Metal Bass Microscope EP3 - David Ellefson
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- #DavidEllefson #Megadeth #metalbass
Metal Bass Microscope Episode 3 - We examine the playing and history of Megadeth's David Ellefson.
If you enjoy this series, share, like and subscribe to keep the episodes coming!
As a self-taught bassist myself, I always try to incorporate two of David quotes in my playing.
"Sometimes, what you don't play is as important as what you do play" and
""when the guitars get busy, I get simple, and when the guitars get simple I get busy."
That pretty much covers the job of a good bassist 100%!
Ellefson is also a good teacher, I remember he had a column on Bass Player Magazine in which he approached riff construction, building metal basslines and such, and he always explained things clearly and thoroughly. You could tell he did study his stuff when he was growing up! ;-)
I agree, he's a great presenter. Thanks for watching!
There are are two instructional videos featuring Dave that are posted here on TH-cam, and they are fantastic. I still shed his warm-ups and exercises regularly.
And he plays Dawn Patrol... so badass.
Underrated player for sure. I, myself was guilty of this until my brother bought a deluxe version of peace sells which contained isolated bass tracks. Funnily enough I found myself revisiting all their albums and just listening for what he was doing. It certainly takes a specific player to enhance an already sideways jazzy style of Mustaine and still maintain your own identity in the overall spectrum.
Ellefson is that specific player hands down. I saw Megadeth here in Australia with James MacDonough (formerly of Iced Earth), whom in his own right is a phenomenal player but where he sat in the band was night and day to Ellefson. While James played their material flawlessly it was somewhat more loose and fluidic.
Which is interesting in itself as Iced Earth is a very tight and precise band in their own right but in a much different way to Megadeth. Jon Schaffer’s riffs are locked in like Hetfield as where Mustaine, while being a tight player he sits on the edge where things seem like they could derail at any moment. So it was interesting to see MacDonough somewhat loosened in Megadeth.
Lastly, Ellefson may be machine like in his precision but he’s no less busy in his bass lines. Very much the middle ground between Verni and Bello. Rock solid and yet can move with the best of them with a tone that’s heavy but doesn’t rely on massive amounts of distortion.
Great work as always mate, already looking forward to next episode 😊
Great observations! I totally agree on the MacDonough comparison. Thanks for watching as always, i'll look forward to your feedback on the next one!
Speaking of Iced Earth one player who I’d nominate for this series is Steve DiGiorgio, (though he only played on the Horror Show album). Is a monumental player in his own right who’s resume is one of few that matches Gene Hoglan’s.
Definitely have Steve on the short list. Another viewer brought him up as well. His contribution to Death as well as Testament and Iced Earth makes him a must do.
Death, Testament, Iced Earth, Obscura and not to mention founding member of Sadus. Like Hoglan, is there anyone he hasn’t played for? 😆
And his work on the Roadrunner United all stars album 👌
I love Dave Ellefson. He's my favorite metal bassist. I love his sound with his Hartke setup!
Dave is THE MAN. His bass lines are great and his solos are too. The guy really should have much more fame than he does. He’s an amazing artist.
^^ Truth!
I started playing again this year and my first bass was an ellefson signature 4 string. It growls. I got a 5 string Jackson too now. I think the song that showcases simplicity and precision from him is Angry Again. Very simplistic riff but it just grinds and gets into some scaling as well. Always loved his stuff.
oooh! also Hal Patino from King Diamond! Killer bassist and great tone!!
Shit!! I can't believe I didn't think of him, when i'm such a KD fan! He's definitely going on the short list! Thanks!
Dave ellefson would be a perfect bass master for me .
Such a great analysis Rodney!! And wonderful acknowledgement of David's incredible talent, versatility and ability as a world's best bass in the books!! Huge inspiration to my bass playing and to so many! 🤘😎🔥
Glad you enjoyed it! If you haven't seen it, I did a fun interview with him here on the channel a little bit ago.
@@RodneyMcG I did indeed!! Great interview as well 🤘🤘🤘
Dave is awesome. Holy Wars is a metal bass clinic. When some pompous ass rips on bassists who use picks I laugh cuz Dave is a legend. He & DD Verni from Overkill are phenominal pick players.
