Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[Matt-J2]

Here's an indicator of my ancient-ness. I saw JP on the British Steel tour with Scorpions and Def Leppard (their first US tour, I think.) at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, PA for $12.00

Yeah, but factoring in inflation, that's actually...a seriously affordable ticket.

 

[Kaa]

Booo! Sorry man

Eh, it's all good. My wife and I make enough dough to live a comfy life, and that's all we need.

 

[Kaa]

Yeah, but factoring in inflation, that's actually...a seriously affordable ticket.

Yeah, the good old days. The Stanley (not sure if it even exists anymore) was a great venue. Sat about 1500, maybe? Saw AC/DC on the Back In Black tour, Blue Oyster Cult with Thin Lizzy opening, Sammy Hagar with Aldo Nova opening, a couple others I can't recollect.

 

[scabpicker]

Here's an indicator of my ancient-ness. I saw JP on the British Steel tour with Scorpions and Def Leppard (their first US tour, I think.) at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, PA for $12.00

Heheh, you're a little older than I. I saw them on the Fuel for Life tour at Reunion Arena in '86. I'm supposedly in the Preist...Live video for a split second.

 

[Jolagh]

I could use some help with brainstorming something. I recently picked up a bass vi, the Harley Benton with what I think are the EB slinkies 20-90. My setup is a bi-amp setup where I toggle the guitar amp on-and-off for heavier parts. Here’s my thoughts:

• my feel is lacking switching from fingers to pick but that will eventually improve with time and practice (I also recently started guitar lessons to help with my song writing) and I don’t like playing the vi with fingers
• The sound when I’m just through the bass amp is not as good as a standard bass and is not good enough for the overall band sound
• But, the sound I get from the vi through guitar amp and bass amp together is crazy good - to the point my wife/singer noticed and she can’t hear the difference between flats and rounds

So I’m trying to brainstorm as to what I can figure out to get the best of both worlds. Maybe a short scale bass with lighter strings or something with a mudbucker and the strat like pickups.

Any ideas? It’s not just playing with a pick that’s making the difference and I have only been using the E-G strings so far with the full band so it’s not the higher strings either.

Sorry if this is a little rambly. I’m really not great about figuring out what actually causes the good tone and how to communicate what I like.

And for reference, my normal axe is a Ric.

I use a bass vi exclusively for my two piece band. I've heavily modified mine, but if your goal is to get it more basslike I'd recommend first going up in string guage. I've used the stringjoy bass vi heavy guage set 26 to 95 for a long time. We play in drop e so now I've gone even further and order singles with the largest guage of .100. I had to modify my hardtail bridge I got from obscura to fit a bass string ball end though.

The next thing I'd look at is pickups. Mine was a squire classic vibe bass vi, but even then it didn't really have the bottom end and low mid I was looking for. I bought a lollar bass vi neck pickup and it thickened up the low end on my neck pickup alot. It's much more P bass sounding than it was before.

Then of course the next thing is an EQ. I run a source audio 10 band eq and dial in some extra lows and boost some high mids for that grind and cut.

 

[scabpicker]

The next thing I'd look at is pickups. Mine was a squire classic vibe bass vi, but even then it didn't really have the bottom end and low mid I was looking for. I bought a lollar bass vi neck pickup and it thickened up the low end on my neck pickup alot. It's much more P bass sounding than it was before.

Thankya for this. I have a CV Bass VI that I hate the sound of and was wondering what replacement pickups might be less Bass VI-ish. Lollar it is!

 

[JAFERD]

I ended up making a bunch curry and after that plus a glass of wine was rendered totally useless. I feel you on missing shows though. For me personally I passed up opportunities to see Type O Negative and Pantera then never had a second chance. Well I guess there’s sort of a second chance on pantera but meh.

Going to go see an awesome Austin doom band called Communion tonight after work however.

