Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[Squanch72]

Ditto!



Polite words and big demands with a lot of emoticons is my method.

This is how I imagine you negotiating your Bass IV.

 

[mpdd]

U guys ever tried the legend of the fuzz bit pedal by devi ever?

 

[The_Janitor]

Interesting. I knew SW would bend over backwards for the sale but didn't realize they would haggle. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start when haggling with a large retail business.

MAP stands for Minimum Advertised Price - and that's what it is, the minimum price that can be advertised. It is not restriction on selling price. If a reseller has salespeople answering phones, you should always call. You shouldn't even have to haggle, they'll probably quote you a lower price without asking. Otherwise just say something like "What's the best you can do on "X" product?"

There are some select brands that are unilateral price - meaning everyone sells it at the same price no matter what. Mesa/Boogie has that policy. So if they tell you a particular product is "UPP" or "Unilateral Pricing" they're probably not bullsh*tting.

(Or ask me and I can tell you if the product you're interested in is unilaterally priced).

 

[Pelham Bleu]

Only Devi Ever I have is the Ruiner which is one of my all time favorite fuzzes on bass.

 

[Corey Y]

This might be a bit stupid, but does anybody else have problems writing when your tone is screwed up? It's not universal, but last night and early this morning I was trying to work on new music and couldn't crank an amp in the house, so I was doing stuff in the computer and just couldn't seem to lock in. When I'm able to turn on an amp and play with my setup, no problems typically. Most of the riffs I play on my demo clips are just off the cuff with a few minutes of jamming.

 

[The_Janitor]

This might be a bit stupid, but does anybody else have problems writing when your tone is screwed up? It's not universal, but last night and early this morning I was trying to work on new music and couldn't crank an amp in the house, so I was doing stuff in the computer and just couldn't seem to lock in. When I'm able to turn on an amp and play with my setup, no problems typically. Most of the riffs I play on my demo clips are just off the cuff with a few minutes of jamming.

Most definitely. I have my little bass pod > nearfield/headphone set up at home and it's really hard to focus and play like I would at a band practice, or even alone with the amp turned up. I hear all kinds of stuff that I normally don't, don't hear/feel things that I normally do and it takes me out the headspace that I need to be in.

Same thing happened to me to a much larger degree with drums. Playing an acoustic kit loudly? Fine. Playing an acoustic kit with earplugs? Trainwreck. Playing an electronic kit? Trainwreck.

Alternatively I get inspiration when things sound awesome. We were just discussing this at the jam session with old drummer on Sunday. You get that new awesome piece of gear and suddenly you play a little better, or come up with licks/riffs/ideas that you wouldn't normally think of. It's been happening with me in a big way with the 2-PRO, but I've experienced it before with new pedals, or most noticeably the first time I played a mic'ed up drumkit through a large PA with subs- holy balls. That was probably the best drum performance of my life.

 

[Burnsy]

This might be a bit stupid, but does anybody else have problems writing when your tone is screwed up? It's not universal, but last night and early this morning I was trying to work on new music and couldn't crank an amp in the house, so I was doing stuff in the computer and just couldn't seem to lock in. When I'm able to turn on an amp and play with my setup, no problems typically. Most of the riffs I play on my demo clips are just off the cuff with a few minutes of jamming.

When I wasn't in a band, I couldn't even enjoy playing at all unless it was plugged in, cranked, and seriously loud. Now that I have at least a weekly dose of loud w/ drummer time, I usually don't even bother to plug in if I'm playing by myself just to practice or noodle randomly. If i'm actually focused on writing new stuff, I guess I usually plug into "the rig", but if I can't plug into "my tone" at at least semi-loud volume, I'd just rather not plug in at all... if that makes any sense?

 

[Corey Y]

When I wasn't in a band, I couldn't even enjoy playing at all unless it was plugged in, cranked, and seriously loud. Now that I have at least a weekly dose of loud w/ drummer time, I usually don't even bother to plug in if I'm playing by myself just to practice or noodle randomly. If i'm actually focused on writing new stuff, I guess I usually plug into "the rig", but if I can't plug into "my tone" at at least semi-loud volume, I'd just rather not plug in at all... if that makes any sense?

