Metal specific basses

[Graham]

Thinking back to the basses I saw at last year's Damnation Festival

 

Converge - Fender Precision

At The Gates - Warwick (Corvette I think)

Godflesh - Fender Jazz

Pig Destroyer - ESP/Ltd 5 string

Insanity Alert - Fender jazz (House bass)

Full Of Hell - A Fender I think

Irist - Fender Jazz

We Lost The Sea - Sadowsky jazz 5, also uses a Fender P5

Misery Index - Warwick

Bell Witch - Seven string Ibanez

Ithaca - Fender Precision

Pupil Slicer - 4 and 5 Stingrays, also uses a Modulus Flea

Mastiff - Warwick Thumb

 

So, mostly Fenders with some Warwicks and a smattering of others

[SH73]

Metal bas eh? I found a jazz bass to be suitable for all metal genres. It's the combination of picking style, volume/tone settings on bass , strings of course and amp settings. No magic formula. For and Justice for all, the Black album and Metallica in general, I roll back the neck volume a bit then set the amps bass, mid , treble and gain to desired settings. Higher treble for Jason sound, roll off the treble for Cliff sound. Pretty much any metal. For playing Maiden I predominantly use my p bass, but jazz bass produces a surprisingly good soundz just roll back the bridge pick up. The more I roll it back the more authentic sound is for early years  Maiden bass.

[Bolo]

8 hours ago, nilorius said:

Don't waste your time and alwayes remember to think twice !

Can you guys get a private chat going or something and please stop messing up other people's topics? It's very annoying having to scan over your nonsense and derailing of good threads.

 

[BigRedX]

10 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I'd love to hear what one of those actually sounds like. What with there being no expensive "tonewood" and all. 😆

 

It's made from expensive tone aluminium instead. Actually there are two wooden inserts in the back of the "neck" which look like they were salvaged from a wooden pallet and then painted silver to match the rest of the instrument.

 

As for sound. I've been told it sounds like a P-Bass. It does have the right pickup in the right place which apparently is the main prerequisite for the P-Bass sound. However as I have never actually played a P-Bass myself I couldn't really comment.

[Doctor J]

Piggy from Voivod played the guitar version of the Born To Rock design in the years before his death. He said he would never go back to playing a wooden guitar, though they didn't sound too different. The neck isn't loaded, that bar above carries the string tension so the neck remains completely stable. Very interesting design but a bit too expensive to take a gamble on without trying beforehand.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Doctor J

[Leonard Smalls]

10 hours ago, dclaassen said:

Not sure…he couldn’t set it on fire 🔥 

If he'd listened in school rather than noodling away on his guitar all day he could... All he'd need would be some rust, a bit of aluminium powder and a sparkler.

 

 

[SteveXFR]

13 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

It's 2023, haven't we really gone beyond the, 'What's good for <insert genre here>?'

 

Anything goes for any genre.  It should be pretty easy in this day and age to dial in any tone, irrespective of the shape of the instrument delivering it.  

 

I'm not sure this is quite the same question. You can play metal on anything. I use a P bass for metal at the moment and that's the most generic, non specific, do anything bass ever made.

My question was do basses marketed as metal specific offer anything extra for the discerning metal head?

[SteveXFR]

11 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

If he'd listened in school rather than noodling away on his guitar all day he could... All he'd need would be some rust, a bit of aluminium powder and a sparkler.

 

 

 

I forgot about Brainiac. Everything a gentleman of culture needs in a TV show. Science, explosions, destruction and nice ladies

[Waddo Soqable]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

It's made from expensive tone aluminium instead. Actually there are two wooden inserts in the back of the "neck" which look like they were salvaged from a wooden pallet and then painted silver to match the rest of the instrument.

 

As for sound. I've been told it sounds like a P-Bass. It does have the right pickup in the right place which apparently is the main prerequisite for the P-Bass sound. However as I have never actually played a P-Bass myself I couldn't really comment.

I had a couple of the Ali neck Kramers at one point long ago, again these were aluminium but with a couple of cosmetic wood insert strips on the back, I wasn't particularly aware of any special tonal qualities as a result of the metal neck, they were "just another bass" really.. One perhaps was quite "zingy" but had new rotosounds on it when I got it so more likely those. 

[BigRedX]

25 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Piggy from Voivod played the guitar version of the Born To Rock design in the years before his death. He said he would never go back to playing a wooden guitar, though they didn't sound too different. The neck isn't loaded, that bar above carries the string tension so the neck remains completely stable. Very interesting design but a bit too expensive to take a gamble on without trying beforehand.

 

Yes they are ridiculously expensive, but my bass version was second hand and a fraction of the price a new one costs. If it wan't for the fact I don't have enough use for a bass with only 4 strings I'd probably still have it. The only thing I didn't like about mine was the bridge which was obviously designed and built by an engineer rather than a musician. The guitar version has a standard Tune-o-matic bridge and doesn't suffer from this problem.

[Waddo Soqable]

10 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I'm not sure this is quite the same question. You can play metal on anything. I use a P bass for metal at the moment and that's the most generic, non specific, do anything bass ever made.

My question was do basses marketed as metal specific offer anything extra for the discerning metal head?

I'd say no, apart from the "look" of course.. Which I accept can be very important in some cases 

[SteveXFR]

4 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I'd say no, apart from the "look" of course.. Which I accept can be very important in some cases 

 

With a face like mine, looks are not something I take in to consideration. 

[Waddo Soqable]

3 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

With a face like mine, looks are not something I take in to consideration. 

On the other hand a visually interesting bass could usefully shift attention away from the fizzog..... 👍

[NancyJohnson]

32 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I'm not sure this is quite the same question. You can play metal on anything. I use a P bass for metal at the moment and that's the most generic, non specific, do anything bass ever made.

My question was do basses marketed as metal specific offer anything extra for the discerning metal head?

 

If you look at the scope of 'metal', it really is a case of anything goes though.  You could argue the genre is littered with Fenders (Precision, Jazz and to a degree Jaguars), Thunderbirds, Spectors, anything in general anything ridiculously pointy or covered in a bloody-looking paint job; there are almost zero sunburst finishes on anything.

 

Oddly on the circuit I play within, you hardly see any Thunderbirds or Rickenbackers, which I would have expected to see.

[Bolo]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I'm not sure this is quite the same question. You can play metal on anything. I use a P bass for metal at the moment and that's the most generic, non specific, do anything bass ever made.

My question was do basses marketed as metal specific offer anything extra for the discerning metal head?

They're faster and they look it. The Italians could make hypercars that look like a volvo 240 but what would be the point? Overalls would work fine for a grand gala, but a tuxedo or dress suit is expected to fit the ambiance. Getting in character is part of the fun of playing extreme music.

 

Having said that, a good bridge pickup and/or effective tone control can help put some bite in the tone. Metal bass isn't clanky per se but generally has a bit of an edge on top of a solid round tone.

[SteveXFR]

6 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Oddly on the circuit I play within, you hardly see any Thunderbirds or Rickenbackers, which I would have expected to see.

 

Those seem to be more popular in stoner and doom metal. They work really nicely with a really nasty fuzz

[Waddo Soqable]

26 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Those seem to be more popular in stoner and doom metal. They work really nicely with a really nasty fuzz

When I was using the Rick in someone's metal malarkey it was somewhat wasted, as I was strictly warned off doing anything but featureless root note "plod" 

 

 

[SteveXFR]

20 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

When I was using the Rick in someone's metal malarkey it was somewhat wasted, as I was strictly warned off doing anything but featureless root note "plod" 

 

 

 

Root note plodding is rarely a thing in good metal. It's all about the riffs.

[ezbass]

When I think of a ‘metal bass’, I always think pointy and, by extension, Dean and BC Rich models, probably most notably the Mockingbird. These would certainly fit in with my visual perception of a ‘metal bass’ (YMMV). However, if I had to name Mockingbird players, the only notable two that I know are Bernard Edwards and Jerome Preston, neither of whom are in the slightest metal, but ever so extremely funky. Therefore, in answer to the OP question, yes, yes they can be used for other genres and they perform extremely well (might have quite a lot to do with the talent playing them of course ).

Edited July 24, 2023 by ezbass

[BreadBin]

Mockingbird is a BC Rich model 👍

[JapanAxe]

Metal bass in a Dire Straits tribute? BL told the audience it looked like I was in a Poison tribute!

 

[Waddo Soqable]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Root note plodding is rarely a thing in good metal. It's all about the riffs.

Yep, not my circus, not my monkeys... I woz only following orders 😂

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, BreadBin said:

Mockingbird is a BC Rich model 👍

 Dammit! I knew that too, but I got Dean in my head and it stuck there. I’ll go back and edit to cover myself from more corrections.

[Graham]

I've been thinking all day and can only think of a handful bassists in metal bands who play pointy instruments

 

There's Derek Boyer of Suffocation who used to play a BC Rich Warlock and now has this headless, multiscale Devil's Choice bass. Likes to play it down by his ankle, I've always thought it looked uncomfortable

 

Then there's Jeff Barrett of Blood Incantation who has a (I think fretless) BC Rich Mockingbird

 

Last one I could think of was Jeff Walker of Carcass who plays the vaguely pointy Fernando's Triturador

 

There will be others of course, but I've really struggled to think of many pointy bass equipped bands.

 

I reckon within metal you still get a fairly standard distribution of brands

[tauzero]

I'd forgotten about the Esh Poseidon, which is distinctly pointy, but can't find a picture of anyone playing one live. Still, here's someone playing it in the lounge.