Two amp/two speaker setup to get a fat distorted bass tone

[jcburn]

Hi everyone. I am a lover of bass tones where the player mixes a nice clean bass tone through one amp/speaker set up and through a second amp/speaker set up an overdriven/distorted tone, usually with not a lot of bottom end, just lots of grit. Think Rex Brown on Reinventing the Steel, even (dare i say it) Mike Kroeger's sound on All The Right Reasons.
Has anyone done this, and to add I am on a serious bugdet. I currently have a Hartke LH500 amp, XL410 and XL115. I'm thinking of running my clean bottom end through the 15 and buying a seperate amp (I have my eye on a cheap GK Backline 300 or Hartke 2500) and then some form of bass OD, most likely a Sansamp or Dunlop MXR. What else would I need - some sort of A/B splitter yeah? What could I expect from this set up. I am constantly dissappointed by running my bass into a bass OD pedal into the amp. No matter how much fiddling I cant get decent bottom end.
Thanks.

[kaputsport]

I use a Boss LS-2 pedal to blend in clean tone, with one amp. I am moving to a modular type set up, two/three heads and same number of cabs soon, but not there yet. It works great, and I have 4 dirt boxes I use all the time. I even use them to blend with synths and other things as well...

always have FAT Bottom...

[jcburn]

I hear what you are saying - it's just I haven't found the sound with just the one setup and dont need much more to have a 2 amp/2 speaker set up so I thought I would do it this way, and would be handy to have the two setups - 1 to leave at home for rehearsal and one at our rehearsal room. Less to cart around. We dont play that many gigs at the moment.

[GregShadoan]

Swollen Pickle. They are very good sounding fuzz units. Lots of lo end.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by jcburn

Hi everyone. I am a lover of bass tones where the player mixes a nice clean bass tone through one amp/speaker set up and through a second amp/speaker set up an overdriven/distorted tone, usually with not a lot of bottom end, just lots of grit.

Has anyone done this, and to add I am on a serious budget.

I've done it many times. Works great for time domain effects too. I'll post a pic of my rig as soon as my website comes back up -- hopefully that'll be by tomorrow.

[jcburn]

That would be great thanks Charlie - I dont need anything for stadiums just average clubs that dont have PA's.

[Muligaroon]

You're on the right path to a very professional "dirty sound", if that's what you're after. I first learned of this when i snuck onstage at a Kyuss concert, one of the dirtiest low end bands of all time. John Paul Jones uses this setup live, as well as many other rock bassists looking for a bluesier thick and dirty sound rather than a fuzzy muffed sound.

there's lots of different ways to do this, the cheapest but not necessarily best way i've found was by using the Electro Harmonics LPB-2 tube pre-amp pedal to split your bass' mono signal. it can add some great tube distortion to the dirty side of your setup, while being able to just fatten up the clean side. You'll need to run two amps for this. It may be a lot of gear, but i've always found that it's worth the extra gear once you really dial in a great mixed sound.

I've never really shared any secrets to my sound but i thought you should start out with a possible "budget" option. If you like this setup, you may look into pro gear that does this a little differently.

[ihateusernames]

second vote for boss ls-2 and your favorite od pedals into one amp. way easier than carrying two amps ime.

[walterw]

you could wrangle yourself a guitar amp, like a solid state 1x12 combo peavey bandit or something, split off your signal into it, and use it just for the distortion. it won't need to carry any low end (roll its bass knob way down), so 1x12 or 2x12 would be plenty big to get the job done.

the problem with using one big bass cab for lows and the other big bass cab for distortion is that now you only have the one cab carrying the clean low end, so your overall sound will be less powerful.

if you had, say, a 2x15 for lows and a 2x10 for distortion that would balance better.

whatever you rig up, i'll bet you won't like distortion into any cab with a tweeter.

[jcburn]

I always wondered about using a small guitar combo for the overdrive - might grab a mates Marshall combo and try it out. Funny thing is I've just bought a standard Fender J 5 with an upgraded J retro pre and the tone straight out of the bass into my amp is just huge. I think it may just be the tone Im after without the dual set up!

[walterw]

Originally Posted by jcburn

Funny thing is I've just bought a standard Fender J 5 with an upgraded J retro pre and the tone straight out of the bass into my amp is just huge. I think it may just be the tone Im after without the dual set up!

sweet! "fixing" your tone is never as good as having a tone that doesn't need fixing!

[msgoodrich]

So here's the next question:
How best to send the two amp signal to the house board?
Most of my gigs have the bass DI from my amp going to the PA.
I would like to set up a two amp system, but not sure how best to tell the house sound guy to deal with it. If there are two DI signals from the two amps, will there be phase issues? Do I mix the two DIs with a box so the house sound guy only has to deal with one bass signal? Mike the cabinet with the distorted sound?

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by msgoodrich

So here's the next question:
How best to send the two amp signal to the house board?

Mike the cabinet with the distorted sound?

Yes. And be sure to bring your own sound man for best results.

[countrybass007]

I often use two amps with two different sounds. I use 10" speakers set more towards the high end and 12" with a 15" or an 18" for the bass end. Unfortunately, the only way to get my stage sound to the audience is by miking one of each cab. Most soundmen have been very agreeable to doing this, and just stick a mike in front of the 10s and the 15 or 18. As far as budget goes, mine is way out of control.

[lowfreq33]

I like the 2 amp thing, but a lot of times it's just not practical, especially at clubs with small systems and an inexperienced or lazy sound guy. An easier way to get the sound you want is with a distortion pedal that lets you blend your clean sound back in with the distortion, like the MXR Bass Blowtorch or Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. I do this with pretty good results.

[Amokoma]

I tried splitting my signal into two amps a couple of times.
Using a Gibson RD Artist, I played through a Peavey crossover-chorus pedal, which seperates the bass (350Hz) from the rest, and features a chorus on the higher freqs.
I sent the bass to a PVClassic400/Ampeg810 and the highs to a PV5150Mk2/MarshallMF400B.
It was fun enough, but the bass was lacking.
Then I tried a Radial Switchbone instead.
This proved a helluva lot better!
The Classic 400 has some pretty gnarly sounds itself, and this time pushed for it's full potential.
Teamed with a guitar amp that's legendary for it's grit, this was tone-tweak uforia!
Giving the bass amp the (fairly) clean highs and lows, and focusing the guitar amp on the mids, gave more sense of control over the distortion.
I think the same principle is used in the "Ashdown James LoMenzo HyperDrive" distortion pedal.
This also gives many interesting combination opportunities when it comes to effects pedals.
Fuzzes, overdrives, octavers, trems and compressors placed here and there gave A LOT of cool - and ultimately - useable sounds.
Of course, my ears were ringing for three days after, but it was definitely worth the go!
I'll do this again ASAP, but this time the plan is to use guitar amps, for the tube-amp growl.
I'm getting a JCM800 Bass now, and I hope to find a Hiwatt Custom 100, or an Orange OR120.
Then I want a bass cab that's effectively two in one, like a ElectricAmp 6x12-cab.
Then you're talkin'.
Expensive, but FUN!

[MNAirHead]

I know for certain that Peavey Solid State amps (Special, Reknown, Bandit) have an automix extention pedal (for 2 channels) they'll do this without all the stage clutter.. they can accept extention cabinets to fire your current cab.

I gigged a 2x12 reknown for years.. zero issues.. zero complaints.