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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
Me noodling on bass, but rather badly, I have a serious case of performance anxiety when recording, so my hands were literally shaking, so my performance is rather messy and my tempo all over and running (absolutely nothing has been done to it post production, so this is exactly as recorded):
It isn't really all that stoner or doom related, except for around the 6:04 mark, where I play a couple of riffs from a stoner-ish song I have been working on, everything is original material though.
It isn't really all that stoner or doom related, except for around the 6:04 mark, where I play a couple of riffs from a stoner-ish song I have been working on, everything is original material though.
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A short sample of my other bass, which admittedly got a better tone, also tuned in G# standard tuning (that is as one half step bellow the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning), but only having the [plate reverb + spring reverb] subtle reverb engaged, and no tape delay, which honestly got a bit too much for the less melodic founded parts in the above sample:
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Just found out about this guy, local builder, real affordable stuff. Gonna dump this here, sounds damn good on 8 string. I found him by lucking out on one of his pedal giveaways for a mk 2 tone bender, great build and sound, just not for bass. Not sure how I ended up on his channel, but yeah good stuff.
DAD Tech Doom EXP
DAD Tech Doom EXP
Got to play a bit today, which was needed. Was completely bored for a bit, not really sure what to play and not feeling anything, so I decided to dig out an old "album" that I wrote via Guitar Pro in college. Noodled around, enjoyed the bass parts, but then tried to play the guitar parts and was completely worthless. So I spent some time transcribing the song into a different, more guitar-friendly tuning. It ended up being just D Standard, which I had figured would be easiest as this specific song chugs on "D" a lot, which is simpler on my 5 string bass than my 7 string guitar. I also have a bass and guitar already set up in that tuning.
Anyway, moral of the story is that if you actually play something in a tuning that makes sense, it's a LOT easier to do. Who would have thought? Within 10 minutes of figuring out which tuning I should use, I had the guitar part transcribed, and began practicing. I'm still rusty on guitar, but I was able to play the bass part mostly flawlessly, besides trying to spruce up the song overall with 20ish years of experience added to it. Most of the "hard" part is now in a single left hand position, making the economy of motion much better. Hoping to record some basic clips tomorrow with both bass and guitar. Though I'll likely need a few days to brush up and get my guitar playing cleaner again. Still, I'll mess around at least and see what I can do with my recording software and practice that and guitar if nothing else.
Hope all is well with everyone else in the doom room, and that you're all enjoying whichever holidays you choose (or don't choose) to partake in over the next few days/weeks.
Anyway, moral of the story is that if you actually play something in a tuning that makes sense, it's a LOT easier to do. Who would have thought? Within 10 minutes of figuring out which tuning I should use, I had the guitar part transcribed, and began practicing. I'm still rusty on guitar, but I was able to play the bass part mostly flawlessly, besides trying to spruce up the song overall with 20ish years of experience added to it. Most of the "hard" part is now in a single left hand position, making the economy of motion much better. Hoping to record some basic clips tomorrow with both bass and guitar. Though I'll likely need a few days to brush up and get my guitar playing cleaner again. Still, I'll mess around at least and see what I can do with my recording software and practice that and guitar if nothing else.
Hope all is well with everyone else in the doom room, and that you're all enjoying whichever holidays you choose (or don't choose) to partake in over the next few days/weeks.
Hey everyone! I got nothing except well-wishes for your (insert appropriate holiday here)! Keep rocking!
My "amp-less" setup:
My signal chain explained in written form (currently in the process of rearranging my setup, so this is preliminary basic setup, only consisting of my always on, basic "clean" tone, pedals, my dirt pedals, and the NUX delay, modulation and other special effects has not been set up yet) :
(*pedals listed in [ red/bold/underline text ] are "always on" effects*)
4 string 28.6" scale Ibanez GSRM20B Mikro Bass (equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, and strung with Elixir Nanoweb coated nickel-plated roundwound hex steel core guitar strings, gauge .080 - .062 - .046 - .032, tuned in tenor/baritone bass, G# standard, tuning, that is one half step bellow the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning) ->
->> XVive Undulator (tremolo pedal, but never actually engaged and used exclusively for its great buffer) ->> EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor, with 2 preamp tubes operating at proper high 300V plate voltage, primarily functioning as a tube preamp stage, driven to just at the edge of the tubes's breakup point, but with some very subtle compression dialed in as well) ->> TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (for adding a 1 octave up, mimicking an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string bass, using a custom made Toneprint) ->> EHX English Muff'n (Marshall like medium gain overdrive) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in Turbo RAT, LED diode clipping, mode, quite raunchy, fuzz-esque, high gain distortion, sometimes stacked into the Behringer fuzz in front of it, and always mixed with the Joyo Orange Juice orverdrive or {Orange Juice -> Metal