Lil Davie is Genius. He's a perfect example on how to do things the right way. Got to the end of the video and you mentioned Steve Bailey! That's my dude. I've learned from him while I was living in Dallas and taking some classes at UNT! He's in another atmosphere with the Bass... one of a kind for sure! I dearly love Stevie B!
Small world! Steve is definitely a monster player, and a great guy! I'm uploading a video right now analyzing 2 of Dave's bass tracks from Peace Sells, you may find it interesting.
th-cam.com/video/ZOPXh9IvmIo/w-d-xo.html
David Ellefson is definitely one of my influences for sure. I’ve seen Megadeth 3 times & 2 times was with David Ellefson & once was with James Lomenzo who is in his own right one heck of a bassist & so underrated imo & he plays with one really long neck & when I seen him he was using a bass similar to John Entwistle a.k.a. “Thunder Fingers”.
The Warwick buzzard bass! I think remember him playing one.
Just saw him play Saturday for Metal Allegiance 🤘🔥💀 And we shared a BC Rich joke. Great video on one of my favorite musicians.
I totally agree with you! Dave is a true genius. One of the best out there.
He definitely doesn't get his due. Thanks for watching!
I would love to see one of these videos about Blacky from Voivod or Ron Royce from Coroner :)
Blacky is on the list, Ron is a good one to look back into, thanks for the suggestion
@@RodneyMcG I would also love to hear your opinion on some bass players who weren't very technical, but influential nonetheless, like Cronos (Venom) Gene Simmons, Martin Ain (Celtic Frost), etc.
I've got an idea for a "honorable mention" video to cover a lot of those guys who may not have enough for a full show, but still should a get a minute of respect.
David Ellefson is one of my favourite bassists! It is really hard to get his precision! Very interesting video man!
Thanks for checking it out 🤘
I really like the concept of this video. David Ellefson is in my top 3 bass players of all time and my favourite bass pick player. Love his approach to bass playing.
Thumbs up from me on this video.
If you haven't done it, do a video on Geezer Butler and John Entwistle.
I know the latter one isn't a metal bass player but has influenced so many of us
Glad you enjoyed it. Lots more coming in this series, so I hope you get something out of the ones coming up as well. Thanks for watching!
Ahh yes... David Ellefson.
The guy who made me pick up a bass. And put it down aswell.
😂😂😂😂🤘
I know it's way out there but the guy who play's on cirith ungol king of the dead album has one of my favorite sounds dominates the whole record been playing bass 40 yrs still love his sound and playing
I'll look into him. I'm planning a compilation show of "worthy of mention, but not a full episode players" Maybe he can be included there. Thanks for watching and the suggestion!
Great episode, literally. I play bass and I love Dave Jr. he’s amazing and Megadeth is awesome. Please keep it up. Other than that, cool:).
Thanks for checking it out! Dave kills and I was looking forward to featuring him. Definitely more to come!
Rodney McG YYAAAAYYYY!!!!!!:).
Great series...I'm in my mid 40's and am looking forward to the Steve Harris one, as he got me in to bass as a young metalhead but also looking forward to many others...Justin Chancellor, John Paul Jones, Chris Squire, Tim Commerford and maybe even delve in to someone like Stanley Clarke. There's a ton to choose from so you've got no end of material! Subscribed!
Thanks a lot for the kind words! I'll look forward to hearing your feedback on the future episodes
@@RodneyMcG All good man! I'll always be a metalhead at heart but my musical taste is all over the place so whether you talk about Geezer Butler, Tony Levin or Aston Barrett, I'm there!
@@r.w.culbertson2030 Yes! We need to hear about Geezer! Hope he makes the cut!
Yeah, the boss🤘😍👍
Cliff inspired me to pick up the bass and taught me that the bass can be an incredibly versatile instrument, but Dave's approach and execution on bass is what I aspire to.
He's an inspiration to many and not credited enough. Thanks for watching!
His pickup configurations also changed over the years
You are correct!
