Creeping Death (Master Bass Track)

[bellozionegro]

shit

[Evin07]

God, I love how utterly raw this sounds... And Cliff's groove in the basslines makes this an immense joy to listen (and headbang!) to...

[Dr3thepooner]

BASS TAB:

creeping_death_ver2_btab from Ultimate Guitar page

I think this is the best one out there, if wasn't posted here yet.

[elchichodeltren]

i think that in this time metallica bass was like another guitar making solos like the 1 and a half guitar

[thelegendoflink52]

Why is it slower than the actual track?

[Holdington]

@thelegendoflink52 It's not.

[thelegendoflink52]

@Holdington I played it side-by-side with the master track of the song, and it kept getting behind.

[loinmute]

I love you Cliff

[imboringlycool]

hendrix of bass. 

[coltsfan21189398]

My New Religion Is Cliff Burton... Believe In Cliff

[mrspawkala]

i was just looking at the sheet music for this song in the ride the lightning song book and it is not as accuate as i thought. cliff plays it differently. in the book it seems to be a simpler version. i bet the rest of the songs are like this...

[Prostheta]

@mrspawkala Many of these tab books are transcribed by people with no access to the master tracks. It has been known that some have been transcribed by musicians whose primary instrument is the *piano*. Crazy eh?

[thunderous42]

is it jason or cliff in this track?

[NIKKGAGE1994]

@thunderous42 fail

[mhaft57]

@thunderous42 /facepalm....

[RiperHammett]

@thunderous42 is the master cliff

[mrwiskerz666]

call of ktulu would be sick

[sp4rtn]

5:19 on = EPIC METAL

now thats what i call metal in its true raw form, unhindered by whiney, c tuned, 3 step riff music. Unrefined, and pedigree metal.. thank you CLIFF

[mrwiskerz666]

@sp4rtn thats what I'm sayin metal is turning into a joke recently

[cruccio2000]

b-_-d

[blackshadowbass]

Mmm Cliff Burton tone. I've been using my Rickenbacker a lot more now, I love the tone!

[ThrashingSlayer]

I can honestly listen to this all fuckin' day.

[lorenzo152857]

@ThrashingSlayer you better learn how to play this for our band!

[ThrashingSlayer]

@lorenzo152857

Don't worry I got nothin better to do with my life. Playing bass will occupy my time. I got nothing better to do other than jacking off and playing Halo, both of which are starting to get boring.

[lorenzo152857]

@ThrashingSlayer i know right, /1ETALLIC/\ 4 life !!!! \m/ T_T \m/

[MonarcaGris]

u need to do a master track of damage inc pleaseee

[klb2000000]

@MonarcaGris Master bass track for Damage Inc. would be pure beauty to my ears.

[alavarez081]

Forget the tab books!... this is the real deal!

[olydux]

i love cliff and metallica but some of you should just need to get a life and stop bickering about who the better metallica bass player is and stop arguing about fingers or pics bla bla bla bla

[Jinxerz010792]

An Aria II Pro Superbass 1000?

[spike007980]

@carterpringle It's nothing new, James' guitar tone swallowed most of the Bass notes

[bassmanjoe]

@spike007980 Yeah the mix really sucked, damm shame Cliff was buried in the mix, him and Lars were great together.

[ejl1000]

@carterpringle They may have started going commercial, but the black album was awesome - compared to later releases.

[metalmonkey88]

@IntegraTron2010 yeah, for bassists, Metal is kind of a sloppy job for all players.. just my own opinion though.

[ToaJoe]

@IntegraTron2010 I'm not going to argue with you here. But Cliff was sloppy. How can you listen to this video and then pretend he isn't? That's like Hitler pretending he was a communist. Cliff is very good but also incredibly over rated.

[spike007980]

@LandOfMutants Are ya dumb? Why did they hire Rob? Because the low end distortion mix from the bass, James' guitar swallowed any low end bass tracks unless cliff made the Rick squeal like a bitch when ya shove your dick up a womans tight cunt...oh wait you never done that yet never mind shut up about music.

