This is part 2 of Geezer Butler’s Bass rig
In this episode, we take a look at his amplifiers, his strings, effects pedals and pickups.
Initially back at the start Geezer used whatever was around
Recording the album “Black Sabbath”
with a Laney 70 watt tube amplifier
And a 4x12 Park cabinet.
This cabinet by the way only had 3 working speakers as Geezer couldn’t afford to repair
the 4th.
After some success,
he then upgraded the Park cab with two Laney 4x12 cabinets.
The same was true for his amplifier and doubled down with two 100-watt guitar heads.
In addition to this equipment, around 1974 he added an Alembic rack mounted
preamp for more gain.
At the Cal Jam festival we now see Geezer now on stage with 6 cabinets
and thanks to a tour programme from the sabotage tour ,
we know these speakers were 12 inch JBLs.
In addition to these cabs he then had a total of 3 Laney 100 watt heads
And two crown power amps going into two bass bins on stage.
Joining the narrative of our basses’ segment,
we’re jumping from this period to the early 2000s.
The Sabbath reunion tours had Geezer endorsed by Ampeg amplifiers
And his typical setup was four rack mounted SVT-2 heads.
These were hooked up to four 4x12 cabinets
With an additional Two 2x15s
as well as another two 8x10s.
All 8 cabinets were fitted with Electrovoice speakers.
During the later years of Heaven and Hell
From 2006-10
He dropped the 8x10s and instead had four, four twelves
and four, two fifteens. each were customised with Electrovoice speakers
and either a Henry mascot or a Cross grill cloth.
On the subject of Ampeg.
Whilst recording his preceding solo album for GZR
and what would eventually become Sabbath’s album “13.”
He used an Ampeg CL
and a 1969 SVT.
And In addition to Ampeg he used a Laney 100watt tube amp
Geezer was invited to play the yearly Dimebash in 2011,
This event annually honours murdered Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.
Where the world of hard rock and metal
come together in a communion of thunderous songs and stories to
tip its collective glass to one of the true influencers in heavy music.
Hartke amplifiers provided the backline for the event.
and with relative ease, Geezer dialled in a sound reminiscent of early Sabbath.
He was officially endorsed by Hartke in 2012.
On the “13” album tour he was using 4 Hartke Kilo’s
each providing up to 500 watts.
These heads go on to power a combination of 12 inch and 15 inch speakers.
His usual Four 4x12 ‘s
And four 2x15’s
He used one head to run a 12 and 15 cabinet together
During “The End” tour, Geezer acquired a new bespoke rack mounted
preamp and matching amplifiers made by Ashdown.
They dubbed the preamp “The Hand of Doom”.
Its purpose was to be able to separate the high and low signals to run at full range.
Suiting his current cabinet set up in a single unit.
It was also fitted with a tube pre-amp to provide him with his old school gritty tone.
Now,
I’ve been in contact with Ashdown
and they were kind enough to go over the details regarding how Geezers amplifiers were set
up.
Ashdown took an existing John Entwistle custom preamp which was based on an EVO II.
They then created additional modifications to the existing crossover,
the unit then had four outputs instead of its usual two.
that then fed two Ashdown stereo amplifiers powering all four 12 inch cabs.
With a second GZR preamp, this setup was replicated again in its entirety to power the Low pass
signals.
Ashdown are releasing a signature Geezer Butler amplifier head
which will consolidate this set up and downsize it dramatically,
Housing the preamp and amplifier together in one unit.
This signature model is called the Geezer Butler Head of Doom Bass amplifier.
Rated at 600 Watt RMS. hand built in the UK and designed around Geezers requirements previously
mentioned.
The Head of Doom is for bass players who seek classic, driven bass tones with phenomenal
power. With a bunch of additional extras
The consumer version will be released in November 2017.
For the most part, the only effect you would hear on Geezers sound is that of an overdriven
tube amp.
He runs his amplifiers extremely hot to the point where you can hear the warm analogue
overdrive.
Tube amplifiers, like Laney, Ampeg and Hartke
are the classic go to for this sound.
The Hartke Kilo gave Geezer a sound reminiscent of the old Sabbath days with little EQing
And a very warm pleasant sounding overdrive.
The only other effect you will hear during Black Sabbath is a Wah typed sound.
And that’s on NIB.
The original was recorded with a Tony’s Tycobrahe wah pedal.
These are now collectors’ items and yours second hand for nearly 800 pounds.
In Summer 2017 Geezer released his very own Wah effects pedal
in collaboration with Dunlop. It’s designed to retain low end frequencies
while allowing an aggressive midrange to cut through the mix.
During NIB on “The End of the end” DVD you can see on stage a Dunlop Q Multiwah which
the signature was based off.
In regards to bass strings.
He’s been using heavy gauge hand made K3 DR strings since the early 2000’s.
With a usual string gauge of 50-110.
Since Winter 2010, he changed to DR’s Black Beauties.
The thickest E string goes up to .110.
But The next size up from would be a .120 Which is the same gauge as a B string on a
5-string bass.
Geezer has said in an interview with Bass player magazine, that DR are sending him custom
.115’s Which suits him just fine for C tuning on a 4-string bass.
To wrap up this segment, let’s talk pickups.
Geez has been a fan of EMG for many years, sporting their vintage models in his BC riches
back in the 80s and again with his Lakland’s today.
In 2014 Geezer released his very own signature pickup for Precision and Precision Jazz basses.
Designed in a vintage style but built with a few modern touches.
The P set uses Alnico 5 pole pieces with custom wound coils.
The J-style pickup in the PJ set has two wound split-coils that eliminate the noise and hum
usually associated with early 70’s bass pickups.
Allowing for more power and volume than any other standard single coil J pickup.
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This concludes the first Know Your Bass Player Series and as I alluded to earlier.
There will be an update video soon to follow with news on season 2
So keep an eye out for that.
Thank you very much for joining me and I’ll see you, in season 2