Siiiiiiiick, with a P-H. I like to imagine your second sentence literally, like you saved a few bits of hardware and rebuilt a bass around them. What are those pickups? Curious about how and what you used for side markers ?
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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
Lol yeah I suppose I could build a whole other bass around the lousy discarded hardware. Side markers come as a little 1/16th rod of plastic- stick it in a hole and trim the excess.
Pickups are Dunable Baphomets. Dunable is local to me and they seem rad. This bass overhaul was partially an excuse to use their pickups.
I like stacking dirt. Rat Tail and Grey Stache is a favorite. On my commute, I was thinking about getting some kind of wet/dry volume pedal-style pedal to sweep in distortion. Would sound epic with these two.
Unrelated, I need music for work. Covers songs, how bout um?
Just heard this, Huntsmen doing "Carry On" by CSNY. It's mildly campy and I dig it. would probably smoke live!
Author & Punisher doing "Glorybox" by Portishead (two of my favorite bands)
Isis doing "Streetcleaner" by Godflesh
DEP and Patton doing Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy"
Neurosis doing "Day of Lords" by Joy Division
Unrelated, I need music for work. Covers songs, how bout um?
Just heard this, Huntsmen doing "Carry On" by CSNY. It's mildly campy and I dig it. would probably smoke live!
Author & Punisher doing "Glorybox" by Portishead (two of my favorite bands)
Isis doing "Streetcleaner" by Godflesh
DEP and Patton doing Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy"
Neurosis doing "Day of Lords" by Joy Division
The start of a very fine ritual: Doodswens last Sunday in Haarlem (Netherlands). Still a bit groggy, in a good way, from shooting and digesting this gig.
The closest I get (which IS technically stacking) is running my Pork Loin (set for low gain "tube" dirt) as a slightly dirty boost into my other dirt. Gives a bit more hair and volume to my tones, and a slight variation on each base tone. But even that isn't really necessary - I'm not soloing or anything like that. Just fun to do sometimes.
HM-2 content incoming. Apologies in advance for the essay...
Got my Bear Amps Heavier Metal yesterday and got to start my HM-2 shootout. It's a relatively unknown HM-2 derivative made in Springfield, MO. I've never actually known anybody who has had one, and there's almost no information on it online, but seeing as the man who makes it is a friend of a friend and he also loves GK amps like I do, I figured I'd have to give it a shot. Anyway, it came in and I got to knob twiddling. For this, I was doing a shootout of 4 various HM-2 clones/derivatives: The Dunwich DIY HM-2, the Bear Amps Heavier Metal, the Earthbound Audio Throat Locust, and the "lowly" Arion Metal Master. So far, I've had about an hour of jamming to my old standby tracks (early Metallica, mostly from their debut) to figure out what I'm liking so far.
Dunwich: No surprise it's amazing. I'm finding that I prefer it on the lower end of the distortion knob, but with high blend. It gives plenty of definition and body to the bass tone, but still has plenty of high end treble bite and that nasty hissy presence of an HM-2. In the mix however, that hiss isn't heard - just the compressed bass tones. I like how this seems to "round off" the bass tone while still maintaining aggression and that harshness of an HM-2 along the entire tonal spectrum. It's a fantastic HM-2 with plenty of versatile tones in the box - and with lower dirt/blend, doesn't have to sound terribly "chainsaw-y". If I could keep only 1 of these, it would probably be this one for its sheer versatility.