Good to see you back brother! Always love the content you put out. Not to mention the out of this world bass skills. Thumbs up!
Good to see you T.J! Always appreciate the kind words in the feedback, my friend! Thanks as always for checking it out
I agree you have really good taste , instruments way of playing etch
Much appreciated!
Came for your review on the schecter/fishman pickups, this video earned a sub. Great work!
Thanks a lot for the sub and checking out the channel! Much appreciated!
Mike Dean from Corrosion Of Conformity
Great suggestion, thanks for watching!
You should definitely do one about Blacky from Voivod!
Dave also plays melodically when needed
He definitely does. Thanks for watching!
Great video)
Well, how to surprise you..?
Well what about making an episode on John Myung from Dream Theater?
I am planning to expand my own horizons by listening to some metal genres I’ve never listened to. So progressive metal is what I am considering now and DT is one of the best-known bands. So it would be great if you would do an episode about him, that will surely help me to understand what’s going on.
John will definitely get an episode. DT single handedly made prog metal popular again after the 80s and moved the bar for chops up a huge step. He definitely deserves a spotlight. Thanks for the great idea, and for watching another episode!
Rodney McG
That’s cool)
rex brown from pantera deserves an episode
Definitely! He's on the short list!
I agree awesome technique
@@RodneyMcG Johnny Lee Middleton is worthy too
@@MzuMzu-nx1em I'll definitely look into him!
It would be awesome if you could do Cliff Burton and Rex Brown.
They are both coming up soon!
@@RodneyMcG need rex brown!
Great series... Would love to see a profile of the God of modern bass tone... dUg Pinnick.
He'll definitely be coming up! Thanks for watching!
He taught the Bassist of The Warning at Berklee.
Very cool!
Do one on Alex Webster, seriously.
He's on the list. Seriously! Thanks for watching!
Hey Rodney, thank you for your efforts! A real pleasure to watch :) What about Bob Daisley? Finished reading his autobiography recently, a highly recommended read and a highly appreciated bass player!
Funny you mention him, he's actually the reason i started the series! He's a huge influence on me. I got to interview him a number of years ago and got a ton of awesome info. I'm planning it, but have to be cautious. Anything having to do with Ozzy is notorious for being taken down, or a channel suspension. I'm trying to figure out the best approach to it. He'll definitely get his episode as soon as I feel I can get it done without penalty. Thanks for the kind words and the comments. Looking forward to your feedback on the next ones!
I'd love to see you cover Audie Pitre on this series at some point, not enough people talk about him despite his influence on the Sludge Metal genre. His tone was extremely distinct (pretty sure he used a chorus pedal and a fuzz pedal to achieve his sound), plus his basslines for Acid Bath and Shrüm cannot be understated.
Great suggestion! Thanks for watching!
Harmonica teacher / vocalist here: I started my career playing in the late 80s playing bass and doing back up vocals in metal and grunge bands. Til this day I still write a lot of my band's songs on bass, I feel that not enough songs are written on bass. My bass player is a well known metal / funk player and he's in his third year of jazz bass in university. He's a bit of an arrogant SOB about his skills (in a good way), and claims I'm one of the only people who he will allow to show him how to play bass line ideas. My grounding in 80s metal bass really helped me create bass lines with drive and movement. Metal and good metal bass players are totally under rated by the general music community.
I agree with the sentiment, great to hear from somebody that appreciates metal bass! Thanks for checking it out!
@@RodneyMcG Cheers mate, I'm a harmonica technician now but my love of metal and bass has never left me. Click on my channel and the home page features my band playing a technical funky version of the Red Army Choir classic "Katyusha"...someone had to do it! My bass player noted the traditional intro riff is classic "grindcore" melody notes. I wrote the descending Bach outro...tradition and innovation, the 2 foundations of modern music!
Dave ellefson one of the greatest metal bass player ever , a real inspiration to my method of playing bass . I m really curious do you know why the Dave ellefson signature bass made in u.s.a. cost over 7000$ ?
