How to play like Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath - Bass Habits Ep. 7 

Steve Harris does NOT pluck hard at all. His technique has been described (by Nicko) as "just tickling the strings." His tone comes from lots of gain and compression.

Yeah man! And also octave slides on the same string...

I guess you meant Paranoid. ;)

My p bass tone is so distorted and clicky af because of my scooped mids and my boss DS-1

I think John Deacon has the best p bass sound

@@tormentor502 yeah Deaky's tone is pretty good too

Truth

Geezer and Ward is straight up one of the best rhythm sections in history

@@jakekerr7250 👍🎶

Geezer wrote his share of lyrics as well. He was absolutely pivotal and crucial to the sound of Sabbath. I'm a guitar player, I simply can not get enough of Geezer's style and brutal delivery at times!

Sabbath is so overshadowed by ozzy and tony nobody ever talks about how geezer and bill are one of the greatest tightest and grooviest rhythm sections in all of music

@@Ranmann86 Well, some of us do. But I get your point. Geezer and Bill were always overshadowed by Ozzy and Tony.

Not to mention writing all the lyrics

@@joaquinlezcano2372Not sure what exactly you are talking about. I just know he was great on those first several Sabbath albums.

Glenn Fricker is probably having a fuckin fit at that statement lmao. fr tho strings are fuckin expensive.

@@kosmicviolet7540 True, lmoa. They do hold up longer than guitar strings at least, you don't have to change them every month at least. But you should do it once or twice a year

James Jamerson never changed them his entire CAREER.

@@geraldfriend256 flatwound...

Exactly man...that's why I've loved (early) Sabbath and still do! That's one of the things that made them truly GREAT! It's like pay for 1, get 3 😄

Geezer is the man, that nasty thick bass makes me so happy.

I love a couple stoner bands, and played in a “stoner rock” band for many, many years and this statement is an understatement. There are some great bands out there, but the genre is not the most innovative. I used to joke that on every show we played there would be a band playing what is basically Junior Varsity Foghat or Mountain for Dummies. Generic riff rock. But far more prevalent is a whole world of Doom bands doing the most cookie cutter, cooler by numbers Sabbath worship. Masters of Reality spawned the genre, and there are far too many bands out there perfectly happy scrapping what’s left of the barrel out of 1974. It’s tedious and boring and it’s a shame, because when done right, stoner rock in all its rumbling and swaggering glory is as close to honest to god, real Rock and Roll. But it’s stagnant. Josh Homme wants to dance in L.A. Scott Hill has played the same riff since California Crossing Eddie Glass can’t keep his shit together Ruben Romano got sick of all his money turning into nodding out Eddie Nick Oliveri is doing meth and in the middle of a standoff with the FBI or something. Jesse Hughes is a fucking bigot Neil Fallon is still doing that whole thing. Dave Wyndorf got sober Jus Osborn might honestly be just a cartoon of Jus Osborn anymore. Wino is probably starting some awesome band he’s gonna break up in 4 months. Greg Anderson is still playing the same note from 8 years ago. The one band that still produces vital music is Sleep and half of their reunion album was written in the 1990s. But the new material is fucking solid.

@@Tyrannosaurine Dude, never heard of this band SLEEP until you just mentioned it, checking it out, loving the nasty Geezer style thick-ass bass. Thank you.

@@Renegade8652 so glad you enjoyed it. They’re fantastic.

One of my favorite Sabbath songs. Fairies wear boots is another barn burner on bass.

Imagine they never make the change and their names get lost in that unfortunately mostly forgotten flurry of psychedelic jazz jam type stuff of those times

Yeah those arpeggiated power chords could be in any upright line to be sure

I love the jazz flavour that they put into some of their songs and extended jams. Most people would't think that jazz could work in a heavy rock song, but Sabbath do it SO deliciously! 🤟

@@SludgeManCometh This was the comment I was waiting for! Besides, I think Allan Holdsworth is more worthy of that accolade.

😂

Obviously.

"You were kidding, right?" ;)

An aweful lot of coke, I have heard.

@Swan Ford But still... more coke.

+1

I know that's right.

It's not so fundamentally different from this, with regard to the left hand- same with Steve Harris.

That's brilliant. Well said!

@@televinv8062 Thank you 😎👍

@@MartyWilson100 absolutely Bruce and Butler, both master bass players. I couldn't care less if anyone disagrees. They're giants.

@@televinv8062 I agree, two of the greatest rock bass players

Agree! 🤟

Those fills are always so good

It's funny that a lot of people don't know that. Probably because their first three albums are their most popular.

@@Kruegernator123 A lot of people don't know a lot of things 😎

Cliff Burton, John Deacon too!

Woah good idea

@@cosimobaldi03 woah yeah! Forgot all about him. It isn't like people mention him in every other comment on bass videos.

Great request!!!!...too bad he left, the world too soon!

@@craigcotter7476 yeah of course, under rock/metal bass videos people are gonna mention cliff, no shit... I just wanted the comment to go up so he can make a video and see what he has to say, if there's something new

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yjrV8SEmaQE.html You're Welcome! :)

Yeah E standard on the first two albums and C# on the rest mainly, in the Ozzy era

All songs from Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Technical Ecstacy, Never Say Die and Mob Rules are in standard tuning. Masters Of Reality has multiple tunings. After Forever is tuned D G C F , Children Of The Grave and Into The Void are tuned C# F# B E. Sweet Leaf and Solitude are standard. Volume 4 , Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Sabotage are tuned C# F# B E. Except Am I Going Insane which is standard tuning. Heaven And Hell and everything after is tuned Eb Ab Db Gb.

@@ironsaint sweet Leaf is played in C# standard tuning (C# F# B E) with the root being on the 8th fret on the 4th string, as if the song is in C but due to the low tuning it sounds like A.

@@ironsaint wow cool! I tried playing after forever by ear and I figured out I needed an Eb sometimes, but i was too lazy to detune so I didn't use it, but I've never notice that he used that low D, does he actually use it in the track?

Thank you!!!!

Yes, great pickups. Have them in my mexican p-bass, awesome sound.

It's supposed to be a dead-on replica of an early '60s P pickup, so it should

DO IT! All of my formal training and experience is on guitar, but I recently got a bass and it's so much fun to play with, in a very different way from the guitar. If it's in your budget then you should definitely go for it.

Yeah, just like in Floods

Yes!!

Use an eq pedal, a chorus, and a delay. For distortion he used a ds1 on October rust forward before that he used a combination pedal of some sort. I personally use a metal zone with the distortion pretty low. Play chords, hammer ons, bends, and double stops.

@@Tomas-te3ph and BEAD tuning.

@@chriscampbell9191 yep

yep, the secret to his tone is to play quite lightly.

@@chriscuthbertson but with low action, allowing him to get the sound of a hard attack (essentially just the strings slapping against the fretboard) while being able to play faster lines (e.g. the trooper) without fatiguing

Steve also uses flat wound strings.