Bear Amps: First off, some notes about this pedal. (Check the link above for more info.) It's MADE to chainsaw. It's literally designed to chainsaw at every possible setting (though I found the extreme clockwise settings of the "quench" knob at around 3:00 or higher to effectively mute the pedal), and the EQ controls are made to tweak the extreme ends of the traditional HM-2 tone. So it can't really be tamed well, if you're wanting a lower gain HM-2 option. Even at lower dirt settings, it's definitely an HM-2, though restrained slightly. All that being said, if you WANT extreme control over the minutiae of your chainsaw death machine, this delivers. Don't be afraid of extreme EQ settings, because you're basically only tweaking the final 10% of the original EQ - and that guarantees you get plenty of chainsaw EQ no matter where you set it. It's also got plenty of bass response and bite, and is the most present in the mix. It's not rounded off at all like the Dunwich, so it really sticks out in a good way. But in the same breath, it doesn't sound as splattery or fizzy in the grit like you expect an HM-2 to sound - it's a more focused tone than the other pedals. Out of the mix, this was alarming to me as it sounded very different without anything else playing, but this was the easiest pedal to hear in the mix - pretty much every setting worked and it was down to me to find my perfect tone within those parameters. I found both of the switches in their up positions (the builder's tweaks to the circuit are engaged) to be the best tone for me, as in their down positions it lost some of the bass response and became too fizzy in the distortion for my preferred bass tones. This pedal requires both the most tweaking and the least tweaking - it's easy to get a chainsaw tone that works, but finding the EXACT tone you're looking for is tough because it's so sensitive in its range. Still, this is my current favorite because I DO want chainsaw. We'll see how much of that is honeymoon or not, but either it or the Dunwich is #1, and the other is just as good in different ways.
Earthbound Audio: I have a love/hate relationship with this one. It sounds great, and it's pretty versatile, but it just never quite is as good as others. I always feel I need to keep tweaking. It's a bit looser in feel than the previous two, but can get tighter with EQ adjustments. It can get similar tones to those pedals as well, but is never quite as bass-friendly or prominent in the mix. I can make this work, and in a mix I'm sure nobody but HM-2 aficionados would even tell the difference, but it doesn't do it for me like the previous two. Still, a worthy HM-2 for bass, and the mid frequency knob is an awesome addition. It really adds to the versatility of the pedal in achieving non-chainsaw tones. I can get decent "Lemmy" tones out of this one with low gain, low mid frequency, high bass and mids, and low treble content. That tone alone is awesome. But for traditional chainsaw, I found this to be my least favorite of the four. I get the feeling this will do a better job when I do my guitar HM-2 shootout later. It's more a "traditional" HM-2 with a few tweaks, and that's what I seem to prefer for guitar (my current faves are basically straight HM-2 clones with minimal tweaks).
Arion: The "lowly" Arion Metal Master is an affordable HM-2 copy in a plastic enclosure. I've talked about it in the past, and it is by far the best "budget" HM-2 I've ever played for bass. It seems to retain lows or low mids better than the original, which helps it greatly in the bass department. There's not much to say about this except that it just works for a bass HM-2. I max the EQ, put distortion around 9:00, and volume as needed, and it's essentially a less-refined version of the tones from the Bear Amps pedal. The grit is a little chunkier that the Dunwich, and somewhat "splattier" than the Bear Amps, but not too far removed from either at the same time. It's a nice combo of the tonal characteristics of the more expensive pedals. For the $40 I paid for one of these a few years ago, it's an amazing deal. For chainsaw tones, I actually prefer this to the Earthbound, as it's easier to make work in the mix.
Wrap up:
Short version is that the Dunwich and Bear Amps are both phenomenal HM-2s in their own different ways. If you want a versatile HM-2 that can do a lot more than chainsaw, get the Dunwich. If you want variations on the theme of chainsaw to find your perfect weapon of mass destruction, the Bear Amps is the winner. If you want an affordable bass HM-2 that is still capable, get the Arion. If you want an HM-2 that excels in great non-chainsaw HM-2 tones, get the Earthbound.
If you've read all of this - congratulations on reaching the end!
Got my Bear Amps Heavier Metal yesterday and got to start my HM-2 shootout. It's a relatively unknown HM-2 derivative made in Springfield, MO. I've never actually known anybody who has had one, and there's almost no information on it online, but seeing as the man who makes it is a friend of a friend and he also loves GK amps like I do, I figured I'd have to give it a shot. Anyway, it came in and I got to knob twiddling. For this, I was doing a shootout of 4 various HM-2 clones/derivatives: The Dunwich DIY HM-2, the Bear Amps Heavier Metal, the Earthbound Audio Throat Locust, and the "lowly" Arion Metal Master. So far, I've had about an hour of jamming to my old standby tracks (early Metallica, mostly from their debut) to figure out what I'm liking so far.
