Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[Grahams Groove]

We properly 'finished' our second EP and dropped it on Spotify today.



Has a bit more fidelity and detail than the first EP, on account of a couple additional drum-mics and pulling a dry bass signal along with the dirty/post-effects signal. The live drum/bass tracks for Volume 3 are done, and they're getting the guitar treatment and mixing for release in the next month or so...

 

[XsoGol]

For those of you that might own one of RCO Pedals/Ryan's stoner/doom pedals, I've created an RCO Pedals Club.

 

[Kawai2g4b]

Totally off-topic, but looking for some music enjoyment advice/ideas.

Here's the situation. I have LOTS of digital music. I don't want to stream, and I don't want to use my phone (I use that to learn songs, and it has separate playlists that I don't want to have to toggle back and forth from). I like that my old iPod seamlessly integrates with my car and lets me control everything via the car's radio controls. However, it can only hold about half of my songs. There are now "upgraded' iPods with more storage added, but even then, I hit the hard limit based on RAM. There's a workaround for that, but then you lose the car functionality, which is a huge part of the advantage here. It's important for me to be able to just keep listening to the playlist wherever I am at the moment. My car CAN read USD drives, but it sorts them by whichever folders have audio, meaning each individual album is a separate folder. I can't just find a specific band etc., so that's just not going to happen.

So is there something out there that is basically a modern iPod that would work with a car's radio controls? I know I can always use the aux function, but that whole safety while driving thing means I prefer using the radio controls. There are plenty of Digital Audio Players (AKA MP3 Players in my old man parlance) available, and they take SD cards for expandable memory slots, but I doubt any of them work with a car. A phone (NOT mine, as the memory can't be expanded enough) could solve all of this minus the playlist issue, and is likely my best option overall, but is there anything else out there?

Sony Walkman (I forgot which model, but the $299 one). I have had mine for 4 years and is built very well. As I recall I can control the playlist from the car interface (on my car rental experiences) but I just use the buttons on the player since my car is older.

 

[kleinenenten]

Sony Walkman (I forgot which model, but the $299 one). I have had mine for 4 years and is built very well. As I recall I can control the playlist from the car interface (on my car rental experiences) but I just use the buttons on the player since my car is older.

Thanks for the info! I worry about having to use the controls on the device itself, as my car is also older (2014). I'm pretty sure newer cars would have all of the controls available on the car itself even when connected via Bluetooth, but obviously, a new car is NOT going to happen solely for the sake of convenience.

I have been thinking more on this, though, and have crammed my current iPod literally full of tunes - there is less than 2MB remaining in storage. It's 64GB model, with 58GB usable, and that gets me ~12,000 songs (I encode them at low quality because I can't really tell the difference when driving). I think I may be able to get all of my metal on a single older "upgraded" iPod and be within the 40,000 or so hard song limit as dictated by RAM. Now the question is do I risk the money and try it?

In other news, I'm still digging the CMC Muffs and have been continuing to compare them. I'm now settling on Sustain at 9:00, Shape at 3:00, with Tone on the Tall Font at 11:00 and on the Bubble Font at 1:00. It's starting to seem like that biggest differences in them is the character of their distortion. The BF seems a bit gainier overall, with a more in your face sort of tone to the distortion. It's brighter and crisper, which cuts better. But the TF has more saturation throughout the spectrum, meaning more of the signal is actually getting distorted, but at a lower level of distortion. It's more of a laid back type of drive, but the high end can get a bit harsh. The Shape really helps with that - I can keep definition with Shape and use the Tone knob to keep the unwanted harshness out of the signal. Loving these things, and they have me re-evaluating my Muffs, which is always fun.

As usual, the Pharaoh Supreme isn't going anywhere, and neither are my Swollen Pickles, but surprisingly, I am enjoying the Supercollider '71 more than I have in a while. It's like a grittier BF, and I'll certainly have to try that out on my guitar rig again once I get that back. As well as the CMC Civil War! So neither of them is on the chopping block at the moment. Some of my other Muffs are definitely getting cut, though, as I am trying to downsize overall. I've been successful with that in the short term, and really don't have much pedal GAS anymore. But for the price, I couldn't pass up trying a bunch of Muffs from CMC. I'll probably get more in the future, but wait until some more of my stuff moves locally. And that money will go towards upgrading my current gear instead of more pedals that I don't really need...

