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Heavy Bass Distortion

#42
Then again... I think JWR hit the mark with the suggestion of a B7K... especially after I saw/heard this on the Darkglass site (Invalid Link Removed):

Which is as close as I've heard to the sound I'm thinking of... If I could cop that, the rest would be a small matter of switching preset eq's on the amp.

In the mean time, I'll mess around with the BMC into the B3K, to simulate either one of the B7K's mid control knobs.

Thanks everyone for your help; here and the other place.
 
#44
Vlad5 said:
Then again... I think JWR hit the mark with the suggestion of a B7K... especially after I saw/heard this on the Darkglass site (Invalid Link Removed):

Which is as close as I've heard to the sound I'm thinking of... If I could cop that, the rest would be a small matter of switching preset eq's on the amp.

In the mean time, I'll mess around with the BMC into the B3K, to simulate either one of the B7K's mid control knobs.

Thanks everyone for your help; here and the other place.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, that Nolly video is sick... it got like 17,000 hits in 24 hours... I have never seen that for a bass video on YouTube.
I think I'm responsible for at least 250 of those though :).
 
#45
I definitely think you have all the ingredients, just not sure how to mix them, however, I did notice you're running all that heavy machinery through a 210?? I think you need a 215 for the big boulders in a large caldron effect. Might try to throw a BMS in there for the sawtooth.
 
#49
Wooly Mammoth, no... I tried a Mastotron, and it was cool and all, but I can get those tones and more through what I have already.

As far as the 210 goes, I hear you. In fact, I connected an Eden Nemesis 210 (really low and almost muddy sounding, but in a good way), and things did rumble up (down) a bit. Also, there are eq settings on the Mesa M9 that allows for some drastic changes in tone, and makes all effects sound completely different when engaged from flat. I was able get some nice rumbling at settings 2 and 5. I'm sure an actual 215 would sound different, but this cab is a decent assimilation, compared the uber-punch of the Mesa 210.

I will try some bass boost too, which the Mesa has plenty of...
 
#50
I wanted the same type of distortion and I play a pbass fingerstyle with flats. Needless to say, it was an expensive quest, bug I finally ended up with the Fuzzrocious Heliotropic. That thing will tear your face off if you're not careful. To me it's kinda like a Rat and a Muff combined. I've been able to get almost any kind of dirt tone I wanted out of that thing, I love it.
 
#51
Have you tried running any of your distortions into a Sansamp BDDI? I've got some good results stacking my modded Rat into my Sansamp, and then into my tube amp. Each with a bit of gain winded on. Also equally good results using a Hyperdrive in place of the Rat
 
#52
MLouis1981 said:
I wanted the same type of distortion and I play a pbass fingerstyle with flats. Needless to say, it was an expensive quest, bug I finally ended up with the Fuzzrocious Heliotropic. That thing will tear your face off if you're not careful. To me it's kinda like a Rat and a Muff combined. I've been able to get almost any kind of dirt tone I wanted out of that thing, I love it.
Click to expand...

Interesting, and thanks. I'll look into that. Halfway between a rat and muff sounds rather close to what I have in mind, though I did blend the TFR with a Rat Tail, and the results were good, just not where I wanted to go, too honky for me. A single effect with that sound may be worth blending though.... interesting.

SerratedBass said:
Have you tried running any of your distortions into a Sansamp BDDI? I've got some good results stacking my modded Rat into my Sansamp, and then into my tube amp. Each with a bit of gain winded on. Also equally good results using a Hyperdrive in place of the Rat
Click to expand...

I have, sort of. I've tried a Para Driver DI before, didn't care for the distortion much but I did enjoy the eq it came with. A box worth recommending, but I feel the B3K covers what a BDDI would, at least for me. I won't discount the suggestion though. One thing I've learned during my search for sounds I like is I never really know what effects will mix well until I actually mix em.
 
#53
I normally dial in a mainly cleanish tone, maybe with a little growl on the Sansamp, drive about 12 o'clock. Then run a distortion in front of the sansamp, makes the tone huge! I find with my latest band I don't use the sansamp as much (mainly just as a DI to FOH) and come out of the parallel unaffected output to the amp. Cuts too much of the mid content for what I am doing now. I think its the extra low end and mid cut that gives that massive tone when used with a distortion, just doesn't cut through as well unless you can find the right mid frequency to boost on your amp
 
#54
I strayed from my usual settings on my Hoof and Monarch at practice last night and I feel I just nailed a perfect distortion sound. Probably not what you're looking for, but man I got this perfect chunky yet still coherent sounding low C/D tone. The Dingwall is killing it with those two pedals.
 