[jimslim94]

wish i coulda saw him in concert:(

[straightupballin3]

does anyone know the tableture from 0:56-1:00 i honestly cant find it anywhere

[molesticles]

@LandOfMutants i think its ment to sound like that its kind of precusive rickenbackers just have really(really)low action,its all apart of the agressive

vibe to it, some other tracks are cleaner

[ejl1000]

Lightning, Puppets and Black are the only metallica albums where the bass is very clearly audible :(

[MattBodossian]

@ejl1000 but still its too low on em, like if you listen to the ridethe lightning bass track you hear all kinds of cliffs fills. but if u listen to the actual song ride the lightning its almost like his fills dont exist.

[ejl1000]

@MattBodossian I see what you're saying actually, Puppets and Lightning, you could only really hear the bass when Cliff played a bass solo or something, but the black album was the only Metallica album where the bass was REALLY audible.

[MattBodossian]

@ejl1000 yea, black albums bass was pretty audible.

[r0m3r12]

@ihategeorgedubyabush Sloopy = means the sound it makes when you are playing the bass with your fingers fast and agressive like cliff in this video ... now tell me..!! What does the sloppy sound of cliffs bass have anything to do with his bass solos ?

[brettdylan0121]

Holy shit, his playing is so amazing. I fucking hate the way these albums are produced, mainly because of the very small bass tracks. (Especially with AJFA, which had basically none at all).

[Pewptypeupty]

FUCK BRO I'M SEEING DOUBLE.

[cliptheracer]

I think this squeaky sound is also due to the use of some sort of Hi Beams roundwound strings (like the DR Hi Beam or something like that).

[Yukyo8670]

Ah, so is the string click on the fret board that's a good thing, I'm new to bass and just picked up some Orion lines at the begining, (been playing that song for a few weeks now) and I'v been trying different techniques to play lowed without smacking the strings on the fret board.

I have learned something new today

[leifericson923]

if you use your fingers for playing bass, the click is tough to avoid unless you pluck them completely vertically

[duffmasterofpuppets]

@Yukyo8670

When the string clicks on the fretboard, it's called gauging the stings. It's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, it just makes a different sound. Cliff played real aggressively so that's why he got that sound.

If your playing thrash metal, don't worry too much about the gauging. But if you were playing some slower or cleaner stuff, you would want to keep it to a minimum. If you have trouble with it too much, either play softer or anchor your thumb on a lower pickup.

[Steve128967]

@duffmasterofpuppets I use the floating thumb method and I never have problems with click even with an aggressive attack.

[joeplanet]

Another thing to keep in mind: Live bass tones and recorded bass tones are hardly ever the same. I have recorded many bass tones that sounded great and supportive of an overall mix but sounded awful when solo. My live rig is WAY too boomy for ever putting on a recording. It is just the reality of audio engineering.

[joeplanet]

Wow. This is bludgeoning. Let's not forget, kids: Cliff had to band this out without the aid of Pro Tools or any other kind of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Who knows how many times he had to band this out before this was determined to be the keeper.

[leifericson923]

thanks for the vid, i can straighten out how i play this song now

[luclehordeux]

i learn the song just by listening to them and this kind of vid help me so much tanks you man :D

[hippie1022]

theres just a tiny bit of distorion on top of it

[XanaduMyHome]

The clicking sound is good for metal really, and if you can click and play fast think about it thats hard, lot harder then playing fast and hitting lightly, I click on the Low B and Low E on my bass but not the others for some reason.

[flongoid18]

@XanaduMyHome playing with more pressure isn't hard actually, it's easier because it's a lot less precise and you have to pay a lot less attention to perfect dynamics

[frankenstein9108]

hey, this kind of track is cool, how did you do it?

[111dodo111]

Yeah he was using his Rickenbacker for this album, you can see him using it in the Photos in the CD booklet.

[handsofhell666]

euhm he use mesa cab and ampeg head

[iLikechevelle]

no, he used mesa boogie D-180s and custom made mesa boogie 4x12 cabs with 1x15 cab to fit under the 4x12 width-wise.

[aassyr1111]

Seek and Destroy

[beserker1912]

he got that from geezer butler, cliff did.

[Darkit2099]

Anybody know exactly how Cliff is getting that sound out of his bass? I" talking about the clanking sound. It sounds badass. I got the same kind of wah pedal he has, but I gotta figure out what kind of other effects he's using

[gnrher]

I think it's the tube head with the preamp hot as hell, so the tubes distort a little and you get more compressed kinda sound.

Maybe he used a kind of booster or really light OD to warm up the tube too.

He attacks the strings really heavy too, and of course, use roundwound strings

[aassyr1111]

wht is the tube head ?

[cookie5455]

i dont think its the wah on this track.i agree with gnrher,just use a bitve overdrive.works for me,but you have to compensate for loss of bottom

[JackDavis16]

some of the 'clanking' sound

is him hitting the strings against the fret board with his fingers

[forkv]

Try setting the action on your bass really low. If you have a bass with two pickups like a rick or j-bass, solo the bridge and play between the pickups. You may turn the tone knob down to change the bright "clankyness" in to more of a grunt. Then add the overdrive mentioned before.

[yepenga92]

the clanking sound is made when whe strings hit the fretboard, so if you want to clank pluck the strings really hard like pushing them down, against the fretboard, harris does that aswell

[LazyFansu]

These people said it perfectly, the clanking is from his right-hand technique (lol, that sounds dodgy). It's how Steve Harris of Maiden plays and sounds too. And also how it sounds when I play :P It's from hitting the strings so hard they smack against the fretboard.

[Sartori]

He's using a Rickenbacker and cranking the gain and/or using some light distortion. End result = clankity clank clank

[MattBodossian]

no hes using aria on this album

[Sartori]

He didn't get the Aria until 1985, some time before they recorded "Master of Puppets." "Ride the Lightning" was recorded in late 1983 and early 1984, when the Rickenbacker was still his primary bass.

[Jinxerz010792]

... You're not very bright, are you.

You hear that squeaking sound? That's the distinct Squeak of Cliff's Rickenbacker. The Aria didn't squeak. Not to mention he didn't get the Aria 'till '85. RTL was done production in 84.

[LetThereBeBeer]

@Jinxerz010792

You are totally right. finally some real fans

[BMULVTV]

@Jinxerz010792 very nice ear my man! i noticed this too, seeing as i have both a rick and an aria (sb 1000)

ROCK ON!!!!

[Jinxerz010792]

Lucky bastard.

Rick 4003's go for about 5 grand a pop

SB 1000's I've seen sold between 1 and 6.

The Reissued SB-1000's are about 3500.

Even so... God... I wish I had those.

[itachi456789]

@Jinxerz010792 Great, now I can hear is the squeaking >_>

[Jinxerz010792]

Don't blame me, bro, I'm not the one that voted up my comment. .-.

[weeman8936]

@Jinxerz010792 remember he was using also a electro harmonix big muff distortion pedal to get that "squeaking sound"

[Jinxerz010792]

It was a Russian Big Muff Pi, actually, in Army Green. Which is currently out of Production.

[hugomand]

the clanking sound? I'd say he's added a crunch of overdrive and just attacks the string really hard. And of course a set of fresh round wound strings wouldn't hurt either!

[metuo]

A lot of mids, and a good amount of overdrive. Plus he has pretty hard attack with his fingers, which adds some natural distortion.

[Darkit2099]

What kind of distortion pedal would you use?

[metuo]

I use a Sansamp Para Driver DI by Tech 21. And I can get pretty close to this sound with it.

[jonasbrosshalldie]

Electro Harmonix Russian Big Muff, its the distortion he used, i believe other than that, on the albums it was all Ampegs his Rickenbacker, and i believe he used flatwounds,

[largesam72]

he used mesa/boogie, not ampeg, and on master of puppets he used his aria

[jonasbrosshalldie]

thanks for the correction

[joker6951]

ARIA !!!! best bass... i have the same one just different headstock

[ErwinS]

So...not the same one.

[joker6951]

So...not the same one.(Me mocking you)

[ThatTastyJuiceBox]

So...not the same one.(Me loving you)

[joker6951]

UUUUUUUUH

you're gay i guess...(Me being confused at you're random gay comment)

[ThatTastyJuiceBox]

UHHHHH

you'rw gay i guess...(Me Mocking you faggot)

[joker6951]

well asshole you spelled you're wrong sp you dint mock me bitch.

[ThatTastyJuiceBox]

kk sorry man

[tyler9943]

You spelled so wrong...

[burlearth]

you wouldn't get this bright sound from flatwounds, these are roundwounds he's using.

[Kaka11Dean]

first, yay!, awsome work darkragnarok2! i really hope we can get four horseman and sanitarium bass tracks one day....

[Darkit2099]

They wont have a four horsemen bass track until Guitar Hero or Rock Band releases them.

[Jinxerz010792]

Mustaine Won't ever agree to that, you know it.