And while talking of upgrading gear, any of you play guitar as well? I'm looking at either replacing the pickups in one of my 7 strings (it has Black Winters, but I think they just hit too hard on bass) to a Seymour Duncan Pegasus/Sentient set up, or maybe just finding an affordable 7 string to mod. I LOVE my ARZ307 with Nazgul/Sentient pickups, and may try to get another for the Pegasus/Sentient combo. Similar story with another bass. I know I'll upgrade a pre-amp soon, as I spent time trying out various tunings while messing with the fuzzes lately, and the upgraded pre-amp in one of my basses is certainly better than the stock one on another. But I may also get another bass since there's a really good deal on one locally that I know I'll like (assuming it's all in working order etc.). That would give me a guitar and bass each in standard tuning (7/5 string), dropped a step (7/5 string), dropped a half step (7/5 string), drop D, and one other undecided tuning (probably C standard or something similar).

 

[Formula73]

I wish I could get my guitarist to play on his own time...like, any...at all...

 

[br1qbat]

Anybody ever play one of these? I'm intrigued by the video demos I've heard:

 

[br1qbat]

I wish I could get my guitarist to play on his own time...like, any...at all...

When my band had a guitarist, I had the same problem. Amazing player but he never ever seemed to go thru our stuff when not at practice. Made working on new stuff I wrote torture. Plus we seemed not to see eye to eye on anything. Anywho, I have no practical advice. Haha. Our guitarist left during covid and we never bothered to replace him. Couldn't be happier.

 

[kleinenenten]

I wish I could get my guitarist to play on his own time...like, any...at all...

I had a keyboardist like that once. A secondary keyboardist. I don't even know how that happened... And he wasn't even that good to begin with. To top it off, he spent a good time each practice just getting drunk, which only inhibited his abilities further. Didn't exactly last long.

 

[Deleted member 132197]

I wish I could get my guitarist to play on his own time...like, any...at all...

My first band in college had a singer that didn't have any sense of time. It would always be a surprise when he would start. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Kept you on your toes though. Maybe not surprisingly that band didn't last long. However, almost 20 years later (god. I'm getting old) and I still play with the guitar player.

 

[Formula73]

My first band in college had a singer that didn't have any sense of time. It would always be a surprise when he would start. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Kept you on your toes though. Maybe not surprisingly that band didn't last long. However, almost 20 years later (god. I'm getting old) and I still play with the guitar player.

College to 20yrs later is mid 40s...don't tell me that's old, bro. Please.

 

[Kaa]

a fuzzilier if you will. We can even make a pretty uniform

View attachment 5361778

That screams doom.

 

[Kaa]

College to 20yrs later is mid 40s...don't tell me that's old, bro. Please.

Gotta back you on this one. I get a new check box in about 9 days (60-65)

Edit: In my own defense, if you looked at me you'd say I looked not a day over 400 or so.

 

[Formula73]

Gotta back you on this one. I get a new check box in about 9 days (60-65)

Edit: In my own defense, if you looked at me you'd say I looked not a day over 400 or so.

My wife told me I look like Peter Jackson. I googled Peter Jackson.

MF looks homeless.

I appreciate that she made me expend the effort to find this out.

 

[scabpicker]

My wife told me I look like Peter Jackson. I googled Peter Jackson.

MF looks homeless.

Heheh, my wife told me I looked like Rick Rubin. I don't, he has better hair and a better beard. I'm not sure whether she thought it was the compliment that I thought it was, and I kinda don't wanna know.

I appreciate that she made me expend the effort to find this out.

Hehe, similarly, my wife recently sent me the text:

"They were playing music in the cafeteria and now I have a song which will not be named in my head. Let's just say it was a duet and has Dolly Parton as one of the singers."

I replied:

"And now I have 'Isands in the Stream' in my head. I do not like this game."