I'm in a spot where I never play loud through my live rig setups ever at this point. The best I can get is my demo recording setups at home, which are fine-ish. Unfortunately, most of my free time now is either late at night or early in the morning, so if I want to try to write stuff I have to plug in direct and use digital modeling stuff in the computer. I can get ok tones that way, but sometimes when I'm playing riffs that I know I want to be held out and crushing, it's just not there and hard to be really locked in creatively. Sometimes it doesn't matter at all, I think it depends on what I'm playing. If I'm playing through my demo recording setups, even at "indoor volume" I can usually feel it, I've gotten pretty good at scaling my tones up and down when it's still a real life rig.

If I was on fire creatively it might not matter, but right now I'm really just trying to push through a lot of creative stagnation. So small stumbling blocks feel pretty big.

 

[Corey Y]

Most definitely. I have my little bass pod > nearfield/headphone set up at home and it's really hard to focus and play like I would at a band practice, or even alone with the amp turned up. I hear all kinds of stuff that I normally don't, don't hear/feel things that I normally do and it takes me out the headspace that I need to be in.

Same thing happened to me to a much larger degree with drums. Playing an acoustic kit loudly? Fine. Playing an acoustic kit with earplugs? Trainwreck. Playing an electronic kit? Trainwreck.

Alternatively I get inspiration when things sound awesome. We were just discussing this at the jam session with old drummer on Sunday. You get that new awesome piece of gear and suddenly you play a little better, or come up with licks/riffs/ideas that you wouldn't normally think of. It's been happening with me in a big way with the 2-PRO, but I've experienced it before with new pedals, or most noticeably the first time I played a mic'ed up drumkit through a large PA with subs- holy balls. That was probably the best drum performance of my life.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I got rid of almost all of my pedals besides the Dunwich stuff and a few cheapies that are worth keeping. All the Dunwich pedals consistently kill and I can get tones I really love out of them. So just that into a clean amp and I can start cranking out riffs easy. I can spend 20 minutes tweaking stuff in my computer to get it reasonably decent sounding and just have zero inspiration. I've used all digital tones for other projects and been able to get by ok, but for the heavy tunes I like writing for myself it just doesn't click.

 

[ampegfuzz]

This might be a bit stupid, but does anybody else have problems writing when your tone is screwed up? It's not universal, but last night and early this morning I was trying to work on new music and couldn't crank an amp in the house, so I was doing stuff in the computer and just couldn't seem to lock in. When I'm able to turn on an amp and play with my setup, no problems typically. Most of the riffs I play on my demo clips are just off the cuff with a few minutes of jamming.

It's the whole reason behind me buying a full blown guitar rig. I can never get a inspiring tone from a computer amp. Sucks since one of the guitar players in my band doesn't have a rig so my guitar amp has been living in the studio. Still haven't made a valiant effort with my little ampeg yet. Going to try to start writing soon but my overtime at work is killing my free time.

 

[Muddslide]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I got rid of almost all of my pedals besides the Dunwich stuff and a few cheapies that are worth keeping. All the Dunwich pedals consistently kill and I can get tones I really love out of them. So just that into a clean amp and I can start cranking out riffs easy. I can spend 20 minutes tweaking stuff in my computer to get it reasonably decent sounding and just have zero inspiration. I've used all digital tones for other projects and been able to get by ok, but for the heavy tunes I like writing for myself it just doesn't click.

Digital recording/jamming is definitely a double edged sword. I've been doing it off and on since the late 90s and the stuff I produce that way is just nothing like what comes out when I record into a multitracker, whether direct in or using amps/mics.

To tell you the truth, I would love to get another cassette 4 track. I see them occasionally on the bay and places, but now that they are out of production and there's the whole undie/indie tape revival culture thing happening, people are (unsurprisingly) selling them for way more than they are worth.

I have a couple of digital multitrackers, and I like them, but I got really good at making pretty big, clean recordings on old tape 4-tracks. Another problem, though, is that cassettes themselves have gone down in quality significantly since they were a more viable medium. The ones I've bought over the last couple of years just sound like crap...like they halved the width/thickness of the tape itself.

