Cliff Burton

Cliff Burton rocking a Morley Power Wah Boost pedal (notice the side sticker for boost intensity next to boost knob). You can also spot the TS9 switch under Cliff's heel, just behind the wah.

Stated in the book to "To Live is To die" John Marshall had stated he used to the fuzz wah. quote "He used to like getting different sounds: the power wah fuzz was his thing".

Cliff Burton can be seen with a Boss CS-2 in this photo.

TalkBass user funkytoe, who knew Burton personally, recalled a Big Muff with a pi symbol in multiple TalkBass threads.

"Cliff Burton's gear" Comment #31, January 17, 2008

If you want to know what gear Cliff used, you need to be specific about time.

In the later days with Metallica, he had moved on to Aria basses and mesa or ampeg amps.

Around the "Kill em All" time, Cliff was still using his burgundy (oxblood) Rickenbacker 4001. It had a Gibson EB pickup at the neck and a hot Dimarzio pickup at the bridge. He called the Dimarzio his "secret weapon." Cliff's guitar tech at that time was Chuck Martin at ABC Music in Castro Valley, California. He might be able to give you more specifics about exactly what Cliff used pickup-wise.

Cliff's amp was a Sunn Colliseum Lead head with various cabs. The one I remember most was this big 2 x 18 cab. I don't think Cliff used 10 inch speakers prior to the time he switched to Mesa.

I remember 3 effect pedals. (1) EH Big Muff Pi. I distinctly remember the Pi symbol on that pedal; (2) EH Bass Balls and (3) Morley Power Wah Fuzz. He may also have had a power wah boost, but I am certain he was playing with a Power Wah Fuzz in his Trauma/early Metallica period.

Hope that helps your quest for tone.

"Cliff Burton's gear", Comment #79, December 23, 2008

FC Bass said:

BTW: I bought a Morley PWF a while ago, with the big muff after the Morley you have instant Cliff sounds :bassist: awesome! (Much better than the PWB)

Absolutely correct. Chrome Morley Power Wah Fuzz followed by EH Big Muff PI is what Cliff used in his Trauma/Early Metallica days and is the key to his sound (apart from his hands, attack, etc.)

"Cliff Burtons Rickenbacker", Comment #3, April 23, 2009

For the Maxwell tapes, Cliff played his Ric though Jim Martin's Morely Power Wah Fuzz, an Electro Harmonix Bass Balls and a EH Big Muff PI. I know this because I have been to Maxwell with both Jim and Dave on many occasions and have my own memories of Cliff's gear in this regard.

"Burton's tone with this head", Comment #6, September 1, 2010

Before Cliff hooked up with Metallica and finally got the label money to buy tube amps, he played solid state Sunn heads and cabs. His tone was nearly identical to his later tone with Metallica.

Cliff's tone was not in his amp. It was in his hands (and to some extent his pedals) and the aggressive way he played.

If you want Cliff's tone, you are better off getting an old Tel Ray Morely pedal (either a Power Wah Volume or Power Wah Fuzz), a vintage Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi and Bass Balls. Those pedals and some practice will get you closer to Cliff's tone than any new bass head - guaranteed!

Bonus information: Equipboard user marijan_barac had a conversation with funkytoe, which made up the original content of this submission. What he wrote is preserved in its entirety below:

Guy who knew him personally as a friend and had seen his gear many times claims he remembers a distinctive PI symbol on the pedal. Also here is part of the conversation with him in which he cites Big Muff as Cliff's pedal: 'Yes I knew Cliff and saw his equipment many times over the years. Two of the first pedals I remember him getting were a Morley Power Wah Fuzz and an Electro-Harmonix bass balls. He used the Bass Balls briefly, but it did not get dirty enough for him. He tried a lot of Boss distortion pedals, but ended up choosing a Big Muff Pi. Cliff used that set up for quite a while with both his Randall and Sunn heads, at least up until the time he joined Trauma. After he switched to Mesa Boogie heads, he decided he liked the natural grind from the head better than the Fuzz sound from the Morley Power Wah Fuzz. So, he traded that for a Morley Power Wah Boost to help overdrive the front end of the Mesa head. In all the time Iknew him, he always had a Morley pedal on his Board. He also started experimenting with other pedals to replace the Big Muff Pi during the Metallica years. I remember a Tube Screamer for a while. Then he had a combination of a Tube Screamer and a Boss CS-1 Compression Sustainer going into the Morely Power Wah Boost. That is the last set up i remember him using. A Tube Screamer with a CS-1 and a Morley Power Wah Boost into a Mesa tube head.'

