Equalizer during guitar solos

Mr. Metal Smith · #1 08-09-2011, 12:39 PM

Hey TalkBass'ers,

I play in a 80'ies inspired 3 piece metal band and I use a Bass Big Muff in the dry position to thicken up the sound a bit. When the guitarist plays solos I add a few double stops etc, but I would also like to boost certain frequencies to simulate the missing rhythm guitar.

I'm thinking I need to boost like 800Hz and somewhere between 1.5KHz and 3KHz (?).

What equalizer pedal would you recommend?

Unrepresented · #2 08-09-2011, 03:57 PM

The big muff will already add in additional octave content in upper registers. Blended with your fundamental, you shouldn't even need much if any additional equalization.

Pandafist · #3 08-09-2011, 04:59 PM

dude - "hey I'd like to try this. what do you rec?"
talkbass - "no you actually don't and i refuse to offer any helpful suggestions."

Unrepresented · #4 08-09-2011, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pandafist

dude - "hey I'd like to try this. what do you rec?"
talkbass - "no you actually don't and i refuse to offer any helpful suggestions."

Ok. Lemme try again:

Have you tried adjusting the filter settings on your muff? Assuming you set it counter clockwise enough, you should definitely be stepping into rhythm guitar range.

walterw · #5 08-09-2011, 07:58 PM

boosting "guitar" frequencies might just get in the guitar's way when he's doing solos.

+1 to a pinch of bass big muff (blended in to the dry signal) probably being enough.

if not, then there's nothing to do but get one and try it, boosting different frequencies until you find something that fills in what you think is missing without stepping on the guitar player.

MuthaFunk · #6 08-09-2011, 08:39 PM

I use a fulltone bass drive during guitar solos to fill in the sound and keep the rythim distortion audibly present. The bass drive pedal has a low mid thick tube grind to it. It doesnt produce near the amount of low end bass that a big muff does but it works really well at keeping our 70's- 90's rock alt band sounding bigger than we really are. (only one guitarist). You might find it usefull before or after your big muff. If your really set on trying an eq it's hard to beat the price to performance ratio of a used Boss Bass EQ. I have a MXR 10 band EQ pedal that is super delux with LED's on each band and a very clean volume boost. It needs an 18vdc power supply though.

chaosMK · #7 08-10-2011, 11:41 AM

I wouldnt even stress about covering for a "missing" guitar. If you are in a 3 piece you should always have a big sound, run more grit if you feel lonely while he solos. Think RATM.

Mr. Metal Smith · #8 08-10-2011, 12:00 PM

What I mean is that I already use the BBM in the dry position as my base sound. I think our sound is pretty big already, so I only want a subtle boost to certain frequencies when the guitarist stops playing rhythm and starts playing solos.

I'm not totally sure what Unrepresented means by filter settings on my BBM. It's in the dry position and with the tone knob at 3 o' clock or maxed IIRC.

My main question was just what EQ pedals people wound recommend. A minor one was which frequencies to boost, but I will experiment with this myself of course.

Thanks for your input so far

DeltaPhoenix · #9 08-10-2011, 12:03 PM

Maybe a Devi Dark Boost...IDK

Unrepresented · #10 08-10-2011, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Metal Smith

I'm not totally sure what Unrepresented means by filter settings on my BBM. It's in the dry position and with the tone knob at 3 o' clock or maxed IIRC.

I don't specifically own a bass big muff but muffs in general are built with a frequency filter (tone filter) that adds or removes upper octave content. From your description you're probably already utilizing it effectively, but it never hurts to double check, especially when it's the cheapest solution.

Marton · #11 08-10-2011, 12:38 PM

Have you tried using a octaver before the muff during the solos ?

teleharmonium · #12 08-10-2011, 12:43 PM

It really doesn't sound like a good idea to me either.

I think it's fair, when advice is asked, to look at the larger assumption behind the advice. I'm not really about abetting ideas I don't think will work. When I'm the guitarist, I hate it when I solo and other people turn up. That forces me to be less dynamic and to play harder which means my sound is not as clean as it would be otherwise. And the annoyance doesn't help my playing either.

There is no point to having arrangements if everybody jumps in to fill up every space that opens up.

Mr. Metal Smith · #13 08-11-2011, 08:03 AM

Well for my band and the style that we play, this is really what we want to do. No I have not tried using an octaver because I don't think it will give me the sound I want, but maybe will try it at some point.

Although I appreciate the comments so far, and perhaps my first post was unclear, I somehow think my real question got a bit lost.