Metal pedal chain

[el murdoque]

99% of metal bass sounds are either based on sans amp or dark glass. Your lowest common denominator is the underpowered amp. Putting pedals in front might help the bedroom tone, but it’s polishing a turd when it comes to playing with live drums and half stacks. Save the pedal money for a decent amp and cab and start from there.

This.
Metal drummers have a tendency to play very loud when they do double bassdrum parts and don't have a decade of practicing metal under their belt. When you're after a certain tone, you can brute force it to a certain degree, by turning louder - if your amp has the firepower.
Most, if not all of your distortion sound will vanish when you play with distorted guitars and drums. When there's a rhythm guitar player that fills the void when the lead guitar plays lead or solo parts, the distortion of the bass will only be audible in parts where no guitars are playing.
Your nasty bedroom sizzle and fizz often simply disappear in the cymbals and guitars.

 

[Joshua Vance]

Now I'm down this rabbit hole of isolated bass.

This sounds like a fuzz.


This isn't all that high-gain.


Here's Tony a few years later with, what else... a Darkglass X on his board.
Get to around 5:40 where he mentions the rig changes from gig t gig.

I’ve heard that Tom Araya would play unplugged live. If that’s true, I now know why.

 

[crapusername]

Now I'm down this rabbit hole of isolated bass.

This sounds like a fuzz.


This isn't all that high-gain.


Here's Tony a few years later with, what else... a Darkglass X on his board.
Get to around 5:40 where he mentions the rig changes from gig t gig.

The slayer line sounds like a dimed amp rather than a fuzz to me

 

[René_Julien]

This.
Metal drummers have a tendency to play very loud when they do double bassdrum parts and don't have a decade of practicing metal under their belt. When you're after a certain tone, you can brute force it to a certain degree, by turning louder - if your amp has the firepower.
Most, if not all of your distortion sound will vanish when you play with distorted guitars and drums. When there's a rhythm guitar player that fills the void when the lead guitar plays lead or solo parts, the distortion of the bass will only be audible in parts where no guitars are playing.
Your nasty bedroom sizzle and fizz often simply disappear in the cymbals and guitars.

This is why I prefer to use a clean tone when playing metal, always had great results with that.

When listening to power metal (Blind Guardian, Rhapsody) I like that you hear a bog-standard clean fat bass-tone and I think that mixes in perfectly with that style of metal.

Then you have Markus Großkopf from Helloween who is a different magnificent beast all togheter. One of my favourite bassists, a very technical player.

 

[monsterthompson]

I’ve heard that Tom Araya would play unplugged live. If that’s true, I now know why.

you don’t think they brought Bob Daisley in for that session?

 

[el murdoque]

This is why I prefer to use a clean tone when playing metal, always had great results with that.

When listening to power metal (Blind Guardian, Rhapsody) I like that you hear a bog-standard clean fat bass-tone and I think that mixes in perfectly with that style of metal.

Then you have Markus Großkopf from Helloween who is a different magnificent beast all togheter. One of my favourite bassists, a very technical player.

Same here. The only drive I use is the one from my Sansamp PBDDI. This feels more like an amp driven to the limit, partly overdriven preamp, partly overdriven poweramp and partly speakers farting out.

But my rule of thumb is to go down on distortion when the guitars go up on it. In metal, I often see my main job in playing close to the drums, and accentuating beats needs a precise sound.

A fat drive sound in a rockband with only partially overdriven guitars can do wonders - when the mix can give it the room it needs to shine.

 

[knumbskull]

you don’t think they brought Bob Daisley in for that session?

or Dave Gilmour...

 

[Aidenn7]

ok no chorus.. right now.. you want a good board. peterson tuner.. boss ls-2.. russian muff.. rat.. boss eq.. dime amp simulator.. clean amp sound.. noise gate in loop..

 

[Bill Murray]

1. Play with a pick
2. Bring up your mids
3.add some decent compression
4.Overdrive (Sansamp, Darkglass, Boss)

What pedals and in which order should I get for playing heavy metal? Style such as Slipknot, Mudvayne, Slayer, Static-x. I am on a budget but feel the need to add to the tone/sound. I currently have a Vox Stomplab B1 Multi-effect and a
Boss OverDrive ODB-3. I've googled it and there is scattered advice. I just want the simplest way to go. I don't need 100 pedals just 4 or 5 to get me started.

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

Yea Gray went to that Ibenez signature after that, which is basically an ATK refined for him. Which I am saving for. Being a beginner I bought a beginner bass to get started. I've messed a round for a long time but never learned instrument learned songs of video or friends. I became disabled 2 years ago with cancer and I know have a pants load of free time. So I started taking lessons from SBL and got invited to join a band. So i did now trying to fine tune tone. Not sure what WDT/machine means. Dark Glass right now is way outside my budget.

Wisconsin Death Trip/Machine...those first two albums were how I learned to play guitar. Not too complicated and nothing too fast. Sounds like you're on the right path man. Get healthy and have fun with the bass!

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

99% of metal bass sounds are either based on sans amp or dark glass. Your lowest common denominator is the underpowered amp. Putting pedals in front might help the bedroom tone, but it’s polishing a turd when it comes to playing with live drums and half stacks. Save the pedal money for a decent amp and cab and start from there.

My friend uses a Microtubes 900 through the DG 212 and it's beyond loud. It's a dream metal rig.

 

[Feral Feline]

I don't get the distortion or punch i need with out them. I'm playing through an Ampeg BA 115 HP and have tried everything with the basic eq on it and tone knob on all 3 of my basses.

