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looking for some advice on good punk settings

#21
Mids. Less boomy, more clarity. You want to treat it like a second guitar. I went from playing in aN alternative rock band where I had a big 15 inch speaker cab, when I started playing in a punk band I switched to a 4x10 cab to get that extra punch. Those 8s should be good too. I usually do lows at a 4, mids at a 8, and highs at a 5 or 6

And get a heavy pick and do mostly down strokes.
 
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#22
Use a pick—a stiff one. Play between the pickup and the bridge. Exactly where you play is your tone control. Bass flat or slightly cut, lots of mids and highs. Strings don't matter so much, but the Ernie Balls are good. P-bass is good, too. Did I mention Use a pick—a stiff one?
 
#26
I think the big part of that punk sound is from hammering the strings with a pick to get some bite. My grind is pretty hot, but not the brightest instrument. Some bright strings, and boosting the frequency of the pick attack might help.
 
#27
Personally I agree a lot of it is in the attack, but fingers are usually fine unless its a pick-centric bassline. Listen to players like Mike Watt, almost all fingerstyle.

The key is matching the gain on the pre-amp and/or amp to match the higher line level from attacking notes harder. With too much clipping you'll loose definition and might even notice speaker fatigue into the show due to the voice coils overheating. Usually:
-Bass all the way up (unity gain), try both pickups on full and EQ set flat. Play hard (being aware of injury symptoms from doing so)
-Pre-amp set slightly less than usual to avoid clipping (if there's an indicator light, use it)
-Master volume power amp to adjust volume, set as high as needed

Also good advice on boosting mids and new roundwound strings (an expensive habit), my the main point to take away is a lot of your tone is in your hands.
 
#29
P-bass with a pick is the classic setup. Though I don't really play punk anymore, I still use the same basic method with a heavy pick attack. Turn your mids way up and cut the bass then add treble to suit.
 
#30
joelmesz said:
View attachment 658465 thats my set up
Click to expand...
Those are passive bass guitars, IMO, I would get brand new stainless steel round wound Bass guitar strings. And would either get 2 ACTIVE EMG 40DC HUMBUCKERS WITH ACTIVE 3-BAND EQ for the Bass guitar, or get a nice Bass preamp like the SANSAMP TECH21 RPM RACK MOUNT BASS PREAMP, like the one Geddy Lee of Rush uses. And also get a nice compressor pedal like Keeley or MXR, a graphic EQ could shape your sound real good also. And don't forget brand new stainless steel round wound Bass strings.
 
#31
Pick for sure, there's only a handful of punk bassists who finger pick, and they usually have a bunch of stuff going on, so you either need to have enough going on to make you stand out or just use a pick to get that aggressive, driving tone. There's only a handful of punk bassists that finger pick and they are all over the fretboard, Jason Black from Hot Water Music is one I can think of, and Joe Keller of The Ergs, those are the only 2 I can think of offhand. I have been playing in punk bands for 10 years and I've always used a pick. Anymore I play pretty much elusively with a heavily overdriven tone. Even just mild grit will help your tone a bit.
 
#32
Another thing to consider is that most of the older punk/hardcore bassists had cheaper solid state amps( peavey for example) that were pushed to the point of solid state breakup...though some had tube amps, solid state seemed to be the rigs of choice for guys touring in vans way back simply because most of those bands didn't make a whole lot, if any money...

Oh yeah, and if you haven't heard Dead Kennedy's check them out, Klaus Flouride was a Badass
 

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