I realllllyyy wish they did a Geddy Lee rig rundown. I know there's a video where Ged himself talks about his basses but that was during S&A tour.....his rig has definitely changed regarding basses.
A Maiden rig would be like: Strat, Strat, Strat, Strat, Les Paul, SG, Strat, Destroyer, Strat, Strat, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision...
***** The new active stuff definitely has its place but if you want to sound just like every other bass player that has been around for the last thirty years, yeah your right. Go for the precision every time.
Rebecca's back.....thank the Lord. Love Rig Rundowns, I get so excited when I see a new one on the home page.....wish there was a new one every day. Factory tours are pretty interesting too. This stuff should be a regular hour long weekly series on Palladia HD or a channel like it, (I don't think there is anything like it, but...) that would be awesome to see!
What I like about John Myung is when he finds something he likes he sticks with it. The Bongo has been THE bass for Dream Theater since Systematic Chaos. A ten year run.
@TheDataMage We carry an SM58 and an SM57 in identical Shure bags. Unfortunately, we had a very short window of time for this shoot, and we didn't realize we'd grabbed the wrong Shure bag until it was too late to go back and get the SM58 bag. It worked fine, just looks a little odd.
Who would dislike this post?!!? We are ALL fortunate to see iconic player's, such as Mr. Myung, rigs/setups, in detail like this. Be grateful, you few haters out there!!
I posted this comment quite a while ago. I listened to some bass isolated tracks. It turns out, Myung has an amazing sound. He's just too low in the mix. JP needs to leave a bit more space.
Myung is always overrun by johns heavy tone and Jordan sonically sits right on top of the bass... so it’s tough to hear him sometimes. But when you do it’s great!
The strings that John Myung uses on his six-string bass guitars are the same company that makes the guitars and basses; Ernie Ball. .032 on the "high C" string to a whopping .130 on the "low B" string. Standard six-string. Long scale Slinkies. They're amazing.
I like that silver sparkle fretless 6-string bass John Zocco was showing. I like the overall sound and tone of a fretless bass I use. Analyze this: a highly processed tone using a compressor, a lush chorus to add dimension and an octave pedal ("octave divider") with a guitar pick or just your fingers.
i really loved the bass sound of awake, with one of those Tung basses! Among all of his bass options, i think the Ernie ball one is the next in line in terms of awesomeness.
I was so happy when John went to bongo basses! I want his signature so bad!! Bongos are amazing basses one of the best basses I have ever owned! I just wish they kept the bongo 4 band eq for production models most of us want the eq
I agree that his Tung & EBMM Bongo (along with the Spector 4-string on "I&W") have been JM's best recorded tone, but for most of the time he was using the RBX-JM/2 MP was part of the production and kept lowering the Bass in the mix for "Lead Drums" (I can't even listen to SC & BC&SL due to it.) FII, which had JM using mostly fretted & fretless Yamaha TRB 6s before his RBX Signature Prototype came in (as well as an outside Producer) has a great Overdriven "Spector/Eddie Jackson" sound to it
I've seen a Wikipedia picture of John Myung playing an Ernie Ball Music Man Bongo bass in glossy black. I think Tony Levin has one of those models from the factory.
He hears the difference. And the audience also, we're talking about a band doing 4 hour-long soundchecks. Audience doesn't see the rack. I understand your point of view, but there really is a reason for all of that stuff. He's doing what you're saying. JD-7 is the d.o, Demeter the amp, Fractal the multi-fx and JDX his cab. DT uses ear monitoring, so there's no use in having a real cab. Of course it could be a more simplified setup, but why? Because it annoys some guy in RUclips? :D More is most!
Whoever says his rig is overkill clearly doesn't work in live sound, or play anywhere but a bar. To say that nobody in the audience will know the difference is completely inaccurate. The majority won't say "Hey, the delayed octave would sound way better if the compressor threshold was reduced." But, having the finite details perfectly tuned is what makes a professional live concert as thrilling as it is.
@DuralastTurbo I also play bass and I'm studying music at college, sometimes the strings are too far apart, but they can't be THAT close together, A 12 string gutiar is different because the strings vibrate in phase, so they are on the same wavelength. I'm not saying "OMGDUMBSHIT" I'm just stating that having the strings with about 0.5cm (Like a guitar) on a bass just wouldn't work. But I do agree that some basses, such as my own, the strings are too far apart and could be closer.