The DS-1 Distortion was Boss' only distortion pedal in the late 1970s, having been released in 1978. Based on this fact and the information above, Burton's Big Muff was either a V3, a V4 or a V5.

"Cliff Burton's Pedals Timeline.", Comment #1, April 23, 2009

Its probable that Cliff used a Morley Wah Boost and Big Muff With a CS-1 on his first gigs as seen here:

Within the linked photos, the 'flat chicken-head' knobs, pedal decals & silver, rectangular casing of the Big Muff can be made out, the much shorter length of the box in the second photo very much looking to be a generative upscaling error.

This is the photo of Cliff Burton from 1985. You can see the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer right next to the Morley PWB. There are more than a handful photos of him using the TS9(some black n white, some in colour) including: live in Paris France 84, Poperinge Belgium 84, unknown show from 84, Ruthie's Inn Berkeley CA 85 and Castle Donington UK 85(as seen here). Reason why I decided for this particular photo is because it's the highest quality 'in-colour' one I could find and the shape, switch and radioactive green tint of the TS9 are easily recognised.

On a side note, other than the live shows, Cliff used an Ibanez TS9 as a source of overdrive in the studio as well. Featured at least on every song of the "Ride The Lightning" album(except the first few notes in "Fade" and the intro to "Fight Fire", those being purely clean). There are many isolated bass tracks on YouTube, the unmistakable TS9 clipping, midrange 'hump' and dynamic sensitivity can be heared providing the 'thunder' on every "RTL" album track with more or less gain depending on the song(and sometimes paired with Boss CS2, Morley PWB and some delay for 'lead bass' sections of the songs such as intro to "Bellz" and lead licks in "Ktulu") . For example: https://youtu.be/XD0PcU429ms?si=OZ0SPVVVYZcy6atF

P.S. After I've set out to confirm Cliff's use of the TS9 some 10+ years ago when most people talked exclusively about Big Muff Pi and there were only few blurry photos available, Cliff's childhood friend, now late, mr. Ken Ryken, better known as Funkytoe on TalkBass forum confirmed it for me in a private message.

In the note written by Cliff to the Metallica fan club in the summer of '83, he clearly states using an MXR Limiter. The pedal was manufactured in the late '70s and early '80s.

In the beginning of this interview(with Ken Kitt from January 1984), Burton states: "Yeah, for effects I use a Morley Power Wah Boost, a MXR Limiter and a... Boss Delay." and interestingly, at 0:19 he states "I used to have a Chorus, but that was stolen... So was my other compressor and other delay..." later stating this happened in Chicago.

The photo shows the magenta Boss pedal right next to Cliff's left foot resting on a Morley.

At the minute 0:35 of the video you can see he used the bassballs but the image is incorrect because the vintage bassballs was the real one.

"In the 1984 radio interview with Ken Kitt of WCSB, when asked what pedals he uses. Cliff responded with

MXR 143 limiter (No longer produced) Boss Delay* (Possibly a BOSS-DM2/DM3*) Chorus pedal (Unnamed in the interview likely a BOSS CE-3*) Washburn A-AD9 Delay (Seen in Kill’em All tour photos)"

In this photo of Metallica playing at The Stone, their first concert with Cliff Burton you can see 3 pedals on the floor: BOSS CS-1, Morley PWF and an MXR Stereo Chorus, which can be heard when he performs Anesthesia at The Stone https://youtu.be/YCGM4ttgl2k around minute 1:17 In addition to the fact that in this interview he mentions that he had a chorus but it was stolen https://youtu.be/Dxaut6XsM_E