High on Fire / Jeff Matz

[jrmy]

Anyone hear heard the new High on Fire, "Snakes for the Divine"? Jeff Matz's bass tone is MASSIVE. Anyone got ideas about his setup live or in the studio?

Also, has anyone seen them live?

[moose23]

How would you describe your tone?
I go for a huge, bottom-heavy sound. My typical setup is an 8x10 cabinet with an early-’80s SVT head. I turn that on its side and put my Marshall cabinet with an old Laney guitar head on top and split my bass signal. Because I use bass and guitar amps, I get both a beefy SVT tone and a screaming Motörhead sound. The combination adds an element to my sound that I can’t recreate with any fuzz boxes. It’s pretty rude!

GEAR

Bass First Act Limited Edition Delgada; GHS Bass Boomers (.050–.115), Dunlop Tortex Picks (1.14mm)
Rig ’80s Ampeg SVT VL head and 8x10 cab; ’70s Laney Klipp head and Marshall 4x12 cab
Effects MXR M80 Bass DI, Fulltone Bass-Drive MOSFET, Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff, Whirlwind A/B Box, Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
“I run the DI, with distortion as my primary tone, into the SVT. I’ve also been using Matt’s Metal Muff to get a crazy, overdriven sound. We like the heaviness of tuning down two steps to CFBbEb.”

from here:

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/hi...May-2008/35685

[jrmy]

Nice! Thanks for the linkage. I knew he had used the split-amp technique in the studio on Death Is This Communion, but didn't know he was carrying it through live, too. Badass, man.

[moose23]

Yeah he sounds so good on the new album. Wondering whether I should have sold my mxr di now.

[jrmy]

You can always buy another, right?

[moose23]

Yeah for sure, I have no real need for it at the moment.

[Joe Gress]

CFBbEb
Heh, my jamming with cellos tuning.

[Kügel]

So he's bi-amping with a bass and guitar head to get good lows and nice distortion?

I'm thinking about doing this as well. Using bass cabs for both + 1 bass head and 1 guitar head. Am I understanding this right?

[Deluge Of Sound]

I'll try to verify this when I see them in April. Last time out, we were too far away to make out anything besides the amps and cabs.

Odds are, though, I'll be too gone to pay much attention to gear.

Also, is it me, or has Des totally switched up his drumming style for the new record? I miss the heavy tom attack from the days of yore.

[moose23]

Originally Posted by Kügel

So he's bi-amping with a bass and guitar head to get good lows and nice distortion?

I'm thinking about doing this as well. Using bass cabs for both + 1 bass head and 1 guitar head. Am I understanding this right?

He also distorts the signal going into the SVT but I'm not sure if he uses the blend on MXR on that part of the signal.

[sanfordandsonny]

When I saw HoF at in DC on 4.11.10
he played a First Act 12 string for the first few songs but I wasn't able to get close enough to see the pickup configuration. Walking around the room at the Black Cat I wasn't able to get a good mix of bass, drums and guitar until I plopped myself down right by Matz's monitor. Not only could a I hear everything perfect from time to time I could lean back and rest my spine on the sub (!!!)
he used his black Delgada mainly with a wine colored one on standby.
I didn't see the 8x10s or Emperor 4x15s I'm used to seeing him with. He had 2 4x10s with silver colored tweeters in the center (SWR?)and a Marshall 412 on his side of the stage. Off the stage he had two rack roadcased amps one was a 70's Laney head and an MTI SVT (it "could" be a skunkworks but the only way to tell would be a ?#/500 brass plate on the back) His pedalboard consisted of a TU-2, DS-1, Morley ABY, Line 6 DL4 and Ashdown hyperdrive. I have two closeups of his board one of which shows the settings on the hyperdrive but I have to check how to post pics before I embarass myself.

[Deluge Of Sound]

img tags. [ img ] without the spaces [/ img ]

Glad you caught them, this tour has been epic.

[bongomania]

I saw them live a few times back around 2001-2003; I really should make an effort to catch them again in the near future.

Back then I was so awestruck by the number of fridge cabs they were using, in a tiny 100-person venue, that I didn't even notice what amps and effects they were using.

[Deluge Of Sound]

I'm pretty sure George Rice never used any effects. I actually prefer his tone to Matz's, but Jeff absolutely killed it last night, as well as when I saw them last year. Dude's a beast of a player.

[Din Of Win]

Originally Posted by bongomania

I saw them live a few times back around 2001-2003; I really should make an effort to catch them again in the near future.

Back then I was so awestruck by the number of fridge cabs they were using, in a tiny 100-person venue, that I didn't even notice what amps and effects they were using.

I saw them around this time too (w/ Planes Mistaken for Stars and Kylessa when they were still good).

Also, i was just stoaked on the sheer NUMBER of amps/cabs on stage i didn't pay attention to WHAT anything was.

[MAMMOTHvolume]

Originally Posted by jrmy

Anyone hear heard the new High on Fire, "Snakes for the Divine"? Jeff Matz's bass tone is MASSIVE. Anyone got ideas about his setup live or in the studio?

Also, has anyone seen them live?

those laney klipps amps are really awesome and the klipp circuit is really unique!

[theavondon]

Cough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2UhcEY9cdg

[sanfordandsonny]

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by MAMMOTHvolume

those laney klipps amps are really awesome and the klipp circuit is really unique!

Grygrx had one of those pedals FS quite recently. I don't know if he still has it.

[sanfordandsonny]

Thank you for helpin' a newbie

Originally Posted by Deluge Of Sound

img tags. [ img ] without the spaces [/ img ]

Glad you caught them, this tour has been epic.