Sorry. Old man rant.

Really, my dream is to have access to a nice old analog board and 1/4" tape...record that way, master the mixed tape straight to vinyl and bypass anything digital whatsoever.

 

[Burnsy]

I'm in a spot where I never play loud through my live rig setups ever at this point. The best I can get is my demo recording setups at home, which are fine-ish. Unfortunately, most of my free time now is either late at night or early in the morning, so if I want to try to write stuff I have to plug in direct and use digital modeling stuff in the computer. I can get ok tones that way, but sometimes when I'm playing riffs that I know I want to be held out and crushing, it's just not there and hard to be really locked in creatively. Sometimes it doesn't matter at all, I think it depends on what I'm playing. If I'm playing through my demo recording setups, even at "indoor volume" I can usually feel it, I've gotten pretty good at scaling my tones up and down when it's still a real life rig.

If I was on fire creatively it might not matter, but right now I'm really just trying to push through a lot of creative stagnation. So small stumbling blocks feel pretty big.

I feel your pain. I'm lucky I've always worked <10 minutes from my house, I used to zip home over lunch breaks to eat leftovers and mainline power chords for 20 minutes. I understand that doesn't work if the wife and baby are at home.

 

[Corey Y]

It's the whole reason behind me buying a full blown guitar rig. I can never get a inspiring tone from a computer amp. Sucks since one of the guitar players in my band doesn't have a rig so my guitar amp has been living in the studio. Still haven't made a valiant effort with my little ampeg yet. Going to try to start writing soon but my overtime at work is killing my free time.

As recently as a few weeks ago I was planning on revamping my home rig. I love the tiny bass rig I have there, GK MB800 into the little Eminence loaded DIY 110. My guitar rig is a 100W tube head into a 2x12 though, but it has power scaling so I usually set it down to 25 or 50W. I was going to pretty much sell all my guitar stuff, build a new cab and have Nick make me a little 18W clean tube head for demo recording. Unfortunately a lot of gear sells just kept falling through and then even more bills popped up, so that's off the table now. The rig I use still works fine though, it's just a little too loud to play any time but during the day. Which usually means right after work or weekends, but those are the times I'm never free usually.

Digital recording/jamming is definitely a double edged sword. I've been doing it off and on since the late 90s and the stuff I produce that way is just nothing like what comes out when I record into a multitracker, whether direct in or using amps/mics.

To tell you the truth, I would love to get another cassette 4 track. I see them occasionally on the bay and places, but now that they are out of production and there's the whole undie/indie tape revival culture thing happening, people are (unsurprisingly) selling them for way more than they are worth.

I have a couple of digital multitrackers, and I like them, but I got really good at making pretty big, clean recordings on old tape 4-tracks. Another problem, though, is that cassettes themselves have gone down in quality significantly since they were a more viable medium. The ones I've bought over the last couple of years just sound like crap...like they halved the width/thickness of the tape itself.

Sorry. Old man rant.

Really, my dream is to have access to a nice old analog board and 1/4" tape...record that way, master the mixed tape straight to vinyl and bypass anything digital whatsoever.

I really don't mind the digital recording aspect, converted over to that years ago and I'm good with it, it's just the amp modeling tones. They're way better than they used to be, but it still only really seems to work for really high gain trebly, scooped tones and not great at all for the kind of fuzzy/heavy stuff.

I feel your pain. I'm lucky I've always worked <10 minutes from my house, I used to zip home over lunch breaks to eat leftovers and mainline power chords for 20 minutes. I understand that doesn't work if the wife and baby are at home.

Yeah, I do actually work about 10 minutes away from home and come home for lunch most days. That's usually the time when the kid is napping or we all eat lunch together and have some family time, since I leave for work before they're awake.

 

[Corey Y]

When we lived in a condo it was a big deal to maintain low volume when recording demo tracks. So I had a Hot Plate and an Iso cab, can't remember the brand anymore but it had an Eminence speaker and a SM57 capsule built in I think. It wasn't dead silent, but certainly silent enough to not be an issue. I would also use that stuff for recording scratch tracks with full bands, before I had decent isolation in the studio I had. I got rid of those things over the years, since being at a moderate volume hasn't been an issue in our house. Now our baby doesn't really nap much and he certainly isn't fussy about noise, but unfortunately the most common times I have free to write and play now are around 6-7am and past 10pm, when he and my wife are usually asleep or trying to get to sleep. So now I kind of wish I had kept that stuff around, but what can you do?

