I've been looking into a Distortion Pedal for my Bass. Just wanting an opinion on this. Could a Distorted Bass pass for the rythem section instead of a Rythem guitar? I ask cause that's what I've been thinking about doing if/when I do a band, distort it and have it almost like mirror a guitar similar to rythem/lead guitars.

Maybe you'd better go for an 8 or 12 string Bass. You know, with octave strings. That way you get a fuller sound and you could always split the signal to sent one part through a distortion.

some people can make that work. usually doesn't work too well, especially if there is already a rhythm guitar. It would be too cluttered.

My bass is tuned in D (DGCF) , guitar is in E (EADGBE). The frets on guitar go like this : A string : 7-8-6-7, the frets in bass line #1 : G string : 9-10-8-9 .

The second bass line can look the following ways :
D string : 2-3-1-2 ;
D string : 9-10-8-9 ;
G string : 11-12-10-11.

So the first possibility is a lower counterpart, the second one is the same line played one string lower (and could be played simultaniously) and the third is the original bassline transposed two frets up.

The original bass line already is a lower form of the second string under the root string of the guitar's chords derived from those fretpositions.

If you really want to do something drastic try some different approach altogether. That might also get you a fresh insight on how to approach building basslines under your guitarist's lines.

Maybe you could try playing half the speed the guitarist does or something like that.

some people can make that work. usually doesn't work too well, especially if there is already a rhythm guitar. It would be too cluttered.

It should be C string in the last line, not G.

So that would make a Powerchord, effectively. Why not play that in one go instead of recording them seperately?

It sounds different and besides I do not necessarily need to play them at the same speed as guitar.

Never meant to imply that but just tried to give you some pointers.
You see that in a lot of Black and Death metal bands the bass plays basically the same as the guitars do. This makes the sound very massive and often also monolithyc. By doing something different you see that people immediately notice that difference and very often respond well to that.
That is what makes a lot of people like the work of Bassists like Steve DiGiorgio and Tony Choi.

Also, the bassists in the French BM scene are pretty damn good, as I've noticed.

I play bass in a 3 piece Black Metal band.

I took inspiration from Necrobutcher from Mayhem, and went for a similar tone as found on Deathcrush.

The thing that is hard about that is being able to clearly define each note, because usually distortion on bass turns into a gigantic blur.

Anyway, if you can get around that problem, I would recommend trying it. It works rather well for Black Metal. I don't know what genre you're playing though.

If your sound is muddy, then you're doing something wrong. Turn down your volume, get new strings, get a higher quality bass, fuck with your tone knob/eq (you probably have everything at 10 or the mids are totally scooped, and both are bad ideas), match your amp to a similar wattage cabinet or vice versa, etc...

I don't have the problem any more.

I actually have a tone I'm pretty happy with despite having gear I'm not very happy with.

Pedals.

Ok, so I'm looking through a rare magazine the Order from Chaos dudes made when they were young. Their bassist lists the things he used in his rig. Among the gear, he listed a DOD Heavy Metal pedal. Now, I went to DOD's website and I couldn't find it on a list of their products. I'm thinking it could be the death metal pedal. Anyone know of this pedal?

Does he also list a number for that pedal? On the DOD site there is a long list of downloadable manuals for discontinued products so it might be among those!

3,790 Google searches for DOD Heavy Metal

333,000 Google searches for DOD Death Metal

Lol. I love the 'obvious poster', as if I didn't google search it. Thanks for your marvelous help.

I'll see if there's a number for it.

So I'm looking to invest in a nice amp sometime this year, but I admit that I don't have a whole lot of product knowledge. I know about Ampeg's reputation with death metal, but I've been wanting to see if there's any other kind of brand that would work just as well. Now I have had my eyes on the Acoustic B200 for awhile now, and it seems like a trusty amp, but I don't know if it would be a good amp for death metal or not. Has anyone tried one?

And are there any other good brands that I might want to look at? I'd be most comfortable spending around $300-350 but I'll go as high as $500 if I can be convinced.

I do it all the time for my tech death band Omnihility. I do a lot of leads and keep the root rythm the same. Octaves and layering sweeps and pedaled riffs in fifths and thirds isn't uncommon in my recordings either. It's not for everyone but I really enjoy hearing my bass with huge dynamics.

There is a lot out there that is good in quality and reasonable in price. Ampeg' are good indeed. They have a good name in every genre of music so why should Death Metal be an exception? Ampegs are versatile but so are other brands like Gallien Kruger, Hartke, Marshall and Line6.

The Acoustic you linked is a combo amp. Is that what you want to buy, a combo? Or is that because of your price range? Personally I would try to get a decent Amplifier and pair it with a decent Cabinet but that might set you back for more than $500, unless you buy it second hand or build the cabinet yourself.

It all depends on personal preference and how much versatility you want.
And those are questions only you can answer!

