Help me get this bass tone

[PunkRockJesus]

I need help/suggestions getting the bass tone from the song Desolate City by Gluecifer using an HX Stomp.



All help appreciated.

 

[cataract]

 

[cataract]

Also use a Precision bass

 

[sawzalot]

Primary component is a Fender Precision design with some overdrive and compression. The P-bass part is the biggest component to my ears.

 

[fu22ba55]

PIck attack --> Any precision-bass-style-pickup-equipped bass--> any SVT clone sim

 

[brianrost]

Roundwound strings. Midrange boost. A little bit of dirt.

 

[richntiff]

SVT Bright amp, then split parallel path (crossover at about 140hz). Low side - put a compressor in, pick one you like to tighten the bottom end). High side - start with the Teemah drive. Add an EQ block after the paths come back together (maybe not needed, but nice to have an eq option in there)

This should get you a good start. If the Teemah isn't the right thing, try one of the Rat style distortions. Vermin is a good one. I'm still very new to the HX Stomp world, but I keep coming back to the SVT Bright, and I'm becoming a big fan of the parallel processing.

 

[bthiemann80]

Flatwounds. Prob used an upright in the studio......

Just kidding. Agree w/ all above. This is a pretty common rock tone for bass guitar. Although it's easy to define that way, it can be hard to get it just right if you are first starting out. But the whole idea of aggressive attack (w/ a pick usually) slamming into something tubey like an Ampeg to the point of overdrive and maybe some light comp would be the best place to start.

I had a HX Stomp and from what I can remember, it will do this kind of tone pretty well. Experiment w/ the SVT and 810 settings, aim for some overdrive and maybe some light comp. I will say this though, I did end up parting ways w/ my HX Stomp. It was my first foray into the newer age of digital amp sims (I had a Line6 POD 2.0 when it first came out and used it a lot to record with until plug ins started getting ridiculously good) and while at first I REALLY dug it, it had this DI sound that I could not seem to bury. I could like always hear too much of my DI/unprocessed signal behind the amp sim sound no matter what I did. I don't seem to remember the FX being like that tho, primarily just the amp sims. I came running back to analog, mostly in the form of a VT bass DI and have been a happy camper ever since.

 

[_Obra_]

P bass + pick and fast hand!
Any EQ plugin will do the job as any decent preamp.

 

[Christophe C]

SVT Bright amp, then split parallel path (crossover at about 140hz). Low side - put a compressor in, pick one you like to tighten the bottom end). High side - start with the Teemah drive. Add an EQ block after the paths come back together (maybe not needed, but nice to have an eq option in there)

This should get you a good start. If the Teemah isn't the right thing, try one of the Rat style distortions. Vermin is a good one. I'm still very new to the HX Stomp world, but I keep coming back to the SVT Bright, and I'm becoming a big fan of the parallel processing.

Thank you
Do you mean that you put the ampeg amp sim in first position, before entering the split ?

 

[richntiff]

Thank you
Do you mean that you put the ampeg amp sim in first position, before entering the split ?

Yes - I just did it with a new preset last night, and it seemed to work well. I haven't seen anyone else talking about doing it that way, but I wanted to get some of the Ampeg flavor into the low path, so I tried it, and it seems good. I haven't tried it at a very loud volume yet to see how it does, but at bedroom volume, it sounds pretty good!

 

[PunkRockJesus]

Thanks for all the helpful advice.
I’ll check out some of your suggestions.
I managed to get a tone close to it earlier today using a teemah in path b with crossover at 150hz then blended back into a regal bass di block with hpf on and a little bass boost.
Don’t have a p bass but my mustang PJ is close enough.

 

[Lo-E]

To me that sounds like a P bass with rounds and a pick going through a clean DI and hitting the front end of an input channel hard enough to drive it a little. It doesn’t sound like a mic’ed amp to me.

That said, an SVT and 8x10 setting is likely to get you in the ballpark, as others have already mentioned. Compression is nice and there most probably is some used in the recording but it’s fairly transparent. I don’t think you’d actually need it to get close to this tone. I’m not so sure you really need anything in the chain other than the SVT/810 setting, TBH.