@drthunda JM's Rig is truly bare-bones for a touring band, especially when compared to the other instrumentalists. The complexity of MM's drum set-up, tear-down and unusual configuration, JR's ever-increasing KeyboardLand, and JP's Rig that's HUGE on the Amp/Rack side, has to include his piezo pickups, & massive amount of guitars (he likes a spare for *every* guitar, including 6 & 7s, Alt. Tunings, Baritones...) When JM has his on-board preamp hardwired, it's clear he's low maintenance... ;-)
@DuralastTurbo Think about how much lower the frequency of a bass is, therefore the strings will have a wider vibratory path. Basically the strings vibrate further than guitar strings, if you made a Bass with Guitar spacings the strings would vibrate into eachtother and would cancel each other out and cause that horrid sound, like when a string snaps and collides with the others.
It would've still been nice to know how they handle his stage volume. I suppose you could get used to in-ears and some stage fill but I like to feel it I can't just have the whole mix in my head. Then again I haven't the luxury nor the need for the latest in-ears either. Big ups for Demeter though. I've been using his VTBP-201s tube pre for almost 20 years now, mainly in the studio, and it only seems to sound better.
I use shure 215's with a personal mix I adjust via ipad. Drums, I mostly hear from on stage, I put a little snare, bass drum and overhead in, then guitar, pump my bass right up, and stick a little vocal in too. The overhead mic from the drums is good enough to supply room noise and I probably wouldn't want to go back now. WIth the money these guys have you could easily get perfect monitor reference levels, at every show.
I like J, or Rick, or Warwick through a good valve amp. Not Ampeg. They're overused. Ilike Marshall's severely underreated VBA400. Also, I'm in2 Mesa/Boogie's Bass 400+ & Buster, Ashdown's CTM300, Fender's Bassman PRO & Super Bassman, & Peavey's VB-2 & VB-3.
dammit, I was hoping john would be the one explaining it. Finding a video of him actually talking is like finding a video of bigfoot riding a unicorn as Hitler shakes hands with a rabbi in the background.
The only time you don't have two clean signals on a gig is when you don't have a sound guy mixing. There's no difference in Myung's setup compared to any session bassist on a gig. One signal for the front of the house, one signal for onstage monitoring. Then there's the separate fx signal including overdrive and other stuff, because there's not a single professional sound engineer on Earth using only the wet sound for mixing, because it would be impossible to control the low end of the bass.
I suggest you invest in a suitable microphone and a boom so you can capture the sound from overhead. Then and we would actually hear what you say. Other than that, thanks for great videos.
I may be misunderstanding something, but does he not use heads/cabinets or any sort of conventional amplification on stage for live shows? Is everyone running only through PA or what?
It must be way easier to send everything in PA and in ear monitor instead of blasting amp on stage that depending where you are you hear different thing. And well I think it also clean up the stage a alot to not have those big amp.
Saiya-jin Kakarotto There is a cabinet off stage. In that rig it was just to provide a load for the power amp - the JDX is in line between the amp and the cab.
There's nothing wrong with having options. When you have videos on your page which show your musical talent in a respectable manner, you have a say. But right now, you're just a keyboard warrior with nothing good to say. John Myung is one of the greatest bassists in the world and his tone reflects that. His setup isn't that expensive you know... just look up everything he has in his rack. It's not that terribly expensive.
I'm a professional musician, and you really don't know what you're talking about. If you ask me, his rack is pretty straight forward as far as racks go. You're talking about the bare minimum you need to play bass. For a professional, tone is extremely important at DT's standard. He literally only has about 6 things in his rack. And one of them is just a wireless system for his bass (Which for your information, saves a lot of wires being dragged across the stage
I saw this video suggested and was like "oh wow, they got John Myung to talk in front of a camera"
haha of course not
Hahaha that's what i was hoping for too
Same here hahaha
girlfriendg exact same reason I clicked on the video! I like the dude's shirt though.
Watch the Ernie ball string theory episode with john myung
There's plenty of JM's interviews on camera.. But yeah, ok, I guess you were jk..
I love how they have someone who knows how to interview but also knows about gear I was surprised to see that good job!
I think that shirt is hilarious
I realllllyyy wish they did a Geddy Lee rig rundown. I know there's a video where Ged himself talks about his basses but that was during S&A tour.....his rig has definitely changed regarding basses.
"Everybody saayyyy: Geddy Lee." lol
Let's play: Guess the Quote. :)
Joe Blow lol, dave said that in orgazmo. so, what do i win? ;)
I was hoping she would ask one more time about the strings
A Maiden rig would be like: Strat, Strat, Strat, Strat, Les Paul, SG, Strat, Destroyer, Strat, Strat, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision, Precision...
