I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

[Mad-Max]

Hey guys, so let me set the record straight. I'm mainly a guitar player, so I'm not super knowledgeable about bass gear, but I atleast know enough to have a conversation about it. Plus, my bass player in my band talks about bass gear all day long.

Anyway, so yesterday I was recording in my home studio with a group of guys I'm doing a record with, and we were trying to dial in the bass tone. I said to the bass player, "Hang on just a sec, I wanna try something to add a bit of hair to that tone we got here". It was extremely clean and articulate, but I thought that it could use some extra juice.

By the way, before I go on, the set up was a Jackson 5-string with just the stock Jackson pickups (Which actually sound quite great, surprisingly), through an Acoustic 100 watt combo.

At any rate, I was looking around the house for some overdrive pedals I had laying around, having NO bass overdrives, but I figured, why not just try a guitar effects overdrive? I've seen it done before. So the overdrive I tried out first was the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive.

Plugged that sumb*tch in, and my lord, the tone was immense. It was SO ballsy! I decided at that point that I wasn't gonna try any of the other pedals I had. It was just perfect. Had the articulation and clarity of the clean tone, but the SD-1 added just enough hair to give it a nice growl.

Some may be skeptic about it, but I would recommend trying it out on your guy's set up to see for yourself. I could be wrong, but then again, I couldn't argue with the tone I was getting.

Try it out!

 

[Kais]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

sounds good, share some samples? I usually use a big muff or a rat pedal on my bass. ymmv

 

[dystrust]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

IMO the secret to overdriven bass tones is a clean blend. My personal favorites for an overdriven sound are the Dark Glass Microtubes Vintage (essentially Moving Pictures in a box) or their Microtubes B3K for more modern sounds. For fuzz sounds, I really like the Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie B.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I briefly experimented with an Ashdown pedal. The theory was that the overdrive only acts on the higher frequency range, leaving the fundamental notes to cut through in tact.

Nowadays, I just use the built-in Tube Tone effect in my tc electronic amp head. The other technique is to do a Billy Sheehan and run individual pickups to separate amplifiers - one clean, the other overdriven.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

The other technique is to do a Billy Sheehan and run individual pickups to separate amplifiers - one clean, the other overdriven.

To be such an unbelievable bass player, I've always thought his bass tone was horrible.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I use a fulltone OCD for my bass and that's supposed to be for guitar strictly. Retains the lower frequencies even better than their Bass Drive and is smaller on the pedal board.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Hmmm. I've got a BOSS Dual Overdrive. I'll have to try that on bass.
I have found that overdrive on bass not only adds to the complexity of the tone, but it can make the bass sit in the mix better because in the overdrive will tend to even out the dynamics, naturally compressing the bass.

 

[polluxmdq]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I use an old ART SGX nightbass. The tube and SS overdrives are very good and sounds like having a clean blend. They can be found very cheap nowadays, and they are built like a tank. The SE is much less noisier than the earlier edition, but the chip can be swapped on the latter one.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

And if you're looking for full-on Bass Distortion (for whatever insane reason you choose), I've found the old pre-Soundtank Ibanez L.A. Metal (guitar) pedal to work rather well. Blew goats as a guitar pedal IMO, but for bass...Let's just say if you want to take all this 8-string Metal bizness up a notch, ditch the guitars and use basses with that pedal. Even made an old 80s Arbor Star bass sound good.

I am curious to know which Jackson 5-string was used, however. The older Concert V with the P/J setup or a more recent model with the humbucker-shaped? I've got an older Concert V with the Jackson P/J setup and onboard Bass/Treble board, a JZB2 with dual Jackson-made Js, a C5P (turnip body) with Duncan Designed bars, and an import Ellefson 5-string with EMGs. Only one I've not yet tried is the CMG with the humbucker-style pickups.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

And if you're looking for full-on Bass Distortion (for whatever insane reason you choose), I've found the old pre-Soundtank Ibanez L.A. Metal (guitar) pedal to work rather well. Blew goats as a guitar pedal IMO, but for bass...Let's just say if you want to take all this 8-string Metal bizness up a notch, ditch the guitars and use basses with that pedal. Even made an old 80s Arbor Star bass sound good.

