Can I make by bass sound like a rhythm guitar?

[mettec]

I play in a hard rock/metal cover band with one guitarist and would like to simulate a second guitar type sound using either a pitch shifter or harmonic-octave pedal. My thinking was to use an A/B box running output A to my Genz Benz GBE750 head and into my Benz 2x12 cab for clean bottom. Output B would then go into a pitch shift or harmonic pedal then to a overdrive/distortion pedal and run that into my SWR 750 and then into my Benz 4x10 cab. I am guessing that this should give me the results that I want with some tweaking of the effects. What do you think?

[BadB]

Akai Unibass pedal. Good luck finding one. Octave up with distortion.

[bongomania]

Yep, that type of setup works well. From the title I thought you meant rhythm guitar like a strummed acoustic, and that's more difficult. But what you're describing is a proven method. Believe it or not, a little lower-wattage guitar amp will sound much better and more guitarlike for the dirt channel than the SWR/410 rig, and will be plenty loud.

Also, look into the Akai Unibass.

[Thor]

Sometimes, instead of laying out, I will ping the harmonics
along with the guitarist to add color, clank, pitch, consonance
or dissonance to the musical landscape. No effects needed.

You can also find them close to the bridge and use 2 or 3 together to
simulate the rhythm guitar. That's an interesting technique few people
use. Explore it and see what you think.

You may need to roll a little more treble on to make it work.

[NoNoise]

I play chords a lot in my band, because there is only one guitarist in my band, and he plays some crazy things. I don't use an octave-up, though. I find that playing chords on bass with distortion keeps tremendous low end while giving a heavy crunch. Of course, the sound may not work for all bands...

[Thor]

I knew Jack Casady was secretly posting here.

[MADChuudoku]

Originally Posted by BadB

Akai Unibass pedal. Good luck finding one. Octave up with distortion.

You can still buy them new from a few places, left over stock. they seem to fetch mad prices in america though.

[Swimming Bird]

Or play slap 'n' strum. You know, like Claypool but not lead.

Not even joking, it worked amazingly for my progressive metal band.

Also, there is the EHX POG or Digitech Whammy IV. Both are good options IMO.

[Zappstorius]

+1 on playing chords. Depending on the style of music, distortion works well...experiment.

[laboitenoire]

Build your own octave up/distortion. Not that hard to do as long as you can read a schematic and can solder. I can get a very interesting rhythm-esque sound with my bass. My Peavey actually has two bridge pickups in it (instead of a neck and bridge like it should have). When I actually have both pickups turned up all the way, I get phase cancellation which makes it sound guitar like. Then I run it through the compressor and octave fuzz on my Korg. If I need even higher pitches, I turn on the pitch shifter as well.

[assboglin]

The setup you describe should do the trick and sound badass.

[lunarpollen]

I'm lucky to have a 3 pickup bass where I can switch any of the pickups out of phase with one another, and if I play chords higher up on the neck with out-of-phase pickups, it sounds very guitarish, because most of the low frequencies get cancelled out and octave harmonics get enhanced, and it can sound somewhat like a 12-string... It's really weird... I don't know if a wiring modification option is something you would consider, but a toggle switch to throw your pickups out of phase (assuming you have more than one PU) can be a fun feature...

[Higgie]

Originally Posted by MADChuudoku

You can still buy them new from a few places, left over stock. they seem to fetch mad prices in america though.

Nope, the last place to have them were Planet Of Sound, and they sold theyre last couple of units recently.

[Buskman]

8 or 12 string bass + a touch of distortion...

King's X, anyone?

[cmhgreg]

You might try the Micro POG in front of a good overdrive or distortion. I can get a fairly convincing rhythm sound with my Micro POG set for a lot of +1 octave. I then feed it thru my Badder Monkey with the drive set at between 2 and 3 o'clock. I also boost the highs a bit and cut the lows on the Monkey. This produces a heavy "wall of guitars" kind of thing, which is what I assume you are going for.

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by mnolansoc

...I don't use an octave-up, though. I find that playing chords on bass with distortion keeps tremendous low end while giving a heavy crunch...

Absolutely - the biggest value of an octave-up (or especially the 'octave-up-plus-a-fifth-up' of the Unibass) is for when you want to actually play a regular, low bass line, and have 'a guitar playing unison power chords' - like for a Hair Metal arrangement.

If you mean to actually play a rhythm part, there's absolutely no need for a pitch change! I run flat-wound strings on a short-scale bass - not exactly the most harmonically-rich sound source to begin with - but I get wonderful Hard Rock / Metal guitar tone when I play chords on the high strings.

The song I worked on this weekend is Sabbath's War Pigs (more of the Cake version, though); I was newly amazed at how rich, authorative and complete the arrangement is turning out with my clean/distortion-blend. My main distortion tone comes from Diesel Dawg into CEB-3 into ODB-3; the other channel (I use an LS-2 for splitting/mixing) is compression and OC-3 octaver in Poly mode. The octaver is put way in the background, and the Dawg creates great subharmonics on chords, so there's definately plenty of low-end meat left when you go up the neck like that.

In answer to your main question is: "Yes - you can very succesfully play rhythm parts on your bass!"

Joe

[Crane]

I have not tried this, but you might be able to string it octave higher strings, and use an octave down effect.

Just an idea.

[luknfur]

If you're talking distorted guitar than a pod will provide a variety of tones. You don't even need to play triads, double stops are ample.

[tycobb73]

I use a unibass with much success. I'll post my pedal board when I'm done building it towards the end of the week.

[Dragonlord]

Originally Posted by BadB

Akai Unibass pedal. Good luck finding one. Octave up with distortion.

+1 for the Unibass. Not that hard to find one if you have the money. Both I and I think tayste_2000 (IIRC) have one for sale here on TB.