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Double Bass Effects for double bass

#21
RD said:
So pooh-pooh all you want. I got a gig tonight, do you?
No, I don't, and I was trying to be funny. I used the wrong smiley, I guess.
I have such a hard time producing a good tone on DB in the first place, it seems ludicrous for me to use effects.
I use plenty of effects on BG at times. But, even there, they can get in the way of the music, in my experience.
I'm quite new to DB and probably have a shrine to Brown, LaFaro, Pettiford and others in my head. So, I didn't intend any offense. I'm all for creativity and struggling to get to that. Just without distortion and infinite repeats to cloud my journey.
peace,
RD
Click to expand...

Maybe EUB is more suited for effects then?
 
#22
RD said:
So pooh-pooh all you want. I got a gig tonight, do you?
No, I don't, and I was trying to be funny. I used the wrong smiley, I guess.
I have such a hard time producing a good tone on DB in the first place, it seems ludicrous for me to use effects.
I use plenty of effects on BG at times. But, even there, they can get in the way of the music, in my experience.
I'm quite new to DB and probably have a shrine to Brown, LaFaro, Pettiford and others in my head. So, I didn't intend any offense. I'm all for creativity and struggling to get to that. Just without distortion and infinite repeats to cloud my journey.
peace,
RD
Click to expand...

Rather than saying we should all play with clean tone, I would strongly suggest exploring all the sounds you can get with the hands, bow and other physical objects before turning to electronics. Not that I am at all against electronics.
 
#23
hdiddy said:
Ppl who only enjoy a clear tone, please stay out of this thread. Some of us would like to experiment and need to trade notes on what we've tried. Yes we like clean tones but we're also wanting to mess around with something different. You're not helping us out here. Some of us really don't give a rats ass if you have a gig that you are not using effects.
Click to expand...

Neither polite nor gracious. :rollno:

Let everyone speak. That was the attitude of my "not for me, but enjoy if for you" post.
 
#24
I think that anything goes it terms of using electronic effects on the bass.

Isn't simply using a pickup or mic taking advantage of electronic effects? After all, neither sound remotely close to a true acoustic sound.

I remember seeing Dave Holland with that stack of speakers. Not acoustic at all, but he sure sounded good!

I guess it boils down to how a player wishes to be heard, or not heard for that matter.
 
#25
It's far from an Acoustic Double Bass tone but a Spirocore Stark E string under the bow on my DB through a distortion box into a multi thousand watt PA is a pretty damn cool experience. Talk about a rush. Throbbing crowd mass pressed up against each other as far as you could see with the stage lights in the dark. Everyone is screaming.

....and this racket coming out of this ancient instrument is freaking them out.

Maybe it was the ex....

...the juxtaposition of that sound swirling around under a Mac with all kinds of modern junk spewing out.


Completely nuts. Amazing. Great night.
 
#26
Amazing, the Big Muff with a bow. Something tells me that even Dragonetti wouldn't have been able to resist that kind of sonic exploration of the brain's nether regions. I'm sure you made folks feel motor neurons they hadn't been aware of in years!

In the end, it sounds like you were doing what the acoustic bass was invented for. Holding down the bottom!
 
#27
I discovered a werid leslie-speaker type sound the other day - all without effects.

Anyways, I've been dying to get a good distorted arco sound, and hearing about this Big Muff sounds great. I've only just started messing with electronics. I have a Zoom b2.1u multifx pedal OTW. This is going to be fun with a drum and bass gig I have coming up soon. I'm going to need a ****ed up sound for our last jam as it will be very fast and crazy ala DnB.
 
#28
Nathan Bersée;5913765 said:
You should (if you haven't already) check out Dan Berglund (sp?). He played with Esbjorn Svensson for quite a few years. Unfortunately, Esbjorn recently passed away. Svensson recorded several albums with Berglund. Great stuff...especially if you are interested in double bass with effects.
Click to expand...

A sad day for jazz when Sven died, a true originator and talent... Dan uses mainly a Line 6 effects I think. On every video I've seen you usually get a glimpse of it stuck on top of his amp.
 
#29
I started a thread a few months ago about the Fishman Aura pedals.

I was looking for a subtle chorus/reverb unit that was piezo/acoustic friendly.

I emailed the folks at Fishman and they said they didn't recommend any of the current models for bass -- but that they had certainly tossed the idea around of making a series of bass pedals.
 
#31
Charnet Moffett is great! Pretty cheesy effects though, I think that in the case of using all of those multiphonics that the electronics are making the sound muddy......I dunno.....after all it's youtube.....sure is a show stopper though.

Sorta reminded me of watching the Harlem Globetrotters when I was a kid.
 
#32
I think the point is - if we are talking about a gig :

DB is a big unwieldy instrument that is hard to transport, hard to amplify and hard to play - if I was doing a gig that called for "effected" sound - then logically I would use my EUB or BG- which are easy to transport, easier to play and amplify!!

It would make no sense to drag along this big difficult hollow thing ...:confused:
 
#35
I guess it's no good even if he's McCoy Tyner's regular bass player for several years now and Charnett has been doing that **** for years - and McCoy doesn't seem to mind it. I give up, I won't bother mentioning trying something different on this side of the forums. No wonder I stopped hanging out here a while back.
 
#37
Uncletoad said:
I like my elderly Big Muff, the first big version. When run through the fx loop of the Focus it retains the original sound in parallel so I don't loose all the booty.

It's pretty sick.
Click to expand...

yah mee too, Big Muff on bow rocks and holy grail reverb sounds like I have a symphony behind me. But yes I agree put the effects through the loop because you wont loose the bottom. I do this also when recording in pro tools, always keep the original track and make another copy bussed over with the effects!
 
#38
hdiddy said:
I guess it's no good even if he's McCoy Tyner's regular bass player for several years now and Charnett has been doing that **** for years - and McCoy doesn't seem to mind it. I give up, I won't bother mentioning trying something different on this side of the forums. No wonder I stopped hanging out here a while back.
Click to expand...
I don't see the need to get pissy.

I don't know him from a hole in the wall. I'm glad he's the real deal. It shows he has range.

You don't think that clip with the plucking of the afterlength was hokey? His heaviness quotient aside it was a fairly large show biz moment.
 
#40
I'm a fairly new DBer by most peoples standards on this forum. I have been experimenting with effects on EB for the last year or so and have gradually built up a decent pedalboard that i'm happy with for electric. A couple of envelope filters, octave pedal, chorus, and fuzz. It's great for the pop and r&b gigs on electric, really gives me a whole nother dimension of sound - especially considering i'm often copping a keyboard bassline anyway.

Recently i was doubling on a gig and for a bit of a laugh put the double through my EB effects rig. wow. big mistake. i got instant feedback from most of them, especially the envelope filters, as soon as i stomped on them.

good to hear it's working for some though, sparked my interest. I'm gonna give them a crack again tomorrow in a not so loud environment and see if there's anything useful! i'll report back if i find anything worthwhile.

andy.
 

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