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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

#54,201
hardtop said:
Yeah man, the smaller strings seems to resonate better. A 145 at that scale and tuning might be tighter than most strings tuned to E on standard scale bass. Theoretically, it would be tight and punchy sound. Depends what you're going for of course, but when you get over 135 they tend to "thud" a bit.

EDIT: those drop sets are usually set up for 34" scale basses. Your variable scale bass should let you run much lighter strings and have the feel and tone of higher tunings.... again, theoretically.
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The Payson strings are designed specifically for the Dingwall scale lengths. That said, I am still going to try the .130 like you suggest.
 
#54,203
hardtop said:
Ahh, That's cool and very good to know. I almost bought a Dingwall after NAMM this year. Super nice instruments.
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Yeah I'm pretty much using mine exclusively now. Not that I have a lot of basses (which is on purpose), but my Ibanez EHB hasn't seen much action lately. That's no fault against the Ibanez, I'm just gravitating to the Dingwall at the moment. Also philosophically I like the idea of becoming intimately familiar with one bass...sort of like that Bruce Lee quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 basses once, but I fear the man who has practiced one bass 10,000 times."

I've got a Dingwall P-tone pickup on order that I'm going to put in the third pickup slot (which is currently empty). Hopefully that will give me an even wider range of options.

I'm not a complete fanboy who is going to say that the Dingwall is the be-all-end-all of basses, but I do love mine. There's room for improvement though...for one it would be amazing if they offered a headless option. But I digress.
 
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#54,204
cusar5 said:
Helio-Stache is a cool idea, I didn’t know they could do that!

One of the reasons I hesitate to recommend newer EHX stuff is the inconsistent build quality. I’ve personally seen, and heard stories about, all sorts of issues with their pedals, not just Muffs.
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I had numerous failures of on/off switches. And bought a bass micro synth that was broken out of the box.
I'm hesitant to buy anything EHX these days.
 
#54,206
hardtop said:
Umm... Glenn Danzig? At least on the first couple tracks. I'm hearing Lane Staley on the 3rd.
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Yep... Misfits/Samhain were a HUGE influence for him.

hardtop said:
The bass playing is the best part of this. I like the vocalist's style too, not "precise", but I dig the idea. I'm sorry he's moving on but I wish you luck on finding a stellar replacement. Anyway, your playing and tone and lines are the most compelling part to me. Well done. I cant believe it's fretless in this style of music. You're a way better player than I am!
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Thanks for the compliments! I don't think fretless is too out of place in this sorta sludgy doom stuff, it HUGE when drive or distortion is added. It can get so silly heavy! :D:D:D:D

Im going to do what I can for vocals for the two on this album we're gonna keep playing (Wash and BlackHeart) and I'll try to do vox for the next 6 we're writing. But, I'm not a singer and doing vox and fretless is a, um, challenge so we'll see...
 
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#54,207
rutrho said:
Yep... Misfits/Samhain were a HUGE influence for him.



Thanks for the compliments! I don't think fretless is too out of place in this sorta sludgy doom stuff, it HUGE when drive or distortion is added. It can get so silly heavy! :D:D:D:D

Im going to do what I can for vocals for the two on this album we're gonna keep playing (Wash and BlackHeart) and I'll try to do vox for the next 6 we're writing. But, I'm not a singer and doing vox and fretless is a, um, challenge so we'll see...
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I don't think its out of place either, just the fact that you pulled it off with the correct pitch is impressive.
 
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#54,208
rutrho said:
:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:


Thanks!! We just lost him which is a huge bummer, but oh well. S!ht happens.


Yep, I used the fretless for everything.
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I also like that you're not doing all the fretless cliches that scream "hey everybody I'm playing fretless did I mention my bass has no frets oh by the way here's some more vibrato just in case you didn't notice I'm playinga fretless bass."
 
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#54,209
hardtop said:
I don't think its out of place either, just the fact that you pulled it off with the correct pitch is impressive.
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Yeah, keeping on top of intonation isn't too hard, but it does take time/practice to get there. Honestly i have more trouble playing a fretted bass these days, lololol


lucas303 said:
I also like that you're not doing all the fretless cliches that scream "hey everybody I'm playing fretless did I mention my bass has no frets oh by the way here's some more vibrato just in case you didn't notice I'm playinga fretless bass."
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Yeah, I try to not do that... Honestly adding distortion changes the feel of fretless slides and vibrato enough that it adds a new and weird dimension to it. If yall cant tell its fretless then im happy :roflmao:
 
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#54,210
rutrho said:
Sup y'all, its been a spell...