I mean, it was like the auditory/psychological version of "Go get me a switch to beat you with!".

 

[Novarocker]

Thanks and all, but I'm not a fan of wine... I'll take the title of "Fuzz Cicerone", which is the same basic thing as a sommelier but for beer.

If I had the editing skills, I've debated doing some sort of review channel. I've always been slightly miffed at the lack of "regular guy" gear reviews. So many of the reviews I see are using nothing but top-notch boutique stuff, or so many plug-ins etc. that most people who are interested really don't know what's going on and can't judge at all what it will sound like with their gear. Add to that the general tone issues inherent in listening/watching to someone else's rig, and so often a gear preview is a shot in the dark. I don't have anything fancy, and my pedals are definitely where I differentiate my rig - and even then, a vast majority of what I play through is pretty readily available. But my rig itself is pretty commonplace (lower to mid-level Ibanez basses into GK rigs, or lower to mid-level Ibanez guitars into ~30 year old Peavey solid state amps). "Regular Guy Reviews" seems like it would have a definite niche for just straight up simple, no frills reviews, with gear that is actually attainable for the average player.

I got a few minutes with the Tall Font on the 400RB-IV - here are the findings. Like expected, upping the gain and lowering tone (to about 11:00 and 1:00, respectively) got me a nearly identical tone to the Bubble Font. The Tall Font still had a bit more saturation overall, and some more compression going on, but not much. For being gainier, it seems that the Bubble Font actually saturates the signal less overall in that it doesn't seem to distort the lows quite as much. It's a little snappier in the highs with distortion, but I think that's because the Tall Font has such a low end emphasis, and with tweaking they are nearly the same. I'd say they were about 90% identical out of the mix, and nigh indistinguishable in the mix. So for now, I'm thinking the Tall Font will live with my 400RB-IV to get the most bass out of that rig and to keep the treble in check (with the Tall Font's tone knob being reduced slightly), and the Bubble Font can live with the 700RB-II with its inherently deeper lows and more even tonal spectrum.

I plan on doing more in-depth testing this weekend, but am stoked to see what happens. I'm certainly thinking of grabbing one of CMC's Elk and Ram's Head clones. Especially since the Ram's Head is apparently what the Pharaoh is based on, and that was my absolute #1 fuzz until just recently.

Do it, I believe you'd kill it on a podcast! Especially for what you're targeting to do. Eitherway, would be a fun outlet and even if it takes a bit to really get off the ground, it'll probably really start pushing and growing a lot of internal energy for ya. Hell an excuse to practice and play too.

a fuzzilier if you will. We can even make a pretty uniform

View attachment 5361778

Sold, take my money! Hahaha! Nice one.

 

[ConfoundedBridg]

Hey y'all long time no talk

Still doomin down here just busy as hell. My band has been grinding away at my guitar player's house and we're almost there I think. The main issue while trying to get decent live practice is vocal mic feedback in the small room we're practicing in. I think we'll get a new practice space for that.

To keep me from breaking my back every time I go over for practice my guitar player got an ampeg 6x10 cab and I've been using his Music Man 65 Reverb head instead of my Bugera SVT copy on that, and man the thing rips. The amp is hybrid but backwards from today's norm in that the pre-amp is solid state and the power amp is tube. The reverb effect works on bass better than I would've originally thought as well. It sounds so good. I'll try to attach a recording of a beginning of practice jam let me know if it works.



I also partially traded my solid state ampeg 2x10 for a fender studio bass combo amp and that thing has tone for days. I will say it's way more reactive to my pedals than my SVT in a way that I'm not exactly fond of but its clean tone is unmatched. I'm still getting it dialed in though.

I've also started to convert my metal band into country fans and I think we'll start practicing some country tunes soon (not to replace doom of course but hopefully a new project will come out of it). I'm thinking we'll be able to make some fuzzy country but we'll need some time in the lab to dial it in. I got addicted to playing in dance halls when I was playing with the other country band, now I just want to play AcTUally good country music for em lol

Totally true, but a six-string baritone. It's Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry".

