I've only been able to listen to the one track so far but it's great stuff. In particular I love how you get that bass line going and hang onto it for a while. Also the tone...I don't know if the right word is growly or grindy but to my ears you've got an awesome edge to the low end, rather than just a fuzz or distortion on the highs/mids. That grindy low end is something I want to find. Do you remember what got you that sound in particular?
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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
I've only been able to listen to the one track so far but it's great stuff. In particular I love how you get that bass line going and hang onto it for a while. Also the tone...I don't know if the right word is growly or grindy but to my ears you've got an awesome edge to the low end, rather than just a fuzz or distortion on the highs/mids. That grindy low end is something I want to find. Do you remember what got you that sound in particular?
Great for showing off good speakers too.
i assume that you mean the featured cut?
fodera 6-string with a piezo under the bridge with flats tuned down a whole step. walter woods into a harry kolbe 1x12. probably a lovetone ring mod plus a od/fuzz (?) on the “biker riff”—i think.
culinary exploits. a new avenue of discussion.
Hello new drone helper.
I know we don’t talk a lot about distortion and fuzz here but this guy into some reverb and delay and I’m happy to let it sustain and sputter away.
I know we don’t talk a lot about distortion and fuzz here but this guy into some reverb and delay and I’m happy to let it sustain and sputter away.
We don't? Well quick, let's fix that!
fwiw I own half a dozen or so distortion/fuzz/overdrive pedals. I'm of the opinion that there's is no such thing as a "bad" fuzzbox, simply an inappropriate tool for certain situations. So at least for the past ~30 or 40 years I've never gotten rid of any of my fuzzboxes, just retired them from the primary pedalboard and kept them handy on a shelf for when the right situation calls for that sound.
The two that currently reside on my primary pedalboard are:
- Damnation Audio MBD-1 ...if I could only have one distortion stompbox for bass, this would be it. It does the whole gamut from subtle overdriven SVT grind to raging caturwauling shreddy buzz, and it does it all without sacrificing any low end. It is the only fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedal I've ever used that allows me to feel like I can still play "basslines" that support the band when it's engaged. Highly recommended.
- Ibanez TS-9 TubeScreamer ...mine is from the early 80s, not the more recent reissue. I originally got this for my guitar work, and never liked it for bass because it seemed to roll off so much low end when engaged. But ever since acquiring the MBD-1 I've found that the contrast between it and the TS-9 makes the TS-9 a much more valuable sound in my palette. I now use it set up for a much more fuzzy/buzzy almost synthetic distortion, more BigMuff-esque than overdriven tube amp, and so this gets kicked in when I'm looking to add a lot of sustain and high-frequency Zzzzzzzzzz without a lot of bottom. More for adding lots of upper harmonics to seed the ambience devices & loopers downstream than for single note lines per se.
Not currently on any pedalboard but getting a lot of use:
- JHS Pedals Angry Charlie V2 ...a client gave this to me several years ago in lieu of payment. It's ostensibly supposed to sound like a Marshall JCM800 amp, but I'm not familiar with those. I've never used it side-by-side with my TS-9 for comparison but I suspect they sound very similar, and so I use the Angry Charlie for similar results, just when I need one that isn't strapped down to a 40+lb pedalboard.
Getting far less use on bass, mostly used on guitar recording sessions:
- ProCo Rat ...original circa 1988, this is the archetypal "fuzzbox" that still sounds more plausibly realistic than a BigMuff. Perfect for Robert Fripp-esque keening long single-note lines, or when you don't want the individual notes of a double-stop or chord to be perfectly distinguishable.
- Tech21 SansAmp GT2 ...there's really only one sound I use this for on guitar -- it can be astonishingly effective at conveying the sound of a dimed Marshall Plexi mic'd in a room, but nearly every other setting on it I find to be too "buzzy" as if the distortion component is a separate layer on top of the guitar's sound -- but I really like using it on bass just to mess with the "air" around a note via the speaker cabinet and mic position parameters. Not for normal bass parts, but for when I want to make the bass less solid, less opaque.
Retired, but I'm saving it in case I can find a fix some day:
- Electro-Harmonix Talking Pedal ...this is the original Talking Pedal circa 1980, not the more recent Next Step Talking Pedal. The original Talking Pedal was marketed as a "Speech Synthesizer" and it was essentially a wah-wah pedal with a very high-Q filter so that it could generate vowel-like vocal formants. But its secret weapon was a pot on the side labeled "Sustain" that adds a totally over-the-top idiosyncratic fuzz/distortion with a subtle 8va component, which then makes the pedal capable of eliciting the most hellacious yowling screams you can imagine. This was my main go-to distortion for bass from the early 1980s until about 15 years ago when something died and it now emits a loud "POP!" whenever you step on the footswitch. Admittedly I was starting to overuse it, so in some ways it's a good thing I retired it, just to get my head (and my sound) into a different space. But it is a totally unique sound, so I can't bear the thought of getting rid of it. Fix it some day I will /yoda
Also:
- I have a Bananana Matryoshka, which has one setting they call "Distortion" but isn't; and I have a Line6 POD Pro, which I mostly use for guitar but have occasionally plugged the bass into. That just gets used in the studio. And rarely.
tl;dr -- maybe we shouldn't talk a lot about distortion and fuzz here
Not helping!!!26265671[/URL], member: 234523"]We don't? Well quick, let's fix that!
fwiw I own half a dozen or so distortion/fuzz/overdrive pedals. I'm of the opinion that there's is no such thing as a "bad" fuzzbox, simply an inappropriate tool for certain situations. So at least for the past ~30 or 40 years I've never gotten rid of any of my fuzzboxes, just retired them from the primary pedalboard and kept them handy on a shelf for when the right situation calls for that sound.
The two that currently reside on my primary pedalboard are:
- Damnation Audio MBD-1 ...if I could only have one distortion stompbox for bass, this would be it. It does the whole gamut from subtle overdriven SVT grind to raging caturwauling shreddy buzz, and it does it all without sacrificing any low end. It is the only fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedal I've ever used that allows me to feel like I can still play "basslines" that support the band when it's engaged. Highly recommended.
- Ibanez TS-9 TubeScreamer ...mine is from the early 80s, not the more recent reissue. I originally got this for my guitar work, and never liked it for bass because it seemed to roll off so much low end when engaged. But ever since acquiring the MBD-1 I've found that the contrast between it and the TS-9 makes the TS-9 a much more valuable sound in my palette. I now use it set up for a much more fuzzy/buzzy almost synthetic distortion, more BigMuff-esque than overdriven tube amp, and so this gets kicked in when I'm looking to add a lot of sustain and high-frequency Zzzzzzzzzz without a lot of bottom. More for adding lots of upper harmonics to seed the ambience devices & loopers downstream than for single note lines per se.
Not currently on any pedalboard but getting a lot of use:
- JHS Pedals Angry Charlie V2 ...a client gave this to me several years ago in lieu of payment. It's ostensibly supposed to sound like a Marshall JCM800 amp, but I'm not familiar with those. I've never used it side-by-side with my TS-9 for comparison but I suspect they sound very similar, and so I use the Angry Charlie for similar results, just when I need one that isn't strapped down to a 40+lb pedalboard.
Getting far less use on bass, mostly used on guitar recording sessions:
- ProCo Rat ...original circa 1988, this is the archetypal "fuzzbox" that still sounds more plausibly realistic than a BigMuff. Perfect for Robert Fripp-esque keening long single-note lines, or when you don't want the individual notes of a double-stop or chord to be perfectly distinguishable.
- Tech21 SansAmp GT2 ...there's really only one sound I use this for on guitar -- it can be astonishingly effective at conveying the sound of a dimed Marshall Plexi mic'd in a room, but nearly every other setting on it I find to be too "buzzy" as if the distortion component is a separate layer on top of the guitar's sound -- but I really like using it on bass just to mess with the "air" around a note via the speaker cabinet and mic position parameters. Not for normal bass parts, but for when I want to make the bass less solid, less opaque.
Retired, but I'm saving it in case I can find a fix some day:
- Electro-Harmonix Talking Pedal ...this is the original Talking Pedal circa 1980, not the more recent Next Step Talking Pedal. The original Talking Pedal was marketed as a "Speech Synthesizer" and it was essentially a wah-wah pedal with a very high-Q filter so that it could generate vowel-like vocal formants. But its secret weapon was a pot on the side labeled "Sustain" that adds a totally over-the-top idiosyncratic fuzz/distortion with a subtle 8va component, which then makes the pedal capable of eliciting the most hellacious yowling screams you can imagine. This was my main go-to distortion for bass from the early 1980s until about 15 years ago when something died and it now emits a loud "POP!" whenever you step on the footswitch. Admittedly I was starting to overuse it, so in some ways it's a good thing I retired it, just to get my head (and my sound) into a different space. But it is a totally unique sound, so I can't bear the thought of getting rid of it. Fix it some day I will /yoda
Also:
- I have a Bananana Matryoshka, which has one setting they call "Distortion" but isn't; and I have a Line6 POD Pro, which I mostly use for guitar but have occasionally plugged the bass into. That just gets used in the studio. And rarely.
tl;dr -- maybe we shouldn't talk a lot about distortion and fuzz here
Currently on a dirt search to add some options with band I’m sub in.
Maybe going to be a permanent member…..
Mbd-2 is that awesome??? Looking for something versatile, for example my tall font Russian is a great pedal but versatile it isn’t
At the moment using vt bass and a clean boost to hit the front end of the pedal like you would a tube amp to get more bite.
Works freakin awesome.
I may add a mxr m85 (a rat for bass)
To add flexibility on gigs with crap back lines.
That’s the #1 reason for another dirt pedal. If I was always on my rig it wouldn’t be an issue.
then again it works fine as is
So….
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The MBD2 is supposedly quite versatile. Lots of support for those, and they can probably be found used in Canada.
If it wasn’t so new, I’d really suggest taking a look at the BSRI Ash Maker I posted. It’s got a bunch of range from subtle breakup to heavy grind, though probably not full blown fuzz territory. Hondo Felder has a good review up on YT. If I had to cut my collection down to one pedal for dirt, that pedal would already be a contender, though it’s a bit early for that kind of a proclamation.
Hoping the sub2perm thing is a good step.
Not sure; I thought the MBD-2 was just an MBD-1 in a smaller form-factor, but then I vaguely recall hearing some folks talking about other differences...
The man behind Damnation Audio @father of fires is a member on TB so perhaps he can clarify.
Ohhh that’s good to know.
I really don’t care that the v1 is bigger.
@monsterthompson
Will check out the pedal you mentioned.
the intended signal chain would be
Tuner— Dirt of the week — boost — preamp — DI/amp.
simple and can be used on any back line I hope. But once you see a crap 410 or 215 mush generator you know it’s going to be a boxing match kind of gig. Hope you win most rounds but dont wait for a Ko in the 1st
Hapax arrived on Friday. It’s well built and easy to use. I’m going to put away the Vector sequencer for awhile. In some ways it seems like a pre-1.0 release as there are still some incomplete things. But it can already record MPE and I was jamming with it pretty quickly after turning it on. Bonus that it hosts my Linnstrument, but then I immediately want to hook up a USB hub. The MIDI looping is fun.
Unfortunately my well organized gear area is a mess again. So I will need to fix that up.
Unfortunately my well organized gear area is a mess again. So I will need to fix that up.
I wound up upgrading from a Launchpad X to a Launchpad Pro mk3, to get the sequencing capability. I just prefer a simple, independent hardware sequencer over doing it in the DAW.
My ulterior motive is to sell off my Microfreak (which I was mostly keeping for its sequencer/arp; it's decent as a synth but between the modular and software I just don't find it necessary) to free up space for a Make Noise Strega. Which really seems like it was designed exactly to appeal to me and make my kind of music, but I've been keeping the GAS at bay until now.
My ulterior motive is to sell off my Microfreak (which I was mostly keeping for its sequencer/arp; it's decent as a synth but between the modular and software I just don't find it necessary) to free up space for a Make Noise Strega. Which really seems like it was designed exactly to appeal to me and make my kind of music, but I've been keeping the GAS at bay until now.
"Red"?
the orange-ish/coral/pink with a red stripe pedal in the lower left is a Chase Bliss Audio MOOD, and the chocolate-brown with red knobs pedal on the far right just under the bass is a JHS Pedals Angry Charlie V2.
Yeah, the knobs are misleading. The pedal itself is actually the color of dog poop.
