Bass Sound!

[Zombietakeover]

i would love to hear a sample of this $50 bass.......

IMHO, the smallest variable in the equation for bass tone is the bass itself...i've been getting decent - not great, but decent - tone out of a $50 lyon bass lately. and for those who keep track, yes, those are the shit-cheap washburn off-brand that they sell at target/wal-mart...i won't even get into how i ended up with it, i just did, and i use it because it's here

anyways - the essential tone of the bass will come from your fingers. i sold my fender jazz bass to my wife's little cousin a few years ago, and was over at their house recently, and 1 of his friends was jamming on it...and to be honest, i couldn't believe how shitty the thing sounded in his hands. he was pretty new to playing, so i was cutting him some slack there, but still - the sound i was hearing was total shit, and sounded nothing like it does in the hands of a good players.

after your fingers, your amp/cab/DI/whatever is going to make the 2nd biggest difference. if your shit isn't up to snuff in this category, you probably won't get the results you're looking for. typically shit that says ampeg and gallien-krueger will give you what you're looking for...and shit that starts with "beh" won't.

edit: i've also heard some older peavey bass heads that will rock your ass, and can be had for shit cheap used.

 

[colonel kurtz]

http://download.yousendit.com/3FBF73C8143D2B9E

the track is still unmixed/unmastered, but the bass you hear is the $50 lyon...it was DI'd through an ART MPA gold, and has the ampeg svx and psp vintagewarmer plugs on there

like i said, it's nothing phenomenal, but i think it's usable - better than some of the other shitty/cheap basses i've heard before. i might change the pickup at some point, but as long as it has fresh strings and is properly intonated, it'll get the job done.

 

[csholtmeier]

I hear ya on the cheap basses, as long as it I can set it up to play decent and I can put a Dimarzio Model P, J, or PJ in it.

The SX basses are pretty good for the money, I've got two.

The Agile Les Pauls that they sell are a serious bang fo the buck.

My guitar player (Les Paul freak) recently started using one to give lessons (the store he teaches at stopped carrying Gibson, so he could no longer bring them to work). He loves it, and it was $240, not counting new pickups.

 

[greyskull]

for the love of go dont buy an 8x10
that thing has been the scourge of every gig we play now

 

[botus99]

for the love of go dont buy an 8x10
that thing has been the scourge of every gig we play now

+1 !!!!!!

 

[musickey]

Does anyone else prefer to track a bass with passive pups? Just seems like when i go to re-amp a passive DI, its more flexable.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Does anyone else prefer to track a bass with passive pups?

Me.

 

[egan.]

Lots of people love passives but the original tone in question is almost certainly actives with brand new strings and a pick. I wouldn't get an 8x10" just to record with (but on my last tour I took 2 of them)....I think a sansamp is the way to go for painless awesomeness.

 

[JoeJackson]

Mind sharing some Sansamp-Settings?

 

[everybody's x]

man I got an acoustic control 220 a week ago for free. it is solid state, from the 70's. Dude just didn't want it any more.
I swear to god you run this thing through a 4x10 and the only thing better I've ever heard was a genuine SVT and a fridge.

hilarious

 

[sparkyness]

Does anyone else prefer to track a bass with passive pups? Just seems like when i go to re-amp a passive DI, its more flexable.

After nearly 20 years of playing active basses, I'm a convert to passive pickups now. Bartolini's specifically....warmth and growl for days.

 

[greyskull]

i prefer passive too.
they sit much better

 

[ElektricEyez]

buy a sansamp

+1

Even if that's the only gear change you made, you could use that to record driect, and if you set it up right, you'll get some KILLER bass sounds. Close to what your looking for. Seriously, just go to your music store and ask them to try it out - doesn't even matter which amp or bass you try it on (as long as it's not one of them old 70's basses that has nothing but low end pickups). That thing is like a "magic black box" for all bass if you as me.

 

[ahjteam]

Mind sharing some Sansamp-Settings?

I have the larger version and I usually start so that I put everything to 12 o clock (except the wet/dry knob to full wet). This is because it depends so many variable like playingstyle (agressive/gentle/fast/etc), use of plectrum/thumbing/fingers, the bass, the pickups and most of all, the sound what you want.. they all contribute to the result final sound.

If you want something that supports the guitars but isn't that audible (all settings in "clock format" like 4 o clock), bass to 4, mids to 2, high to 11, prescense to 9 and then drive and level so that it blends well and distorts minorly on the harder hits.

If you want the agressive fingerplaying style that you can hear every single stroke even through the largest wall of sounds ala Steve Harris and Fieldy, bass to 10, mids to 3, high to 4, prescense 2 and quite a lot of drive.

If you want to play deathmetal stuff, put BOSS ODB-3 in front of it for extra crispiness, bass to max, mids to 3, high to 7, prescence to 8 and drive to the max unless you start to get feedback

 

[ahjteam]

edit: doublepost

 

[devouredremains]

for the love of go dont buy an 8x10
that thing has been the scourge of every gig we play now

We've come to call our bass players 8x10 "The Fridge". Fucking thing sucks packing up and down stairs.

 

[JoeJackson]

I have the larger version and I usually start so that I put everything to 12 o clock (except the wet/dry knob to full wet).

My bass-player has that thing, too and as I'm the only guitar-player in my band, it would be great if he would not only be the guitar-support, but having a sound, that creates enough distortion and "meat", to fill out the rhythm-parts under my guitar-solos.

Thanks for your suggestions, we'll try that out!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Ugh unless you have a big studio where the fucker aint going nowhere then a 8X10 is a pain in the fucking ass. Even with the casters the thing is a big fucking pain in the ass.

 

[ahjteam]

forgot that thing didn't have knob for mids. but anyways.

If you want meaty but distorted sound, you need two sources, one for the bottom end meat and on for the distortion, because the best distortion comes from mids, distorted bottom sounds awful in my opinion.

You could try the trick that you do live with distorted bass guitar using amplifiers.... Put an extra DI before the amp for clean bottom, then just crank the distortion pedals and amp for mucho mucho for the distorted sound. mic the cab with something like SM57 and then highpass it + take the bottom off and take the treble off from the DI sound and blend so that it sounds kickass.

You can also try to add the ODB-3 that I mentioned above, its really good if you don't plug it to the walsocket or use brand new batteries with it, because if you use half-empty batteries, it drains out the the bad tone a little. thats the bassplayer who taught me this trick told me, (he is the one who is in the video), and I must admit that it sounded good that way

so the signal chain would be: Bass > tuner > DI > FX like distortion > amp (in your case, sansamp)

 

[everybody's x]

Ugh unless you have a big studio where the fucker aint going nowhere then a 8X10 is a pain in the fucking ass. Even with the casters the thing is a big fucking pain in the ass.

I love the sound of those monsters but HATE carrying them. I blew out my shoulder once for a month helping my bass player pick his up, on the night of the biggest gig of my life