Clean, grit, overdrive, or Distortion

[Aceman]

How do you prefer your bass tones? And doers it vary from situation too situation?

Do you dig a little grit - that "on the edge of breakup" tone? Or are you a pristine clean piano-like tone person? Or Screamer level overdrive? Or Fuzz?

Or is it a situation by situation, song by song deal?

What do you dig on your bass and when???

 

[Seashore]

It can vary, but my ideal starting point is a bi-amp style sound. Fat, bouncy compression with a little breakup on the bottom, and zingy, chippy distortion that cuts through on top, just beneath the edge of the guitars.

This is all for metal mixes. Edgy distortion can wind up sounding like mild overdrive in that context, while mild overdrive can totally disappear. I love early 80s Geddy Lee sounds but I find I need a lot more grit to fill the same space in a dirtier mix.

No use for wooly fuzz sounds.

I've posted this before, it's a demo of one of my tunes for a band I was with in MA from a few years ago. This is close to what I go for.

 

[Chistopher]

I usually prefer really clean, but other people manage to get great tones with any amount of gain. That being said, without being smart with your blend, too much gain will make your bass disappear in the mix fairly quickly.

 

[Securb]

I prefer some stank on it, break up to fully distorted.

 

[jeremy]

depends on the situation. in a six piece band clean or a touch of grit is usually better since overly dirty can get lost in the mix

 

[Chistopher]

The opposite is true as well. If the guitar in a three piece band is dirty but doesn't take up a lot of sonic space, a clean bass can stand out too much.

 

[Mincer]

If I am recording, I split the signal and have one dead clean, and the other with a distortion that has a nice high end. Then I find somewhere where the signals blend well together.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Depends on the part.

For clean laidback guitar stuff, a full-on gritty bass tone is kind of out of place. Those are the only times where I would use a full clean bass tone, though. And since I rarely ever play that on guitar, I rarely ever use that bass tone. But a hint of chorus is pretty cool for that kind of tone.

90% of my bass playing is a blend of that "edge of breakup" tone and something higher gain, but not full on to the same gain level as I like my guitar. I'd say like 50% as gainy as my highest gain guitars. But keep in mind, I keep the other edge of breakup signal blended in, so it doesn't sound or feel as high-gain as the guitars. I do that to preserve the low-end of the signal via the cleaner sound but have the agression and the clank brought up by the gained out sound.

I also use a compressor on 99% of the time. The only time I turn it off is if I'm playing a really soft part that I don't want the compressor to raise. But otherwise, I love how a compressor makes it sound like I'm playing my bass with a brick or a hammer instead of a pick. I actually used to use two compressors at some point, one at the beginning for that sledgehammer kind of attack, and one after the distortion blend to even out the sound. But I realized I could get a similar effect by just cranking the amp more, so I stopped using the second compressor. The trick is to keep the compressors running subtly enough so that the bass doesn't feel like it's pumping from overcompression. That's why I like the cleaner sound to be "edge of breakup". It evens stuff out without the negative artifacts of full-on compression.

The only time where I'll use a full-on gain sound without any lower-gain signal blended in is if I want to play a bass solo high up the neck, and I want it to stand out. For those, it doesn't matter if the gained out sound cuts some low-end. I actually want it to cut some low-end so that I can push the mids more and cut through rather than fill up the sound.

 

[Supernautilus]

I also prefer a nice edge of breakup tone.

As an aside, my go-to overdrive pedal for bass is my Catalinbread SFT. I originally bought it years ago for guitar. But I eventually found out that it sounds amazing on bass too. It delivers that perfect edge of breakup overdrive that I like for my bass tone.

 

[Aceman]

Yeah...I'm just branching out into the bass dirt tone thing. I think a Rat turned down sort of OD is maybe where I'm at.

I love clean bass, but context matters, as many have mentioned.

 

[Seashore]

Yeah...I'm just branching out into the bass dirt tone thing. I think a Rat turned down sort of OD is maybe where I'm at.

I love clean bass, but context matters, as many have mentioned.

Rat distortion is a great sound on bass. It works best with some kind of clean blend. Can you do parallel signal paths with the Pod Go, or is it all just series routing? I'm pretty sure that old clip I posted was using the "Vermin Dist" Rat model on one path and Rochester Comp on a clean sound on the other.

 

[some_dude]

I run a three way blend of clean/OD/dirt.

Clean/Dirty is a BDDI fed direct, and that’s in blended in parallel with an SVT with a mic on the cab for OD. I don’t always get a mic, but my stage volume will bleed into FOH so the crowd is still getting some of the SVT.

My dirt is generally at the level where the bass sounds clean in the mix, but the additional harmonics blend with and help thicken the guitars.

Additionally, I’ll occasionally kick on a B7K to add a bit more dirt, but it’s mostly to get more clank and have the bass cut a little harder against the guitars.

My bass (Spector) also produces its own grit via the onboard preamp.

 

[Aceman]

Rat distortion is a great sound on bass. It works best with some kind of clean blend. Can you do parallel signal paths with the Pod Go, or is it all just series routing? I'm pretty sure that old clip I posted was using the "Vermin Dist" Rat model on one path and Rochester Comp on a clean sound on the other.

It's serial.

 

[jeremy]

i have an ampeg svt5pro that gives me pretty much everything i need. clean/dirty/octave

 

[ErikH]

I prefer clean to maybe a little grit if I dig in. I don't run any pedals in the signal chain at all so any clipping is from the amp. But I really need to dig in.

 

[Seashore]

Ace, you might like the Idiotbox Blower Box Deluxe. It's a Rat-type bass pedal with a clean blend that has its own filter.

I watched a few videos and decided on an MXR M80. Seems to have the distortion character I'm looking for and there's extra functionality in there with EQ, blend, noise gate, and DI outs.

 

[Aceman]

Ace, you might like the Idiotbox Blower Box Deluxe. It's a Rat-type bass pedal with a clean blend that has its own filter.

I watched a few videos and decided on an MXR M80. Seems to have the distortion character I'm looking for and there's extra functionality in there with EQ, blend, noise gate, and DI outs.

MXR M80 was on my short list for DI's. I went with the Ampeg SCR.

The Blower Box seems really interesting. Never heard of it. I am familiar with IB company though.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

In a metal situation I could totally see doing a biamp rig with some distortion on the highs.
None of my own bands have been metal, though, and I never got hired to do any real metal as a bassist.
​For most rock, I like a moderate amount of tube amp OD. I used SVTs for years and in a loud band their drive tone was great.

One of the best bass tones I ever got was using my old Boogie Mk II and a solid state Sunn power amp running off the slave out. I'd push one speaker with the Boogie and the other with the big solid state amp. This was in a three-piece band; I could kick on the lead channel for extra drive to fill more space when the power chords dropped out, and once in a while to emphasize a bass line I wanted to stand out. Lead channel in the Mk II has its own bright switch which added some extra presence when it was on.

This was back in the late 80s when every soundman wanted a direct feed straight off the bass. Sometimes had to push to get them to mic my cab. Luckily, since there was only one guitar, there was always an extra mic onstage - just a matter of convincing them to use it. A number of those same guys came up afterwards to ask, "HOW are you getting that sound?!"

Later, when I was working as a hired gun, sometimes I didn't even know what the bass amp would be. Eventually started using a Sansamp programmable bass driver.It has three presets, OD with a clean balance knob, and a Cannon out to feed the PA. With that I could pretty much take my own tone anywhere. It sounded good (though I occasionally wished the programmable EQ included a midrange control), fit in the pocket of a gigbag, and was utterly reliable for more than a decade.

As pointed out upthread, though, context is everything.
There have been plenty of situations where I didn't want any drive at all.
But for most rock, tube style overdrive really does it for me.​

 

[Aceman]

Rat distortion is a great sound on bass. It works best with some kind of clean blend. Can you do parallel signal paths with the Pod Go, or is it all just series routing? I'm pretty sure that old clip I posted was using the "Vermin Dist" Rat model on one path and Rochester Comp on a clean sound on the other.

OK - was just having a little bass excursion in the headphones using my POD Go

Guess what? I have an Ampeg Scrambler in there, and it has a blend control! WIN!!!!

 

[Aceman]

OK - the Scrambler model SUCKS!!!!!

But the Rat is excellent....