Zone} from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (Boss FZ-2/Univox Superfuzz clone, octave fuzz, always used with the Mosky Black Rat stacked into it, and always mixed with the Joyo Orange Juice orverdrive or {Orange Juice -> Metal Zone} from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->|+|<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (Orange amp like medium gain overdrive, always mixed with either the Black Rat or {Black Rat -> Super Fuzz} from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (dialed in with a medium gain distortion, always mixed with either the Black Rat or {Black Rat -> Super Fuzz} from parallel effects [Loop B], and always with the Orange Juice in front of it stacked into it) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an approximate 70/30 ratio) => [LS-2 Output] }=>->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Joyo Oxford Sound (clone of the Tech 21 Oxford, which is an all analog emulation of an Orange Amp type preamp, dialed in to deliver a low gain overdrive, always used blended with "clean" signal from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->|+|<- [Loop B Send] ->> ([Loops B] empty, used to blend in "clean" signal) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an approximate 50/50 ratio) => [LS-2 Output] }=>->> Zoom B1Xon (used predominantly as reverb and delay unit, with various different reverb and delay patches, including my always on {very subtle Plate Reverb -> subtle Spring Reverb} reverb patch that is part of my basic "clean" tone, and beside that, among others, an extremely thick, lush reverb patch, used as a pad effect with volume swells from the build in expression pedal, and a trippy reverse delay patch, though also used for a couple of additional other effects, including a prominent "wah" pedal patch) ->> Behringer UM300 Ultra Metal (Metal Zone clone, post reverb high gain distortion, often used stacked into the Orange Juice in front of it) ->> Joyo Orange Juice (Orange amp like post reverb medium gain overdrive) ->> NUX Tape Core Deluxe (amazing digital emulation of the legendary Roland RE-201 Space Echo tape delay) ->> NUX (NBP-5) Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp + DI (loaded with a digitally emulated Aguilar Tone Hammer amp, and an Ampeg SVT-212AV IR cab simulation, with HPF @ 40Hz, LPF @ 14kHz, and a subtle low gain overdrive blended in at a 50/50 clean/drive ratio) ->
->> ART Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp and DI, with build in HPF, fixed @ 40Hz, engaged, tube driven to just on the verge of breakup point) ->
// ->> Band rehearsal/jamming/gigging // ->> Home practice // ->> Home recordings // :
// ->> Band rehearsal/jamming/gigging ->> Effects Return (poweramp input) of a Peavey Solo Special 112 (160W combo amp, with the build in speaker disconnect and instead hooked up to a passive PA speaker) ->> The Box PA 502 (passive full range flat frequency response PA speaker with 1x 15" woofer/mids driver + 1.7" high frequency tweeter horn (crossover 2.3kHz)) // ->> Home practice ->> The T.Mix Mix 502 (mixer) ->> Sennheiser HD 380 Pro (studio grade, that is FRFR, headphones) // ->> Home recordings ->> M-Audio Fast Track (audio interface) ->> Reaper (DAW) //
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Sounds super punchy, and the high gain distortion setup monstrously heavy and ballsy.
This is used for a solo stoner/doom rock project where the bass is the main instrument, with added played and programmed drums and percussion, vocals, plus some predominantly more flavor oriented additional instrumentation.
But the idea is that I would be able to play this live with a looper and a backing track, and/or a live real drummer.
I already got the bass parts and form ready for 9 songs, 6 regular, more or less traditional, stoner/doom rock songs, but mostly less traditional with elements of progressive/math rock, and 3 very melodic folky instrumentals, with working titles, and some early lyrics sketches, that is just waiting for me to start recoding and add drums, vocals and eventual additional instrumentation, meant for a full length Bandcamp release.
(But no, the project is not named "The Pea", that's the name I very imaginative named the amp, after removing the original brand)
Here you go, though now strung up with gauge .068 - 052 - .038 - .028 strings, and tuned in B standard tuning, as in one octave higher than the 4 lower strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning, and with a healthy portion of post reverb Orange Juice overdrive and NUX Tape Delay, recorded directly from the ART Tube MP Project Series tube preamp and DI into a Zoom handheld recorder, with nothing added or edited post recording, so exactly as recorded:
It has a middle east meets James Bond meets The Munsters meets DOOM ‘93 vibe
Thank you!
Working title is "Space Agent Spliff".
The preliminary plans, which might change though, is, beside recording a better executed version, to add drums and vocals, and then perhaps also electric organ/synth and glockenspeil/tubular bells.
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Now you need to get some of that padded toilet seat material, and restore it to its original tuck’n’roll glory.
For any of you interested, I sloppily recorded something I sloppily played this morning. Actually had time to play and work on my guitar skills, which are far behind my bass skills. This originally began as me trying to learn "Neon Knights"... Spoiler alert - Tony Iommi and I are at different levels guitar-wise. (I'll let you decide who is "better".) Anyway, since that wasn't happening, I ended up just jamming until I came up with something on guitar, then threw a bass line under it in about two takes. Mostly, this is a comparison of my CMC Muffs (Civil War on guitar, Bubble Font on bass), but whatever. Still fun, and given my less-than-stellar "studio", I'm always happy with the sound quality I get from my cobbled together mess. I really need to find people to play with again someday...
