I need to play bass with my feet (not literally)

[Joshbasscana]

Hey guys,

Need some help on this one. I usually play bass in my band but there's this one song where I play acoustic guitar. For most of the track its pretty bare but towards the end the song kicks in gun's blazing like it's World War 3. It sounds great but, obviously, there is no bass because I'm playing guitar. It doesn't have the same "balls to it" feel like I would want it to because there is no bass. So I need to play bass WITH MY FEET! (not actually holding the bass between my leg's but with foot pedals ) Any clue's??

The closest I can come to figuring out what to do is to sell the house and buy a Moog Taurus when one pop's up on ebay every 2 year's. Another option would be to buy a fancy laptop and a midi foot controller. Both quite expensive options. I just need something to play long sustained bass notes - that's all. Please throw all options at me!

Thanks fella's,

Josh

[cheddatom]

I would be trying to play bass with your acoustic rather than your feet, or, even easier - get an electric guitar, a BOSS AC-3 and a BOSS OC-2/3 and you're sorted.


Anyway, you can get "bass pedals" - chris from Muse uses one on the Hulabulloo tour so if you check on board.muse.mu and search for it, or on the Muse Wiki thingy it will probably tell you the name of that.

[YouMa]

get one of the roland guitar synths the smallest one is fairly cheap and you can use it to control a synth while you are playing guitar,you can program it to play a small phrase at the start of each chord you play or just a single bass note,they are great fun.

[Joshbasscana]

[quote name='YouMa' post='342071' date='Dec 1 2008, 04:45 PM']get one of the roland guitar synths the smallest one is fairly cheap and you can use it to control a synth while you are playing guitar,you can program it to play a small phrase at the start of each chord you play or just a single bass note,they are great fun.[/quote]

Is this the Roland PK-5? Im just discovering this right now!

[cheddatom]

Seriously, the AC-3 is a great acoustic simulator. If you played an electric through that through your bass rig, and then when it kicks in just switch from the AC-3 to the OC-2 it's be very easy and probably cheaper (buy used pedals) than any other solution.

For a guitar synth pedal, I beleive you need to buy the pick-up to work with it.

[Joshbasscana]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='342088' date='Dec 1 2008, 04:54 PM']Seriously, the AC-3 is a great acoustic simulator. If you played an electric through that through your bass rig, and then when it kicks in just switch from the AC-3 to the OC-2 it's be very easy and probably cheaper (buy used pedals) than any other solution.

For a guitar synth pedal, I beleive you need to buy the pick-up to work with it.[/quote]

I need to continue playing the acoustic part when the bass part kicks in - so that would mean the above wouldn't work right? Unless I've misunderstood!

[bobbass4k]

i used to have to do this quite a bit, i borrowed my guitarists loop pedal, played the bassline before the song or something, and just kicked it in when i needed it while still playing guitar/keyboard/digeridoo/paint tin (it was a weird band). The only disadvantage is you have to record the loop in perfect time and then everyone has to play along in perfect time. Worked well for me, and you get to keep your bass sound, but if you dont wann go that route, i'd second the pk-5

Edited December 1, 2008 by bobbass4k

[YouMa]

No mate i think the synth is the gr you get the gk-2 pickup included,i sold my guitar synth about 2 years ago i think it was a gr-33 it was way cool i could play trumpet or sitar on my bass,or huge pads,wish id kept it now,it was great for freaking out the audience,bill bailey uses one on his part troll dvd.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='Joshbasscana' post='342163' date='Dec 1 2008, 06:05 PM']I need to continue playing the acoustic part when the bass part kicks in - so that would mean the above wouldn't work right? Unless I've misunderstood![/quote]

You are right, yeh, but you could do both if you had something like a LS-2 or whatever to run both lines of effects at the same time. It just seems an easier solution to me, but I do like my pedals.

[KevB]

PK-5 pedals are a set of 'organ pedal' type pedals similar to Moog taurus but they have no internal sounds of their own, they are just midi triggers. You need to hook them up to a sound module of some type to get the sounds you need. I use mine with a JV1080 unit which had a number of expansion cards fited giving me a lot of synth, keyboard and orchestral patches as well as other general stuff. I wouldn't use them for quick, complicated basslines though - remember you are basically playing standing on one leg. The sound module isn't in the shot but this is an old photo of my pedals from a gig;

[Geddys nose]

Hey Josh I've got a set of PK 5's hanging around for £100 if your interested.

[RIndustry]

Announced a day or two ago.

[url="http://www.moogmusic.com/taurus/?section=product&product_id=21299"]http://www.moogmusic.com/taurus/?section=p...roduct_id=21299[/url]

More money than I have unfortunately.

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='Geddys nose' post='343561' date='Dec 2 2008, 09:44 PM']Hey Josh I've got a set of PK 5's hanging around for £100 if your interested.[/quote]


Damn why did it have to be christmas

[KevB]

I rather like the look of this;
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQGxJm6xkc"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQGxJm6xkc[/url]
The production model looks a bit sexier. Unfortunately there isn't a UK distributor yet.

[Joshbasscana]

[quote name='Geddys nose' post='343561' date='Dec 2 2008, 09:44 PM']Hey Josh I've got a set of PK 5's hanging around for £100 if your interested.[/quote]

Hmm, sounds tempting What sound module did you use with that?

[Joshbasscana]

[quote name='KevB' post='344812' date='Dec 3 2008, 09:37 PM']I rather like the look of this;
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQGxJm6xkc"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQGxJm6xkc[/url]
The production model looks a bit sexier. Unfortunately there isn't a UK distributor yet.[/quote]

How much do they fetch? Looks like it might have a hefty price tag!

[KevB]

Considering the new Moog taurus will go for nearly $2K maybe not as much as you'd think;
[url="http://cgi.ebay.ca/DIGIKICK-FOOTAR-MIDI-BASS-PEDALS-for-amazing-effects_W0QQitemZ300278066020QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKeyboards_MIDI?hash=item300278066020&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1215%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.ca/DIGIKICK-FOOTAR-MIDI-BA...A1%7C240%3A1318[/url]
I emailed them about a UK distributor as the delivery to the UK would be hefty no doubt. Still no word about anyone selling direct from UK yet though.

Edited December 4, 2008 by KevB

[Toasted]

I want to get my Tom Sawyer on too.

[katri]

Moog have just annouced they will produce 1000 new Taurus pedals.