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Fave basses for extreme music?

D

darkstorm

Oct 13, 2009
7,321
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www.myspace.com
#1
This would include death and black metal along with experimental, noise, psytrance, industrial, and acid jazz.

My Faves for these styles of music due to their to me greater overall playability, better suited modern sound, fit, and asthetics are: BC Rich, Jackson, Schecter, upper end ESP Ltd, Traben, Monson, Peavey Cirrus, and most boutique basses. I include the latter due to the usual individual customer input for basses makeup and fit along with these basses being most often imo bought by those who dont want the ordinary and are pushing the limits of their playing rather then just doing the standard thing bass playing wise. I inlcude Peavey Cirrus in part from the bass Player for Emperor useing em. Lol.

So whats your fave basses for extreme music?
 
#6
I've played prog death / deathcore on a '75 Rickenbacker 4001, my Schecter CV-5, an SX P-J, and my old Schecter Stiletto Custom 4 mostly.

Current metal favorites: Fender HW1 with SPB-1 pickup and Roto 66 Drop zones and Carvin B4 with Roto 66 Drop Zones.
 
#7
I'd think Ibanez deserves a place in your list for sure. Affordable, very decent quality, and the tonal options and playability work great for that style of music. Personally their styling isn't really my cup of tea with the exception of the natural finish ATK and a few others, but sonically and feel-wise they fit the bill.

Other good instruments for extreme music include Spector, quite a few Peaveys both vintage and new, and honestly... i think there are quite a few traditional passive basses that work great for metal, whether we're talking traditional hard-rock type metal or even the extreme genres, just depending what you're looking for (how fast / thin of a neck you need, whether you need the ability to sculpt the tone on the bass or not). Enslaved make good use of both thunderbirds and rickenbackers, and I even saw Primordial playing with an Epiphone Thunderbird of all things, still sounded great. A lot of local metal bands in Los Angeles have been reverting to the classic instruments lately as I keep seeing Rics and P basses around. You could theoretically use a Fender Jazz I suppose, but generally I feel like they're not quite hard-hitting enough for what i'd want out of a metal bass. Personally I think I could make do with a passive PJ and an aguilar tone hammer type of preamp pedal for most metal situations unless i needed a reaaaaally fast neck.

Another really good option are G&L ASAT's and L-2000/2500's... as evidenced by the bass player from Dillinger Escape Plan. It really boils down to personal taste just like everything else.
 
#8
I thought Warwick's and Fenders were the best for extreme music, but after getting my Dingwall Combustion not anymore. The tone I get from it in series has all the growl that a 'wick has but it is a lot more balanced and with more "finesse", and this comparing with the 5000€ + models, such as the Infinity.
My Combustion costed me 1500 € and sounds even better than a friend of mine's Infinity!

So, for extreme music, where most of the times you'll need very low notes, you can't get better than a Dingwall with new stainless strings and, if you like it, a tube amp.
 
#10
Doing quite a bit of noisy free-improv nowadays, I just use my regular ol`Wick.

I think tone takes a backseat to understanding the concept of dissonant counterpoint (as well as crappy distortion pedals, that's always a plus for that kind of stuff.)

While for extreme electronic music, you could be playing a passive p-bass with 50 year old flats and nobody would be able to tell due to your massive arsenal of effects.
 
#13
I modified my 2008 Peavey Grind (the ones with the mahogany wings), and it sounds great for my band's style, which is mainly black metal but dips into death metal, doom metal, and folk metal.

Warwicks work very well for doom metal because of that tight low end.

Ibanez makes great basses for modern death metal (Soundgear for Tech Death and BTB for Brutal Death).

I've actually played a Dingwall and they're impressive.
 
#17
Burlington said:
Because he is implying that they are different genres, when tehy really arent. :p
Click to expand...

well to those that play those genres (i don't, personally) or listen intensively (i do!), there's a pretty big difference. Obviously we're still talking death metal so there will be overlap between genres, but there's a pretty big difference between bands like Atheist and Cynic (tech death) and Cannibal Corpse and Devourment (brutal). Some people might argue that brutal death is an umbrella term for all non-melodic death metal (melodic death metal meaning bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility, etc), but these days its seemed to become a more specific sub-genre. Ah, the infinite complexities of metal, haha. I know its all lost on the non-fans out there, so apologies if i'm boring you. Think of it like the differences between bebop and acid jazz, if that helps.
 
#20
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