 

[N Scott Shaw]

Probably gonna need to lower the bottom end to unmask the strong mids.. Running a HPF pretty high may do the most good.

 

[PunkRockJesus]

To me that sounds like a P bass with rounds and a pick going through a clean DI and hitting the front end of an input channel hard enough to drive it a little. It doesn’t sound like a mic’ed amp to me.

That said, an SVT and 8x10 setting is likely to get you in the ballpark, as others have already mentioned. Compression is nice and there most probably is some used in the recording but it’s fairly transparent. I don’t think you’d actually need it to get close to this tone. I’m not so sure you really need anything in the chain other than the SVT/810 setting, TBH.

Maybe I should try the regal di block into the studio mic pre block with the hpf on in the regal?

 

[Lo-E]

Maybe I should try the regal di block into the studio mic pre block with the hpf on in the regal?

Certainly worth a try. I'm only guessing at what the original signal path was, but what you're describing might get you there. Solo the P pickup on your P/J, tone at full and see if you even need a HPF.

There's nothing about his tone that's particularly era-specific. His sound could have been recorded anywhere from the mid 1970s until the middle of last week and you'd never know... With that in mind, think about how people were getting that kind of sound back when options were a lot more limited: In the studio that would have been either bass > DI > input channel > maybe an LA-2a or 1176 compressor > tape or, if an amp was used, bass > tube amp & cabinet > mic > input channel > maybe compressor > tape. For amps, studio staples at the time were SVTs with 810s, Dual Showmans with 215s and B-15s. Sure, there were other approaches and there were lots of other amps in studios, but most of the time it was one of the above options, all of which are really stripped down and simple. All this is really just a very long-winded way of saying you should think about the simplest way to arrive at this sound because the sound itself is uncomplicated. If you can get there with one single thing such as just going straight into a channel strip, then that's what you should do. Add as little as possible.

HPFs are very popular nowadays because modern heads, cabs and PA systems can go so low. Back when the frequency response of bass gear and PAs was crappy nobody needed a HPF because you were never gonna get that low anyway! Now we can get too low so we use HPFs! Again, I'm using too many words here; what I mean is, don't look for solutions until you know you have a problem to solve. Use the simplest chain you can get away with and only add something if there's something you need to fix.

 

[TonyP-]

PIck attack --> Any precision-bass-style-pickup-equipped bass--> any SVT clone sim

Yep, nothing earth shattering here…
Should be easy to duplicate.

 

[v-12]

Chat GPT Tonecrafter

HX Stomp – “Desolate City” Bass Tone​

Signal Chain (in order)​

LA Studio Comp​

(Studio-style optical compression for punch and consistency)

• Peak Reduction: 4.5
• Gain: 5.0
• Mix: 100%
• Emphasis: 0
• Level: Adjust to unity

This keeps the attack tight without killing aggression.

---

SV Beast Nrm​

(Helix model of Ampeg SVT Normal Channel)

Settings:

• Drive: 5.5
• Bass: 4.5
• Mid: 6.5
• Mid Freq: 800 Hz
• Treble: 5.5
• Presence: 5.0
• Ch Vol: to taste
• Master: 7–8

The key here is pushed mids. That 800 Hz bump gives the snarling Scandinavian rock character.

---

Ampeg 8x10 Cab (SVT-810E equivalent)​

Single Cab Block Settings:

• Mic: 421 Dynamic
• Distance: 3.0 in
• Low Cut: 50 Hz
• High Cut: 5.0 kHz
• Early Reflections: 15%

The 421 keeps it punchy and aggressive.
High cut at 5k prevents clank from getting too modern.

---

🎛 Optional: If You Have a Free Block​

If you can squeeze in one more block (e.g., using external cab or HX Stomp XL):

Minotaur (very low gain) BEFORE amp​

• Gain: 1.5
• Tone: 4.5
• Level: 6.0

This simulates hitting the SVT harder — very subtle grind enhancer.