Guitar & Bass
Bass Only
Guitar Only
Guitar & Bass
Bass Only
Guitar Only
Here's my holiday gear porn contribution, I bought my very first Mesa Boogie thing ever. I always liked these and the Road Ready cabs from afar, but never really needed one. I decided to let a Gucci 1x12 go and replaced it w/ this cheaper 'antiquity' as most of vanilla TB would probably consider it. Dude bruh you just need a Genzler Benz-over Neo-tron 12x6 that weighs 9 lbs!
Hell yes. I fall squarely in all camps. I have super light class d heads and a huge 300 watt tube amp. I have neo cabs and I have a pair of SVT410HLFs. I also am going to pick up three Orange cabs next week, 2 OBC115s and an OBC210. They're all badass and they all have a time and place. And they're all very, very loud. I should have a photo dump next week.
...and? How's it sound? Any chance to play it yet?
My holiday gear acquisitions were minimal so far - though I still have 2 Christmas celebrations yet to happen. Still, I'm continuing to try and downsize overall, so I'm not trying to buy anything non-essential or at least functional. So far, all I've gotten was one of those cheap mini tuners. It's only $20 (and I think it was bought for $15 on sale) and does everything I need in a tuner, though it is slightly finicky on my low A. But it just takes a second, so it's by no means a deal breaker. Will likely get another one for my other board at some point when they inevitable go on sale again.
In bass and general music-related acquisitions, I did receive Lemmy's autobiography as a gift, so that is going towards the top of the reading list. And my wife bought me a Black Sabbath guitar book, but I'll need to work to get on that level.
Well, when I got the Super Bassman home on the bench and tried it out, it just worked. It still has two power tubes that are being removed from the circuit because they can't be biased, so I ordered matching replacements and a new fuse for the auto bias circuit on that pair. The current fuse had burned out, and it was actually of a higher amp rating than the recommended fuse (not a lot, 125mA vs 100mA). I'm not sure when that was swapped out, but if they're popping a higher rated fuse in the bias circuit than is recommended, one of those tubes is really pretty bad.
In the world of finding a backup/lighter option for the SB, I just figured out that the Bassman 100T also has the same preamp. It goes for about the same as a Super Bassman 800 used, but weighs more and obvious is less loud. But that's another option.
I got two pedals for Christmas this year. A Boss SL-20 Slicer pedal and a classic orange Boss DS-1. The Slicer is the craziest tremolo I've ever fooled with, loony patterns, some with modulation. The funny thing is, there's no normal-ish tremolo on any of the settings. So, if you want normal tremolo, you'll still need to have one of those.
I asked for a DS-1 just because I've never owned one, it seemed reasonable and easy to find, and I figured everyone should probably have one once. Wow, I kind of under-rated that pedal. Sounds good on most settings, and is really pretty versatile.
In the world of finding a backup/lighter option for the SB, I just figured out that the Bassman 100T also has the same preamp. It goes for about the same as a Super Bassman 800 used, but weighs more and obvious is less loud. But that's another option.
I got two pedals for Christmas this year. A Boss SL-20 Slicer pedal and a classic orange Boss DS-1. The Slicer is the craziest tremolo I've ever fooled with, loony patterns, some with modulation. The funny thing is, there's no normal-ish tremolo on any of the settings. So, if you want normal tremolo, you'll still need to have one of those.
I asked for a DS-1 just because I've never owned one, it seemed reasonable and easy to find, and I figured everyone should probably have one once. Wow, I kind of under-rated that pedal. Sounds good on most settings, and is really pretty versatile.
I've had similar ideas with the DS-1 and the SD-1 on guitar. There's a part of me that wants to create a no nonsense old-school Swedish Death Metal board for guitar, and I know all sorts of bands used those in various configurations and permutations with the HM-2, either boosting this with that, or some such stuff. I think also the MT-2 was used occasionally? Seeing as I've already got the HM-2 part covered...
In other news, I've been trying to up my guitar game, and think I'm doing pretty well. Definitely getting comfier again. Unfortunately, one of my guitar rigs has now developed a "pop" when I engage the pedals in the FX loop. I've solved it for the moment by swapping two near identical pedals between the two rigs (the DOD FX10 BiFET Boost and the more recent Reissue), but I know that's likely not a long term solution. It seems to be a buffer issue as far as I can tell, so the modern one will likely work better as the buffer on that is controlled via an on/off toggle. Anybody know what would randomly cause the pop to just appear? The only difference between now and previously is the addition of a mini tuner, which is true bypass, and that was added a few days ago. So while it's new, the problem didn't appear until after a few days' use.
