Justin Meldal-Johnsen

Justin Meldal-Johnsen is a bassist, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, best known for his long tenure as bassist for Beck. He joined Beck's band around 1996, after Beck had a hit with "Loser", and has played with him on and off ever since¹. Empress Effects and JAM Pedals both list him among their bass-playing artists with Beck, Nine Inch Nails and St Vincent²³, and his session and touring credits reach much further: Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, Macy Gray, Air, Frank Black, Pink, Emmylou Harris, Goldfrapp, Garbage, The Dixie Chicks and School of the Seven Bells¹.

He is also a producer and musical director. His first paid producing project was the LA band Division Day's album Visitation, which he still calls "quite a cool album"¹. He has produced records for M83, Wolf Alice, Jimmy Eat World and The Raveonettes¹, and has served as musical director for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Beck, M83, Ke$ha and Sara Bareilles¹. In 2017 Fender released the JMJ Mustang Bass, a signature model modeled after his 1966 Daphne Blue four-string Mustang bass¹.

Bass with Beck, Nine Inch Nails and St Vincent

Meldal-Johnsen's career splits into three overlapping jobs: bassist, producer and musical director. Strymon's 2018 artist feature noted that over the course of two decades he had worked as producer and multi-instrumentalist for what it called "an impressive and seemingly endless list of iconic bands and artists"¹. The playing credits from that interview give a sense of the range¹:

• Nine Inch Nails
• Tori Amos
• Macy Gray
• Air
• Frank Black
• Pink
• Emmylou Harris
• Goldfrapp
• Garbage
• The Dixie Chicks
• School of the Seven Bells

He is not only a player of pedals but a designer of them. The Malekko Diabolik is a signature fuzz pedal designed in conjunction with Meldal-Johnsen, whom Premier Guitar's reviewer described as "long-time bassist for Beck, and, like the creative element at Malekko, a funky tone enthusiast"⁴.

The ParaEq MKII Deluxe on his rig

The center of Meldal-Johnsen's EQ setup is the Empress Effects ParaEq MKII Deluxe, which appears on his Empress artist page among the pedals he uses². His relationship with the Canadian maker goes back a long way. In his own words on that page:

Of Empress's dedicated Bass ParaEq he is equally direct:

The ParaEq MKII Deluxe itself carries some weight at Empress: the maker calls it their top-selling pedal of 2023, with three parametric EQ bands, four additional filters, 30dB of footswitchable boost, 27V internal operation for headroom, and a choice of true or buffered bypass⁶. A limited-edition black sparkle version with white-on-black graphics carries all the same features⁶. Press coverage has been favorable too: Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson called the guitar version "my favourite ever EQ pedal", one that "has pretty much been welded to my board since it very first emerged"⁷.

The rest of his pedalboard

His Empress artist page lists a full spread of the maker's pedals beyond the ParaEq²:

The phaser choice fits a player with a collector's ear for the effect: his Empress artist page describes him as "someone with a couple of holy grail vintage phasers in his studio"².

On the drive side, he uses the JAM Pedals Rattler Bass, an overdrive built for bass players. He says the modern provisions won him over:

He adds that he prefers its tone to his old OG pedal⁹. For chorus he uses the JAM Pedals WaterFall Bass, and his enthusiasm runs past the bass chair: "Whether I'm playing bass, producing, or working with synths and guitars, I'm always trying to sneak chorus on things wherever I can"³. Of the Waterfall Bass itself he says it is "absolutely stellar", "super flexible, extremely juicy", and that he would recommend it to any bassist¹⁰.

His Strymon gear serves the studio side of his work. He uses the TimeLine delay in the studio, and powers a compact session rig with the Ojai power supply:

He has also praised Origin Effects' DCX BASS and BASSRIG '64 Black Panel, calling them impressive for their "great sounds, impeccable design, and deep feature sets with every control being useful and musical"¹¹.

For a player building a bass pedalboard, Meldal-Johnsen's rig shows one consistent pattern: parametric EQ for shaping the fundamental, a mix-equipped overdrive for grit that keeps the low end, and a flexible chorus, all from makers he has stayed with for years.

Questions