You say that but those instruments defined rock music. Id take a precision anyday over a extended range active electronics piece of kit.
***** The new active stuff definitely has its place but if you want to sound just like every other bass player that has been around for the last thirty years, yeah your right. Go for the precision every time.
with a Victory V100 amp and some Marshalls
For a minute there i actually thought Myung was gonna talk for 7 and a half minutes.......
EXACTLY, hahaha. so naive...
Rebecca's back.....thank the Lord.
Love Rig Rundowns, I get so excited when I see a new one on the home page.....wish there was a new one every day. Factory tours are pretty interesting too. This stuff should be a regular hour long weekly series on Palladia HD or a channel like it, (I don't think there is anything like it, but...) that would be awesome to see!
What I like about John Myung is when he finds something he likes he sticks with it. The Bongo has been THE bass for Dream Theater since Systematic Chaos. A ten year run.
@TheDataMage We carry an SM58 and an SM57 in identical Shure bags. Unfortunately, we had a very short window of time for this shoot, and we didn't realize we'd grabbed the wrong Shure bag until it was too late to go back and get the SM58 bag. It worked fine, just looks a little odd.
Who would dislike this post?!!? We are ALL fortunate to see iconic player's, such as Mr. Myung, rigs/setups, in detail like this. Be grateful, you few haters out there!!
As good as Myung is, he doesn't have a very distinct sound. Also, they always put him too low in the mix.
go watch some stuff from awake-falling into infinity, he KILLS it and he is in the center of the mix
but the flanger intro from Dance of Eternity with the fuzzy bass solo
I posted this comment quite a while ago. I listened to some bass isolated tracks. It turns out, Myung has an amazing sound. He's just too low in the mix. JP needs to leave a bit more space.
Myung is always overrun by johns heavy tone and Jordan sonically sits right on top of the bass... so it’s tough to hear him sometimes. But when you do it’s great!
Before a little bit but nowadays he’s in the mix very well, I do agree he’s my absolute favorite bass player ever and has No Signature sound
I wish she'd ask him what kind of strings he uses.
***** She does multiple times. That's the joke.
The strings that John Myung uses on his six-string bass guitars are the same company that makes the guitars and basses; Ernie Ball. .032 on the "high C" string to a whopping .130 on the "low B" string. Standard six-string. Long scale Slinkies. They're amazing.
Anybody know what kind of strings he uses?
+Even Keel I think he's using Ernie Ball Cobalts now
Even Keel 32-130 gauge
Nope they are just springs, really tightly wound springs
Even Keel Ernie Ball
Issa joke
Rebecca has the best job in the world,she's seen john petruccis rig/guitars and john myungs rig too
Keep doing the Rig Rundowns with bassists! :) Love checking these out!
I like that silver sparkle fretless 6-string bass John Zocco was showing. I like the overall sound and tone of a fretless bass I use. Analyze this: a highly processed tone using a compressor, a lush chorus to add dimension and an octave pedal ("octave divider") with a guitar pick or just your fingers.
i really loved the bass sound of awake, with one of those Tung basses! Among all of his bass options, i think the Ernie ball one is the next in line in terms of awesomeness.
Yeah. Too bad he gave that up. That was his best tone, IMO.
When the interviewer and the tech are into eachother...
awww she asked the same question twice! and when she noticed it, it was so cute!!!! i love her!!!
It's a play on words from DT's song "The Root of All Evil."
I was so happy when John went to bongo basses! I want his signature so bad!! Bongos are amazing basses one of the best basses I have ever owned! I just wish they kept the bongo 4 band eq for production models most of us want the eq
AMAZING.... John Myung
John is very suitable when he used his Bongo bass other than any company.
I liked his tung basses and tobias basses better
Oh my god the sunk in knobs make it look absolutely killer!
I thought he would show John myung's fourth bass
I agree that his Tung & EBMM Bongo (along with the Spector 4-string on "I&W") have been JM's best recorded tone, but for most of the time he was using the RBX-JM/2 MP was part of the production and kept lowering the Bass in the mix for "Lead Drums" (I can't even listen to SC & BC&SL due to it.) FII, which had JM using mostly fretted & fretless Yamaha TRB 6s before his RBX Signature Prototype came in (as well as an outside Producer) has a great Overdriven "Spector/Eddie Jackson" sound to it
Premier guitar delivers again.
