How to Sound Like Robert Trujillo – Playing Style, Gear & Inspiration

In heavier styles of music, it’s often the case that you notice the bassist isn’t playing before you notice you can’t hear them anymore. Only a handful of bassists rise above that. Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz is definitely a bassist of whom you can say that. Most fans of heavy metal will know him simply as Robert Trujillo from Metallica. In this blog, you’ll read what it is about his bass playing style that gives him such a distinctive sound.

Unorthodox techniques

Since Metallica’s St. Anger tour in 2003, Trujillo has been a full member of this legendary group. Before that, however, he had already firmly established his name thanks to his strikingly tight and fast bass work with acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Suicidal Tendencies, Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains) and Infectious Grooves. ‘Violent & Funky’ by the latter band, in particular, is an excellent introduction to his style. The bass parts in this funky track show the most dangerous weapon in Rob Trujillo’s arsenal: his unorthodox right-hand technique. Unlike many bassists in heavier genres, Robert mainly plays with his fingers. He usually plucks the strings with his index and middle finger, but every now and then he’ll also bring in his ring finger and even his little finger.

Flamenco

There’s one more important thing that makes his fingerstyle playing so remarkable. When he plucks his bass strings with his fingers, he treats them like tiny plectrums. By moving them back and forth, he gets 200 per cent out of these tight and rapid digits. This is partly based on flamenco guitar technique, which he picked up from his father and still uses in his spare time on classical guitar.

Overdriven guitar amp

Trujillo doesn’t just stand out in his playing. Alongside a standard bass amp, he always makes sure to add an overdriven guitar amp to his set-up. For most bassists, this really isn’t without consequences for the speakers in a guitar amp. You can safely plug a guitar into a bass amp, but plugging a bass guitar into a guitar amp can potentially cause damage. That’s why it’s wiser to send a healthy blend of distortion and clean to a bass amp only. The Boss ODB-3 and the Bass Big Muff Pi by Electro Harmonix are very suitable for this, for example, but the overdrive pedals by Ashdown might also appeal to you.

Earth-shaking tones

If, like Robert, you play through an amp by Ampeg, you’re already well on your way to making his earth-shaking low end thunder. He plays, among other things, a signature bass guitar by Warwick. For bassists with a slightly tighter budget, there’s also a very decent selection of active basses. With bass strings by Dunlop, you’ll be, just like Trujillo himself, completely ready to play.

Jaco Pastorius

After, among other things, the highly acclaimed studio album ‘Death Magnetic’ and the much-talked-about ‘Lulu’ with Lou Reed, ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ is the latest release where you can hear the low-end bass sounds of this master bassist. Who knows, you might even hear the legendary fretless Jazz Bass by Jaco Pastorius, which is currently owned by Robert Trujillo. To wrap up this bass blog in fitting style, we’re also sharing the music video for the track ‘Moth Into Flame’.