how to add harmonies to bass??

Rwill87 · #1 11-18-2008, 08:06 PM

Ok this is my first post here.. my band resently went from a 5 members to 4 members.. and now that we only have one guitarist, he wants me to add a bit more to my sound when he goes into his solo's.. i can split the signal and add what ever to a clean tone but i need to know what effects to add.. he wants me to add harmonies to my bass.. like the new pitch shifter harmony pedal from digitech.. i was thinking maybe a boss octave pedal to a harmony pedal or a whammy (set on one of the harmonies) then an octave or two..
Just wondering if anyone has messed with this kinda stuff.. and if that octave pedal even goes up or down

Thanks

rratajski · #2 11-18-2008, 08:11 PM

EHX HOG, EHX POG, EHX Micro POG, Boss PS-3, Digitech Whammy IV or Bass Whammy, Akai Unibass, etc etc etc.

Search 'em up on here, Google them...there's lots of info on this page and the interwebs.

coreyfyfe · #3 11-18-2008, 08:19 PM

rratajski nailed it.

In my case, I originally got a EHX micro pog with the dry and +1 octaves about even and a little bit of -1 octave to thicken up the sound through an overdrive to cover these kind of situations. Currently I'm using an EHX HOG set to give me a power chord above my bass note plus a little -1 and -2 octaves through an overdrive to get a real heavy sound. Good stuff.

Rwill87 · #4 11-18-2008, 08:30 PM

thanks guys.. ive been very intrested in the WHammy(s) i was lead to this forum searching on how to get the effect for my bass(MM sterling) i currently split my signal and use a wah to digital delay split to a chorus -> boss distortion on one side (both always active) and phaser on other side(for when i get crazy). i was thinking of adding whammy at the beginning.

rratajski · #5 11-19-2008, 06:47 AM

Are you playing in E standard or lower than E?
If you're playing below D#, the notes get warbly w/ the Digitech Whammy for g****r...just a warning...but some people like the warbles...I found it tends to get lost in the mix once you add in g****rs and drums.

katri · #6 11-19-2008, 06:52 AM

how well do the HOG and both POG's track down to C#??

Rwill87 · #7 11-19-2008, 08:31 AM

i play half step down and most of our music is in d (or c sharp to be exact) so C# G# C# F# ...
i dont plan on using whammy effect all the way down on the D just mostly on 10th fret up on (a d g) but as far as needing harmonies like octaves and fifths I will need them all the way down.

katri · #8 11-19-2008, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rwill87

i play have step down and most of our music is in d (or c sharp to be exact) so C# G# C# F# ...
i dont plan on using whammy effect all the way down on the D just mostly on 10th fret up on (a d g) but as far as needing harmonies like octaves and fifths I will need them all the way down.

thats pretty similar to what im looking for, from all that ive read EHX seems to be the way forward

rratajski · #9 11-19-2008, 11:18 AM

The BMS doesn't track anything below D# on most settings on it for the suboctaves.

The HOG tracks pretty well, for the most part, but I'd like it to be a little tighter on the subs.

Someone will have to chime in the POG, but since it's related to the BMS and HOG, it should track well...

Rwill87 · #10 11-19-2008, 11:36 AM

thanks guys.. this place is awesome i wish i had found it earlier
..

SteveMcB · #11 11-19-2008, 12:25 PM

I'll just cut and paste what I've said earlier about this...

Quote:

There are quite a few options for filling in the space often occupied by a rhythm guitarist...

1) Multicourse bass (ie. octave paired 8 or 12 (4 courses) or 10 (5 courses) string). My personal favourite option, and to add distortion I've used the Sansamp BDDI (bass driver DI) which is good, or used a peavey BAC-2 biamp bass chorus, which has separate high and low frequency outs, running the lows to a bass amp and the highs through a guitar amp (and guitar distortion pedal (Boss OD3)) which is incredible

2) Octave down pedal, and play an octave up (ie. 12th fret and above) You get full lows, and the higher notes fill out the rhythm territory. Distortion with a BDDI (or other bass distortions) is optional. Issues are that generally octave-down pedals (at least the analog variety) track somewhat variably, produce synthetic-sounding octave-down notes, won't track lower down the neck and get very confused and glitchy if you play chords (or double stops even). Still a very useful option which I used in the past (with an old Boss OC2 but even a Danelectro Chilli dog would do the job most likely)

3) Octave up pedal (POG/MicroPOG/HOG/Whammy/Unibass) +/- distortion +/- octave up signal running through a guitar setup - this lets you play as normal in terms of fretting position, and adds an octave above. These also can work on chords/double stops, but tend to sound "digital"/"synthy", and be expensive.

4) "Uniboss" method - play your bass through a pedal with stereo outputs (eg. boss bass chorus which IIRC is what gave the method its name)(effect does not need to be on), run one output through your bass amp and the other through a guitar distortion pedal/amp combination - lacks the octave, but using a guitar rig emphasises the mids/makes yr bass sound a bit like a guitar and works for filling out the space

5) Blender - Allows you to preserve the low end by putting a distortion (or other for that matter) pedal in a loop and blend some of its sound with your fundamental clean sound - so you keep your low end and get your distortion as well from pretty much any pedal whether it keeps lows or not.

6) Using a pedal that is optimised for distortion on bass (Sansamp BDDI, MXR Blowtorch, Fulltone Bass drive, Ibanez Phat Hed, do a search and you'll find hundreds of others) or that happens to sound good on bass and not lose too much in the way of lows (Digitech Bad Monkey and EH Little Big Muff are often discussed in this context). IMHO this method doesn't really fill the guitar space that much, it just makes your bass sound different (and cool) but it is used by some people to fill things out

7) Biamp rig as described in 1) with distortion on the highs.

Good luck,
Steve

I would now add the EHX bass BM to this list - it has a massive fuzz, with the option of a clean blend underneath... Doesn't do harmonies or octaves, but fills things out and changes things up for not too much $. I also now use the biamp effects sometimes with a digitech bad monkey on the highs, going out of the speaker sim out into a small mixer (the lows go direct to the mixer without any effects) and out from the mixer to my bass amp, so I don't have to lug around the whole guitar rig to bass-only gigs.

Steve