I would be pretty sure that that's a retail price estimate, which the actual Street price is usually much lower. Also, Custom Shop built guitars in America to really exacting standards are always fairly expensive because of the high standard and workmanship being done by extremely skilled luthiers. Even at that though, I do agree that the price seems fairly excessive.
@@RodneyMcG just curious, that price seems a jocke . Answer make sense , speacking of liuthers, a bass may cost a lot more.
Love this channel man.
Late to the party but love your video on Davids bass playing 🙌🙌.
Sad how Mustaine has treated him all these years and even after being termed innocent no formal or informal apology. 😢
It is true. Really a bummer. He'll be back on the channel likely in April. Stay tuned!
@@RodneyMcG Ofcourse. Really digging your channel. Love from Mumbai !
These are great! You should do Rob Trujillo and Robbie Merrill.
Thanks for checking out the show! Rob Trujillo is already in the queue. I'll take a closer look at Robbie and see what I can do. \m/
He has had good tone throughout both on on peace sells and now today. He is distinctive in the mix but not to the detriment of what's going on around him.
I play pick as well. I need to watch film on him see him do it. My fingerstyle is junk for metal. So that's done lol.
All in all one of my favs to listen to for sure
You could change that fingerstyle with a bit of practice. I feel like I know someone who has a practice video on the subject😉
You've been doing some great videos like this alot recently Rodney. I love the in depth analysis you get into with these videos. I was wondering if you could maybe do a video on Mike D'antonio of Killswitch Engage? He is a player I personally find fascinating and another pick player who is very precise and tight even when you see him throwing his bass around as much as he does it's a beyond belief he doesn't fuck up 😆. I've also been fascinated by his bass tone, especially on their 'Alive or just breathing' album. Keep up the great vids mate! Really glad you're doing this kinda thing. Not only is it interesting but it's helpful. Cheers!
Hi Jay - That's one no one else has suggested. I'll definitely look into him more. KE was really influential in Metalcore, so it's worth investigating. Thanks for the kind words and watching the shows!
Peace Sells was their best album.
A year late I know. I met David on his F5 tour, mybass hero. Greg Christian of Testament, or Danny Lilker would be cool for discussion.
Dan Lilker is definitely in the list. I'll look into Greg.
amazing video. can you do a video talking about Joey Demaio from Manowar. The thing with Demaio is on the Liveshows/live albums.
I'll see about adding him in. Thanks for watching!
How about an Alex Webster episode?
He's in the queue already! No way he could be skipped! Thanks for watching
Awesome video man! It would be equally awesome if you could do Justin Chancellor of Tool,the monster of hard hitting,gut crushing bass tone and a wizard with effects!
Thanks for the good word! Justin is already on the the list. I'm filming a few in a row now so i can release them at a steadier pace, Justin will be in this batch. He's definitely deserving! Thanks for watching!
A but late here, I appreciate Dave’s basslines and bass riffs. To me his best work is on Killing is my business business is good. I love Dave’s punch tone, by the way what pedals are used to get that fat punch tone
He didn't really use pedals very much. He used in that era a bc rich bass with dual dimarzio p pickups. That's a big part of it
Can't wait until you do a Ron Royce episode. Coroner has always been tough to nail down. Jazz metal? Cream on meth? Idunno. Definitely one of the most unique bands and most athletic bass players.
I agree!
Great video.
Thanks for checking it out!
How about a video on either Alex Webster or Joey Dimao?
I may do more in the future on another platform. The copyright hits are ridiculous here
@@RodneyMcG fair enough mare!
Copyright shit is a pain great way to kill music from its own fans.
I got a Copyright strike for playing mr crowley on guitar
Please do a video on Ron Broder of Coroner! Personally my favorite metal bass player.
I'll look into it!
Hey, thanks for the great video. Where did you learn Dave used Ashly preamps?
thanks for checking it out! I spotted the Ashly info in an early interview, and it's also listed in the original credits on the peace sells but who's buying album
@@RodneyMcG Cool dude, thanks for the reply. I had a look at the Peace Sells CD liner but can't find it. I wonder if it's a funny version. Is that the LP instead? Also if you come across the article I'd love to read it!
