advise needed for phattening up your tone

[burno70]

Just after advise for developing a killer tone. To give some indication of the kind of tones I like think Flea, Justin Chancellor, Tim Commorford - you know, the thick, granite like or just pure phat rock tones.

It'd probably be a good idea to list my crurrent pedal board first:-

Bass>OC2>Fulltone Bassdrive>EBS wah one>Meatwad>EBS Multicomp>MXR Flanger>amp

I find that the bass drive is good for thickening up the sound but I only use it for a few songs, I wouldn't like to have it on all the time as, even though I'm in a heavy rock band, not all the songs require the grind.

I think what I'm after is more of a beefed up 'natural' bass tone.

I've read that some players use a permanent slight chorus to thicken up their tone. I'm not a fan of chorus myself but have never used it in this way before.

Any advise would be most welcome.

Also, advise need not be confined to my existing pedals, any new pedal suggestions would be most appreciated (although Not by my wallet!)

[Mr. Foxen]

I think what those guys have in common is a multi amp setup. Tim C in particular is pretty notorious for uising 3 SVTs, 1 clean, one dirty and one filthy. All I know aboutJC's rig is from the tribute band guy on youtube, who mentions using that ying-yang pedaql instead of multi amps. Not sure about Flea but have seen 3 GK rigs behind him.

[burno70]

Cheers Mr Foxen,

yeah the 3 rigs is definately out of the question. I'm Hoping to find a way to phatten my tone with effects pedals.

[Mr. Foxen]

Blending an effected signal with clean works, an LS2 has been my favourite purchase of late. Using guitar pedals in the loop is fine if you have the clean to keep the bass in.

[burno70]

Nice one, I hadn't thought of using blend pedals - this way I could have the bass drive on all the time and use it in conjunciton with the clean signal so it wouldn't be as raw.

Hmm, I understand how a blend pedal works - obviously blending a clean signal with an effected one but how does this work in relation to your pedal chain, as in, what would you connect to what?

Thanks Again mate

[dannybuoy]

If you don't have fat tone without pedals, maybe you need a new bass and/or amp! What are you using? Also, for maximum phatness run your Multicomp in tubesim mode.

[johnnylager]

[quote name='burno70' post='230512' date='Jul 1 2008, 01:39 PM']I'm Hoping to find a way to phatten my tone with effects pedals.[/quote]
Aphex Bass Xciter?

[burno70]

Dannybuoy,

I have a new bass and amp! Don't get me wrong, I love the tone that I'm making, I'm just interested in wringing the absolute maximum tone I can out of my set up (with the addition of 1 or 2 more pedals!) - I got a Shuker with Delano pups and a Markbass rig.

[dannybuoy]

Fair enough - it's just that sometimes we hear that question and it turns out they're using a crap bass through a 20W practice amp and trying to fix it with pedals!

I suggest a DHA VT1 overdrive (or even the compressor). By turning the gain down the signal remains clean yet still manages to add great dollops of lard to your tone. If you go down the dual amp route, linking them up with a stereo chorus pedal on subtle settings gets great results.

[cheddatom]

I don't know what the multi-comp is like, but if you can set the attack time a little later, that might help. Also, blending is a good suggestion, but I don't think it would make it ok to have the bass drive on the whole time. You could have a few different pedals in the blended loop though.

I would suggest buying a good low gain OD pedal, boss ODB-3 or Marshal jackhammer or something similar, and put this in a blend loop at about 50%. Put a compressor with slow attack on your "clean" signal that you're blending with. Put a limiter after the the whole thing. You could leave the overdrive on the whole time, just adding a bit of "bite" rather than "dirt", and then you could use the bass drive in conjuntion with your new overdrive for when you want more dirt.

A Bi-amp setup would be useful, but obviously not essential - if you have a full range amp, you should be able to get the tone you're looking for.

[stug]

The limiter suggestion's a good one I had great results after putting a Boss LMB-3 at the end of my chain, beefed the sound up nicely without altering the tone (if that makes any sense). It doesn't sound louder, but just fuller. Make sure you set the "presence" control to 0 though, as it adds a crap load of cheap, nasty treble effect (IMO).

On a side note, I A/B'd my LMB-3 with a friend's Harley Benton bass limiter (cheap Behringer style knock-off, with a metal case) and didn't find any difference in the two (apart from the price). I think he got it from Thomann, they're also avaliable in the UK under the name GLX pedals AFAIK. I found the same with their Bass Equalizer knock-off and the Boss GEB-7. Might be worth checking out, since they're only about 25 quid each or something.

Edited July 1, 2008 by stug

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='burno70' post='230534' date='Jul 1 2008, 01:59 PM']Nice one, I hadn't thought of using blend pedals - this way I could have the bass drive on all the time and use it in conjunciton with the clean signal so it wouldn't be as raw.