Dunwich: No surprise it's amazing. I'm finding that I prefer it on the lower end of the distortion knob, but with high blend. It gives plenty of definition and body to the bass tone, but still has plenty of high end treble bite and that nasty hissy presence of an HM-2. In the mix however, that hiss isn't heard - just the compressed bass tones. I like how this seems to "round off" the bass tone while still maintaining aggression and that harshness of an HM-2 along the entire tonal spectrum. It's a fantastic HM-2 with plenty of versatile tones in the box - and with lower dirt/blend, doesn't have to sound terribly "chainsaw-y". If I could keep only 1 of these, it would probably be this one for its sheer versatility.
Bear Amps: First off, some notes about this pedal. (Check the link above for more info.) It's MADE to chainsaw. It's literally designed to chainsaw at every possible setting (though I found the extreme clockwise settings of the "quench" knob at around 3:00 or higher to effectively mute the pedal), and the EQ controls are made to tweak the extreme ends of the traditional HM-2 tone. So it can't really be tamed well, if you're wanting a lower gain HM-2 option. Even at lower dirt settings, it's definitely an HM-2, though restrained slightly. All that being said, if you WANT extreme control over the minutiae of your chainsaw death machine, this delivers. Don't be afraid of extreme EQ settings, because you're basically only tweaking the final 10% of the original EQ - and that guarantees you get plenty of chainsaw EQ no matter where you set it. It's also got plenty of bass response and bite, and is the most present in the mix. It's not rounded off at all like the Dunwich, so it really sticks out in a good way. But in the same breath, it doesn't sound as splattery or fizzy in the grit like you expect an HM-2 to sound - it's a more focused tone than the other pedals. Out of the mix, this was alarming to me as it sounded very different without anything else playing, but this was the easiest pedal to hear in the mix - pretty much every setting worked and it was down to me to find my perfect tone within those parameters. I found both of the switches in their up positions (the builder's tweaks to the circuit are engaged) to be the best tone for me, as in their down positions it lost some of the bass response and became too fizzy in the distortion for my preferred bass tones. This pedal requires both the most tweaking and the least tweaking - it's easy to get a chainsaw tone that works, but finding the EXACT tone you're looking for is tough because it's so sensitive in its range. Still, this is my current favorite because I DO want chainsaw. We'll see how much of that is honeymoon or not, but either it or the Dunwich is #1, and the other is just as good in different ways.
Earthbound Audio: I have a love/hate relationship with this one. It sounds great, and it's pretty versatile, but it just never quite is as good as others. I always feel I need to keep tweaking. It's a bit looser in feel than the previous two, but can get tighter with EQ adjustments. It can get similar tones to those pedals as well, but is never quite as bass-friendly or prominent in the mix. I can make this work, and in a mix I'm sure nobody but HM-2 aficionados would even tell the difference, but it doesn't do it for me like the previous two. Still, a worthy HM-2 for bass, and the mid frequency knob is an awesome addition. It really adds to the versatility of the pedal in achieving non-chainsaw tones. I can get decent "Lemmy" tones out of this one with low gain, low mid frequency, high bass and mids, and low treble content. That tone alone is awesome. But for traditional chainsaw, I found this to be my least favorite of the four. I get the feeling this will do a better job when I do my guitar HM-2 shootout later. It's more a "traditional" HM-2 with a few tweaks, and that's what I seem to prefer for guitar (my current faves are basically straight HM-2 clones with minimal tweaks).
Arion: The "lowly" Arion Metal Master is an affordable HM-2 copy in a plastic enclosure. I've talked about it in the past, and it is by far the best "budget" HM-2 I've ever played for bass. It seems to retain lows or low mids better than the original, which helps it greatly in the bass department. There's not much to say about this except that it just works for a bass HM-2. I max the EQ, put distortion around 9:00, and volume as needed, and it's essentially a less-refined version of the tones from the Bear Amps pedal. The grit is a little chunkier that the Dunwich, and somewhat "splattier" than the Bear Amps, but not too far removed from either at the same time. It's a nice combo of the tonal characteristics of the more expensive pedals. For the $40 I paid for one of these a few years ago, it's an amazing deal. For chainsaw tones, I actually prefer this to the Earthbound, as it's easier to make work in the mix.