 

[HP Hovercraft]

I could use some help with brainstorming something. I recently picked up a bass vi, the Harley Benton with what I think are the EB slinkies 20-90. My setup is a bi-amp setup where I toggle the guitar amp on-and-off for heavier parts. Here’s my thoughts:

• my feel is lacking switching from fingers to pick but that will eventually improve with time and practice (I also recently started guitar lessons to help with my song writing) and I don’t like playing the vi with fingers
• The sound when I’m just through the bass amp is not as good as a standard bass and is not good enough for the overall band sound
• But, the sound I get from the vi through guitar amp and bass amp together is crazy good - to the point my wife/singer noticed and she can’t hear the difference between flats and rounds

So I’m trying to brainstorm as to what I can figure out to get the best of both worlds. Maybe a short scale bass with lighter strings or something with a mudbucker and the strat like pickups.

Any ideas? It’s not just playing with a pick that’s making the difference and I have only been using the E-G strings so far with the full band so it’s not the higher strings either.

Sorry if this is a little rambly. I’m really not great about figuring out what actually causes the good tone and how to communicate what I like.

And for reference, my normal axe is a Ric.

What are you using to split the signal? I'd like to try this with my Bass VI.

 

[Jolagh]

Thankya for this. I have a CV Bass VI that I hate the sound of and was wondering what replacement pickups might be less Bass VI-ish. Lollar it is!

There are a few companies out there making more bassy bass vi pickups. I tried some Curtis novak that sounded great, but they were still alot thinner and more stock sounding. The lollars I found alot fatter and warmer. I actually changed my bridge pickup out for a barenuckle p90 Stockholm as I wanted it to be more guitar like. I've really enjoyed this configuration.

 

[bassburner]

What are you using to split the signal? I'd like to try this with my Bass VI.

I'm using a Boss Tuner. The bass side output uses the Bypass output and the guitar side uses the regular output. I also have a Saturnworks patchbay pedal which normally passes both signals through but can collapse them with a switch in case there's an instance I can't hook up both amps.

 

[HP Hovercraft]

I'm using a Boss Tuner. The bass side output uses the Bypass output and the guitar side uses the regular output. I also have a Saturnworks patchbay pedal which normally passes both signals through but can collapse them with a switch in case there's an instance I can't hook up both amps.

Oh nice! Than I don't need to buy anything

 

[bassburner]

^ So you don't like how it sounds as a bass? Couple of free things I would try - adjust the bass amp better for that bass. Or use the neck pickup for bass only parts, then do a quick switch to whatever pickups at the point when you switch on the gtr amp (more coordination needed).

I am using the bridge or bridge/middle settings and have tried to get more out of the bass amp. I'll probably need to dig out my EQ and comp pedals.

More hardcore would be swapping the pickups or taking out 1 or 2 of them and replace it with some kind of decent bass pickup. It's a $200 guitar so I don't know if that's worth doing or not.

It is a decent bass for building on. I had a Squier Bass VI a few years back and didn't like it so much especially the bridge. To get something decent you're probably closer to the $1K mark and even then it would probably be an Eastwood or something.

If you're not using any strings above the G, I'd look around for some kind of short scale bass with strings on the light side. Sometimes older/vintage short scales will have cool sounding pickups that might cover your bases. Like a twangy old school bass sound. Also from my personal experience, the shorter scale tends to have a bit more low mid grunt thing going on which is a bit more focused when in a mix. It kind of sits nicely in between kick drum/toms and guitars. I'm kind of just spitballin here.

That's what I'm thinking I'm going to do for now until I get my groove with the pick. I do have a no-name 60s short scale lying around somewhere that I need to get different pickups in.

 

[kleinenenten]

Yeah, but factoring in inflation, that's actually...a seriously affordable ticket.

I was going to say the same thing. The cheapest tickets available for me this go round are over 4x that price, and I can easily spend over 8x that price.

 

[davedamage]

Y'all see this?



And that Dunable?!?

 

[scabpicker]

And that Dunable?!?

Wow, it looks like it's a double neck set up to do 24-TET. Didn't know such a beast existed.

 

[Novarocker]

So much great advice! Good look @Jolagh on the Lollars. I've been meaning to dive into a bass vi and that's great to know to budget for.

