Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[mpdd]

forgot that i have to pay the tax guy, no jazz basses or delay pedals for me i'm afraid
however, i am going to save a lot of cash by just having my L2000 modded to do single coil as well as humbucker with the k mod
(gonna get fake jazz and music man tones)

 

[Korladis]

So I went with Aguilar agro pedal. Low end dropped out just as others have stated. Not happy

Are you trying to have it the same volume as your clean tone? Because that could be why. Most dirt pedals essentially add mid and high frequencies, so make the overall sound louder. So if you cut the volume to be the same as your clean tone, you're going to have less low end.

forgot that i have to pay the tax guy, no jazz basses or delay pedals for me i'm afraid
however, i am going to save a lot of cash by just having my L2000 modded to do single coil as well as humbucker with the k mod
(gonna get fake jazz and music man tones)

Heh, that sucks. Fortunately, the tax guy paid me, not the other way around.

What up, stoners?

Not a lot. One of Catapult's guitarists now works at a dispensary. So lots of weed.

 

[eyeballkid]

So I went with Aguilar agro pedal. Low end dropped out just as others have stated. Not happy

If you go Agro you need the rackmount which has a tasty eq on board to beef up the lows. It's good.

 

[bassboysam]

So I went with Aguilar agro pedal. Low end dropped out just as others have stated. Not happy

there is no such thing as a distortion that doesn't cut lows or accentuate the mids/high (which is effectively the same thing as cutting lows) no matter what anyone says. boost the volume to compensate and stop dwelling over it. otherwise you'll need to use two separate amps. 1 for clean and another for the dirt. personally i found that while that keeps the low end, it sounds mushy and like 2 separate instruments instead of 1 unified sound.

 

[Batsquatch]

Yeah I cranked the volume still pulled my tone up. Set presence/contour towards low. It might stack well with the pickle. That I might try as there was plenty low end with that

 

[eyeballkid]

there is no such thing as a distortion that doesn't cut lows or accentuate the mids/high (which is effectively the same thing as cutting lows) no matter what anyone says. boost the volume to compensate and stop dwelling over it. otherwise you'll need to use two separate amps. 1 for clean and another for the dirt. personally i found that while that keeps the low end, it sounds mushy and like 2 separate instruments instead of 1 unified sound.

I dunno. I rarely disagree with Sam, but I think there are exceptions. Yes, distortion of any stripe usually clips out the heft of the low end by breaking the sound wave up into distortion BUT... I've had some distortion and fuzzes with excessive amounts of potential low end heft. The Musket is one. The MBD-1 is another. It has a clean blend but the depth and tone knobs can give real oomph to the lows beyond what i find usable if you want it. There are others that I can't remember at the moment that I've used.... maybe I'll remember... but ... They are very rare.

 

[eyeballkid]

Oh yeah... the wren and cuff TFR, and the way huge swollen pickle/ pork loin. Those give you lots of low end BUT to get it i found by the time you coaxed it out you lost all definition and got murky/woofy.

The supercollider ALMOST does it. It seems to be low end solid but in a mix is just a smidge washy, but its waaaaay better than alot of fuzzes.

 

[jollygiantchris]

there is no such thing as a distortion that doesn't cut lows or accentuate the mids/high (which is effectively the same thing as cutting lows) no matter what anyone says. boost the volume to compensate and stop dwelling over it. otherwise you'll need to use two separate amps. 1 for clean and another for the dirt. personally i found that while that keeps the low end, it sounds mushy and like 2 separate instruments instead of 1 unified sound.

Or you can use something with a clean blend of some sort. Had good success with a deluxe bass big muff lately, I've found the blend makes it sound better then the other ones I've tried. I'd like to upgrade to a darkglass duality or a wampler low blow though the distortion on those seems to have more character.

 

[bassboysam]

I dunno. I rarely disagree with Sam, but I think there are exceptions. Yes, distortion of any stripe usually clips out the heft of the low end by breaking the sound wave up into distortion BUT... I've had some distortion and fuzzes with excessive amounts of potential low end heft. The Musket is one. The MBD-1 is another. It has a clean blend but the depth and tone knobs can give real oomph to the lows beyond what i find usable if you want it. There are others that I can't remember at the moment that I've used.... maybe I'll remember... but ... They are very rare.

Oh yeah... the wren and cuff TFR, and the way huge swollen pickle/ pork loin. Those give you lots of low end BUT to get it i found by the time you coaxed it out you lost all definition and got murky/woofy.

The supercollider ALMOST does it. It seems to be low end solid but in a mix is just a smidge washy, but its waaaaay better than alot of fuzzes.

those are all fuzzes and mostly muff based. fuzz can have a lot of low end and still sound good. also since those are all muff circuits the mids are more scooped making the lows sound more pronounced. the trick is getting a distortion or OD to sound like it has a lot of low end without getting fuzzy. I've yet to come across one and i honestly don't think it's possible. haven't tried the mbd-1 but the clips i heard where the lows are prominent sounded more fuzz than od/distortion. we're splitting hairs here i know but i like to have 3 very distinct levels of dirt on my board. medium OD, distortion and fuzz. if my OD and distortion sound too similar to a fuzz, especially once in a band mix, i don't see the point. so i guess it really comes down to what your aim is.

