More Growl

[PeaveyPlayer]

Peavey cirrus?! I just strung mine with fat beams and couldn't be more growl!

 

[Ric5]

My current bass doesn't seem to want to cut through the mix no matter what I do. Any suggestions for a "Growlier" new bass?

Current Set up:

82 JV Jazz with Bartolini 9s and 2Tek bridge
John East J-Retro set flat OR with the Bass boost control off (not centered) and Bright switch on
Roto Sound 99 Exposed Core strings.
Diamond BCP compressor through a Radial JDI direct box

I'm considering:
A Peavey Cirrus or Rudy Sarzo or something by Warwick, Musicman or Gibson/Epiphone.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bartolini pickups are famous for a smooth sound ... they are not known for growl. Also the j-retro is an excellent preamp but it gets more of a smoother tone.

Try Seymour Duncan pickups and a 4 band Audere preamp.

 

[Ric5]

This is more like it:

NOW THAT IS GROWL!

 

[Ric5]

A simple cheap way to get tons of growl: find a used bass you like with an MM pickup. The old passive (discontinued) Kingston is great.

To me that is not growlly

 

[Ric5]

Your setup should do it but is some of your playing technique not doing it?
Nothing personal, but when the Geddy bass here goes to gigs it can be played to sound "normal" or cutting or "like Geddy" depending on strength of attack and where the string is hit.
Check this video at time 6:20 ~ 7:00


For some of the basses here(i.e. Gibson SG bass), no matter how hard or what the settings are....it will not growl. For most any other bass here, playing it very hard and towards the bridge makes it growl.

Also, a SansAmp pedal in front of your rig can help you pull out what is missing. VERY useful if you ever have to deal with provided backline and/or give the PA a good DI. Your comment about FOH seems to indicate that the FOH operator may be taking your sound(growl, clean, mud or whatever you send him) and turning it into what he "thinks" you should sound like....a pedestrian bassist with no growl(mids or highs).

If you must get a new bass, a Fender Geddy or Musicman will do what you want but they won't fix FOH.

Good luck.

For me that is too scooped to be growlly ...

Growl is about mids distorting a little

 

[Pako]

Try your bass through a tube amp and get some nice overdriven saturation. Ampeg SVT comes to mind for classic growl tone.

 

[GreyBeard]

The current understanding of sound reinforcement professionals regarding bottom end is, "big wall of mud, with really thunderous kick drum."

Sorry if I sound bitter.

My thoughts too, I have been so disappointed at a lot of concerts as the Bass player get SCREWED in the mix. I don't think that they realize that the bass guitar actually plays pitches that are the foundation of the harmonic content of the music. I think they hear kick drum and bass guitar as the same sound.

 

[anavar]

any warwick + DR high Beam + sansamp/b7k and boom. more growl than a pitbull having its head cut off.

nothing growls like a warwick.



this one is super angry sounding

 

[mb94952]

I'd stay away from cirrus or peavey if you wanna cut in a mix and want growl... IMO nothing growls like a jazz bass... Ash body maple neck and board with single coils and a nice preamp onboard ... Aguilar obp-3 always sounds nice to me .. Just my 2 cents ... Warwicks growl like beasts also but I never liked the necks ... Spector basses also are monsters... I play a carvin sb5001 Jazz ash Maple maple and I'm telling ya it's fantastic and extremely underrated ... Never ever liked carvin UNTIL I got my sb5001... I'm ordering a JB-5 soon also from carvin.... YouTube JB-5 or SB5000's and listen for yourself

I TOTALLY disagree about staying away from a Cirrus. I play Peavey Cirrus basses and they cut through the mix better than any other bass. The growl is totally there.

I am not judging slamsinger personally, but it seems that Fender guys are automatically against Peavey. They swear by Fender and nothing else.

I am speaking from personal experience. I can send you all the CD's I've played on with my Cirrus and you tell me they don't cut through the mix...

No matter what bass you play, if you boost the mids you will always Growl and cut through the mix.

Just go to my Reverb Nation hyperlink on my signature below and hear a bunch of stuff. That is 90% Peavey Cirrus through a Mesa Walkabout head into an SWR cab.

