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Bass distortion


Graham

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I'm wanting a distorted sound for my bass. I'm looking for a dedicated bass distortion unit. Something I can use without worrying bout blowing the amp's speaker. Whats the zoom 506 like? Or would I get away with using my 505 with some of the built in compression. Also does anyone know what the boss bass overdrive/distortion pedal is like? Would I have to use it with a compressor?

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Zooms are shitty hissy pieces of crap. Compression before O/D is probably a good idea but if you're playing that loud, wear full body armour or the sound enineer may just kick the shit out of you.

Most bands I work with who use bass distortion don't have compression on it. Compressing an O/D sound is neither big nor clever. Compress it before hand if you must but I refer you to the above about body armour.

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Originally posted by soundian

Most bands I work with who use bass distortion don't have compression on it. Compressing an O/D sound is neither big nor clever. Compress it before hand if you must but I refer you to the above about body armour.

So would I be able to use distortion and no compressor without blowing the amps speaker? The only reason I mentioned the compression was I heard using it with distortion on bass prevents you from blowing the speaker, but I could be wrong.

Originally posted by Keilan 303

Marshall Shredmaster can give you any sort of distorted bass sound, from that slightly lightly distorted sound (a la THE HIVES) through to that lacking definition, sounding like an earthquake (a la NAPALM DEATH) its the shit!!!

Can you still find these quite easily? As didn't Marshall stop making them? I'll keep a look out for one though.

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Originally posted by soundian

Zooms are shitty hissy pieces of crap. Compression before O/D is probably a good idea but if you're playing that loud, wear full body armour or the sound enineer may just kick the shit out of you.

Most bands I work with who use bass distortion don't have compression on it. Compressing an O/D sound is neither big nor clever. Compress it before hand if you must but I refer you to the above about body armour.

How much of the sound comes from the amp at gigs anyhoo. For example Kef use a D.I box and Mic the amp too if my memory serves me correctly?

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There's EBS who make good quality Bass pedals though not sure if they do a distortion one I shall have to check. Boss always make good pedals can't really fault them. There's the elctroharmonix big muff that gives a fuzz-ier kind of distortion. It's a classic, I have one and I rekon it's mighty good.

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www.ProCoSound.com

check out the juggernaut, bass distortion

i have a rat2 (guitar) and love it, it seemed to work fine when playing with it running dist for a bass, so i guess the bass version sould be most excellent

and i wouldnt worrk about blowing a speaker, they ar made for bass amps so can usually handle the sound, they are only likely to blow if you play at extremely loud volumes, generally you can di a bass or mic it up to keep the volume down a bit and keep the speaker in the green

David

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Originally posted by Tav

How much of the sound comes from the amp at gigs anyhoo. For example Kef use a D.I box and Mic the amp too if my memory serves me correctly?

Quite a lot in Kef. It's one of those rooms. Normally I use the mic to keep the distorted top end in, but compress the signal through the DI to give the bottom.

(and having a mic gives you a safety net if the DI fucks up.)

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Originally posted by soundian

Quite a lot in Kef. It's one of those rooms. Normally I use the mic to keep the distorted top end in, but compress the signal through the DI to give the bottom.

(and having a mic gives you a safety net if the DI fucks up.)

Ahhh cool mystery solved always wanted to know what went on with the bass sound when I am playing/listening there.

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As Keilan said the Shredmaster is a wicked pedal. I use a Danelectro Fabtone, along with an EBS Octabass octave for my death bass!!!

As for the compression question, you shouldn't really need one if you set you pedals correctly and your technique is sound. Ian, am I right?

I like it when my bass is both DI'd and miked. It gives, for me, a better sound. I hate my bass just being DI'd. I didn't buy a quality amp to use it as a stage monitor.

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Originally posted by Monk Rocker

As Keilan said the Shredmaster is a wicked pedal. I use a Danelectro Fabtone, along with an EBS Octabass octave for my death bass!!!

As for the compression question, you shouldn't really need one if you set you pedals correctly and your technique is sound. Ian, am I right?

I like it when my bass is both DI'd and miked. It gives, for me, a better sound. I hate my bass just being DI'd. I didn't buy a quality amp to use it as a stage monitor.

Yea, as long as your amp has enough headroom to deal with the increased power required by the clipped waveforms. I generally tend to mic bass amp if the amp sound wouldn't be heard, which normally requires a bigger pa than most venues in Aberdeen. Also, as I mentioned, it's a good get of of jail free card if the DI goes down, which is why I don't like using balanced outs on amps cos some don't have a power fail hard patch.

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in the absence of one of those fancy pedals that mixes the clean and distorted signals, would it be better to run any effects through an amp's effects loop, so that the sound engineer can turn down the mic for the amp if it sounds horribly shit? or in the absence of an effects loop, simply plug the effects in between the DI box and the amp?

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But then the tonal variations on the distortion would be absent from the DI signal, you would get a cleaner DI'd sound to mix with the distorted signal, but a lot of distortions remove the bass content (one of the reasons you can get off with no compression before your amp), and this would still be present.

Nice try though.

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Originally posted by Monk Rocker

As for the compression question, you shouldn't really need one if you set you pedals correctly and your technique is sound. Ian, am I right?

that woud explain how Ross blew his brand new amp all that time ago...

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