Need me50-b help!!!

thsbass · #1 09-26-2008, 06:42 PM

Hi all... as you can see, I'm a noob to the forums, but I desperately need your collective help and wealth of knowledge here...

I recently dropped $300 on a new me50-b pedal because I had played it several times and it seemed to be the PERFECT pedal for what I needed (a tuner, a compressor, distortion and much much more!). Well, I bring it home and start messing around with it, knowing that I wont master it in a week. Well, fast forward to a month later, and after having spent many many many hours trying to figure the right combinations of highs mids and lows, along with the compressor, I'm at my wits end. I'll go into the specifics in a moment, but I just dont get why I can't get this thing down. I've tried to read through all the different posts on here about the pedal as well as just how to use the effects on it, but to no avail. So you all have become my last hope (and please forgive me if I bounce around or seem a little scatter brained)...

Where I'm running into my problem is with the distortion settings (Metal, Overdrive, Distortion, etc.). First, I can't get that crunch sound I'm looking for, without it being too muddy. I've tried messing with the highs and lows, but I can't get a good sound. I guess the best example of what I'm looking for is a little like the bass solo/rif towards the end of Rage Against the Machine's "Know Your Enemy"... or even a little bit of that crunchy synth sound that Muse has. Sometimes, when I turn the volume down low, I can get what I'm looking for, but I need my amp to be at show volume, and so when I turn it up that high, I get a build up that ends with a super high pitched scream (but then when I turn the highs down, I lose all the effect!).
*Quick Breath*
... and this leads me to my second huge problem. When I try to use my distortion in conjuction with the Reverb pedal, it sounds horrible. The reason for using these two together is that it makes for an awesome song intro (it starts off with a clean sound, and then gradually build into your overdrive/distortion as you push the pedal)...but everytime I try to get it to work two things happen: As I'm pushing in the pedal to get it to go from that muffled sound into the distortion, it makes this horrible high pitched yell half way through. Also, when I have the pedal pushed in (so the heel of your foot is touching and your toes are in the air), the muffled sound is soooo much louder that the distortion crunch sound. I've tried to mess with the limiter in this situation, but I can not seem to get the two to equal out.

Obviously, I know I've been all over the place with this post, so I don't expect any 1 step answers right away. It's just that I have read through a lot of everyone's posts here, and I know that all of you are much more knowledgable than myself on the subject, so please ask as many questions as you need to, and I'll do my best to clarify!

Thank you much for any help!

AndyLES · #2 09-26-2008, 09:25 PM

To address your second question first:

Something sounds microphonic in your system. What bass are you using? Sometimes pickups, when hit with lots of gain, squeal uncontrollably because they're not potted (i.e., coated) with enough epoxy/wax.

If your pickups are fine, then try dialing back some gain on the pedal.

As far as your second question - keep in mind that bands like Muse, when they record or perfrom live, use all sorts of stuff in the mix. They might run a DI clean alongside the distorted tone, and/or they may add extra compression. Or, it's just the other stuff interacting in the signal chain - their bass, with their amp, with their settings, their technique, etc. All these variables make dialing in an exact sound tough.

Try getting into the ballpark first, and then slowly tweak EQ and raise gain.

AndyLES · #3 09-26-2008, 09:31 PM

Here's an article that can explain it perhaps better than I can:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/...nericnoise.php

It's a guitar site, but much of it applies to bass as well.

thsbass · #4 09-26-2008, 10:52 PM

Thanks a lot guys. I really do appreciate the help very much.

I'm using a Schecter c-4, so it does have active pickups... I considered that briefly, but I thought that I could work around it if it was the pickups.