I wish the musicians would show up more on the rig rundowns instead of techs.
i agree, i dislike every video that's a fuckboy techie
I've seen a Wikipedia picture of John Myung playing an Ernie Ball Music Man Bongo bass in glossy black. I think Tony Levin has one of those models from the factory.
He hears the difference. And the audience also, we're talking about a band doing 4 hour-long soundchecks. Audience doesn't see the rack. I understand your point of view, but there really is a reason for all of that stuff. He's doing what you're saying. JD-7 is the d.o, Demeter the amp, Fractal the multi-fx and JDX his cab. DT uses ear monitoring, so there's no use in having a real cab. Of course it could be a more simplified setup, but why? Because it annoys some guy in RUclips? :D More is most!
Whoever says his rig is overkill clearly doesn't work in live sound, or play anywhere but a bar. To say that nobody in the audience will know the difference is completely inaccurate. The majority won't say "Hey, the delayed octave would sound way better if the compressor threshold was reduced." But, having the finite details perfectly tuned is what makes a professional live concert as thrilling as it is.
Doesnt surprise me that he plays with 32-130 and higher action considering how hard he hits them...
finally!!!! something about john myung!!!!
of corse, he will never gonna talk about his rig... or anything else xD
I like the John Myung Signature 6-string basses that Ernie Ball Music Man made for John.
For those who are wondering
the number on his shirt is 666^1/2
Karniboy Nah it's just the square root of 666.
Oh yeah it's the same thing xD
I know this was four months ago... but how high exactly when you wrote this?
HeHoZy lol
Hey guys meet John's bass tech! His name is John!
John is also the guitar tech for John.
I was at that show, best concert ever.
@DuralastTurbo I also play bass and I'm studying music at college, sometimes the strings are too far apart, but they can't be THAT close together,
A 12 string gutiar is different because the strings vibrate in phase, so they are on the same wavelength.
I'm not saying "OMGDUMBSHIT" I'm just stating that having the strings with about 0.5cm (Like a guitar) on a bass just wouldn't work.
But I do agree that some basses, such as my own, the strings are too far apart and could be closer.
I prefer the shortest electrical path possible. Ernie ball DI, done.
"So you BASSically found the right fit and feel for him." Nicely done.
Especially with the precision needed for Dream Theater's style
"shit happens when you party naked" XD
I live right next to the rosemont theater, Im kicking myself for not going to this show
@drthunda JM's Rig is truly bare-bones for a touring band, especially when compared to the other instrumentalists. The complexity of MM's drum set-up, tear-down and unusual configuration, JR's ever-increasing KeyboardLand, and JP's Rig that's HUGE on the Amp/Rack side, has to include his piezo pickups, & massive amount of guitars (he likes a spare for *every* guitar, including 6 & 7s, Alt. Tunings, Baritones...) When JM has his on-board preamp hardwired, it's clear he's low maintenance... ;-)
i saw him live do a bass solo. hly crap wat a beast
wonder what happened to bass rigs consisting of...
bass > cable > SVT/Hiwatt/Sunn > 810 cab
they need to release the small neck bongo
For some of us, creating the effects is sometimes as fullfilling as actually playing.
4:24 It should say:
Fight Pkmn
Item Run
The bass tech looks like jordan rudess... :D
*guitar tech
i only said that cos becca called him that
He lloks like a mix of Jordan and Derek
@DuralastTurbo Think about how much lower the frequency of a bass is, therefore the strings will have a wider vibratory path.
Basically the strings vibrate further than guitar strings, if you made a Bass with Guitar spacings the strings would vibrate into eachtother and would cancel each other out and cause that horrid sound, like when a string snaps and collides with the others.
I loved the guy's shirt, priceless.
(The square of that number's 666, that's the joke.)
It was a joke! I've known John since 1986. One of the best git players I know...
It would've still been nice to know how they handle his stage volume. I suppose you could get used to in-ears and some stage fill but I like to feel it I can't just have the whole mix in my head. Then again I haven't the luxury nor the need for the latest in-ears either. Big ups for Demeter though. I've been using his VTBP-201s tube pre for almost 20 years now, mainly in the studio, and it only seems to sound better.
I use shure 215's with a personal mix I adjust via ipad. Drums, I mostly hear from on stage, I put a little snare, bass drum and overhead in, then guitar, pump my bass right up, and stick a little vocal in too. The overhead mic from the drums is good enough to supply room noise and I probably wouldn't want to go back now. WIth the money these guys have you could easily get perfect monitor reference levels, at every show.
