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amp settings for thrash metal

#21
thrashbassist90 said:
alright. so what would you guys recommend for a new amp then.
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I'm probably not the right person to advice you on a bass amp, there are a lot of guys here who know much more about this...
But I am planning to buy Link Removed, after reading a lot of nice reviews on it. It has a preamp tube for a nice overdriven sound and it delivers 300 watts with a single cab or 450 watts with two. That should be enough to cut through ;)
 
#23
Run your bass signal through your bands PA, use your 90 watter on a stand for a little extra monitoring if you need to and use the cash saved on a good distortion pedal. That way you can get the tone you want, everybody can hear as much of you as they want to in the monitors, sound guy can control front of house, and you can buy a good quality effects unit.
 
#24
For the record, the classic thrash GUITAR sound, scooped mids is the way to go. Sure, in theory scooping means it doesn't cut through as much as if the mids were up front, but that's what defines the specific Thrash tone on guitar. For bass, like someone mentioned above, I wouldn't necessarily scoop it at all, just set it so it sounds like a good solid bass tone.

Better yet, research Dave Ellefson and see how he set his knobs, because his bass tone on the older megadeth records is to die for.
 
#25
ishouldbeking said:
For the record, the classic thrash GUITAR sound, scooped mids is the way to go. Sure, in theory scooping means it doesn't cut through as much as if the mids were up front, but that's what defines the specific Thrash tone on guitar. For bass, like someone mentioned above, I wouldn't necessarily scoop it at all, just set it so it sounds like a good solid bass tone.

Better yet, research Dave Ellefson and see how he set his knobs, because his bass tone on the older megadeth records is to die for.
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Yeah, like I said, on guitar, scooped mids sound good for thrash metal.

On bass, scooping the mids out just makes it inaudible.
 
#26
dj150888 said:
Funny how different people hear things differently, isn't it? For me, scooped mids on guitar or bass is anti-tone.
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For heavily distorted guitar, as heard in thrash metal, scooped mids gets a crunchy, mean sound. Of course, I think scooping them out completely is a little overkill, but still. If you want to get guitar tone similar to Metallica, Slayer, Testament, Megadeth, etc., scooping the mids is the way to do it.

Now, for bass, scooping the mids is the way to never be heard at all. The mids should probably be boosted for bass. I'm in a black metal band, and the guitarist (guitarists when we had a lead player as well) scoops his mids to a degree. I crank mine, and my bass cuts through quite nicely in the hole that his scooped mids leave without being overpowering.
 
#27
Sartori said:
For heavily distorted guitar, as heard in thrash metal, scooped mids gets a crunchy, mean sound. Of course, I think scooping them out completely is a little overkill, but still. If you want to get guitar tone similar to Metallica, Slayer, Testament, Megadeth, etc., scooping the mids is the way to do it.

Now, for bass, scooping the mids is the way to never be heard at all. The mids should probably be boosted for bass. I'm in a black metal band, and the guitarist (guitarists when we had a lead player as well) scoops his mids to a degree. I crank mine, and my bass cuts through quite nicely in the hole that his scooped mids leave without being overpowering.
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That all sounds about right to me. But like everything else, in the end, it's all relative. I went to a metal show the other day (Paganfest in los angeles), where 5 different bands all had completely different bass tones, and it was interesting to see how it worked out... two guys were rocking warwicks with a good amount of mids and they sounded great in the mix, not so much when solo'd but under the guitars it was solid. The headliner was playing a custom Finnish bass (this exact one actually: http://www.amfisound.fi/amfisound_galleria/artist/jarkko_a/jarkko_a.htm) and had it scooped to death, all ultra lows and a lot of clank... sounded terrible in the mix. And one guy even had an epiphone goth T-bird, which sounded quite good. It was interesting to hear such a wide spectrum of tones and to see how they worked in the contexts of their individual bands. For the record, the warwicks sounded best that particular day... I know i'm talking about basses and not amps, but what made it a really interesting comparison was that they were all sharing the same backline... an Eden head through a Randall 8x10 cab... and the differences in tone were tremendous.
 
#28
ishouldbeking said:
That all sounds about right to me. But like everything else, in the end, it's all relative. I went to a metal show the other day (Paganfest in los angeles), where 5 different bands all had completely different bass tones, and it was interesting to see how it worked out... two guys were rocking warwicks with a good amount of mids and they sounded great in the mix, not so much when solo'd but under the guitars it was solid. The headliner was playing a custom Finnish bass (this exact one actually: http://www.amfisound.fi/amfisound_galleria/artist/jarkko_a/jarkko_a.htm) and had it scooped to death, all ultra lows and a lot of clank... sounded terrible in the mix. And one guy even had an epiphone goth T-bird, which sounded quite good. It was interesting to hear such a wide spectrum of tones and to see how they worked in the contexts of their individual bands. For the record, the warwicks sounded best that particular day... I know i'm talking about basses and not amps, but what made it a really interesting comparison was that they were all sharing the same backline... an Eden head through a Randall 8x10 cab... and the differences in tone were tremendous.
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I had been intending on seeing Paganfest this weekend in SF, but no friends were going, so I didn't want to go alone, which sucks because I really like both Primordial and Korpiklaani. The guy in Primordial wasn't using a Ric? Interesting, that's what he'd been using for the last two albums (To the Nameless Dead, their most recent album, has a great bass sound, IMO).
 
