So Ive now taken on the role as a bass player... Gear advice required

[OrionsOnFire]

Hi there fellow Sneapsters!
Been a member here for a while - do plenty of reading but not a lot of posting, now attempting to be a contributor!
My band has recently lost its bass player which is a real pity, and as a trade-off to keep us operational and gigging I have put down the 6 string axe taken on the role as bassist, making us now a 3 piece. Not something I ever thought I would ever do but hey - its all good.

Ive now got in my posession a warwick 4 string (tuned drop D) and a boss gt6b board. I cant play with my fingers at all so Ill be using a pick.
What sort of amp / cab setup would you guys recommend for this sort of tuning and the style of death metal?
What sort of power would I need to have a nice punchy level to keep up with a full guitar stack (rhythm guitarist) and a drum kit complete with PA at rehearsals and on stage?
Has anyone else had to make the transition from playing lead/rhythm guitar in a metal band to being a bassist?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
peace

 

[006]

I'm not a full fledged bass player by any means, but I had a somewhat similar experience and this worked out for me...

You're going to want at least 500-700W. I normally play guitar but I was asked by an old friend to play bass in his grind band a long time ago. We did a lot of shows, small tour. It was a lot of fun being the bass player man, you make the shit sound heavy The only thing that sucked was the bass strings ATE my fingers until I developed much larger calloused areas on my fret hand. After that, though, it was fine. I also got to play a Warwick 4-string, a Corvette $$ actually, thing sounds and feels so good. I would recommend SVT at the top end, but I used a GK RB1001 (700W) head and Ampeg 8x10 for all of our shows and I wouldn't go any less on wattage. Alternatively, a lot of bass players in other bands we played with had a 4x10 and a 1x15 that usually sounded great also. I recommend also getting a compressor pedal or setting one up in the GT6 to stay even and have consistent power with all the notes, helps a ton when playing live.

 

[OrionsOnFire]

Cheers man, that helps a lot! Do you find you can dial in a fair bot of grit/overdirve via the preamps in the bass heads or do you need a pedal before the input to get it going? i.e. do they have a 'drive' channel like a guitar amp would?
If I was running the GT6B, would it be best to plug strait into the input of the amp or would I run it into a effects return? Do bass amps even have a effects loop?
Another thing - do I need to look at matching the wattage of bass heads and the cabinets or is it like Valve axe amps where its a bit more variable? Im only ever going to buy one bass amp setup - just want to make sure its the right one!
Sorry about the barrage of questions... thanks again for your help
peace

 

[006]

I never used a grit when I played, but I do wish I had. Some bass amps have an fx loop, others don't, just like guitar amps. Also some bass amps don't have any kind of grit/distortion on-board, the GK RB1001 that I used, for example, did not. As far as out front or in the loop... I'd suggest trying both, but I'd bet out front will work fine, and use 1 less cable. AFAIK from my experience with car amps and speakers, it's ok if the amp is higher wattage than the speakers. Just like how you can use a 120W guitar head with a 1x12 rated for 60w

 

[greyskull]

Sansamp. Immediately!

 

[OrionsOnFire]

cheers for the tips dudes. currently looking around ebay now for some gear... found a few things.. as soon as I pick something up (hopefully as soon as this weekend) il let yas know. Cheers!

 

[drchopps]

Sansamp. Immediately!

Definately agree.
I have been playing the warwick corvette taranis with an EMG MM pickup through an orange AD200 MK3 head and when i got myself a sansamp it changed my life. Also the EBS Multicomp compression pedal gave me the even tone i needed.

Also an 8x10 cab will be phat, you will find a lot of metal bassists use the 8x10 setup.
I have been using the 4x10 and 1x15 setup for a while, and whilst this is great for the low end and when playing more rock orientated stuff i have found it harder to sit properly in the mix when faced with a wall of shredding guitars, hence i am now looking into an 8x10 as everytime i play through one of these it sounds phenomenal.

uke:uke:uke:uke: