• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Effect that simulates a guitar?

G

Gord

Jan 10, 2004
458
102
40
Calgary, Alberta
cera.bandcamp.com
#1
Hi Guys,
I remember years back, reading about a pedal that layered your bass tone with a guitar tone as well. I just entered into a three cover band that relies heavily on rhythm guitars, which of course are non existent. I wanted to lay down my bass with a little bit of guitar sound on top, just to fill out the sound a tad.

The only other thing I remember about this pedal was that it was possibly no longer made, and EXTREMELY expensive. Are there any effects nowadays that are a little less expensive, but still achieve the same effect?
 
#3
i had to do somthing simalar in one of my old bands

so i brought a whammy and a digitech hothead

plugged into the whammy and the wet out went into the hothead (a little reverb also works to fill it out) and the dry went to the rest of my pedals

oh and the hothead went to a guitar amp

but im sure theres a easyer way to do it
 
#6
It's expensive, but the PitchFactor can do chord-type runs on top of whatever you are playing. The best part is, you can adjust the notes in terms of a scale (1st/unison, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc) which takes out a lot of the guesswork and there are 13 different scales to choose from.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#9
Akai Unibass goes for around $200 on eBay. I think they cost $150 - 175 new, when they were in production. You don't see tons of them around, but they're not rare either.

As was mentioned, there are lots of ways to add octave up and distortion to get that fill. Splitting or blending your signal will allow you to keep some clean bass on the bottom. The Unibass has those capabilities built in.

Pitchfactor, POG, and a few others can do more for more $.
 
#10
I use a Ric which has the option to go stereo out split bass (neck pup) and treble (bridge). and have the treble side go through a distortion and a green ringer. It works darn well for me and it would be easy if you use a clean blend and have the effect loop go guitar-voiced distortion >> green ringer.
 
#14
I use a Roland GR-20 bass midi synth, selecting one of the 468 sounds and running the synth back into the return loop of my Boss GT-10B. This allows all sorts of effects to be applied to the synth, harmonizer, distortions, reverb & chorus. I have the guitar like sound as a stereo spread, while the normal bass is centred in mono.
I also set the synth picking dynamics so that the synth only plays on hard picked notes, while the bass plays all notes.
Quite cool to have your normal bass line playing while a guitar like sound also plays, and being able to apply Wah to the rythm sound only.:hyper:
 
#15
I'm playing in a three-piece, and when the guitarist solos the sound drops out. I bought an EHX Micro POG, I run the dry out to my bass rig and the effect signal to a guitar processor (a DigiTech RP250, hand-me-down from the guitar player) and into a Fender Twin. The downside of the EHX effect is that when you turn the MicroPog off, it sends regular bass signal to the guitar amp, so you have to use an A-B switch. I set the Sub-Octave and the Dry to off and Octave Up all the way. When the solo starts I stomp on my Radial Big Shot ABY switch and instant rhythm guitar player. The POG tracks great and I can get any sound I want with the processor. I could run it from the processor directly into the PA, but having the guitar amp on the other side of the stage from the guitar player helps with stage volume and really sounds like another player. And the guitar amp makes it sound more like a real guitar, in my opinion.

If I did anything different it would be to think about buying a full-sized POG or even a HOG to get more voices. Or a hex pickup, then you could do anything. Hope this helps.

Drew
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back