MARTY ROBBINS MENTIONED RAAAAA I love that song lol

 

[Michedelic]

Heheh, my wife told me I looked like Rick Rubin. I don't, he has better hair and a better beard. I'm not sure whether she thought it was the compliment that I thought it was, and I kinda don't wanna know.



Hehe, similarly, my wife recently sent me the text:

"They were playing music in the cafeteria and now I have a song which will not be named in my head. Let's just say it was a duet and has Dolly Parton as one of the singers."

I replied:

"And now I have 'Isands in the Stream' in my head. I do not like this game."

I mean, it was like the auditory/psychological version of "Go get me a switch to beat you with!".

Here, let me clear your head…

 

[Formula73]

Here, let me clear your head…

Possibly the best cover of all time

 

[Kawai2g4b]

Hey y'all long time no talk

Still doomin down here just busy as hell. My band has been grinding away at my guitar player's house and we're almost there I think. The main issue while trying to get decent live practice is vocal mic feedback in the small room we're practicing in. I think we'll get a new practice space for that.

To keep me from breaking my back every time I go over for practice my guitar player got an ampeg 6x10 cab and I've been using his Music Man 65 Reverb head instead of my Bugera SVT copy on that, and man the thing rips. The amp is hybrid but backwards from today's norm in that the pre-amp is solid state and the power amp is tube. The reverb effect works on bass better than I would've originally thought as well. It sounds so good. I'll try to attach a recording of a beginning of practice jam let me know if it works.



I also partially traded my solid state ampeg 2x10 for a fender studio bass combo amp and that thing has tone for days. I will say it's way more reactive to my pedals than my SVT in a way that I'm not exactly fond of but its clean tone is unmatched. I'm still getting it dialed in though.

I've also started to convert my metal band into country fans and I think we'll start practicing some country tunes soon (not to replace doom of course but hopefully a new project will come out of it). I'm thinking we'll be able to make some fuzzy country but we'll need some time in the lab to dial it in. I got addicted to playing in dance halls when I was playing with the other country band, now I just want to play AcTUally good country music for em lol

MARTY ROBBINS MENTIONED RAAAAA I love that song lol

Nice jam! Just the right kind of spacy for me and killer tone. Any shows coming up if you are still in H-Town?

I used to run through the MM 65 Reverb’s big brother, the HD130 as my main bass head with an ATK. You have to really try to get a bad bass sound out of those heads and they are freaking LOUD for the wattage.

 

[scabpicker]

The amp is hybrid but backwards from today's norm in that the pre-amp is solid state and the power amp is tube.

Yep, my wife bought a MM 112 sixty-five back in the day. Same kind of design. I loved it. Its distortion channel was punk rock glory. If you wanted tubey goodness out of it, you'd run the preamp gain wide open and use the master volume like it wasn't a master volume amp. Otherwise, it was clean-ish, kind of like a board preamp until you hit the distortion. Great amp, a friend of mine who ran a studio bought it off me when he was looking for good amps to have in the studio for odd situations. It apparently performed admirably in that service. He left that studio, and I was given a chance to buy it back. Nope! I didn't really have the cash to pay fair value at the time, and I don't know what I'd do with a 1x12 combo that wouldn't really sound like something special unless it was nearly peeling paint. Still, I miss it.

I used to run through the MM 65 Reverb’s big brother, the HD130 as my main bass head with an ATK. You have to really try to get a bad bass sound out of those heads and they are freaking LOUD for the wattage.

Heheh, yeah, they are loud as hell for the numbered wattage. But remember the wattage rating really doesn't have that much to do with loudness. There's so many variances in the ratings, it's almost meaningless. My 100W Ampeg VT-22 combo was the loudest amp I'd ever had for a very long time (and yeah, I still miss it). I had guys with 100W half stacks ask me to please turn that thing down when I had the master at about 4. Heck, that guitar combo was probably the loudest amp I owned until I got a GK MBFusion500 and Ampeg 4x10 cab setup in the early 2010s. Even if that guitar combo was pushed into bass duty, it might be a push on who is louder against that bass half stack. But I never pushed either of them really hard, they were both punishingly loud for their size.