We got our album thingy finished up, finally. We also lost our singer, which was a bummer but oh well. I'm pretty much expecting to pick up vocals for the band going forward, but no idea how thatll work out. Also got my ****** up shoulder fixed, which is a good thing in-spite of being unable to play bass for a month.


Anyways, heres our stuff. Its kind of an eclectic mix but we have some cool songs in here.

View attachment 4065420

Hover Tank, by Hover Tank
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Sounds super clean, where/how did you guys record?
 
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#54,212
Alright - more muff talk. Currently, looking like the Grey Stache is what I want. Used, it's about the same price as a Russian Pickle, which was my front runner for mass-produced Muffs. So what options do I get on the Grey Stache? Are any more usable than others? I think the diodes would be most usable (I'll have to see which diodes, even!), and I see one with oscillation, but don't think I'll need that one... Anyway, thoughts? Experiences?
 
#54,213
kleinenenten said:
Alright - more muff talk. Currently, looking like the Grey Stache is what I want. Used, it's about the same price as a Russian Pickle, which was my front runner for mass-produced Muffs. So what options do I get on the Grey Stache? Are any more usable than others? I think the diodes would be most usable (I'll have to see which diodes, even!), and I see one with oscillation, but don't think I'll need that one... Anyway, thoughts? Experiences?
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It looks neat. I haven't listened to it but really, the differences between manufacturers doing the same circuit is miniscule and for the differences, we have a saying in Swedish: taste is like a butt -- it's divided. The clean blend shouldn't be necessary on a well-designed bass pedal IMO, but it will allow you to run more tones without sacrificing the bass and not every tone is a bass friendly one on a stock muff, so I think it's a very meaningful addition. Personally I love whacky feedback stuff so I'd go for the momentary oscillation mod and probably a secondary diode set.
 
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#54,214
YawningJorin said:
It looks neat. I haven't listened to it but really, the differences between manufacturers doing the same circuit is miniscule and for the differences, we have a saying in Swedish: taste is like a butt -- it's divided. The clean blend shouldn't be necessary on a well-designed bass pedal IMO, but it will allow you to run more tones without sacrificing the bass and not every tone is a bass friendly one on a stock muff, so I think it's a very meaningful addition. Personally I love whacky feedback stuff so I'd go for the momentary oscillation mod and probably a secondary diode set.
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My gut tells me the same mods are in order. However, the Grey Stache and Russian Pickle are modeled after two different muffs if that matters. The Grey Stache is a Civil-War/GGG Tuned Muff and the Russian Pickle is of course a green Russian. Does that matter at all? I'm thinking Grey Stache mostly due to the videos I've seen where it has plenty of bass, but also some bite and clarity without too much fizz. I've also never had it, and it was at the top of my list years ago. The Russian Pickle was great, but ultimately didn't stay around too long. It didn't compare with my Pharaoh. But now that I'm going for two similar, but not identical boards, I have a "good" reason to get more fuzz!

Never heard that saying when I was in Sweden - I like it!
 
#54,215
kleinenenten said:
My gut tells me the same mods are in order. However, the Grey Stache and Russian Pickle are modeled after two different muffs if that matters. The Grey Stache is a Civil-War/GGG Tuned Muff and the Russian Pickle is of course a green Russian. Does that matter at all? I'm thinking Grey Stache mostly due to the videos I've seen where it has plenty of bass, but also some bite and clarity without too much fizz. I've also never had it, and it was at the top of my list years ago. The Russian Pickle was great, but ultimately didn't stay around too long. It didn't compare with my Pharaoh. But now that I'm going for two similar, but not identical boards, I have a "good" reason to get more fuzz!

Never heard that saying when I was in Sweden - I like it!
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I can't say I'm super-familiar with the different muff variants off the top of my head. There's some tonal differences and they're most definitely audible, but they're not huge. The best way to get a general grasp would be if you can find some demos running the different circuits as interpreted by the same manufacturer back to back. It'll highlight the differences clearly. All I know for sure is that I preferred the Russian when I did the research, and it's generally considered the most bass-friendly variant. But that matters a lot less when you also add a blend, because low-end retention is no longer a problem when you do.

The saying in Swedish is "smaken är som baken -- den är delad". The rhyme certainly adds a bit more zing to it, but it's such a weird saying :)
 
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#54,220
Would anyone of you guys be interested in a thread for in-depth discussion about bands/records, only for "heavy" and non commercial genres? (ranging from stoner/doom to all the noisy and all the experimental and "avant" stuff)
The forum where I talked about music seems dead (at least temporarily) and I miss some serious discussion about music. :atoz:
No suggestions, no charts, no crap/not crap fights... So frustrating!!
 
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