For YEARS, Elvis’s “Little Sister” has made me nuts trying to figure out what’s happening on the bass line! It’s always sounded like two basses, but I wondered how and why?! (I play bluegrass, and I guess doubling the double bass isn’t in our wheelhouse 😉) Today I looked up the personnel and ah ha! Two basses including “six string tic tac” which I’ve never heard of. RU-vid has once again educated me. Thanks so much for this video. Now I’m off to try this technique!
Been wanting to build a custom stereo bass like RickOSound or Billy Sheehan for a live tic tac sound. One fat deep pickup like an EBO or Hofner going into one amp with an old Ampeg b15 vibe and a second output to a second amp (maybe even a guitar head) with a precision, or PJ, danelectro lipstick, or Rickenbacker bridge pickup set for clear treble tic tac style sounds. Actually there is a custom pickup maker who makes 4 string bass dynasonic pickups. I think there are even pedals or roland bass synth pickup/GR 55 options or maybe simply an bass octave pedal that sounds like a keyboard bass to get the lows to sound even fatter and full. There are some effects that can make the bass sound fretless or more like an upright especially with a roland synth or triple play midi setup. With a slap back delay or echo on the higher tic tac output for added 50s rockabilly flavor. Add in a good bridge mute and maybe try some picks made from different materials until I find the best attack sound possible as well. That would sound incredible live or in the studio. You could play both at the same time and get a full fat bass sound with crystal clear highs that cut through any band. You can then blend the two sounds too perfection on each song right on the bass volume tone pots like Billy Sheehan does live.
Yeah there’s a lot of cool options for stereo setups, the only thing that’d be hard to replicate is the note variations and counterpoint lines which make the tictac sound unique.
@tangobasso I go into it in detail in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LsPoSZPKguA.htmlsi=fuAdvo2BoRX-wz89 Basically I’m using a 1x15 combo, but I believe a bassman or twin would have been the choice in the studio back in the day.