I am curious to know which Jackson 5-string was used, however. The older Concert V with the P/J setup or a more recent model with the humbucker-shaped? I've got an older Concert V with the Jackson P/J setup and onboard Bass/Treble board, a JZB2 with dual Jackson-made Js, a C5P (turnip body) with Duncan Designed bars, and an import Ellefson 5-string with EMGs. Only one I've not yet tried is the CMG with the humbucker-style pickups.

You'd probably think I'm crazy, but I just have one of the more modern JS series Concert basses. They're good value for the money, actually.

 

[AdamR]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I have a bunch of Jackson, My favorite live bass is my 92 Concert V. It has EMGs and a passive tone,The preamp was gone when I bought it. In the studio I used my 2004 CMG which is more like the newer JS basses. Ive replaced the EMG HZs with EMG 35DCs and the stock pre with a EMG BQS. The bass sounds great but its a little to hot and over drives my amp. In the studio we ran 2 mics off my cabinet and a clean DI. The clean DI was the key for blending in some clean low end.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I have a bunch of Jackson, My favorite live bass is my 92 Concert V. It has EMGs and a passive tone,The preamp was gone when I bought it. In the studio I used my 2004 CMG which is more like the newer JS basses. Ive replaced the EMG HZs with EMG 35DCs and the stock pre with a EMG BQS. The bass sounds great but its a little to hot and over drives my amp. In the studio we ran 2 mics off my cabinet and a clean DI. The clean DI was the key for blending in some clean low end.View attachment 55191

I LOVE your basses man! Those things look sharp! Along with that Dinky right beside them Good to see another Jackson fanatic around here.

 

[AdamR]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Thanks, I love the Jacksons. I went from Ibanez to Fenders to Spectors before I fell in love the Jacksons.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Thanks, I love the Jacksons. I went from Ibanez to Fenders to Spectors before I fell in love the Jacksons.

Sounds like a long and perilous journey. I wish I could get my bass player to fall in love with them. He's more of a traditionalist when it comes to gear, so he plays a Fender Jazz bass. He says he's tried Jacksons and felt underwhelmed and I think the big problem is, he goes to Guitar Center and tries them, and places a final verdict on them, when you know that everyone and their brother has played on them, and the store doesn't take care of them and give them proper maintenance.

 

[crguti]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

we want more pictures of your Jacksons!!! :rant:

 

[AdamR]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Ill have to snap some good pictures.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I run an MXR classic overdrive guitar pedal on my setup. gain all the way down, tone at 10 o'clock, volume at 2 o'clock. it's great for giving me a bit of a hairier tone since i run my setup with just enough preamp gain to get a signal. also, it's a great way to boost my mxr bass fuzz deluxe for full-on distorto-bass madness!

edit:

the other thing that running the overdrive is great for with those settings is making it sound like i'm switching from a neck pickup to a bridge pickup, when i'm just playing a plain ol' p-bass

 

[NotCardio]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Personally, I've found that I really like the bass tone I get from a Behringer (eek!) BDI21, their ripoff of a Tech 21 Bass DI. Hey, don't laugh until you've tried one. I am not alone in this opinion. Is it a fuzz? No, but I don't like fuzz bass anyway. It gets more grit than I would ever actually want. Depends on what you're looking for, I guess.

Hey, Mad-Max, what side on Indy are you on? I'm on the west side, Eagle Creek area.

Well, actually I'm currently stuck in Terre Haute for a while, but that's another story...

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

Personally, I've found that I really like the bass tone I get from a Behringer (eek!) BDI21, their ripoff of a Tech 21 Bass DI. Hey, don't laugh until you've tried one. I am not alone in this opinion. Is it a fuzz? No, but I don't like fuzz bass anyway. It gets more grit than I would ever actually want. Depends on what you're looking for, I guess.

Hey, Mad-Max, what side on Indy are you on? I'm on the west side, Eagle Creek area.

Well, actually I'm currently stuck in Terre Haute for a while, but that's another story...

I'm heard some amazing things about the Tech 21 DI though. In fact, I think my Bass Player has one, but I'm not for certain on that. Anything that has Behringer on it, I tend to be a bit skeptic, but like you said, don't be until you try it.

I live more so on the west side of Indianapolis as well, but in the Marion County area near Camby. I know not a lot of people quite know where that's at, but that's the best description I have for it.

 

[AdamR]

Re: I found a little bit of a secret weapon for a good overdriven bass tone

I have a berhringer tuner, never had a problem. bought the compressor it does in 2hrs