Wrap up:
Short version is that the Dunwich and Bear Amps are both phenomenal HM-2s in their own different ways. If you want a versatile HM-2 that can do a lot more than chainsaw, get the Dunwich. If you want variations on the theme of chainsaw to find your perfect weapon of mass destruction, the Bear Amps is the winner. If you want an affordable bass HM-2 that is still capable, get the Arion. If you want an HM-2 that excels in great non-chainsaw HM-2 tones, get the Earthbound.
If you've read all of this - congratulations on reaching the end!
And for those who don't understand Dutch: "doodswens" means death wish.
it's a two in one with both circuits engaged on one footswitch! I set and forget
You are the pedal reviewer YouTube needs! I'd love to be getting these insights along side being able to hear the pedals as well.
+1
I'd sure as hell watch. Feels like all the pedal channels focused towards doom/heavy music are just trying to sell their own products...
Does it doom used to do pedal reviews but now he's got his own line and those are for guitar anyway...
It's all marketing whether it's their own gear or someone else's. Everyone above 20 subscribers is sponsored with money, gear, or affiliate links. I have little respect for the ones who say they are impartial because they weren't paid directly with money, or as an example from today I see a well-respected bass YouTuber in my feed who got to 'borrow' a bass from a store that he also has an affiliate link to. The video is not marked as paid marketing.
The demos I actually trust are the kind of people who have like five subscribers and upload once every five months, because they're evidently not doing it for the sake of growing and profiting from an audience. Like when you look up an obscure pedal that has three demos on YT and the best one is a 20 minute unedited video from 2015 of someone screwing around with it in their poorly lit bedroom. That is what love is.
Thanks for the positive comments on my nigh-endless shootout talk lately. It may actually be coming to an end soon, or at least a prolonged pause. I don't have a lot of other circuits to mess with, though I've debated collecting Rats recently. But I'm pretty happy in Rat-world. I'll probably do a guitar-oriented HM-2 shootout in the next few weeks, but no rush there.
Without sounding like I'm trying to toot my own horn or anything, if I had the time, money, gear, and expertise to actually make a decent video and recording I'd love to just sit around and make some demo vids. I feel like there's a massive shortage of "everyday" gear that isn't featured in most demos and reviews. It's hard to compare what I will sound like with a specific piece of gear when basically everything else in the rig is ridiculous high end stuff or vintage unobtainium. Pedals are the only hard to find parts of my rig, and most I have aren't that hard to find or exceedingly rare(the Dunwich may be an exception, though it's also a DIY project, so you could hire someone to do it!). It's much more useful to me to see what a pedal sounds like in a regular set up that many people can afford and obtain relatively easily. I just like the idea of an "everyman" reviewer, I guess, so that's the angle I always approach my demos from. Most people don't have the rigs that reviewers do, so their usefulness is incredibly limited as far as I'm concerned. That's actually one of the reasons I got the Bear Amps Heavier Metal - the builder doesn't have crazy gear. He apparently uses old GK for bass, and a bunch of other random guitar gear. All my bass gear is middle of the road Ibanez basses and GK amps - nothing fancy, just solid workhorses. So if he gets awesome tones out of normal gear, I should be able to as well.
Anyway, I got to tweaking a bit more, and got the Dunwich closer to the tones of the Bear Amps, i.e. a bit more present in the mix and with slightly less fizz overall. Just enough gain to chainsaw, blend about 1:00, bass and mids about 4:30ish, treble maxed. Still not quite as present and compressed as the Bear Amps, but close, and sounds more like a traditional bass tone with its "roundness". I also stumbled upon gain stacking into the Dunwich, and it was glorious. I don't typically stack dirt, but this worked incredibly well - likely due to the blend knob that the Bear Amps unit doesn't utilize as he feels that blends always "color" the tone. The Bear Amps got harsher when being fed another dirty signal - which wasn't a bad feature necessarily, but a harsher HM-2 is often unnecessary to me. The blend of the Dunwich retained the HM-2 tones, but also whatever was being fed into the HM-2. For reference, the HM-2 circuit is the most distorted tone I use, with the dirt feeding the HM-2 being variants of Rat, Muff, and a modded Pork Loin. Each of those pedals was set for relatively low gain as well, so I'm not feeding high gain dirt into my HM-2s. If I were, I would imagine the Dunwich would be a far better pedal with which to do this.