@@WhichBass It was probably shortened on the CD for space. Here's a pic pf the original Album pressing. thrashmetaliq.com/2019/03/23/megadeth-%E2%80%8Epeace-sells-but-whos-buying-original-press-1986/#jp-carousel-424. You can see it on there under Dave's gear if you zoom in. I'll drop in if i run across that interview again.
@@RodneyMcG Thanks for the link! The CD liner definitely didn't have that info so I appreciate that. I'm also making a video about Ellefson. I'll be sure to thank you in the credits for the heads up!
@@WhichBass glad to help! Definitely drop me a link so I can check it out when you're finished.
Rex Brown... Do it ! :)
It will be done! He's already on the schedule!
What do you think of Mastodon?
I love Leviathan and many others of their albums, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on Troy Sanders
I like Mastodon a lot. They do interesting and experimental things and obviously take their music seriously, without always taking themselves too seriously. Fun and usually surprising. Much respect to them.
@@RodneyMcG I agree SO much!! :D
Timi "Ripper"Hansen of Mercyful Fate! (RIP)
Ellefson is a great bassist for beginners like myself to look up to to learn the fundamentals of bass (and metal bass in particular). I see some of these dudes on TH-cam shredding their asses off and while it's impressive I can't help but think "This isn't why I picked up a bass, though!"
Also, I discovered Murashita because of this video and it seems like good stuff! Saw you in the Conquer the Foe music video!
His stuff can be deceptively difficult at times. I learned that the hard way! I confess to being shreddy myself, but to each their own! Thanks for checking out the Murashita video! I had a blast doing it. I'm going to be analyzing 2 Ellefson bass tracks on a show coming up in a little over a week. Hope to see you over on that one, and hear your thoughts. Thanks for checking it out!
@@RodneyMcG Hope you didn't think I meant that in a negative way! There's a time and a place for everything and if you like it then fuckin' shred!
Looking forward to the new vids. This has quickly become one of my favorite channels on TH-cam!
No offense taken at all! Everybody does their own thing, and there's room for all of it! Thanks again for the kind words, I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new videos!
Any ideas on how I should get that iconic "Fatal Illusion" bass break tone? I have a Jackson Concert Bass with EMG-HZ and BEQ3 preamp, his signature, but no matter what plugin I try I always get it either too bright (and a pick attack that is harsh to listen to) or I get too little top end? I tried Ampeg Suite and GK Amplification 3 in regards to that tone. Should I change the pickups to something like a 35CS in the neck or maybe a 35P4? I would love if you could share a preset or something regarding any plugin so I can get that tone. Thanks!
Before changing gear I would try the approach i used in this video. Should get you what you want studio.th-cam.com/users/videoiy4aZ1foUlQ/edit
@@RodneyMcG Been trying this for a while. It's the pick attack that I can't keep under control. It's harsh to listen to when I run it through a virtual amp. Even in the DI it's a little annoying to listen to. Maybe it's my poor playing cuz I'm a guitar player. Do you mind if I send you the DI that I am working on?
Sure, go ahead@@tudorscoarta
Just fyi mustaine wrote the peace sells bass line
Make a playlist on your channel called ''Metal Bass Microscope'', also make an episode of MBM Nikki Sixx, Jeff Pilson, Duff Mckagan or Bobby Dall
Good ideas all the way around. Thanks for watching!
Is Johnny lee middleton in your list ?
I'm definitely looking into him
Bass players who *care*?
Jesus I had no idea this existed. Where do I find one to jam with?
We're out here! Serious musicians of any kind are rare these days!
I've seen these guys 7 times in concert and the 4th time was at the clash of the Titans concert in Phoenix Arizona at the fair grounds a bunch of me Bros and I were out by a huge walled area where the band busses parked and some of the band members were out side and signing autographs and I threw me metal jacket down to the guys and received several autographs as I had several other autographs on the jacket but though David ellefson tried several times to throw me jacket back up to me every time failed and he just took it with him LoL 😂 so David ellefson stole my jacket at the clash of the Titans concert tour