Bass distortion?

[KillingMachine]

Hi !
I'm new here, and i have a first question for you all :
What distortion unit would you recommend for a bass to use on stage ? And in studio what would you use (software or other ?)
Thanks for your answers

 

[MR NINE]

HI!
Try the Sansamp bassdriver! It's great! Besides distortion you can have other kinds of bassamps sounds.
Or you can look for those pedals from EBS! The bass overdrive is pretty mean!

 

[black sugar]

I'd recommend the Fulltone Bass Drive for overdrive/crunch: http://www.fulltone.com/BD.asp

Vintage tube SVT in a box. True bypass, two gain stages, built like a steel shithouse (heh). I don't really even play bass anymore, and you'd still have to pry this pedal out of my cold, dead fingers.


The most insane bass fuzz on the planet is the Z-Vex Woolly Mammoth:

http://www.zvex.com/mammoth.html

The Z-Vex demo movie doesn't even scratch the surface of what this thing sounds like on a bass. It's a little akward onstage because the knobs are really close to the switch, but some electrical tape will take care of that. True Bypass, build quality is ok, and it's battery only unless you buy a special adapter bottom plate for like $40. Ouch.


I actually used to run the Bass Drive into the Woolly Mammoth into a Sans Amp Bass DI (oh, yeah, let's not forget the BOSS Noise Supressor!) into an old 70's Acoustic 2x15" rig for a while.

Let's just say I got a lot of questions about my gear after shows. Not quite sure if that's a good thing. Haha.

 

[egan.]

I'll second the sansamp bass driver...especially the new programable version.

 

[Daunt]

I like Ibanez PD7. I use it with Bass POD. Here's a song that has this combination:

CR - Wreck

 

[KillingMachine]

I like Ibanez PD7. I use it with Bass POD. Here's a song that has this combination:

CR - Wreck

Hey Daunt ! Sounds great ! I have a Bass POD too. What settings do you use on it, if you don't mind me asking ?

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions. keep'em coming !

 

[Daunt]

Hey Daunt ! Sounds great ! I have a Bass POD too. What settings do you use on it, if you don't mind me asking ?

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions. keep'em coming !

Thanks. Unfortunately I don't remember the settings because I change them everytime. It really depends on the player and the bass.

 

[blackcom]

Bass -> DI-box

Unbalanced -> API -> Distressor/DBX160/1176 -> Lowpass at 200hz

Balanced -> Jmp-1/Pod/Xt/whatever (use distortion and speaker sim outputs) highpass at 200hz, lowpass at 10khz.

This will give a nasty growl in the bottom, you might like it...or not...

 

[Fabbio]

I really don't like much the bass distortion! It's very noisy and you can't really ear what the bass is doing especially when it is buried under four or more heavy as fuck guitars!!!
Maybe its good to push the volumes on the amp but keep your picking (no fingers, unless you are CLiff Burton...) heavy and push some mids and cut some low end in the eq.

For me it works very good.

 

[DracWell]

Split it.
1 signal clean
1 signal with overdrive

Then mix them.
Sounds great What kinda sickens me is Marcel Jacob (Talisman) he has a GREAT bass sound, and he's using a zoom. Yes, a _zoom_ :S

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Split it.
1 signal clean
1 signal with overdrive

Then mix them.

Do you get phase problems if you do this?

 

[Fabbio]

No, no problems with phasing as long as you use the same setup.

It's a good way to use a distorted bass and still hear it in the mix.

I still prefer not using distortion on bass, though.

 

[SymbolicSV]

what i do : bass, old Randall head ( guitar ) , old Ampeg cab (bass) , i just put the drive of the randall near 12 o'clock ... and thats all ¡¡ works for me