “I know I’ve heard this somewhere before…”, you have. Years ago this was used as “bump” music for Adult Swim on Cartoon Network (they would yank clips from ’70s songs often and create bump music from them):
Thanks for this. I lived and loved on this sound. I haven’t heard it in so long I forgot how happy it made me. Bob James, The Crusaders, David Sanborn, George Benson. So many memories, so much bumping (if you know what I mean)…
Folks can say what they want about this stuff but I agree with 19Echo.. And this stuff was almost all heavy hitters in the studio and it was always done flawlessly. You look at credits in those days (oh do I miss albums when you could read the credits) and everybody in there was as precise and clean as they came as far as chops and professionalism. And invariably Bob’s stuff was a “who’s who” of top shelf folks!
I recently (2 weeks ago) installed a Babicz Full Contact Bridge a nice set of flats and a good set up on my ’98 Fender Jazz bass. I was completely blown away by the sound. Full on Bob James smooth. Sexy smooth on the bottom and rich creamy mids and highs. Plus the added sustain from the Babicz bridge.
Such a joy to play. No it’s not for everything but it has opened up a whole new sonic palette and a new tool added to the box.
I’ve heard Gary K in concert several times with different basses. I believe alot of what we
are hearing here is a very clean player with his own style and approach.
This is Gary King’s son Kinyatta. Thank you for the kind words and research.