Still not sure if I prefer the Bear Amps or the Dunwich, but I felt it important to note that the gain stacking was a definite bonus on the Dunwich. Again, I really think it's down to what you're looking for in your HM-2. The Dunwich definitely has more tones overall, but less tweakability within those parameters. The Bear Amps lets you tweak to your heart's content within the chainsaw context. Neither is wrong for an HM-2, but they are different beasts with different ways of achieving their goals.
Hope all of this helps somebody in their tone quest!
Without sounding like I'm trying to toot my own horn or anything, if I had the time, money, gear, and expertise to actually make a decent video and recording I'd love to just sit around and make some demo vids. I feel like there's a massive shortage of "everyday" gear that isn't featured in most demos and reviews. It's hard to compare what I will sound like with a specific piece of gear when basically everything else in the rig is ridiculous high end stuff or vintage unobtainium. Pedals are the only hard to find parts of my rig, and most I have aren't that hard to find or exceedingly rare(the Dunwich may be an exception, though it's also a DIY project, so you could hire someone to do it!). It's much more useful to me to see what a pedal sounds like in a regular set up that many people can afford and obtain relatively easily. I just like the idea of an "everyman" reviewer, I guess, so that's the angle I always approach my demos from. Most people don't have the rigs that reviewers do, so their usefulness is incredibly limited as far as I'm concerned. That's actually one of the reasons I got the Bear Amps Heavier Metal - the builder doesn't have crazy gear. He apparently uses old GK for bass, and a bunch of other random guitar gear. All my bass gear is middle of the road Ibanez basses and GK amps - nothing fancy, just solid workhorses. So if he gets awesome tones out of normal gear, I should be able to as well.
Anyway, I got to tweaking a bit more, and got the Dunwich closer to the tones of the Bear Amps, i.e. a bit more present in the mix and with slightly less fizz overall. Just enough gain to chainsaw, blend about 1:00, bass and mids about 4:30ish, treble maxed. Still not quite as present and compressed as the Bear Amps, but close, and sounds more like a traditional bass tone with its "roundness". I also stumbled upon gain stacking into the Dunwich, and it was glorious. I don't typically stack dirt, but this worked incredibly well - likely due to the blend knob that the Bear Amps unit doesn't utilize as he feels that blends always "color" the tone. The Bear Amps got harsher when being fed another dirty signal - which wasn't a bad feature necessarily, but a harsher HM-2 is often unnecessary to me. The blend of the Dunwich retained the HM-2 tones, but also whatever was being fed into the HM-2. For reference, the HM-2 circuit is the most distorted tone I use, with the dirt feeding the HM-2 being variants of Rat, Muff, and a modded Pork Loin. Each of those pedals was set for relatively low gain as well, so I'm not feeding high gain dirt into my HM-2s. If I were, I would imagine the Dunwich would be a far better pedal with which to do this.
Still not sure if I prefer the Bear Amps or the Dunwich, but I felt it important to note that the gain stacking was a definite bonus on the Dunwich. Again, I really think it's down to what you're looking for in your HM-2. The Dunwich definitely has more tones overall, but less tweakability within those parameters. The Bear Amps lets you tweak to your heart's content within the chainsaw context. Neither is wrong for an HM-2, but they are different beasts with different ways of achieving their goals.
Hope all of this helps somebody in their tone quest!
