Alice In Chains 'Mike Starr' Bass Preset

SalazarMcMantis

SalazarMcMantis

Inspired
I've been listening to a lot of Alice In Chains and it's really making me itch for a Spector lately, but the budget won't allow it right now. While the P Bass is great, it doesn't do everything... or so I thought! The bass is a Fender Classic series 50s P bass with a newly added EMG Geezer Butler P pickup. First off, I have to say this pickup sounds beautiful, way better than the stock MIM it came with. I will be getting the bass routed for the J pickup soon, so I'll upload a preset for the PJ setup as well. This pickup is passive so if you're playing with active pickups this may cause clipping. First block is a PEQ set solely to boost the signal (a LOT) so try turning that down or off entirely if you get clipping.
There are 2 tonematch cabs included. First one being for Down In a Hole (X, scene 1), second being Rooster (Y, scene 2). Rooster uses chorus all throughout, as well the Control Switch 1 turns on a drive and flanger block for the chorus onward.

It may not be perfect, but it gets damn close enough for me until I get a Spector. More AIC songs to come, as well as some Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden... bass presets. If you have a request let me know!

Soundcloud won't let me upload the backing track so here's bass alone.

For reference




For reference
 

Attachments

  • Mike Starr Bass.syx
    23.3 KB · Views: 59
  • U271_Down In A Hole Bass.syx
    10.6 KB · Views: 55
  • U270_Rooster Bass.syx
    10.6 KB · Views: 56
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First let me say thank you for these!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to try these out! I'm a huge AIC and Pantera fan and they are pretty much the sole reasons i bought a Spector NS-2.

Do you have an Axe Fx II that you use for tone matching? I did, but need to find another way to tone match now that i have an AX8.

Your tracks you posted sound great!!!!

If i could request a Pantera bass preset?

 
Thanks, glad you like them! I only have an AX8 so I do tonematching through my daw, then make a cab in cablab. I'll definitely do some Pantera soon.

D20 said:
First let me say thank you for these!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to try these out! I'm a huge AIC and Pantera fan and they are pretty much the sole reasons i bought a Spector NS-2.

Do you have an Axe Fx II that you use for tone matching? I did, but need to find another way to tone match now that i have an AX8.

Your tracks you posted sound great!!!!

If i could request a Pantera bass preset?

Click to expand...
 
Sounds good! I have one preset that I made from scratch that is my "Go to" for my bass tones... but it's nice to experiment with other tones

One of my fav's is from Brian Adams "I need somebody" ... the song breaks down around the 250 mark and you can here the bass pretty clearly at that point... I'd love to match this some day and hear the stand alone bass track from this song ;)

 
D20 said:
I have a Spector NS-2. I have somewhat dead strings however. Sorry for any sloppy playing on my part. I plugged into your preset and here is the results. Just thought i would share.
Mike Starr had such an amazing tone!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/34qyfuhv2uvaffm/Rooster NS-2.mp3?dl=0
Click to expand...
That sound great! I did tonematch this for a P-bass, so it will might sound pretty different though. I am getting a Spector tomorrow so I will make additional tonematches using that bass as well.

D20 said:
First let me say thank you for these!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to try these out! I'm a huge AIC and Pantera fan and they are pretty much the sole reasons i bought a Spector NS-2.

Do you have an Axe Fx II that you use for tone matching? I did, but need to find another way to tone match now that i have an AX8.

Your tracks you posted sound great!!!!

If i could request a Pantera bass preset?

Click to expand...


I built some Pantera tones as well but Rex's tone has such an aggressive "jangly" tone that it's hard to mimic with a P-bass. I can't wait for the Spector!
 
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WERNER1 said:
Sounds good! I have one preset that I made from scratch that is my "Go to" for my bass tones... but it's nice to experiment with other tones

One of my fav's is from Brian Adams "I need somebody" ... the song breaks down around the 250 mark and you can here the bass pretty clearly at that point... I'd love to match this some day and hear the stand alone bass track from this song ;)

Click to expand...

I will definitely try to get this for you.
 
I got my Spector yesterday and I've been working on recreating this preset. Mostly the same, but with the input boost off and some of the volume boosts throughout lowered. My Spector has the EMG BTS 3 band preamp, soon to be swapped with a Hazlab. I have treble and bass on full and mid set to center. Slightly lowering the treble even before tone matching seems to almost nail this tone, but for simplicity I'm keeping the preamp on full.



I'll redo Rooster and add a few more tones before I upload this.

D20 said:
I have a Spector NS-2. I have somewhat dead strings however. Sorry for any sloppy playing on my part. I plugged into your preset and here is the results. Just thought i would share.
Mike Starr had such an amazing tone!
Click to expand...

This should be closer for you now, seeing as we have the same bass (sans preamp). Now that I have the bass getting the Rex Brown tone should be better.
 
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Spent some more time working on this preset. I redid "Down In a Hole" again, this time with the EMG preamp setting treble to 0 (center) and bass on 10. After tonematching Down In a Hole and Rooster I found they were practically identical so I took a look at "Would" and "Them Bones" and again they seemed pretty much the same. So essentially this preset should cover all of both Facelift and Dirt. For Man In The Box I raised the gain and master of the amp block for more grit and raised the treble of the EMG preamp to 10 along with the bass.

Scene 1: Facelift




Scene 2: Dirt - Down In a Hole, Would, Them Bones...
Control Switch 2 activates drive and flanger blocks for Them Bones


 

Attachments

  • Mike Starr Bass Specto.syx
    12.6 KB · Views: 26
  • U292_Dirt.syx
    10.6 KB · Views: 24
  • U295_Facelift.syx
    10.6 KB · Views: 24
Scene 3: Dirt - Rooster
Same as Scene 2 but with a chorus block always on, and control switch 2 enables a different flanger block.




Time to start working on some Pantera!
 
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the general "mike starr bass" preset works, but when i try to load in the specific song ones (rooster, down in a hole) i get the error message: unable to import, selected file is a user cab, please use manage cabs?

any help would be appreciated!
 
In AX8-edit open the cab manager under the tools menu, then drag the IR's to the numbered slot each IR states. You can place them anywhere if you'd like, but then make sure to update the preset to pull from the correct cab slots. Let me know if you need any more help!

Raggashaggas said:
the general "mike starr bass" preset works, but when i try to load in the specific song ones (rooster, down in a hole) i get the error message: unable to import, selected file is a user cab, please use manage cabs?

any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
 
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