Bass + Metal guitar sound at the same time?

[Joak]

Hi, I'm new to effects and such, so please avoid the technical language. :P

I play bass in a band. I'm looking for some kind of pedal(s) which gives the dry bass output and a distorted octave + a fifth on the octave.

Right now I've tuned my bass to D G C G and I play the bassnote, the octave and the octave fifth with a dist, but I don't like the distorted sound of the bassnote, and it's tedious to play for a long time.

Kind of like playing bass + heavy metal rythm guitar at the same time by only playing the bassnote.

Looking forward to any possible sollutions.

[RNV]

Good luck finding a pedal that will do all that. There isn't any, that I know of, octave pedals/processors that will give you anything but the full octave. If you want fifth, put your fingers in the fifth position. Most octave pedals have a extremely hard time and/or will NOT track as low as you are tuned much less more than one note at a time (analog only). I am in Drop C and only use my Octave pedal when I play in the higher registers. What you are asking for is going to be very synth sounding if it can be achieved. Get a Big Bass Muff and to the volume blend modification and play chords with your left hand, not a pedal.

[fu22ba55]

This question comes up pretty often... if you do a search for "octave up" or "lead bass" here on TB you might find some old discussions.

The Akai Unibass seems to be a popular answer. They are discontinued, but pop up here and on eBay every couple of weeks.

The Foxrox Octron is another option.

The Unibass is digital, the Octron is a fuzz/OD-based octave.

The Unibass will do a clean octave up (and some other stuff), the Octron will only do dirty.

[fitz420]

i believe the eventide pitchfactor can do the octaves and the fifth of the octave up. the micropog has a separate output for wet/dry, so you could use the micropog, run your dry sound out, then add distortion/fuzz + maybe a little delay + a harmonizer to the octave up then recombine them with a mixer....i think the ls2 could do this.

[RNV]

Here I stereotyped my favorite genre and figured he wanted to go down. Going up an octave as explained by fu22ba55 is way easier than going down in your tuning.

[gastric]

GT-10B can do that for you. Bass through Channel A, guitar sound via layered effects (harmonizer, distortion, guitar amp) in Channel B. Even comes with a variety of factory patches that give you that sound.

Note the guitar sound isn't exactly the same as an actual guitar. You're probably not going to get palm muted chugga-chugga out of it.

[GreggBummer]

As the other posters pointed out, there really isn't a "one stop shop" solution.

If I were in your situation I would do this:

Bass --> Boss OC-3 --> Zoom B1 Effects box (connected to dry out of OC-3) --> A/B/Y (to combine signal from B1 and OC3)


The OC-3 has a setting where it will give two octave sounds at the same time, one octave below and two octaves below. It also has a distortion setting. In your case, I wouldn't use either. I would use the "polyphonic" setting... this would allow you to play more than one note at a time.

From the Oc-3 send the wet signal to the A/B/Y box. The dry signal goes to the Zoom B1.

The Zoom B1 has a ton of effects. The octiver however is monophonic and sounds terrible. It does have a nifty pitch shifter option that will allow you to get your "fifth above". However is is monophonic as well. You can add distortion, fuzz, chorus, delay, or whatever you like to this signal.

Send the signal from the B1 to your A/B/Y. A/B/Y to amp.

Tune the bass to EADG. This will allow the octaver and B1 to track properly. If you are using the octaver, why down tune anyway?

OC-3 is about $100. The B1 you can find on sale for $40. A/B/Y box is about $35... Morely makes a good one. Behringer also makes a decent one for about $25.

All that being said, if I were in your situation, I would look at that "5th above" note and see if I could find another solution. Maybe adding another guitar, a keyboard, or something might help. Keyboards are over looked in metal. They can fill these types of gaps.

Just my two cents.

[christw]

Originally Posted by gastric

GT-10B can do that for you. Bass through Channel A, guitar sound via layered effects (harmonizer, distortion, guitar amp) in Channel B. Even comes with a variety of factory patches that give you that sound.