 

[blindrabbit]

EBMM Sterling with DR Hi-Beams. It'll slice your head off and growl with such authority that Siberian tigers will cringe in fear.

 

[Malak the Mad]

I TOTALLY disagree about staying away from a Cirrus. I play Peavey Cirrus basses and they cut through the mix better than any other bass. The growl is totally there.

I am not judging slamsinger personally, but it seems that Fender guys are automatically against Peavey. They swear by Fender and nothing else.

I am speaking from personal experience. I can send you all the CD's I've played on with my Cirrus and you tell me they don't cut through the mix...

No matter what bass you play, if you boost the mids you will always Growl and cut through the mix.

Just go to my Reverb Nation hyperlink on my signature below and hear a bunch of stuff. That is 90% Peavey Cirrus through a Mesa Walkabout head into an SWR cab.

Seriously Michael, ease up off the caffeine. There's no need to shout. :***:

I can't speak for every Fender-fan here, but not all of us are screaming "Fender or Die!" from the rooftops. In fact, if you take a look at my first suggestion…and that's all it was, a suggestion based on my own, albeit limited, personal experience…I made it clear that my Blacktop may not be "the growliest", but it's the most among my collection. And despite being a bit of an admitted Fender fan-boy, I never once trashed anyone else's opinions or suggestions.

This is, after all, a topic that's heavily saturated with opinion. What constitutes "Growl" is obviously a very subjective thing…prone to the vagaries of collectively different, and probably unreliable*, perceptions and experiences.

*: Unreliable, as in "too many variables to establish a 100% agreed upon set of results", just like most human perceptions are bound to be.

 

[Alban]

If I need to cut through the mix more, I use a Bearfoot Blueberry, set on very low drive (nearly zero). It adds a roar to my sound which is very pleasing, but without getting too much overdrive flavour. The "taste" knob on that pedal allows for some nice fine-tuning of your preferred accentuated frequencies.

 

[obimark]

I never got any growl out of my Cirrus (and that may be more the amps fault, was playing it through a MB LMII- I also HATED the longer scale length)
The best growl I am getting is out of my Carvin JB4 thru my GK MB500 head. I am using the B channel- and I have the boost on just a little bit (around 9 oclock). I have the bass in passive mode- I can't get ANY growl with the Active tone engaged (seems to act like a compressor). And my strings are about 4 months old.

 

[SirMjac28]

Any chance the rest of the band could adjust why is it always the bassist that has to do something? you hardly ever hear guitarists making these complaints what type of music are you playing? is this a recent problem? I think you have more than enough right now to get good results maybe it's time for a band meeting because if it were me I wouldn't buy crap else it seems you're in a volume war and the bassist usually loses.

 

[ROGI]

Link Removed

 

[AdamK]

I've got the solution. An Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass.

 

[FlatwoundFunk]

Can you explain what you mean by "cut through"? Thanks
FF

 

[Dan_reeves]

Barts aren't exactly known to be growly. They are more of a clean pickup, hence the recommendation.
I can't find much on RS99's and I've never tried them myself. Strings are the cheapest and easiest way to transform the sound of your bass. I'll bet a set of RS66's do much better for your tonal goal. Seems cheaper than buying a new bass.

I found my jazz really shined using Dunlop Super Brights in stainless. They are about $18 a pack. Sound awesome!

 

[SteveCS]

Interesting that there is a lot of talk about this bass vs. that bass, these strings or those strings, this that or the other pickups or amps, active/passive, and so on, yet whilst all of these things help, it all starts with the bass itself and no-one has mentioned the actual setup of the instrument. A Jazz with a nice low action and little relief (almost buzzing but not quite) and pickups as close as possible to the strings without wolf-notes should growl. If not, then start looking for other reasons - on-board V/V/T settings, gain staging, EQ, strings, pickups, amp, in that order, but IME it is better to look for an appropriate setup first.

Of course if none of this works, then get a Stingray!!

 

[taylor16]

Growl is all in the fingertips, yo. Look to the hands.