Billy Gould

This is Billy Gould's Signature Bass by Zon Guitars.

Bass from the 80's used by Billy Gould of Faith No More

Billy used a 1970's Gibson Grabber bass in Natural finish on the first two Faith No More records, 1985's 'We Care a Lot', and 1987's 'Introduce Yourself'. This bass was later accidentally damaged during their first European tour in 1987/1988, where he then started exclusively using his backup Aria Pro II SB Integra bass that he had been toying with around 1986 here and there at previous shows.

“My live amp is an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 — or a pair of them, I should say — into two [Ampeg] SVT cabinets. But, for the recording, I used a Fender Bassman Pro 300, which has great tone but is very unreliable, travel-wise. I’ve done recordings where I’ve done a single pass but then when it’s been time to do overdubs or fixes five minutes later the tone has already changed dramatically!"

“My live amp is an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 — or a pair of them, I should say — into two [Ampeg] SVT cabinets. But, for the recording, I used a Fender Bassman Pro 300, which has great tone but is very unreliable, travel-wise. I’ve done recordings where I’ve done a single pass but then when it’s been time to do overdubs or fixes five minutes later the tone has already changed dramatically!"

“My live amp is an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 — or a pair of them, I should say — into two [Ampeg] SVT cabinets. But, for the recording, I used a Fender Bassman Pro 300, which has great tone but is very unreliable, travel-wise. I’ve done recordings where I’ve done a single pass but then when it’s been time to do overdubs or fixes five minutes later the tone has already changed dramatically!"

«This thing is a winner on many levels; it has a great tone that can cut through the loudest cymbals and guitars; a ridiculous amount of punch that just feels good to play, with power for days. And I can fly with it as a carry on!» Words by Billy about Microtubes 900.

As seen in Kemper's YouTube video, Billy explaining his use for the Kemper Profiler PowerHead.

Billy used this amp amongst other Peavey amps for years in Faith No More. From the early days from We Care A Lot to the present.

“Starting with the kick drum, I used an AKG D30, but then I sometimes used the Shure Beta 52A and I used a [Yamaha SKRM-100] Subkick too at times. On the snare drum, I had a [Shure] SM57 or sometimes the Telefunken M80. It’s a little more of an open kind of mic. With the toms, I used a [Shure] Beta 52A on the floor tom, which I really liked. It’s really got a lot of bottom and some top but it’s got a thing where it kind of glues things together with the rest of the kit when you bring it in. It worked really well with the overhead mics. I also used a [Shure] SM7 on one tom. For overhead mics, of all things, I used these [MXA] MCA SP1s. "

“Starting with the kick drum, I used an AKG D30, but then I sometimes used the Shure Beta 52A and I used a [Yamaha SKRM-100] Subkick too at times. On the snare drum, I had a [Shure] SM57 or sometimes the Telefunken M80. It’s a little more of an open kind of mic. With the toms, I used a [Shure] Beta 52A on the floor tom, which I really liked. It’s really got a lot of bottom and some top but it’s got a thing where it kind of glues things together with the rest of the kit when you bring it in. It worked really well with the overhead mics. I also used a [Shure] SM7 on one tom. For overhead mics, of all things, I used these [MXA] MCA SP1s. "

“Starting with the kick drum, I used an AKG D30, but then I sometimes used the Shure Beta 52A and I used a [Yamaha SKRM-100] Subkick too at times. On the snare drum, I had a [Shure] SM57 or sometimes the Telefunken M80. It’s a little more of an open kind of mic. With the toms, I used a [Shure] Beta 52A on the floor tom, which I really liked. It’s really got a lot of bottom and some top but it’s got a thing where it kind of glues things together with the rest of the kit when you bring it in. It worked really well with the overhead mics. I also used a [Shure] SM7 on one tom. For overhead mics, of all things, I used these [MXA] MCA SP1s. "

“Starting with the kick drum, I used an AKG D30, but then I sometimes used the Shure Beta 52A and I used a [Yamaha SKRM-100] Subkick too at times. On the snare drum, I had a [Shure] SM57 or sometimes the Telefunken M80. It’s a little more of an open kind of mic. With the toms, I used a [Shure] Beta 52A on the floor tom, which I really liked. It’s really got a lot of bottom and some top but it’s got a thing where it kind of glues things together with the rest of the kit when you bring it in. It worked really well with the overhead mics. I also used a [Shure] SM7 on one tom. For overhead mics, of all things, I used these [MXA] MCA SP1s. "

"There’s almost a visual to them. I used the U67 head on a Korby KAT microphone for a mono drum mic, and then I used these JZ Microphones Vintage V11s as stereo room mics. They were really cool.”

"I sometimes used a Royer R121 ribbon and I would sometimes use a [Shure] Beta 52."

There was also a plug-in that I really liked: the Zynaptiq Unfilter. That was really awesome for me with the overhead mics where there was room resonance-type stuff that was really hard to get rid of. It’s an unusual room where you just get a little bit of concentration on certain things but the Unfilter kind of shows you where they are, so you can just pull a little bit of that off and, again, it just helps everything fit together. It was a cool little resource.

“I have an SSL Matrix console, which I got about three or four years ago, and I’ve really been happy with it. It’s really cool for monitoring with the drums. I had all my preamps hard-patched in already. It actually sounds really good for mixing, and I like it better than mixing in the box. We mixed the ‘Motherfucker’ single there and we used the Matrix for that and it was great. It’s also not too big and it’s just a really great usable thing that actually does what I need."

“I’ve got a mish-mash of outboard. I have a Pendulum MDP1, which is really cool and is my go-to pre. I use it for most things. I’ve also got a Thermionic [Culture] Rooster, which is fucking amazing, and I’ve got a pair of Telefunken V76s. I’ve also got some of those Classic API VP26s and I used a few of those for drums. Then, I have a pair of Neve 1272s, the Vintech ones with the old blue box. I used those for drum overheads and for room mics."