#55
Yeah, I own a Monarch, and it's by far my favorite drive pedal (next to the B3K, that is), especially at 18v. It's doing more good on my lady's guitar board right now though, driving her Full Bore Metal into ridiculous over the top harmonic territory (she's soooo happy with it). I took it off her board a few weeks ago to experiment more with it, but the B3K does what I was using the Monarch for, and she kept giving me worried looks like I was gonna keep it, heh... She's such a metal head.

I did consider getting another one, but that's a bit too extravagant for me right now. Still, yeah, the Monarch is a good idea. Maybe I'll mix it with the Bluebeard, see what happens...
 
#56
So... been listening online, and narrowed down some fine suggestions from here and elsewhere. The following are effects I have not tried on my bass, all other suggestions that I have tried on my bass have been dismissed, with sincere gratitude for the thoughtful input.

EBS Metaldrive: no one (except the dude from Entombed) seems to use this, at least no one has an opinion about it that isn't endorsed by EBS. All the vids I see/hear lead me to believe it's too honky. Not the rumbling destruction I'm looking for... so it's off the list. $199 - verdict: no...

Heavy Electronics El Oso: Pretty much the same as above, honky and splattery. It almost sounds like there is some rumble in there, under all the splatter, but still, not what I'm after. $149 - verdict: no...

OKKO Basstard: Gotta say, the name is a turn off... I mean, we all agree calling a guitarist a Guitard is mean, so why would I want Basstard on my board? Yeah, I get it, bastard; like a dude who's mother got impregnated out of wedlock, but with two ss's, uh huh, yeah... Heh, anyway, 'clever' marketing aside, this one seems to suffer from similar honk as most bass distortions, but the low rumble seems more pronounced than the above two, maybe it can be dialed out... This made the shorter list. Too bad it's so pricey. $305 - verdict: maybe...

Dwarfcraft Baby Thundaa: Very cool fuzz, not the right kind of distortion though... $200 - verdict: nope

Landmine Distortion: Fuzz... I can get this sound and more from the TFR. $139 (if you can find it). - verdict: nope

smallsound/bigsound Mini: Not as distorted as I want, too tame. Sounds good, just not what I need. $159 - verdict: no

Darkglass B7K: It's a B3K with eq settings, and the closest I've heard online to what I'm after. I don't think I'd ever use the DI on this though. Still, a 4 band eq is tempting, and worth the mad duckets if it does what I need. $389 - verdict: maybe
____________________________

So, verdict: OKKO Basstard or B7K would potentially get me closer to what I'm after (with eq'ing and amp tweaking, of course). Damn I have expensive taste.

Ok, back to the drawing, I mean, pedalboard. I'm gonna mess with the B3K and different eq settings, onboard and off, to see if I really need to spend more money to get the grumbly rumbly I'm after.

Lots more of this discussion can be found here, if anyone not normally on ILF is interested.
 
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#58
I have a pretty close sound to what I think you're looking for...

I use a Hardwire Tube Overdrive into a USA Big Muff with the first pair of clipping diodes removed. After this mod I don't call my Muff a fuzz anymore, it's definitely a distortion. It actually gives it more distortion because more signal is hitting (and clipping harder) the second set of diodes. I changed the coupling cap between Q2 and Q3 to 0.1 to clean up the mud and give me heavy distortion but with clarity all the way down to A, but i think for the the sound you want you should leave it in. It makes it more woofy. oh yeah, crank that tone control fully CCW of course. Huge, woofy, fat, distorted madness at your fingertips.
 
#59
topo morto said:
how about 3 parallel lines:

1) two low-mid gain drives stacked for a fat sound

2) B3K with delay (not too much volume on the delay, but with some regeneration for ambience)

3) clean octave down
Click to expand...

Good start there. This below is where I'm at after 5 years. ALL the nuance AND thunder you'd need. Experimenting with upgrading the cheap Behringer of course....

I have a USA Peavey Millennium with active Music Man/J-Bass pups that sound better than any EMG's I've played.
So I'm running two paths made easy with a Boss LS-2:
1) EHX steel leather into Zoom Sansamp sim with tons of processing (Limiter, Octave Down, Sansamp modeler, Eq, Chorus, Echo....)
2) Tech 21 Blonde into Behringer blendable bass o.d. (Boss ODB-3 clone)
 
#60
So I have an El Oso now, and running it into the B3K produces some fine results. I'm coming around to thinking I also need more input gain from the M9, which makes it stupid loud. Right now the input gain is at 9 o'clock and the volume is usually around 8 o'clock.

I also have a Dispatch Master now that makes for some really nice verb/delays... Adding that to the Oso/B3K combo helps widen up the distortion too, making for good '... in a couldron' sounds. Still need to adjust the 'boulders'. Right now they sound like fist sized rocks, so... pretty close...

I'll experiment more at high volume after the neighbors go off to work today...
 

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