While we’re on the subject of pedals (Lol-are we ever NOT on that subject on this thread??? ;-) )…
I have found myself trying to jam along to Master Of Reality a lot lately…
Does anyone know what’s a good distortion/fuzz pedal to get Geezer’s tone on that album that won’t completely break the bank???…
Off the top of my head-I would think a Big Muff Pi would probably be a good place to start based on demos I’ve listened to on YouTube, but I feel like there’s gotta be some better options out there (or at least some Sabbath-eque specific bass pedals)…
As a side note-I have always liked Sabbath (probably bc they basically invented Heavy Metal), but the more I attempt to play their music the more in awe I am of just how freaking great some of their early stuff is…
Those first 4 albums in particular are just stellar IMO (especially the first 3)…
Of the tones off those four albums I think the sound on Master Of Reality is probably the most pleasing to my ears…
Trying to play along to that album is also getting me a little more comfortable with down-tuning (Lol-The slower tempo also helps me hide how much I suck at playing)…
And yes…I am aware that Google is an option to answer my question, but feel like I will get much better feedback/advice/thoughts/opinions by posting my question here…
Thanks! \m/
I have found myself trying to jam along to Master Of Reality a lot lately…
Does anyone know what’s a good distortion/fuzz pedal to get Geezer’s tone on that album that won’t completely break the bank???…
Off the top of my head-I would think a Big Muff Pi would probably be a good place to start based on demos I’ve listened to on YouTube, but I feel like there’s gotta be some better options out there (or at least some Sabbath-eque specific bass pedals)…
As a side note-I have always liked Sabbath (probably bc they basically invented Heavy Metal), but the more I attempt to play their music the more in awe I am of just how freaking great some of their early stuff is…
Those first 4 albums in particular are just stellar IMO (especially the first 3)…
Of the tones off those four albums I think the sound on Master Of Reality is probably the most pleasing to my ears…
Trying to play along to that album is also getting me a little more comfortable with down-tuning (Lol-The slower tempo also helps me hide how much I suck at playing)…
And yes…I am aware that Google is an option to answer my question, but feel like I will get much better feedback/advice/thoughts/opinions by posting my question here…
Thanks! \m/
Heheheh, my understanding is that in the studio Geezer generally just used whatever guitar head Tony was using, into Tony's cab. I figure any high gain head into a bass cab would "work". Similarly, throwing a lot of gain at a tube preamp should work, with judicious work on the EQ.
Had the first practice with my new stoner/doom/space metal project this evening. I'm far more satisfied than I should be.
We finally worked out what covers we'd work on to start out, including a Sabbath cover, natch. One of the covers was a menacing pop song that I could hear in my head as a stoner/doom/space riff, but it'd been struggling with for a couple of weeks and couldn't get it to work just right. After hearing it for a few minutes and me whining about my struggles with it, one of the guitarists (who was my roommate 30 years ago) says "You wanna do it this way". He plays the riff and yeah, that's it. We grooved on it for probably 7 minutes, and then I stopped everyone and explained that the chorus was just the same chord for about 8 bars. At that point, we could have probably played the song straight through, but we got moving on to other things.
On top of that, we had a couple of good improvised jams that made me very satisfied with the set of guitarists this particular rhythm section has corralled. They did a great job of filling the space the other wasn't already occupying, and got along personally, too. I didn't get to work the synth as much as I'd wanted to, but that was part of it being the first practice I'd worked a synth, and I hadn't prepared well - I hadn't brought a mixer to be able to play both at the same time, and it was easier to concentrate on the instrument I knew much better. I'll be better prepared next time.
Be satisfied! Satisfaction is what we make music for. And your description of the rehearsal sounds really favourable, like you found yourself a fitting project. Enjoy this bunch. As for the synth, not being prepared is probably a good thing, it would've come across weird on a first rehearsal.
Hell yes.
On the topic, which Youtube-channels do you guys watch for pedal demos? I noticed that Harsh Tones inc. does great demos on quirky boutique dirt and always features some bass riffs or a whole song in their demos. They are more on the noise-rock side, but good sludgy stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/c/HarshTonesInc/videos
I have GAS for that pedal, for an improper reason.
The word GIYGAS looks very similar to GIFGAS which is Dutch for poisonous gas.
Lol. I have one. It's my fav to use with a wah.But it's not fair.I mean it has the word GAS in the name.I mean c'mon.How many pedals do I have to buy? Sheesh.
Btw this one is also a killer fuzz for bass.
(I typed that with one finger)
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