He might inform you his pedalboard secrets and techniques, however then he must kill you. We’re speaking about Tim Commerford, the long-lasting Rage In opposition to The Machine bassist, who’s as obsessive about protecting his rig below wraps as he’s with perfecting it.

“I’m just like the Pablo Escobar of bass,” Commerford jokes in a brand new interview with Bass Participant. “If a dude works on my pedalboard, it’s nearly like I’ve to kill him after he’s completed. I don’t, however a couple of occasions I’ve informed individuals, ‘In the event you let anybody know what you’ve completed to my ‘board, I’m coming again!’”

Commerford’s journey on growing his signature sound began early, starting with a Marshall Guv’nor pedal so as to add distortion to his basslines. Through the years, he has refined his method, although his setup stays a intently guarded secret.

“My setup is my shit,” he says “I spent 10 years getting it to be the way in which it’s, and for me to simply break it down and inform everybody precisely what I’ve completed, is simply blowing it.”

Regardless of his secrecy, Commerford did reveal a couple of key elements of his rig. All of it begins with pickups — his go-to bass for years a BEAD-tuned Fender Jazz with an ash physique, maple Precision neck, and Leo Quann Badass bridge.

“I smashed that bass on MTV and I remorse it to this present day. It had these ‘70s Jazz pickups I bought in England. Once I’m on tour I’ll go to all these luthier retailers and search for Jazz pickups.”

The musician explains that he’d wind these pickups by hand to realize extra maintain and suggestions.

“It’s a must to take your time and slowly stack the wires. It’s not the type of factor you are able to do in sooner or later; it took me about two weeks,” he says, likening the method to winding the winch on his four-wheel-drive truck: “You don’t wish to simply hit the rewind button and let it stack up wherever it desires. You need it to stack completely so it nearly seems brand-new.”

“I don’t search for the cleanest sound. I like that edgy, soiled tone. In the event you use totally different wire in your pickups, you’ll completely get a special sound.”

To create his sound, Commerford employs a three-rig setup: one amp and cupboard for clear sound, one for a average overdrive, and one for full distortion. The clear rig is at all times on, whereas the opposite layers of distortion are activated through a customized pedalboard switching system.

“You possibly can attempt to determine it out, however there’s no approach you ever will. I even have cords on my shit that don’t do something,” the bassist teases.

His distortion philosophy is equally explicit: “I at all times shoot for distortion that feels like a noticed blade with out quite a lot of enamel. It’s not like a guitar distortion that goes sshhhhh; it’s extra like a gritty a-a-a-gghhh! As of late, although, l’ve been getting extra of my distortion by turning up the amp achieve and the grasp quantity. That’s the perfect distortion.”

As for his final secret weapon? A customized distortion field based mostly on a pedal he constructed from components of an outdated wah pedal. “My distortion comes at the start else,” says Commerford. “When you’ve got a superb distortion field, then all the opposite pedals work nice.”