Lord Myung has his own mortal to speak for him.
You gotta do a Opeth Rig Rundown!
Archangel Myung has his own human to talk for him.
Hey Rebeca, I Love your white shoes!!!!
he plays fretless on 'through her eyes' - theres a few youtube vids knocking about
hope they make some sort of production model for that bass, maybe a signature
At one point he said something about a direct box, so i'm assuming it all goes straight to the venue pa :)
It's a rig rundown, with guys as big as DT they don't have to show people their gear, they've got techs for that. :P
I like J, or Rick, or Warwick through a good valve amp. Not Ampeg. They're overused. Ilike Marshall's severely underreated VBA400. Also, I'm in2 Mesa/Boogie's Bass 400+ & Buster, Ashdown's CTM300, Fender's Bassman PRO & Super Bassman, & Peavey's VB-2 & VB-3.
dammit, I was hoping john would be the one explaining it. Finding a video of him actually talking is like finding a video of bigfoot riding a unicorn as Hitler shakes hands with a rabbi in the background.
Thats his bass tech
The only time you don't have two clean signals on a gig is when you don't have a sound guy mixing. There's no difference in Myung's setup compared to any session bassist on a gig. One signal for the front of the house, one signal for onstage monitoring. Then there's the separate fx signal including overdrive and other stuff, because there's not a single professional sound engineer on Earth using only the wet sound for mixing, because it would be impossible to control the low end of the bass.
Rig setup 2018 please!
that shirt is awesome
@premierguitar lol, I wonder if any of the DT roadies there noticed that too.
25.80697580112788, the square root of (almost) evil.
THANK YOU REBECCA! =)
please do a lemmy rig rundown
Thats awesome that he has the Bongos w/ tighter string spacing..EB shld do it with the 5 string..then I'd consider one. ;)
COME ON I CAME HERE COS I HOPED ID HEAR JOHN TALK! I FEEL CHEATED!!!
the guy talking is a john, but the wrong one!
R the Demeter units he's using the VTBP-201S & VTHF-300M?
I suggest you invest in a suitable microphone and a boom so you can capture the sound from overhead. Then and we would actually hear what you say. Other than that, thanks for great videos.
Fractal rules throughout the world!!!
Where is john?
Damn, I came here expecting John Myung to speak. :D
"How are you doin?" - - - - - "uhhhh you wanna start off by"
What is that stand for in front of his board? It looks like it's connected to the moog.
I may be misunderstanding something, but does he not use heads/cabinets or any sort of conventional amplification on stage for live shows? Is everyone running only through PA or what?
he's using an Axe FX, rack mounted amp sim.
some use a Pre amp to power amp set up, instead of a "head"
It must be way easier to send everything in PA and in ear monitor instead of blasting amp on stage that depending where you are you hear different thing. And well I think it also clean up the stage a alot to not have those big amp.
Saiya-jin Kakarotto There is a cabinet off stage. In that rig it was just to provide a load for the power amp - the JDX is in line between the amp and the cab.
So the axe fx (with disto, overdrives and effects) run in parallel with the other two signals? (DI and preamp-poweramp-jdx) ????
She asked what type of strings he used twice
Cool story Bro!
This rig rundown is longer than most of Dream Theater's songs
Zocco's shirt is awesome. lol
A handful of bass players decided they wanted a unique rig all their own rather than the stock Ampeg setup that everyone else was playing?
Nice shirt!
There's nothing wrong with having options. When you have videos on your page which show your musical talent in a respectable manner, you have a say. But right now, you're just a keyboard warrior with nothing good to say. John Myung is one of the greatest bassists in the world and his tone reflects that. His setup isn't that expensive you know... just look up everything he has in his rack. It's not that terribly expensive.
came here thinking I was going to see John actually speak. I should have known...
THAT VOLUME PEDAL SHOULD BE ALL THE WAY UP
myung doesn't do his own interviews?
You want to hear great Myung fretless playing, check out Peruvian Skies.
I'm a professional musician, and you really don't know what you're talking about. If you ask me, his rack is pretty straight forward as far as racks go. You're talking about the bare minimum you need to play bass. For a professional, tone is extremely important at DT's standard. He literally only has about 6 things in his rack. And one of them is just a wireless system for his bass (Which for your information, saves a lot of wires being dragged across the stage
nice tshirt John :D
Derka derka Dirks!
That's a great shirt.
I would totally dig a 6-string bass with a 5-string neck, my hands are just big enough to play a 4 string.