I'm in the market for a new bass rig. I have NEVER been happy with my tone amplified and I'm hoping you guys can give me some pointers in which direction to go. I want something that is a lot more aggressive sounding but can still be pretty when i need it to be. David Ellefsons tone on the Rust in Peace album is pretty close to what I want. Punchy aggressive and articulate. Clarity is also important. I absolutely hate boominess.
Here's a little back story on the gear I have, the gear I used to own and my general playing styles. Currently I'm running a Mark Bass Classic 8x10 with the Mark Bass R500 or my Little Mark 2 Combo amp head into the 8x10. This setup is pretty bad for what I play mostly, metal. Works great for Jazz, RnB or older rock stuff but it's not as aggressive as I want my amp to be. I used to have an Acoustic 8x10 with two 4x10 on two acoustic B600 heads. Lets just say that rig didn't last long in my collection. I play Musicman Bongos primarily and tend to favor the upper mid frequencies. I play with my fingers and rarely do slap anymore. Try to get a Holy Wars bass tone with your fingers and basically thats what I want. Don't say use a pick or EMGs either! I don't want to be a copy of anyone else I play in a lot of bands/styles and play a lot of different venues so herein lies one of my biggest problems. I need a rig or rigs that will always sound similar but can be broken down for small coffee houses to dive bars and built up for bigger stages and outdoor gigs. One band I'm in I compete with four Marshall full stacks and a drummer who luckily has great volume control. I also play everything from heavy Metal (Metallica, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold, Iron Maiden, etc) to Jazz (lots of Jaco and big band music) and Classical which I sometimes use an upright or fretless for. Eventually I would like to run stereo so I'm trying to get away from 8x10s.
Keep in mind all the stuff I want to try out is nowhere in town but (que Guitar Center promo music) I can order it. So personal experiences would be appreciated. Money really isn't important so throw any and all ideas at me. I've been looking into a couple different options. I really like the way the Hartke Hydrive cabs sound with the Hartke LH series heads but no personal experience just audio clips. I've also heard really nice tones from the GK RBH 4x10s. Mesa Boogie amp and cabs I doubt sound bad and have a lot of bells and whistles that caught my attention and they have different speaker enclosures from most manufacturers. One of the other ideas I had is a little more complex. TC Electronics makes these interesting little 2x10 and 1 or 2x12 RS series cabs. My idea was to possibly run either four 2x10 cabs or a combo of two 2x10 and two 2x12. I also really liked a lot of the features on the TC electronics Blacksmith and RH750 heads. Only thing is I'm not sure if daisy chaining four cabs to one head is the best idea but I've never done it. No Ampeg please. I've tried most of Ampegs lineup and don't have anything that nice to say about the modern day Ampegs. Plus the only decent stuff is $2,000.00+ which for that price range there are much better options IMO. I'm still shopping around for heads so throw some ideas and opinions at me.
Thats your que
I'd say go Hartke...that's what Ellefson is using now. Or you could add a pedal or two to your Markbass rig if it's just distortion that you want.