#29
Sartori said:
For heavily distorted guitar, as heard in thrash metal, scooped mids gets a crunchy, mean sound. Of course, I think scooping them out completely is a little overkill, but still. If you want to get guitar tone similar to Metallica, Slayer, Testament, Megadeth, etc., scooping the mids is the way to do it.
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Metallica, for me, define poor guitar tone and I consider them responsible for a thousand more bands with **** tone. But hey, if you like it, keep it up. It just grates on me to hear it.

I play metal myself, both my guitar players use Les Pauls through tube amps, nice warm crunchy tone with plenty of mids still there. Thats the sort of tone I like to hear in metal.

And yes..... heavily scooped mids on bass (or worse, a full blown smiley face EQ) sounds bad....no exceptions.
 
#30
At this point I'm going to be playing mostly in bars and such. If i got a Peavey Tour 700 Invalid Link Removed and combined it with the Peavy Tour 810 cabinet Invalid Link Removed, would this be too loud for something like that or would it still sound good at lower volumes?
 
#32
thrashbassist90 said:
At this point I'm going to be playing mostly in bars and such. If i got a Peavey Tour 700 Invalid Link Removed and combined it with the Peavy Tour 810 cabinet Invalid Link Removed, would this be too loud for something like that or would it still sound good at lower volumes?
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Too loud? Thrash metal? If you're playing thrash metal and worried about being too loud, I think you're missing the point...
 
#34
thrashbassist90 said:
At this point I'm going to be playing mostly in bars and such. If i got a Peavey Tour 700 Invalid Link Removed and combined it with the Peavy Tour 810 cabinet Invalid Link Removed, would this be too loud for something like that or would it still sound good at lower volumes?
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The Peavey Tours should do great for playing thrash, personally I use a combination of Hartke & Marshall bass stuff, but Ashdown also make great stuff.
 
#35
You may not like the particular sound of this, it's not for everyone. But for thrash and most other metal. I have the treble and bass completely off, and the middle cranked all the way, (volume and tone on the bass also at full settings).

Call me crazy but that's the sound I like. Lemmy also uses this setting.
 
#37
winterburn69 said:
You may not like the particular sound of this, it's not for everyone. But for thrash and most other metal. I have the treble and bass completely off, and the middle cranked all the way, (volume and tone on the bass also at full settings).

Call me crazy but that's the sound I like. Lemmy also uses this setting.
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I was about to say, going for the Lemmy tone. Which, incidentally is the opposite of the Fieldy "tone."
 
#38
ishouldbeking said:
That all sounds about right to me. But like everything else, in the end, it's all relative. I went to a metal show the other day (Paganfest in los angeles), where 5 different bands all had completely different bass tones, and it was interesting to see how it worked out... two guys were rocking warwicks with a good amount of mids and they sounded great in the mix, not so much when solo'd but under the guitars it was solid. The headliner was playing a custom Finnish bass (this exact one actually: http://www.amfisound.fi/amfisound_galleria/artist/jarkko_a/jarkko_a.htm) and had it scooped to death, all ultra lows and a lot of clank... sounded terrible in the mix. And one guy even had an epiphone goth T-bird, which sounded quite good. It was interesting to hear such a wide spectrum of tones and to see how they worked in the contexts of their individual bands. For the record, the warwicks sounded best that particular day... I know i'm talking about basses and not amps, but what made it a really interesting comparison was that they were all sharing the same backline... an Eden head through a Randall 8x10 cab... and the differences in tone were tremendous.
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Ok, I am not sure if I am helping on the topic or not, but I just had to register to reply since I noticed that you're talking about me. I am the one who sucked.

There are some things where you are quite wrong though. The Randall cab was only for the stage monitoring. I don't think it was miked even once on the tour, so what you got from the PA was from the various line-outs used.

All the bassists on the tour (except me) had different pedal setups on the floor. Honestly, I never checked what kind of setup did Blackguard's bassist have, but for example Swashbuckle's Pat had 4-5 different pedals including for example SansAmp Bass Driver. Ville from Moonsorrow has always been using some sort of bass driver as well. Primordial did the tour with two different bassists and I can't remember which one it was in LA. Neither of them was their real bassist so that probably explains the missing Rickenbacker that someone was asking.

I'd say that all their PA sounds were taken from the Eden's line out. For example Primordial's amp setup was basically flat. I know that because I was using it after them and only had to adjust the gain. I was/am using rackmount version of the SansAmp. RBI is the model. For me we were using two channels, both the effected and clean outputs of the RBI. I'd be happy to go with just the effected sound since that IS good and definitely has plenty of mids as well. Our soundtech however wants them both and if my sound from the PA was like described I may have to talk to him.

And by the way, there were definitely no two Warwicks. Only Ville was playing Warwick. Pat/Swashbuckle was playing Spector which does look a bit like Warwick.

What I am trying to say? I don't know. Maybe exactly the same that there are just so many other things affecting the sound than just the amp. And oh yeah, I was also the only one playing with fingers. Everyone else was using a pick. And that does have a huge effect on the sound as well.

j.
 
#40
thrashbassist90 said:
At this point I'm going to be playing mostly in bars and such. If i got a Peavey Tour 700 Invalid Link Removed and combined it with the Peavy Tour 810 cabinet Invalid Link Removed, would this be too loud for something like that or would it still sound good at lower volumes?
Click to expand...


It is impossible to be too loud playing thrash metal. Most "big" amps should sound good quieter.
 

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