26 BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 4 ; bassmagazine.com
John Myung
in a very good place right now. Everyone is so
psyched about playing.” We talked to Myung
while he was at home on Long Island, prepar-
ing for the Distance Over Time Tour, which
kicked off on March 20 at the Balboa Theatre
in San Diego, California. As always, he was
thoughtful and considerate when discussing
his approach to the making of Distance Over
Time.Your tone on Distance Over Time keeps evolving
and getting better. Every time I don’t think it
can get any better, it gets better.
Thank you. There are so many things
involved when it comes to getting a real-
ly happening sound. I have to give Jimmy
T, our engineer, a lot of credit. On this one,
he was the main engineer, so I just kept an
open mind to what Jimmy thought would
work especially well as a DI source, and he
recommended using some of Rupert Neve’s
mic preamps. We wound up using something
called the 5024 Quad Mic Pre for the main DI
signal, and that worked out fantastic.
Did you mic any amps, or was it mainly just
the DI?
A lot of elements were brought in. I
brought in the Ashdown bass amp. The last
time we used that was on Train of Thought
[2003, Elektra], and there was something
about that amp and the power that it had.
Listening to that record, I wanted to bring
back that vibe. We miked a 4x10 [Ashdown]
cabinet. I’m actually bringing an Ashdown rig
with me on tour, so that we can create that
tone live, as best we can.
Did you come up with a bass sound that you
used on the whole record, or did you modify it
from song to song?
We did some experimentation, but apart
from the fretless that we used on “Out of
Reach,” I pretty much did the whole record
with just two basses, and they were config-
ured the same. They were both double-hum
[humbucker] configuration. There’s just
something about the double-hum combina-
tion that feels right when I’m playing — the
attack, the top-end and the lows ... just every-
thing seems right.What about pickup selection?
There are four settings that I can get.
But it was pretty much one consistent tone
throughout the whole album. The biggest fac-
tor that added or subtracted to the tone was
either the pickup selector or whatever altered
tuning I was in.
What altered tunings did you employ?
There are basically four tunings. One op-
tion was everything tuned a half-step up, and
another was everything normal [standard
tuning]. Then there’s everything tuned a half-
step lower, and then, last, a whole-step low-
er. The bonus track, “Viper King,” was tuned
down a whole-step, so that took a lot of ten-
sion out of the strings, which presented its
own interesting dynamic, in terms of getting
the tone to sound right.
“Viper King” has more of an industrial metal
feel and sound.
It’s just really low. It’s amazing how much
everything changes based on how much ten-
sion you’re working with. This was the first
record where I really had a strong appreci-
ation for doing stuff in altered tunings. The
color translates so differently when the tun-
ing is altered.
What do you mean by color?
On “Untethered Angel,” everything was
tuned up a half-step, and I think that had a
lot to do with the vibe of that song and the
direction that it took. So, there’s definitely
something to be said for altered tuning. It’s
another level of useful creativity, if you have
time to explore it.
“Untethered Angel” is particularly melodic
and catchy. I wonder if tuning up a half-step has
something to do with the tune’s melodic timbre.
That’s exactly what I was talking about —
it’s complementary. The melodies are kind of
pulling everybody in. I also think it’s is one of
James’ best vocal performances ever.
On “Untethered Angel,” there’s a unison riff,
but afterward you’re landing only on specific
notes, rather than playing the full riff. How do
you make that kind of discovery, where you’re
accenting certain notes to create a counterpoint?
That particular part is reminiscent of the
type of riffing you’d hear on an Al Di MeolaLISTEN
Dream Theater, Dis-
tance Over Time
[2019, Inside/Out]
GEAR
Basses Custom Ernie
Ball Music Man Bon-
go HH & HS 6-strings
(Signature Model pro-
totypes with 5-string
spacing)
Strings Ernie Ball
Long Scale Slinky
(.032–.130)
Rig Ashdown ABM-
1200 head, AB-600
head, ABM-410H cab-
inet
Effects Ernie Ball
MVP volume pedal,
Fractal Audio Axe-Fx
II XL, Fractal Audio
MFC-101 foot control-
ler, Little Labs Voice
Of God Bass Res-
onance Tool, Mesa
Boogie Grid Slam-
mer overdrive, Moog
Taurus 3 pedals, MXR
Bass Compressor M87,
MXR Bass Octave De-
luxe M288, MXR Bass
Chorus Deluxe M83,
TC Electronic Hall
Of Fame 2 reverb, TC
Electronic Flashback
2 delay/looper, TC
Electronic Vortex
flanger, Voodoo Lab
Pedal Power 2