Rex Brown on His New Signature Spector, the Pantera Bass Sound, and Why “The Magic Is in the Mids”

The Bass Nerds recently had the chance to sit down with Rex Brown for a deep dive into all things bass. Of course, when Rex is in the room, there is plenty to talk about.  Full Video Podcast at the bottom.

One of the big topics was his new Spector Euro 4 Rex Brown Signature Bass. The Desert Gold instrument took about a year and a half to develop with Brown and Spector dialing in everything from the color to the woods and electronics. It features a flame maple top, empresswood body wings, a maple neck, Indian rosewood fingerboard, EMG PJ X pickups, and Spector’s TonePump preamp.

For Brown, much of the design came down to one important part of his sound: the mids.

“It just has that low midrange that I was missing,” he explained.

[Rex Brown and Spector Brand Manager Wil DeYoung]

That search for the right frequencies also carried over into his current live rig. Brown and his engineer Sid spent weeks profiling Kemper rigs, even using an isolated bass track from Far Beyond Driven as a reference. The goal was to capture the character and feel of his classic cabinet driven sound while playing stages where in ear monitoring has largely replaced walls of amps.

That matters even more with the way Pantera is touring now. On the Metallica M72 dates, there are no traditional cabinets on the stage so Rex is relying on in ear monitors and bass boards around the stage to help him physically feel the low end. It is quite a change from the old days when he remembers standing in front of massive rigs with dozens of 10 inch speakers while Dimebag had stacks of Randall cabinets next to him. Rex was pretty clear about the result of all that volume.

“I’m deaf because of that,” he said.

Even with modern monitoring and enormous stadiums, the most important thing is still the groove. Rex talked about locking in with Charlie Benante and how easy it is for the excitement of a show to make the band push the tempo. He said he will look over at Charlie when they need to bring things back.

“The groove is what we’ve always been about,” Rex said, adding that he and Charlie have keeping that pocket “down to a science.”

Another big part of that sound is Rex’s pick attack. He has heard the fingerstyle versus pick debate plenty of times but for him the answer is simple. A pick was part of how Pantera developed its sound.

“That’s how we got our sound and that’s how we defined our sound, with that heavy pick attack,” he said. Rex can play with his fingers, too, but for this music, he said playing with a pick is simply “who I am.”

We also talked about Rex’s long history with Spector. Although he has played plenty of other basses and even had a signature Thunderbird with Gibson, he said Spector has always remained part of the picture. When we asked why the brand still feels like home, his answer was straightforward.

“It’s just my preference.”

Rex also admitted that the nerves never completely go away. Even after all these years and all those massive shows, there is still some anticipation before hitting the stage. The worst part, he said, is simply “the wait.” Once the bass goes on and the band gets out there, it is “full on boogie.”

Of course, we had to get a few bass player favorites out of him, too. Rex named John Paul Jones, Pino Palladino, Geddy Lee, and Dusty Hill among his favorites. And when he picks up a bass for the first time and wants to see what it can do, his test is pretty simple.

“Any Zeppelin.”
That pretty much sums up the conversation. Tone, feel, history, huge rigs, great bass players and a whole lot of low mids.