I could use some help with brainstorming something. I recently picked up a bass vi, the Harley Benton with what I think are the EB slinkies 20-90. My setup is a bi-amp setup where I toggle the guitar amp on-and-off for heavier parts. Here’s my thoughts:

• my feel is lacking switching from fingers to pick but that will eventually improve with time and practice (I also recently started guitar lessons to help with my song writing) and I don’t like playing the vi with fingers
• The sound when I’m just through the bass amp is not as good as a standard bass and is not good enough for the overall band sound
• But, the sound I get from the vi through guitar amp and bass amp together is crazy good - to the point my wife/singer noticed and she can’t hear the difference between flats and rounds

So I’m trying to brainstorm as to what I can figure out to get the best of both worlds. Maybe a short scale bass with lighter strings or something with a mudbucker and the strat like pickups.

Any ideas? It’s not just playing with a pick that’s making the difference and I have only been using the E-G strings so far with the full band so it’s not the higher strings either.

Sorry if this is a little rambly. I’m really not great about figuring out what actually causes the good tone and how to communicate what I like.

And for reference, my normal axe is a Ric.

I concur with trying EQ, pups n such, as well as short scale. Did you go the vi route for chord work? If so, honestly I like the creative limitation imposed by a 4 string for chords. I play tons of them, in E or Eb tuning you can do a root + 5th all the way down to A/Ab really solidly (lower isnt bad down to G/Gb for short notes). In fact the I+V double stop on A sounds better than a full "bar" chord with the 8th added. It's tons of fun for me to learn alternate fingerings and inversions of chords to change the timbre and increase/decrease dissonance.

Feeding on some of the other back and forths, I use a simple passive ABY, but i do split to an octave up into a guitar amp so phasing isnt really a concern. I dig using an ABY over the tuner to add more ability to switch to one voice or the other.

^ So you don't like how it sounds as a bass? Couple of free things I would try - adjust the bass amp better for that bass. Or use the neck pickup for bass only parts, then do a quick switch to whatever pickups at the point when you switch on the gtr amp (more coordination needed).

More hardcore would be swapping the pickups or taking out 1 or 2 of them and replace it with some kind of decent bass pickup. It's a $200 guitar so I don't know if that's worth doing or not.

If you're not using any strings above the G, I'd look around for some kind of short scale bass with strings on the light side. Sometimes older/vintage short scales will have cool sounding pickups that might cover your bases. Like a twangy old school bass sound. Also from my personal experience, the shorter scale tends to have a bit more low mid grunt thing going on which is a bit more focused when in a mix. It kind of sits nicely in between kick drum/toms and guitars. I'm kind of just spitballin here.

100% agreed on the short scale. Even medium scale helps. Its kind of a middle ground of harmonics and low/mid focus punch between short and long scale.

I also gotta say, as much as I dig my 32" bass i made, the SBMM SS stingray is one of the greatest feeling basses I've ever played and it cuts through the mix. The new Squier rascal bass is another that carries so much beef with it (and 21 frets to boot) that it just slams through a mix. Both of those are actually pretty reasonable prices too.

I was going to say the same thing. The cheapest tickets available for me this go round are over 4x that price, and I can easily spend over 8x that price.

I know, that's honestly why I've held off on some i really want to go to...

 

[davedamage]

Wow, it looks like it's a double neck set up to do 24-TET. Didn't know such a beast existed.

 

[Matt-J2]

I was going to say the same thing. The cheapest tickets available for me this go round are over 4x that price, and I can easily spend over 8x that price.

Yeah, I've backed out of a few because of price. Almost everything is a drive of 1.5hrs or more for me, and last one I went to (I don't go to many anyway) I was beat before I even got out of the parking lot so I have to add in gas and hotel.

In September Clutch and Rival Sons are heading to Green Bay which is only a 20-30min drive so we're going to try and hit that one. I'm expecting $80+ per ticket (after all the fees and whatnot, I think they list at $50 for the cheaper ones) though which isn't exciting.

 

[Warlock_Surfer]

looks like Jeff has a lollar db humbucker in the bridge pick up. Pike really likes those pickups.

 

[br1qbat]

I'm using a Boss Tuner. The bass side output uses the Bypass output and the guitar side uses the regular output. I also have a Saturnworks patchbay pedal which normally passes both signals through but can collapse them with a switch in case there's an instance I can't hook up both amps.

I use a Boss LS-2 Line Selector which can do lots of stuff like 2 sep effects loops, add a clean blend, or run 2 amps at once (what i use it for), or a switch between 2 amps, etc. Very useful utility pedal.