Best Bass for Metal?

[sawzalot]

 

[Nashrakh]

View attachment 3500111

No best princess, no purchase.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Too much scratch for me and yeah weight would be an issue.

A bass i loved for metal: Schecter StillettoElite. the entire band loved it too!

 

[micguy]

Electrical Guitar company - basses (and guitars) not just for metal, but made from metal:

Electrical Guitar Company | The finest aluminum instruments

 

[GreyBeard]

Barts are too polite for Metal.

 

[ColonelZulu]

This bass, of course!

For Sale - Price drop Normandy Copper Archtop​

 

[Seashore]

View attachment 3500111

If only it was a fiver.

 

[Ellery]

Hey again. One last question as I've narrowed down my choices for my next bass. Can't decide between the Ibanez SR670 with Bartolini dual humbuckers or the MTD Kingston Super 4 with dual Bartolini humbuckers with magnet exposed pickups spaced closer.

I was wondering if anyone has the SR670 and if that is able to be blended like the MTD? Since that is almost half the cost of the expensive MTD.

Thanks.

Fist bump for your choice of music! I believe whichever of those basses feels better playing should be the deciding factor. Pickups can be swapped, and a big factor in your tone will be your eq and overdrive/effects. Also string type (I use DR Hi Beams) and how you play. It took me years to figure out the best "attack" w/ my right hand. Now I can make one of these grandpa's basses sound aggressive. In that price range I suggest at least looking at a Spector Rebop, probably used, great playability for fast technical music.

 

[Happy Face]

For tone?
Anything. Metal has been played on just about every kind of bass there is. There's probably somebody (likely in Japan) playing metal on a Hello Kitty bass.

For looks? Something pointy and evil looking. Or a Black Hello Kitty bass. Who's a bad kitty?

Was there even a Hello Kitty bass? There is the Hello Kitty Strat I recall that the matching bass was a short scale Badz Maru model. I've owned both! Fooled around with the bass a little before passing it on. The Strat remains in a box, waiting to fund my retirement.

 

[xnewyorka]

More important than the specific bass is that you know how to play it properly:

 

[Ellery]

Another running joke on this thread is when one reaches out for advice on achieving a certain sound, thru pedals/instruments/amps etc. and someone who plays a totally different style will post "tone is in the fingers!", insinuating you are wasting your money and should just play better. It is partially true; the most aggressive sounding bass won't compensate for light playing. But some things cannot be achieved by playing style alone.

 

[Jehos]

No best princess, no purchase.

Are you talking about Twilight Sparkle?

Sticking with Disney, I would rock a Merida bass. You know she can head bang with that mass of red curls.

 

[Ellery]

Years in playing in a death/grind band taught me on stage that a good sounding solo tone is not always going to sit well in the mix. When I started out I would scoop the mids and get washed out by a Marshall half stack. It took me forever to figure that out. You know what scoop is good for? Slap bass. Now I boost the mids, keep the lows heavy but not muddy, and the highs low enough to fly under the guitar's frequency range. That's important, your high sizzly stuff will interfere with the guitar and the crowd won't hear you. Find your frequency range and focus on getting your growly tone in there.

 

[Ripper75]

First Act Delgada if you can find one.

 

[Ellery]

You're also going to find there are quite a few people on this thread who don't respect our choice of music, some who outright resent it. I already see quite a few troll posts here, making disparaging remarks and contributing nothing useful. I still don't get it, I see people here who are dedicated to a style I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, but I treat them with the equal respect another bass enthusiast deserves. And the Moderators never lift a finger. There is a lot of useful information here; I try to remember that although there are some ignorant narrow minded hypocrites on this forum, they are worth enduring to get some great advice from some very smart and experienced people who actually want to help.

 

[BurnOut]

since Guitar Center are useless.. the guy there told me Bartolini's are the Cadillac of pickups and would be good for metal or anything.

When I purchased my P, the guy had several to choose from. I picked the Barts even over the Duncan Quarter Pounders.
I was playing an Ibanez BTB regularly then (also a great choice for metal) the Barts had more of the sound I had envisioned in my head. I'm a rock metal player and they do a fine job for me.

 

[mrjim123]

What I want to know is "What is the best metal for bass".

 

[Fun With Dirt]

The problem is that there isn't a "one" prototype metal bass tone. You can pick out "a" bass player and try to get "that" but metal in general is all over the place. From the thudding to super pingy. From the ridiculously clean to the unintelligibly distorted.

These days, and for the past couple of years, I have used a Fender Jazz and believe me when I say I can beat a mudhole into someone with the aggressively punchy tone I get out of it. For the past half year or so I have been doing everything direct with a Darkglass X7. I mean... I carry my entire rig in my bass case. When I play live, I get a mic cable and go right to house. When I jam at practice, I plug into a PA channel. When I record, I go right to the channel. No amp to lug and it is BY FAR the best bass sound in my ears I have ever gotten.

 

[cardinal]

The problem is that there isn't a "one" prototype metal bass tone. You can pick out "a" bass player and try to get "that" but metal in general is all over the place. From the thudding to super pingy. From the ridiculously clean to the unintelligibly distorted.

These days, and for the past couple of years, I have used a Fender Jazz and believe me when I say I can beat a mudhole into someone with the aggressively punchy tone I get out of it. For the past half year or so I have been doing everything direct with a Darkglass X7. I mean... I carry my entire rig in my bass case. When I play live, I get a mic cable and go right to house. When I jam at practice, I plug into a PA channel. When I record, I go right to the channel. No amp to lug and it is BY FAR the best bass sound in my ears I have ever gotten.

Yeah in all seriousness, a Jazz bass and whatever pick of Darkglass flavor is can't-miss metal tone. Of course there are plenty of other options, but for anyone asking this question, IMHO the safest place to start is a Jazz bass through your choice of Darkglass drive.

 

[Lava]

Please be more specific. Black Metal, Crust Punk, Post, Kawaii, Funk Metal, Folk Metal, Stoner Metal, White, Metalcore, Avant-Garde Metal, Nu Metal, Alt Metal, Glam Metal, Symphonic, Sludge, Goth Metal, Doom, Industrial, Death Metal, Power Metal, Thrash or just Heavy Metal?

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself...