Anyone know what effects are on this? Failure - heliotropic

[jonno1981]

I’m obsessing over this bass sound. Any ideas how to replicate it? 

 

[ped]

Sounds like a Russian Big Muff - mind you they all sound a little different but mine sounds a lot like this. Quite bright and crunchy but retaining the character and ‘finger noise’ of the instrument. 

[Lee77]

There is a YouTube video on it but the secret isn't given away. There is the Fuzzrocious Heliotropic if you are that obsessed. There was one for sale on here.

[ped]

The problem with this sort of thing, and drive/fuzz in particular, is that it depends so much on what you feed into the pedal. For example I love gritty thick fuzz on a 70s jazz bass but not on a Precision. 

I dug out my muff today to try and cop this sound but actually found it was too thick; instead I used my EWS Stormy Bass Drive cranked to maximum with a little bit of glitchy octave thrown into the mix and got pretty close. In particular this combo allows the sound of the instrument to come through the filth. You've got me listening to the whole album now, it's great!!

Edit - just tried again and found a combination of both the green Russian and the EWS gets the sludgy feel slightly better (this is using a Celinder J-update bass with the tone open)

[jonno1981]

Thanks for the info. Glad to have inspired a session to dig out the gear. I’m going to do the tomorrow for another attempt. My sansamp and darkglass fuzz aren’t really suited for this but I’ll try again. 

[ped]

9 minutes ago, jonno1981 said:

Thanks for the info. Glad to have inspired a session to dig out the gear. I’m going to do the tomorrow for another attempt. My sansamp and darkglass fuzz aren’t really suited for this but I’ll try again. 

Absolutely - actually I was about to post a thread asking for some good examples of fuzzy bass lines so the timing was bang on! What bass are you playing?

[jonno1981]

I’ve got a parts jazz with active emgs strung with ti flats. It sounds and plays great but probably isn’t worth a huge amount. Badass bridge, all parts neck, mighty mite body, gotoh tuners  It records really well and stays in tune. I had a sadowsky metro and ended up playing this more so sold it. 
 

[ped]

Nice, yeah that’ll do!! I tend to find crunchy distorted bass sounds better with roundwounds myself, to give that aggressive edge. TI flats are nice though eh? Strangely I don’t think I’ve ever had flats on a jazz. 

[jonno1981]

I know what you mean about rounds. They do add a load of grit and presence but I just love the feel of these strings. They last for years and years without losing all their brightness. It’s a hell of an outlay but I’d change rounds every 3 months if I had them so probably costs about the same. So very little string noise when recording as well. 

[ped]

17 minutes ago, jonno1981 said:

I know what you mean about rounds. They do add a load of grit and presence but I just love the feel of these strings. They last for years and years without losing all their brightness. It’s a hell of an outlay but I’d change rounds every 3 months if I had them so probably costs about the same. So very little string noise when recording as well. 

Give Elixirs a try - about £40 a set but they last literally years so in the long run they're the cheapest strings you'll ever get!