Your thoughts about and experience with using high gain bass distortion?

[dannybuoy]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I kind of doubt that.

Doesn't sound very Rat like to me.

Also not too fond of cheeky patronizing comments, lots of truly great music was made on crappy cheap equipment, though cheap doesn't necessarily mean it will also sound crappy. 

Or that crappy sounding gear can't sound good put in the right context for that matter.

At least not if you know how to use it properly and actually use your ears.

Not apologizing for being poor here, just raising my voice against rich people who somehow thinks it makes them better persons.

...

In fact I kind of hope you will prove my assumptions wrong, based on what that comment of yours seemed to insinuate to me, the world already got way too many jerks as it is.  

I think you got the wrong end of the stick!

Not trying to be patronising whatsoever. Just that it's cool that you found a huge sound by stacking pedals so the sum was greater than its parts, and didn't have to spend a fortune to get there. Nothing wrong with cheap pedals at all.

Never said the Alpha Omega sounded like a RAT, just that if you like if you like the sounds of a RAT into a Sansamp style pedal, you'd probably like that also.

Edited July 21, 2020 by dannybuoy

[Baloney Balderdash]

11 minutes ago, thodrik said:

I appreciate your post however there was no mistake on my part. In the first sentence of your original post you stated that you wanted to discuss approaches to achieving the 'ultimate high gain bass distortion setup' and invited forum members asked us to 'share your general thoughts about this topic'. I did that.

 My original post discussed what I would do if I wanted to achieve 'the ultimate high gain bass distortion'. I also posted an example of a band where high gain bass distortion is used which I think fits in with your invitation to 'share your general thoughts about this topic'. 

It makes no difference to me whether you personally like the style of music or vocals of a band I shared just as an example of high gain bass distortion (it doesn't even bother me if you don't like the bass tone). It  doesn't bother me that my own approach to achieving the 'ultimate high gain distortion setup' would not suit the particular needs or style of your own specific project. In the context of a discussion on the 'ultimate high gain bass distortion',  I am really not concerned as to whether you are actually predominantly using high gain bass distortion in your own specific project or exactly what stylistic direction the project is going to take. It is all just part of the wider discussion which on Basschat tends to be fairly free-flowing. 

 

In that case I totally misunderstood your post, I perceived it as a reply to my OP, which you did mention (which I guess is how the misunderstanding happened to me), though I guess you did in fact not actually quote it.

It's all fine with me, guess I just misunderstood your intentions with that post. 

Still I do genuinely appreciate you introducing me to new music that I didn't know existed, even if it wasn't meant for me personally, or that I didn't love everything about it.  

It was however still an interesting listen and take on the genre. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[thodrik]

1 minute ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

In that case I totally misunderstood your post, I perceived it as a reply to my OP, which you did mention, though I guess you did in fact not actually quote it.

It's all fine with me, guess I just misunderstood your intentions with that post. 

Still I do genuinely appreciate you introducing me to new music that I didn't know existed, even if it wasn't meant for me personally, or that I didn't love everything about it.  

No problem, I love sharing music and I have a long running fandom of all things stoner rock/doom/post rock/post metal. Even if you don't like some of the music it is a very interesting scene to explore because lots of guitarists and bassists have really interesting set ups and there is a lot of potential for discovering different set up techniques and effects and using them for a different style of music. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 21/07/2020 at 11:01, dannybuoy said:

I think you got the wrong end of the stick!

Not trying to be patronising whatsoever. Just that it's cool that you found a huge sound by stacking pedals so the sum was greater than its parts, and didn't have to spend a fortune to get there. Nothing wrong with cheap pedals at all.

Never said the Alpha Omega sounded like a RAT, just that if you like if you like the sounds of a RAT into a Sansamp style pedal, you'd probably like that also.

So you did prove me wrong, and I am happy you did so.

I apologize for assuming you had ill intentions. 

Sometimes assuming the worst is wise, other times it's just a jerk idiot move with nothing to justify it but lack of information to prove your absolutely worst assumptions wrong, which is not exactly right or particularly nice or charming, to say at least.

Guess in the end I proved to be the jerk here, sorry.

However I still doubt I'd like the Alpha Omega based on the demos I've heard of it.

In fact not particularly fond of any of the Darkglass stuff I've heard, and that is not to be a contrary marmalade sandwich, it just happens to not fit my personal preferences for distortion.

As for the California Sound, I am not sure if this is a fault of the Joyo version, but used for bass, unlike it's more smooth tone used for guitar, it kind of has this rough, sort of brutal crackling/growling breakup that I quite like, beside in this context really mostly used as an extended EQ section for the Rat.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Dad3353

[fretmeister]

At it's silliest my rig blended 3 driven tones with 1 clean tone.

I used Line 6 Pod XT, Line 6 Bass Pod XT and an Ampeg SVP-BSP.

The Ampeg did clean and Billy's type of drive. The two different PODs did other drive sounds.

Generally speaking I used a more guitar-like saturated tone in the treble, and as I moved through mids and bass the type of drive changed to something more guttural. It sounded fantastic but the rack (with a 5000W power amp) was really heavy.

 

I can do it all in my Helix now... but I'm not playing rock at the moment so the patch is just for home fun.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

On 20/07/2020 at 10:01, thodrik said:

In short, if I was doing what the OP was doing I would be looking at a biamp system with different EQs and different effects going to the different amps. Given that the OP is tuning 'up' rather than tuning down, I would definitely be looking at an octave pedal or something like a digitech whammy or pitchshifter. However, once you start using so many different fuzzes the fuzzes can actually start cancelling each other out rather than creating a big wall of sound. It needs careful thought and balancing and what works at a gig might not work for recording and vice versa. 

Sometimes however, the best high gain bass sound involves very few pedals whatsoever. Just get a valve amp, crank the gain and add a fuzz/boost. It won't be subtle, it won't be nuanced, it won't be practical for rehearsal, recording or gigging at semi-reasonable volume levels,  but it will be very very loud. 

Anyhoo, stoner rock bands using bass as main melodic instrument or similar are fairly common. One of my more obscure favourites are a German band called Beehoover.  I think that the bassist used/uses a five or six string bass and at couple of fuzzes stacked into different signal paths. 
 

 

I played a gig with Beehoover once. I think he played a Spector.

[thodrik]

38 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I played a gig with Beehoover once. I think he played a Spector.

Awesome, I wanted to see them for a while but I always seemed to have a gig on the same night.