Well being a college student I would prefer not to have to spend a particularly large amount of money, but the bottom line for me would be that I want an amp that's going to be reliable for my tonal needs and also last me a long time. I would also like to get something with an "amateur-gig" level of power (hence the B200) so I won't have to buy anything more powerful for a good while. If that means having to wait longer and save more to get what I really want, I think that patience would pay off.

Now forgive my ignorance because this may be a dumb question, but why would you prefer a head and cabinet over a combo? A combo would probably be more convenient for me for sake of space, but ultimately the thing I want in an amp is satisfaction in the sound that I'll get from it.

To give a bit of background on myself, I've only been playing bass for about three years. I've only owned one amp so far--a tiny little Ibanez combo that's an okay practice amp but it has very little versatility. I haven't been to many music stores in recent months, and haven't done much shopping around for amps (partly due to the fact that I'm not totally sure what to be looking for). I'm not going to pretend to have knowledge on something that I don't, and I would appreciate any advice from someone who knows better than I do.

If you can get a tube amp, get one and replace the first tube in the gain circuit (if it's a 12AX7) with a 12BZ7. It fits right in, harms nothing, but produces more gain. I have a small tube bass amp and I did that and it breaks up much sooner now, and has a nice bit of tube growl to it. I wasn't going for a very distorted bass tone, just a bit of tubey overdrive, but I really like the sound. As a plus, since it's only lightly distorted, it's easy to mix it, I've found more distorted basses can get hidden behind the guitars easily.

Does it make any sense to tune a 5 string bass to C by tuning it a half step up, not down.

The reason that I prefer a split set-up (amp + cab) is that you have more versatility. I can imagine that being a college student you would want to have something reasonably lightweight and easy to tow around.

A combo could just give you that but the advantage of seperate amp and cabinet is that you could also pair a decent amp with 2 (2x 10" + horn) cabinets. That way you have enough power, enough airdisplacement and it is easy to fit in any car because of the fact that your setup consists of three reasonably small and lightweight pieces. Easy for handling along the way and you can use diferent ways of setting up your stack on stage to make more of an imp[ression on the audience.
Don't forget: if the audience thinks your equipment is impressive they will surely think your sound and playing will be likewise!


If it does for you why ask anyone else? Tuning up one half step helps your strings be more focussed. Tuning down normally makes the sound more muddy.

I noticed that Guitar Center tunes their 5-strings up to C if they're not long-scale (at least 35" scale length). Makes it a little less apparent that the strings flop all over the place, particularly the low B.

Hey, sorry man, I didn't mean to insult you. I was just trying to cover all the bases...

That is why my initial 5 string (self built) had a 35" scale and the other one (which I posted here some while back) has an even longer scale length (90 cms)! If you combine that with a reverse headstock the tension on the low B string is just what you need to have a focussed sound.

While I've read some tabs, I keep seeing x for Mute Notes. What exactly is a Mute Note and how do I play it?

iirc, mute the strings with your left hand and strike them with your pick/right hand fingers.

Okay I see now; I think that would be well worth a few more months of patience. I have no idea what kind of head I'm going to want at this point, so I guess I should probably do some field research on my own there for awhile. Thanks for the advice!

For a cabinet I've heard that Avatar's stuff is really good. Does anyone have an opinion on those?

Avatar are cool. Very cheap and well built, with great customer support.

A couple years ago I got a Hartke Ha 2500 250 watt head for around 200 bucks. I pair that with a 4x10 transporter cab and it sounds great. It's great if you're not looking to completely shatter windows with a ridiculous amount of power output

hello guys,
I play some keyboard I can read notes, the question is : is it hard for me to learn bass and how much does it take to be able to play some metal bass lines ? with how much practicing each day ...
cuz I am thinking of learning bass while proceeding with keyz learning ...and is there any good Dvd's or videos for self learning or shall i find a teacher ?

practice everyday. learn to play songs you like, tabs are your friend.

Learn to play running with the devil or ace of spades. then you'll probably get the hang of it.

Many people don't know the band Golgotha from Houston, TX. I saw them live last summer, and when their guitar player would play a solo, or lead guitar part, the bass player would do something very similar to what you're asking, as a rhythm guitar part. It sounded very good, too.

Perfect, someone who knows about Hartkes.

Whilst shopping for gear a few weeks ago, I was blown away by the Hartkes tone and everything else, but due to money constraints I couldn't buy it. I managed to pick up the VX410 quad on Ebay, but now I need a head to complete it... which model would you recommend? Would the VX410 be able to handle 500 watts, which is what I intend to look for?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rob1, I've been enjoying the beauties of subtractive EQ lately. You were right when you praised it a while back. With that and a little more volume, I now cut through the mix like butter at practice.

howdy my fellow bassist brothers/sisters/trannies!

iv got this old 75w (150w?) mono Carvin DCM 151 power amp and i want to hook it up to a 350w Hartke Transiet Attack 210 combo amp. is it possible? is it benificial in any way?