Playing 6 months and you've got 3 basses already. I LOVE it.

Good on ya man.

I'm sure there's a ton of advice in the thread already on what you should get/do. I'm only on page 1, but need to come back later. I look forward to reading the rest of the thread, but most of all looking forward to what you ultimately decide to do. There's no right/wrong, there's only what pleases your ear. Good luck with your journey!

 

[GreggBummer]

When listening to the recordings of metal bassists, keep in mind that there is a lot of studio techniques that are used.

One of the most used is the bass recorded in several channels. One channel is clean. A second channel has dirt or fuzz. In a live context, the bass may be split and sent to two amplifiers- one with clean lows, the other with dirt on the mids and highs... or some combination of that.

Dan Maines from Clutch has one of my favorite "heavy rock" bass tones. His Rickenbacker sends the bridge pickup to one SVT and the neck pickup to a second SVT with the gain turned up. It sounds massive and brutal... yet is has a bluesy and funky quality to it. A lot of this comes from Maines as a player... and his rig is HUGE.

 

[neptoon]

Got to do a gig with Ryan. He doesn’t even use a compressor anymore. He had two Warwick thumbs. His old modded shaved neck fretted nt5 and his newer custom shop fretless. He had the Warwick LWA 1000 heads and a pair of Warwick 410 cabs but his front of house sound was just him, bass, and a Di that he had sitting next to the amp on top of the cabs. His sound on the LD50 album is what it is because he biamped using an ampeg rig plus a SWR workingman 10 powering a Mesa 412 guitar cab which gave him that unique midrange. But since then he’s been a DI kind of guy. I even talked to him about what new amps he likes and he said he doesn’t really care, that amps are just “sound reinforcement/monitoring” he likes a good DI and in ears if he’s playing anything big like when Mudvayne was still together and when he toured with Korn. His basses are very unique though. He literally let me hold and play his old fretted thumb. His are completely modded. There are no Warwick MEC pickups in his basses. He said playing shows with Mudvayne he would get sweaty and his basses would get soaked and the electronics would go bad so he’s replace them. The neck profiles of his basses are also very different. The fretted thumb was shaved and the fretless was made to be more like the shaved neck. It feels more like a jazz bass like neck profile which I assume is more comfortable for him being a smaller guy. He makes me look like like a giant in the picture below but I’m not even 6’ tall. The action on his basses was a bit of a surprise. It’s relatively high. Which a lot of guys really into getting their tone out of their basses do, but it was surprising because of how technical his playing is. But yeah I think the setups on his basses have a lot to do with his sound

But yeah Ryan is a super nice guy. One of the nicest I’ve met as far as musicians I look up to that I’ve had the pleasure of opening for. Had no idea he lives less than an hour away either. Kind of wish he’d do some private lessons because he has a very unique playing style. View attachment 4202561View attachment 4202562 View attachment 4202564

concur! That’s why I made sure to say when he was with Mudvayne he used a compressor. Bass straight to the amp since he left. He got his necks profiled to match his newer one that are profiled more like the 80’s and early 90’s warwicks when they were quite slim

 

[monsterthompson]

One of the most used is the bass recorded in several channels. One channel is clean. A second channel has dirt or fuzz. In a live context, the bass may be split and sent to two amplifiers- one with clean lows, the other with dirt on the mids and highs... or some combination of that.

That isolated track from Raining Blood has characteristics that make me think there’s a clean blend/layer.

This tutorial is a tad corny but around 2:50 you get some applicable examples.

 

[SLPimp]

Avoid Behringer pedals since they're made of plastic instead of metal.

 

[theunknowndude]

Have to agree that a lot of the metal you are looking at is pretty simple for the setup. Even looking at gojira the bass tone is massive but the chain pretty simple.
Slipknot is a funny one - Paul gray is basically a clean rumble in that band and yet once you listen enough you realise he is providing most of the low end of the guitars... same for something like mushroom head.
I have a massive amount of pedals on my board for a metal head but realistically I would be able to cut it to two or three. Mbd1 or cog mini 66 is my main tone, overdrive blended with clean and used in a dirty low mid boost style - the “fat tone” and then 5 string bass.
I tried to bass my sound on static x / original stone sour album sounds. Decent amp and cab would also help - when I played in my thrash band I had a drummer who was actually from a black metal band - excessive double kick and found drowned out til I got a better amp and cab.

 

[theunknowndude]

Also ignore the massive pedal chain thing until later. Sure they may have a chorus pedal, as do I) but maybe turned on once for 10 seconds in a whole set during a bridge part or an intro, it can come later.

 

[Hypocrite]

Slipknot is a funny one - Paul gray is basically a clean rumble in that band and yet once you listen enough you realise he is providing most of the low end of the guitars...

This raises a good point, often overlooked: tell your guitarists to turn down their low end. Too much bass in the guitar signals will muddy up the whole band. Leave the low end for kick drum and bass guitar (but good luck trying to convince them to change "their sound")

 

[theunknowndude]

This raises a good point, often overlooked: tell your guitarists to turn down their low end. Too much bass in the guitar signals will muddy up the whole band. Leave the low end for kick drum and bass guitar (but good luck trying to convince them to change "their sound")

Or you go Steve di gorgio/ 80’s style, turn the bass eq into just mids and cut through the the guitars but then leave a flat hole between that spectrum between drums and rest of mix... can be done well if that’s your aim though - see bands like spiral architect and twisted into form.. (more power metal style I guess )