Hmm, I understand how a blend pedal works - obviously blending a clean signal with an effected one but how does this work in relation to your pedal chain, as in, what would you connect to what?

Thanks Again mate[/quote]

The LS2 has two fx loops witha volume on each, so you just connect a pedal or series of pedals from the out to the in on that. It has various settings, I use the 'A+B' one, with the B loop empty, then balance the two with the A and B volume controls. The other way I do it is have seperate outputs on my bass, neck clean and effects on the bridge, then the two chains either go to seperate amps or into a pedal that mixes the two to a single output. It will involve a lot of knob twiddling and fiddling about, then one pedal will fail and everything is screwed and you go back to plugging straight to your amp and thinking it sounds fine like that.

[spree]

you can have a try of my rig if you want, we're both in liverpool, my board is on the pedalboard page if you fancy a nosey

[burno70]

Thanks for the advise, sorry I didn't reply sooner but I'm back in work now

Just gonna check out these new pedal suggestions.

Cheers all

[burno70]

Got more time to reply now and I've had a chance to scope out those pedal suggestions.

I've always been a bit snobbish with Boss pedals due to the non True-Bypass / tone-suck aspect although I think I'm a bit more open to them now that I have recently obtained and absolutely love the OC-2.

It seems that Harmony Central reviewers either love or hate the LMB-3 and the LS-2, so it looks like I'll just have to take the plunge, look for cheap bargains and decide for myself.

Just like to say thanks to all for helping me out here, certainly gave me some food for thought and I'm starting to look at my running my effects in an entirely different way!

Cheers

[cheddatom]

The LS-2 is a seriously useful pedal. The LMB-3 is a great limiter, but god knows what they're trying to do with the enhance knob. If you leave that off, it's great. I've tried the behringer clone and it's perfect (but plastic) and miles cheaper!

[johnnylager]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='231316' date='Jul 2 2008, 01:50 PM']The LMB-3 is a great limiter, but god knows what they're trying to do with the enhance knob.[/quote]
Sure is good, the enhance knob though - don't you like tinny hiss?

Edited July 2, 2008 by johnnylager

[woolleydick]

Hartke Attax Pedal - the shape control really fattens things up, but................ seeing as how you have such a good setup to start with, it might be all too much and just sound worse. This is kind of what happened to me when I upgraded a while ago.

[burno70]

Right then, been doin a bit of diggin and now I have a better understanding of bypassed loops.

I've also been looking at some of the pedal suggestions. Just missed out on an LS-2 on the bay yestday but will keep tryin - if not I'll just pick one up from Dolphin next weekend. I also like the sound of the LMB-3.

With the distortion tho, it seems the ODB 3 and the Jackhammer have as many lovers as haters. Cheddatom, you've advised a low gain OD pedal, can you explain why it would have to be low gain? It's just so I can clearly understand the concept of what's going on with my signal chain here and how it can help beef me up?

Also, what other low gain OD pedal options are there. I've read about tonnes of OD pedals but I'm not sure which ones fall into the low gain category?

Many thanks, I've learned a lot from this post!

[Kev]

the boss odb-3 is a brilliant pedal

[steve-soar]

[quote name='woolleydick' post='231856' date='Jul 3 2008, 11:22 AM']Hartke Attax Pedal - the shape control really fattens things up, but................ seeing as how you have such a good setup to start with, it might be all too much and just sound worse. This is kind of what happened to me when I upgraded a while ago.[/quote]Sorry to hi-jack the thread but could you post some pics of your Streamliner Mr Wooleydick?

[Paul Cooke]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='231316' date='Jul 2 2008, 01:50 PM']I've tried the behringer clone and it's perfect (but plastic) and miles cheaper![/quote]

oh yes... I can second that...

[acidbass]

I was just listening to some old Rage albums yesterday actually (going to see them live next week yeoww!) and Tim Commerford's tone is really superb.

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='burno70' post='230604' date='Jul 1 2008, 03:13 PM']I got a Shuker with Delano pups and a Markbass rig.[/quote]
Tried ditching the pedals and just using the bass-->amp? Go back to basics and see if the tone's richer...

[burno70]

Not sure if I've done the "quote" thing correctly but here goes...

[quote]Tried ditching the pedals and just using the bass-->amp? Go back to basics and see if the tone's richer...[/quote]

No chance, I love my pedals and there's not much, if any, tone deterioration from them at all. I'm just interested in how bass players are using their effects to get even bigger, beefier tones.


[quote]I was just listening to some old Rage albums yesterday actually (going to see them live next week yeoww!) and Tim Commerford's tone is really superb[/quote].

His tone is ace isn't it! Been listening to Battle for Los Angeles a lot recently, love the sounds on that album in particular.

Wish I was going to see them too! I seen them at Glastonbury in I think it was '92, still one of my favourit concerts of all time.