“Live At The Acropolis” 20 years later- The Ric Fierabracci bass tone

Alright, so it was 19 years ago that Yanni’s “Live At The Acropolis” was released.  But I’ll round up because saying it came out 20 year ago makes me feel way older.  And, hey, it was recorded March 1st of 1993…so let’s just say 20.

If you’re a bass player, or if you’re any sort of musician, and heard “Live At The Acropolis” you probably noticed the fantastic bass tone that Ric Fierabracci got on this recording.  For the longest time I searched online to see what he used to get that particular sound.  What was his bass, his strings, his pre-amp, his cab, just how in the world can I sound like that.  It just blended so well in the mix and had this almost hybrid fretless/fretted quality to it.

Well, after some digging I found out how… 

I remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard this bass solo.  I had only been playing bass for a few years and was heavily into bands like Megadeth and Fates Warning.  I had maybe a handful of deviations from the metal world that I would go to for musical inspiration.  One of those was Yanni.

I had been a fan of Yanni since his album “In My Time” came out and I was very excited when this new live album hit stores.  I had no idea that he would be using a huge live band for his performances and certainly didn’t expect the magnitude of solos that those amazing musicians would be doing.  I love hearing solos so it was quite a welcome surprise.

I remember I was in my bedroom, lifting weights, trying to put on weight as I was a very small kid in High School.  I’m jamming to the new Yanni live album and then that bass solo during “The Rain Must Fall” pops through my speakers.

I remember I stopped what I was doing, sat down, and listened in awe.  It was such a tasteful and great solo.  It kept to the groove while exploring a number of techniques: slapping, tapping, pinch harmonics, etc.  I just loved it and had to rewind that one part over and over again to listen to it.  The style of playing so foreign from what I was used to hearing.  Sure, I knew about popping, slapping, tapping and all that flashy stuff but I had never heard those techniques used in such an effective way.

I was recently reminded of this solo because I’ve been trying to find remarkable and tasteful bass solos to learn on my own to further my musical vocabulary.   I had been playing Fierabracci’s bass solo from the Yanni “Tribute” album during live warm-ups and when I do this I’m often asked to play the solo from “Live At The Acropolis” as well since that’s the solo everyone was first exposed to and remembers.

Upon revisiting this piece of music I was, again, struck at his amazing bass tone.  So I did some digging and finally found what he used during this live recording.

Here is what he had to say to an online fan that emailed him through his website.
“I used a SWR 350 amp with a 8 x 8 cabinet. The sound for the
recording was just direct thru a countryman type 85 direct box, we didn’t
mike the bass cabinet. No effects just a volume pedal. Fender P bass with an
added jazz bass pickup, (emg pickups) and a demeter 3 band onboard EQ.”

So there you go,  the majority of that tone comes from great playing through a quality Fender P bass and a quality direct box.  No weird mic placements or cab tricks.  No dual signals and not wide assortment of foot pedals.

Ahhh, “going direct.”
This is what many bass players do during live and studio performances now.  I’ve heard some of the best live bass sounds generated purely from a direct signal.

This is also what I’ve been doing live for the past couple of years.

I haven’t used a bass cab live in probably 15 years.  I currently travel with my bass guitars and a rack case that contains my Line 6 X3 Pro.  This is a dual tone rackmount piece which allows me to run two guitars at once if I want.  I use Line 6 live because my curent gig with Cirque Dreams requires me to duplicate the bass sound from a wide variety of songs spanning the 50’s to today.  I can dial in a number of amps, effects, and microphones to emmulate the sound on those original recordings.  At least, I can get close to emmulating them.

So there you have it.
If you’ve ever wondered how Ric Fierebracci got that great bass sound on “Live At The Acropolis” now you know.