Or you can use something with a clean blend of some sort. Had good success with a deluxe bass big muff lately, I've found the blend makes it sound better then the other ones I've tried. I'd like to upgrade to a darkglass duality or a wampler low blow though the distortion on those seems to have more character.

haven't found a clean blend that sounds good to me. my ideal blend would involve a crossover with a bunch of hpf/lpf and volume controls but honestly that's just too complicated especially when i have vrry limited time to get setup before a show. i just set my OD and distortion to be louder than my bypassed tone and it more than makes up for the loss of low end.

 

[Korladis]

I've always kinda thought dirt tone should be louder than clean tone. Cause you're generally going to be using clean tone rather than dirt for when it's a quieter part of the song or whatever.

 

[deathness]

haven't found a clean blend that sounds good to me.

This. 1000%.

 

[arbitrary]

I've been enjoying the depth rotary on the dunwich da120 lately. I also tend to run my wren phat phuk b into my dirt pedals which generally leads to good results. I've been using my sooopercollider mini for years and haven't found anything worthwhile to replace it. But I also have it for extreme overhwhelming wall of fuzz. Although I have always been curious about the tafm.

 

[kleinenenten]

I've been enjoying the depth rotary on the dunwich da120 lately. I also tend to run my wren phat phuk b into my dirt pedals which generally leads to good results. I've been using my sooopercollider mini for years and haven't found anything worthwhile to replace it. But I also have it for extreme overhwhelming wall of fuzz. Although I have always been curious about the tafm.

I always say Pharaoh Supreme for Fuzz. Couldn't imagine a Fuzz sound you couldn't find in that box. Of course, there are plenty of other quality boxes. The Supercollider was another I quite liked, but it seems that you like it for the reason I didn't - lots of harsh treble content I couldn't tame. I can do that and more (I prefer the "more") with my Pharaoh. Of course, many others have much more fuzz experience here. I just know my Pharaoh ended the fuzz quest for me, so much so I got a second one for guitar! Good luck finding more awesome fuzz.

 

[gfen]

I'll throw out a recommendation for the Carcosa, which carries a tremendous amount of low end although maybe it's going to be construed as muddy. I'm an at home guy, so I don't know how bedroom tone gets translated into mix tone.

 

[eyeballkid]

Fair point Sam

 

[Speedor]

I'll throw out a recommendation for the Carcosa, which carries a tremendous amount of low end although maybe it's going to be construed as muddy. I'm an at home guy, so I don't know how bedroom tone gets translated into mix tone.

I found Carcosa to be a bit too trebly for my bass fuzz taste. It was awesome, but a bit too trebly. Sounded pretty good in the mix, though.
It ended up on my guitar pedalboard though and ended my guitar fuzz quest.

 

[arbitrary]

I always say Pharaoh Supreme for Fuzz. Couldn't imagine a Fuzz sound you couldn't find in that box. Of course, there are plenty of other quality boxes. The Supercollider was another I quite liked, but it seems that you like it for the reason I didn't - lots of harsh treble content I couldn't tame. I can do that and more (I prefer the "more") with my Pharaoh. Of course, many others have much more fuzz experience here. I just know my Pharaoh ended the fuzz quest for me, so much so I got a second one for guitar! Good luck finding more awesome fuzz.

I did like the pharoah, but the supercollider won out for me. The pharoah sounded a bit smoother, but once I cut the mids on the soooopercollider, they sounded very similar. I also have the mini sc; I'm a huge fan of it's small footprint. I also found the SC to cut through a bit better bc of the mids (I usually max that out and dial the tone knob down a bit) and sounded just as big.

 

[Korladis]

This. 1000%.

Yeah, I don't really need a clean blend. On recordings I've sometimes recorded a cleanish part to go along with a fuzz bass line, but live I don't need it.

I found Carcosa to be a bit too trebly for my bass fuzz taste. It was awesome, but a bit too trebly. Sounded pretty good in the mix, though.
It ended up on my guitar pedalboard though and ended my guitar fuzz quest.

My fuzz to rule them all is a custom Dunwich muff, but then, it should be, since he designed it around my very particular specifications (low gain, mids knob and switch, "crunch" knob that blends between two different clipping diodes, basically). It's built to go into an already driven tube amp, so that's why it doesn't have as much distortion on tap as more traditional fuzzes, because part of the overdrive is already coming from my amp.

 

[kleinenenten]

I did like the pharoah, but the supercollider won out for me. The pharoah sounded a bit smoother, but once I cut the mids on the soooopercollider, they sounded very similar. I also have the mini sc; I'm a huge fan of it's small footprint. I also found the SC to cut through a bit better bc of the mids (I usually max that out and dial the tone knob down a bit) and sounded just as big.

I think I like super smooth stuff, which is my issue. The Supercollider is a fine muff, that's for sure! But I just couldn't dial out the graininess, if that makes sense. I 'm always the odd duck, using flats for metal and all that, so it would only follow my dirt choices would also be odd. As long as it works for you, keep rocking it! That's the most important thing.

 

[Batsquatch]

Guitar player uses super collider I'll give it a try. Hell maybe he'll trade for the pickle (doubt it)