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How do you get a HUGE bass sound?
- Thread starter bdplaid
- Start date
What I really need is to get back my MM Stingray HH. The neck pickup sounded HUGE. But I hated the neck, so that's that.
The oc5 is in my future.
8 strings are a different beast, and different again played with a pick, vs fingers.
I loved the 8 and 12 strings I had. 12 is a monster huge angry piano sound.
With octave pedals, I feed the compressed signal into the overdrive then into the octave. It masks the "synth" flavor of the octave.
I can't believe nobody has said get a HUGE amp if you want a HUGE sound. Where are all the SVT toters?
At my last gig with a classic rock band, I played a Fender USA Geddy Jazz Bass with the bridge pickup just slightly rolled off w/nickel rounds, and tone knob at around 60%, mostly finger style plucked over the neck pickup...
into a TC Spectra Comp pedal with the "Melvin Davis Compress Less" patch and knob at about 10:00....
into an Ampeg SCR-Di with Scrambler off, bass set flat, mids @ 1:00, treble @ 11:00....
Straight to the PA.
No stage amp.
It was huge. The club sound tech asked me if the bass was active, could I cut the lows a little. He said it was "too thick and just in your face".
I turned the Bass on my SCR-di down to about 11:00, and he was happy. The BL walked around the room (guitar wireless) during the first number and said the bass sounded thick but not overpowering in the mix and he liked it.
It also sounded really good in my IEMs.
I've also achieved a big, rich sound using a Fender Player P and D'addario Chromes (flats) into the same pedals, both amped and ampless at different gigs.
You don't always need a big amp or even an expensive di to get a huge sound.
Quality bass pickups and strings, a clean signal, and playing the right way for your particular instrument and the particular songs will get you there.
Oftentimes, less is more.
into a TC Spectra Comp pedal with the "Melvin Davis Compress Less" patch and knob at about 10:00....
into an Ampeg SCR-Di with Scrambler off, bass set flat, mids @ 1:00, treble @ 11:00....
Straight to the PA.
No stage amp.
It was huge. The club sound tech asked me if the bass was active, could I cut the lows a little. He said it was "too thick and just in your face".
I turned the Bass on my SCR-di down to about 11:00, and he was happy. The BL walked around the room (guitar wireless) during the first number and said the bass sounded thick but not overpowering in the mix and he liked it.
It also sounded really good in my IEMs.
I've also achieved a big, rich sound using a Fender Player P and D'addario Chromes (flats) into the same pedals, both amped and ampless at different gigs.
You don't always need a big amp or even an expensive di to get a huge sound.
Quality bass pickups and strings, a clean signal, and playing the right way for your particular instrument and the particular songs will get you there.
Oftentimes, less is more.
Jamerson used it in a recording studio with a microphone, a modern single 12" cab using a P with flats is still way better than that at low volume.
If you so say. Either way, I'll still put my '69 B-15N up against anything for bass guitar recording purposes regardless of what Jamerson may have actually used. Never got any complaints about the sound.
That said, I can run a Barber Linden with a line boost into a class-D power amp and a full range 2x10 and get very close to the same sound. And I have. So I don't think the specific gear you use is all that critical to copping a classic vibe.
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In a trio situation, and especially when the PA was a couple boxes on sticks for vocals and a couple mics on drums, I've done this…my pedalboard incorporates an small dual out signal splitter, with tuner and compressor before it. One send goes to a TRex Quint(octave up plus a fifth above, dry signal off). That in turn goes through some sort of guitar frequency friendly dirt, and a Keeley Mod Station multi-effects for the usual suspect stuff, followed by an AMT volume pedal(small footprint)acting as a 'blend'.
That faux guitar send then ends up in an amp situation(eq'd appropriately)with a single 12", but in a sealed cab. The proper bass signal, full range, goes to a Source Audio After Shock OD(although that may change), to bass wah, then to an OG Radial Bassbone, with bass centric effects in the FX loop…once again typical items, but like a bass chorus, etc.
That then goes to a separate bass amp with relevant eq settings, and a variety of driver configurations depending what mood I'm in or what the gig calls for…2x10, 2x12, 2x15. The fake guitar signal gets faded in as needed, often as 'thickening'. The lone 12" sits on top of whatever bass cabs are utilized, amps on top of that, or off to the side. I may be chronologically advanced, but I'm not a decrepit old man, and I have my Rock'n'roller cart, no problem.
Here, I'm running an '82 Jazz Bass (all Jazz Basses were MIA and passive in '82) into my Eden WT500/800 (800-watts bridged into 8Ω) and feeding that signal into my 8Ω, DNS-410 (handles 1400-watts rms) by DNA. Since we were playing outdoors, I normally would set my master at 9:30, but since I had to place my amp 5-feet behind the stage and a foot below it, I had set the master at 10:30, which was way too loud. Next song turned it down to 10 o'clock. That was still too loud, even with my amp sitting on the asphalt behind and a foot down from the stage. For the next song I turned it down to 9:30 to balance with the rest of the group and I played the rest of the gig with it set at 9:30 on my master.
I've pointed out in the image below where my amp was playing from:
Here's what that sounded like from the brewpub owner's iPhone recording as he moved around: I have my master set at 10 o'clock here and it was definitely too loud.
