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Whole Lotta Love isolated bass track

Most bass players who hear this will quickly realize they’ve been playing Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love wrong for a long time – but only because they weren’t able to hear exactly what John Paul Jones was doing on this track.

And what was John doing here? Namely, playing an octave on nearly every D, a pick being used, and a strum with ghost notes present.

Here is the isolated track:

And here is John himself explaining it (skip to 3:15 for how he does the octave notes):

19 thoughts on “Whole Lotta Love isolated bass track”

  1. wonder why he switched to roundwounds? not the same sound at all…loved his playing, but this sucks…not a good teacher…why didn’t he use an amp? the strings are so important…imo. he played on a lot of my favorite records as a session guy. regards.

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  2. Are you sure this is the actual track played by JPJ and not someone covering it? I hear a couple of mistakes and their timing is off in some places.

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      • Would like to know where this track originated. 4 people on YouTube and every other website is using the same track. One blog says JPJ is using an 8 string bass, LOL. Others also hear mistakes and the player’s “tempo speed up and then pull back.”

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  3. It is nice to see one of the greats such as JPJ having an everyday bass player kinda day. He is one of the greatest rock bass players of all time.

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  4. Q: wonder why he switched to roundwounds? – Creative people are allowed to switch it up every now and again.
    Q: why didn’t he use an amp? – I think he was.
    Q: Are you sure this is the actual track played by JPJ and not someone covering it? – Many times there will be multiple “saved” tracks and what you are maybe hearing is a track they didn’t use on the LP. I did not listen to the original and do a comparison. I have often done several “takes” and then I choose the best one later for the final version.

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    • On the isolated track, those are flatwounds. Probably Rotosounds. They are very bright. Listen to Steve Harris.

      And almost no one used amps for recording. Motown is all direct also.

      You guys get an overly romantic idea of how these songs were recorded.

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      • On a song like Black Dog it sounds like Zeppelin was playing live and loud in the studio because there is what sounds like terrific acoustic sustain and what sounds like speaker stress on certain low notes (F# in particular).

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      • No, you are wrong- no way Jimmy Page could have made his LP sound like that through a board. He needed tube distortion and feedback to get his signature sound. Zep III was recorded in an English country house, most definitely with miked amps…. Cream, Hendrix all recorded through LOUD amps in a studio, neighbors complained , engineers needed lots of beer…….

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  5. Since the 90’s I’ve played my 4-string (Musicmaster…yes) in ‘B’ tuning, and I’ve always played with a pick because I love Brit-invasion/Prog. I play over the neck joint (Greg Lake, Phil Lesh), and I use a strummy style closer to a guitar or mandolin. A lot of double and triple stops. So I’ve always played that double ‘E’ octave at the 5th and 7th frets. I also play Page’s ‘E/A->G#’ harmony figure at the end of the song.

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  6. This guy is a serious musician! They knew what they were doing back then. It seems a lot of what he’s saying is lost in today’s music…

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