 

[The_Janitor]

Hot Damn.
First Listen: High On Fire, 'Luminiferous' : NPR

EDIT: Holy shag this good. The Falconist!!!

 

[bassboysam]

Hey everybody, I know I've pretty much disappeared from the forum but it doesn't look like much as changed.... Max is still collecting Peavey... and otherwise topics are woven in and out of. Anyway I (we) got into the studio over the weekend so I wanted to share, and I'm interested / excited to get ya'll's feedback. Some of this material has been in the works for well over a year, probably closer to 2. We're still working on nailing down the best singer / vocalist since it could go one of a few ways. Anyway, part of getting recorded was to shop singers.... We recorded live and then overtracked second guitar / solos. We are currently a trio, and I just threw together the bandcamp with whatever I could make work.

For all the nerdy technical tone stuff here's my signal path:
Modified Epi Eb3 longscale with monel rotosound flats tuned to drop B -> Strobostomp turbo tuner -> splitter
1. ) Volume Pedal -> Bluebeard -> Ditto -> Meatsmoke Pre -> Effects return on the Acoustic 320
2.) Morley PWB -> Cusak Screamer Fuzz -> Sonic Death Ray Phaser -> Front end of the Acoustic 320
-> all into a 215 (I still need to respeaker my 408) I believe we mic'd the cab, and took a line from the verellen's record out.

ENJOY! Sorry the embed isn't cleaner.... at least it works. I hope everyone else is well!
Cheers!

<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer...acklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="">2015 by RUINS</a></iframe>

i really like it man. cool guitar and bass tones. thanks for the Death Ray GAS.

 

[Muddslide]

I feel your pain. I'm lucky I've always worked <10 minutes from my house, I used to zip home over lunch breaks to eat leftovers and mainline power chords for 20 minutes. I understand that doesn't work if the wife and baby are at home.

Preach it. Hell, when my kids came along I pretty much packed in music altogether. For one thing, I was working 70+ hours a week with zero days off for a couple of years. Now I am overjoyed that they have grown to be such great human beings and that they are so independent (and both passionate about good music.)

Hot Damn.
First Listen: High On Fire, 'Luminiferous' : NPR

EDIT: Holy **** this good. The Falconist!!!

Can't wait. I honestly think HoF may be my favorite currently active band (though I am a loooong-time Melvins fan.) Will check this out ASAP.

Lots of bands I dig, but HoF somehow gets my adrenaline flowing the most. My older daughter loves them and I hope to hell to be able to take her to one of their shows one day.

My wife, good sport, puts up with it though I know the music is more pummeling than her usual tastes. She cracks me up...I was listening to Blessed Black Wings years ago and she was like "Jesus Christ! Every song is heavier than the last one...I guess there's no point waiting for their album of ballads and lullabies to get released."

 

[Muddslide]

Speaking of tunes...does anyone dig Earth as much as I do? I realize this is old news.

I like their earlier work (which Sunn0))) ripped off so effectively) but damn...Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull and the first volume of Angels of Darkness are among my favorite albums released in the past 15 years.

 

[Turkeypills]

This might be a bit stupid, but does anybody else have problems writing when your tone is screwed up? It's not universal, but last night and early this morning I was trying to work on new music and couldn't crank an amp in the house, so I was doing stuff in the computer and just couldn't seem to lock in. When I'm able to turn on an amp and play with my setup, no problems typically. Most of the riffs I play on my demo clips are just off the cuff with a few minutes of jamming.

For me it depends. Dealing with shite tone doesn't hinder my creativity, but it does cause me to write in almost unpredictable directions. Like I can't doom right if my tone is off, but I can still riff something that seems to fit that tone.

 

[Squanch72]

I don't get the High on Fire thing, probably get shot in the face for it on here but double bass drumming and palm muting seems so 80's to me. I think I just like heavy to be slow I guess.