Best Bass for Metal?

[TrueNorthMatt]

Nightwish's bassist has had the same Warwick
(and a couple of others) for years. It sounds killer, and I've been wanting to buy one a couple of times, but Warwicks are too big for me.

 

[Rnr..........4]

Nightwish's bassist has had the same Warwick
(and a couple of others) for years. It sounds killer, and I've been wanting to buy one a couple of times, but Warwicks are too big for me.

Really? the Streamer is almost the same as the Spectors. Lightweight.

 

[tonybassman]

 

[Dincrest]

Barts are too polite for Metal.

I can't tell if this is a legit statement or you're goofing, but I don't quite agree.

Yes, the MK Barts have a weaker output than more premium Barts, but premium Barts can get nice and loud. Also, as I said before, even a "polite" sounding bass can roar through a good amp. I once had a Zon Sonus Mosaic Standard that had "polite" sounding Duncans... but it roared through my Gallien-Krueger Fusion 550.

All joking and instrument suggestions aside, I encourage the OP think about their amp rig too. When it comes to playing loud, heavy, aggressive music in bands with gorilla drummers and guitarists who turn up to 11 all the time, you'd better have an amp with power to spare, especially since bass amps need more wattage to reproduce low frequencies effectively. A 100 watt guitar amp will rip paper off walls of most any venue, but a 100 watt bass amp is a practice amp.

 

[Herrick]

As a real request to the mods. Can we add a sticky for this. I've been on talkbass for quite a while and imo......this is getting ridiculous.

I'm only a year younger than you in TB years. I don't really notice this kind of topic coming up that much...and when it does come up, people are usually joking about it.

When I see threads that don't interest me, I simply don't click on them *shrug*

 

[Gyver]

Used Gibson Thunderbird can be had for around $900 if you are patient. Excellent metal / hard rock basses. Epiphone Thunderbird for much less and they are good too. But I would go used and get more for the $!

 

[Smooth_bass88]

bass is no longer required in metal, you know, because of all the 7 and 8 string guitars

 

[deff]

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.

This sounds like good advice from someone with actual experience.

 

[deff]

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.

Sure. I agree with all of this and would add that it is even worse for Punk/Hardcore. Every single post about the style has two or three people saying something about how easy it is to play and how you don't need anything but a Squire PBass. It's always something like it's not Rocket Surgery..... All of this I assume comes from people who know little to nothing about the genre or what makes a good or bad band. I've pretty much only played in metal/punk/hardcore and some rock bands my entire life, I have no concept of what would work for a good blues band or jazz band, and therefore refrain from commentary on any post about that.

 

[Dincrest]

And I just hope the OP can parse out the good stuff that's been contributed and not be all like, "OMG, what in blue blazes have I gotten myself into here?"

 

[flyingfinbar]

If I were in your position with a roughly $900 cap, I’d jump on a an older, German-made Warwick Corvette Standard...a bubinga-bodied one.

 

[TrueNorthMatt]

Really? the Streamer is almost the same as the Spectors. Lightweight.

I never had the chance to try a Streamer, sadly. But all 4 or 5 Warwicks I have tried had really big necks. I still would highly recommend them to any metal player out there who feel comfortable playing them.

Final note: I think we should talk more about metal around here. Everytime (or almost) we do, we get bullied by half-morron trolls, and we too often shut our mouths about it. In fact, I'm starting a new metal video thread right now.

It's very easy to start trolling or on a genre when you don't know the first thing about it.

EDIT

Just added a great video to a new thread, and it would be really fun if you guys could post some more. We too, metalheads, have the right to talk about our favorite genre on TB.

 

[Riff Ranger]

As @Dincrest has suggested a couple of times now, amplification deserves serious consideration as well. @agedhorse was fishing for ideas on what would go into the next iconic metal amp and kicked off a great discussion.

 

[Rnr..........4]

You'll be disappointed if you're expecting either of those to be metal, they're mostly wood.
For Heavy Metal, almost anything will work, but I'd choose an Ibanez Premium SoundGear with Nordstrand Big Singles.
The Bartolinis in the SR670 are not great for Heavy Metal with lots of Gain or Mids, IME.

BTW, there are also many sub-genres of Heavy Metal.
So you could be specific.
Do you just want something growly?
because the Nordstrand Big Singles are super-growl

Hey KBD, what about Bartolini's.. MK1 vs BH2... which one would you buy?

MK1 has split coil reverse P configuration whereas the BH2 has dual full blade coil configuration

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I wouldn't buy an instrument with Bartolini's. AFAIK even the BH2 don't even have 4 wires for series/parallel.
The Nordstrands outperform them for Heavy Metal.
I've compared basses with Nordstrand Big Singles & Bartolini BH2 side-by-side & to my ears the Nordstrands win every time.

If you're like most bass players & don't want the upper mids, then get the BH2. They have that standard middle-of-the-road sound.

 

[Biffa]

Epiphone Rivoli




...in Pink

 

[Rnr..........4]

I wouldn't buy an instrument with Bartolini's. AFAIK even the BH2 don't even have 4 wires for series/parallel.
The Nordstrands outperform them for Heavy Metal.
I've compared basses with Nordstrand Big Singles & Bartolini BH2 side-by-side & to my ears the Nordstrands win every time.

If you're like most bass players & don't want the upper mids, then get the BH2. They have that standard middle-of-the-road sound.

Interesting. What do you think of these? Invalid Link Removed Think they're a bit expensive to be honest for those stock pickups.. might as well go an extra $150-200 for one with the BH2's. Even tho its got a good bridge and nut.

 

[deff]

Interesting. What do you think of these? Invalid Link Removed Think they're a bit expensive to be honest for those stock pickups.. might as well go an extra $150-200 for one with the BH2's. Even tho its got a good bridge and nut.

I know a couple of guys that use them for loud metal type stuff. I'm not a fan of basswood or the pickups in general in these but people seem to like them. I use a different Stiletto with EMG's. Loud, clear, punchy.

 

[Rnr..........4]

What does everyone think of the Fishman pickups?

 

[deff]

What does everyone think of the Fishman pickups?

What does everyone think of the Fishman pickups?

You should check out Rodney McG's review of the Fluence bass pickups. They sound great. Incredibly versatile.