Neutral Milk Hotel Bass Fuzz

[Antero]

I was listening to NMH a few days ago and marvelling at the incredible fuzz bass.  Anyone have any idea what fuzz they were using or what would approximate it?

I love bass fuzz.   

[Sir H C]

I think they did the same thing as Olivia Tremor Control and would just run the bass into a little 4 track recorder and crank the gain all the way up.

[Ry]

Which song are you thinking about specifically?  I love Neutral Milk Hotel, they were my favorite band.  Have you dug around enough to find some of their shows?

Ry

[Satch12879]

WOW, NMH...

Talk about an obscure reference.

Well played!

[Antero]

Sir H C - I thought of the possibility, I think that's what a lot of guitar fuzz is, but I'd love to be able to get that vibe going live.

Ry - I think the one that really got my attention was that march from On Avery Island, where the bass goes VRRRRR!

(Bass fuzz that goes VRRRR! > Bass fuzz that goes BZZZZ!)

[Fickle Cycle]

Here is an excerpt from the 33 1/3 book on ITAOTS, which you should really condsider checking out (good read!) on production, from Robert Schneider, producer of On Avery and In The Aeroplane, and sometimes viewed as the unofficial fifth member of NHM, I suppose:

"We didn't use fuzztones at all. There are no big muffs or distortion pedals or anything like that [mostly in relation to guitars here]. I had a few different pieces of equipment at that time. I had a bellari RP-220 tube mic pre-amp that would distort back on everything. ... Then we put the acoustic guitar through the mic-preamp, and it would be a little distorted - not terrifically distorted, just a little distorted, so it just sounded overloaded. Then I put it through the mixing board and distorted the mic preamp on the console too, then pushed the tape very hard. There were a lot of different sources of distortion , but it was all studio distortion, there was no effect distortion...and there was fuzz bass, there was a banjo through the fuzz pedal. Everytime I used a microphone, I distorted it. So there was some distortion on almost every single instrument. And microphone distortion is different from line-in distortion...microphone distortion sounds round and thick - and that's why the Neutral milk hotel record has that feeling."

Jeff was also known as a fuzz connoisseur, fuzzing everything out of existance (and his home-made Everything Is 7" might be evidence of this, as much as I love it  )

So...some conflicting information there. He says there are no pedal or effect distortions, but then says that the fuzz bass was already fuzzed recording into the microphone...so who knows? It could be studio, microphone distortion, or maybe a pedal was used for it (and I suspect the big muff might have been used, if so). or perhaps a mixture of both for that sound?

In any event, I'm half-way through building a bazz fuss, so I might report back to you how that sounds, but essentially, I'd head down to your local guitar store and test out some fuzz boxes to try and get that sound, unless anyone else around here can provide good D.I.Y solutions. I'd imagine rolling the tone down a little (or a lot) wouldn't hurt either.

[Ry]

The same book credit's Lisa Janssen for playing fuzz bass on "You've Passed".  The book is also pretty clear that all of the remaining fuzz on their albums is either microphone distortion, pre amp distortion, or tape distortion (frequently all three in varying amounts).

Ry