Note the guitar sound isn't exactly the same as an actual guitar. You're probably not going to get palm muted chugga-chugga out of it.

With a noise gate set to high squelch and a fast decay you could at the least get the emphasis of a crunchy palm mute. It's a poor man's remedy, I admit. This is also assuming the OP can find the right pedal in the first place.

[Joak]

I already have got a Bass Big Muff pedal. It has that "dry" setting which outputs the dry and the distorted signal at the same time. Thinking about running that output through an octave + fifth, or maybe the opposite order.

Just to clarify, I'm looking for an octave UP, not down. I will use regular tuning if I get the proper effect, I'm just using D G C G to be able to play the fifth on high G string.
Thanks for your advice guys, I'll look into all pedals mentioned.

Edit: The Akai Unibass seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. Now I just need to find some place to buy it. How much should they go for?

[Kromwarp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2YHS6wEGnQ

Here's a quick clip so you can hear what it sounds like

[Gozu]

Ehx hog has octave and 5th I believe. As well as a dry mix and output. Run the wet through a nice dirt and both into a ls2 or similar. Or run the distorted wet signal into a dedicated amp. Lovely

[lowfreq33]

I've seen the Unibass go as high as $800 on ebay. The average is $400-$500. Discontinued, and people seldom wish to part with them.

FWIW they were $249.99 when I bought mine in 2002.

[sonic assassin]

isnt this option what makes the bass whammy so popular?

again, its a case of X famous person has it and its not made anymore, so they are worth a lot.

from what i understand, the eventide pitch factor seems to be the easiest way to go about it, short of running a bunch of splitters to give you signals to feed into an octave pedal and a 5th pedal (since both are key ambiguous) and then combining them to go into a distortion pedal (or separate amp).

the boss ps6 has an octave up and fifth down setting. not sure if that could be good enough for you.

the digitech harmony man might be able to handle it.. at 300 dollars

[bassbrad]

The Akai UniBass will do exactly what you are looking for and has separate outs for the original signal and effect or a mix control, it has an overdrive that might get you by but it's not the best sounding fuzz. Tracking is very good if you get the input set to the correct level.

[fasto]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

I've seen the Unibass go as high as $800 on ebay. The average is $400-$500.

not true!!!

I´m a huge fan of the Unibass and have been tracking the prices for the AKAI UB1 Unibass pedal for some months now, the average price is: 281 U$ (or 215 €). Maybe you mean the AKAI Deep Impact SB1 pedal ... those prices are insane because of this overrated Muse bass player (sorry Muse fanboys).

The Unibass is a great pedal, the build in distortion sounds very plastic and synthetic but put another fuzz or distortion after the unibass and it sounds great. Another trick: use the "Effect Output" and hook it up to an guitar amp, WOW!

If you want to find out more (demos, manual, price watch) about the Unibass: http://www.hansvanrock.com/akai-ub-1-unibass/

[Joak]

Thanks a lot guys! You rock!
Now I've just got to get my hands on a AKAI UB1 Unibass pedal, but I think I can do that on my own. Let this thread die :P.

Thanks again!

[Joak]

I've done a bit of searching on the Unibass but found nowhere to buy it, so I've changed my mind.
I'm thinking about getting a pure octave up pedal with a dry output and a pure fifth pedal.
Basic blueprint:
Bass -> 8up pedal ->! Effect output -> 5th pedal -> Guitar amp with dist.
..........................->!Dry output -> Bass amp.

That will work, right?
So now I need to know which pedals to get. I need the cheapest bass 8up pedal that tracks well and with a dry output, and the cheapest 5th pedal. I don't want to spend money on pedals with more effects than I need.

Edit: How about a behringer US600 http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/US600.aspx ? Is the "OUT B" a dry output?
I don't understand how the 5th harmoniser works. If I for example play the note F# while being in E minor mode, will the pedal add the 5th of the note (C#) or the 5t of the scale (C)? If that even is how it works, please explain if I've misinpretted something.