I would be wary of a combo bass amp. I'd definitely prefer a 210 or 115 with a separate head, but thats more expensive of course..

Within a grand for a spending limit, is there anything you can point me to that would give me the bang for my buck?

Instead of going with that GK, which I wouldn't recommend - and I LOVE my GK full-stack... but for about 500ish you can get one of the BA series ampeg combos. depending on the model it would work well in both recording and live settings.

something to keep in mind, while a head/stack setup is more expensive, its more adaptable as well as you can change out pieces later on... with a combo you are stuck with what it comes with and if you wanted to upgrade, you may find yourself having to buy all new head units and cabinets.

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into those ampeg amps, they look nice.

Hey guys. Recently I've been playing a lot of bass. It's not my main instrument but now that I've started playing it's a lot more fun than I thought. I own a Samick Artist Series or something. I had never even heard of the brand when my dad showed it to me but after messing around on it for quite awhile it really is a nice bass.

Have any of you guys ever heard of Samick?

Sure , it's sweet now, but in 3-4 months when the novelty of picking up bass wears off and you actually learn how to play, you'll be regretting getting that

I'd say, find a decent Yamaha, or better yet, get a mid range BC Rich

Mid range = 700 - 1500 IMO

I've had that bass for about a year and a half now and I would never even think about buying another. I love it.

Samick was a sort of Behringer in the 1990's. They flooded the market with a lot of cheap stuff ranging from mixing consoles to bassguitars. Although it is not really bad in quality you will notice the difference once you try a better quality instrument. It is very usable as a second bass when playing live and you need a bass with four strings fast because you just busted one of the strings on your main instrument!

BTW for those interested: I am planning on making myself an acoustic 5-string bass-guitar with an out of the ordinary design. I will keep you guys posted on this subject!
Furthermore: I've recently got myself a new PC with a Roland Cakewalk input device. I will try to record some decent material to show the interesetd ones what my electric 5 string sounds like.

Hello guys,
I've been really digging into bass for about 5 months now, and got to know more about four finger picking. The problem is that I've yet to decide whether to use my thumb or my pinky as the fourth finger.

I can play easier songs like Life Eternal by Mayhem and At The Gallows End by Candlemass without slowing them down, just to give you an idea of my level.

Any advice?

It's not necessary to use four fingers because in most cases, the fourth finger will just slow you down.

Practice getting 16th notes with 3 fingers up to par.

I've always thought that playing with four fingers was somewhat unnecessary.
I shall start practicing with three fingers then, thank you!

Just wanting to demonstrate my own tone and playing, it's the first time I've been able to properly on youtube now that I've found a good place to put the camera when recording.

A Morbid Angel bass cover that no one's done as far as I know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhEN78HGU1E

Criticism welcome.

Sometimes your timing is a bit slow.
To bettrer show your tone you could try and turn down the CD in the background.
What I hear now is a very rounded tone. Full of lows but enough clarity as to not to become too muddy.

I really like this thread. I saw someone mentioned Steve Bailey earlier on?

He's a pretty cool guy, last year he was in my town to do this gig, and he came to my school's guitar class and played a little for us.

Anyway, I'm thinking of buying a Steinberger 4-String bass.

Anyone own one?

Can anyone here give me some metal recs with audible bass? ANY genre works, I literally like everything. I'm into a lot of thrash and melodeath though.

Speaking of bass-heavy thrash, anyone hear Overkill's new album, "Ironbound"? I gotta say, the thing is a masterpiece. I put it right up there with Kill 'Em All and Peace Sells.

I don't listen to thrash or melodeath, so I can't give any examples there, but the following have great, audible bass:

Isis (in fact, Jeff Caxide has the most awesome bass tone in existence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sopiG1Qhlh8

Seventh Wonder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOLZkzW ... re=related

Gorguts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gri3tjKktdI

Helloween
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuO3hHwQ-Sc

Arkona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7fuuDc2hH0

Ulver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNyIWBCFq5Y

I think that's most of the main genres.

Try Heir Apparent, Armored Saint, Fates Warning and Threshold. AS and FW especially the latter albums. HA especially their debut!

All five? How long have you been playing and when do you use your thumb?[/quote]

I've seen bassists use their pinky in order to do even-sounding gallops, though I think it's easier to go faster with just two fingers. The thumb is used for slap/ funk style and when playing chords (like classical guitar). A lot of prog metal bassists use this style. I'll sometimes slap a string with my thumb just to get an accent on a particular note. Frankie Bello of Anthrax also uses a slap style.

I'm looking for a good metal bass amp. It can't be too expensive, I'm on a budget. I just need it to be loud, and have a decent metal sound. Any info helps, thanks.

Bought my GK 700rb-II head a week ago. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm pairing it up with the Neo 4x10 by GK, sounded good when I tested them out.

Edit: got my Neo 4x10 cab. Sounds great so far, really sounding good. I had to order a speaker cable from GK so I could use my tweeter option though.

Any Iron Maiden. 2 rhythm tracks and lead guitar are still softer than Harris. Not that its a bad thing though, man is a brilliant player.

I would like to get some advice on how to record the bass parts. I use an active bass (Ibanez SRX-300) and I plan recording using Hartke HA-3500. Should the bass tone be as liner as possible i.e. should the EQ and compression on the amp be turned off and should I set the tone controls on my bass guitar to by-pass ?

What matters is that you get YOUR tone onto the recording. If there is enough time you could try different ways of getting there like recording through a DI, through the Amp (if it has a Direct out) and even miking the cabinet, which you will no doubt use to hear what you play in the recording room. All are just as valid.
If there are enough tracks I would even try a combination of those I just mentioned. 1 track for a DI box, one for a miked cabinet, one for the DI of the amp. That way you can later decide what sounds best to you!
Remember however that your basic soud has to be good or otherwise everything will sound like shit to you after you have recorded your lines. Setting the controls on your bass flat is something I wouldn't do too easily but you might try it once and compare it to the same part recorded with the controls on the bass set like you prefer it!

Furthermore it is important that you try to limit the amount of compression on the recording console, be it a computerscreen or a big desk, just try to limit the amount of compression to the compression you use to get your sound. Nowadays I hear a lot of compression on recordings and the sound of the instruments gets flattened by it. (this is also good advice for the guitar player(s) in your band) It seems as though engineers seem to think it is too hard to listen to what is played and try to bring that out and instead of that they compress everything to the max to get better control over the overall sound. This is a major killer for any dynamics in music whatsoever!

Last but not least: remember that everything you and your bandmates do has to contribute to the final product. If that means that you have to back down on your sound at some point to make the overall sound better, don't go bitching about it and just do so. If you do, however, find a better solution instead of backing down, your bandmates should also listen to that! ( print this out if you like and show it to your bandmates so they know that they TOO should consider themselves as part of the greater good on this recording)
If the recording engineer claims that your solution is too difficult just remind him of the fact that you want the end result to be as good as possible and that he TOO is only there to get the best result on the final product. Hell, you probably even pay him for it so if he doesn't want to listen you can ask yourself the question if he deserves to be paid for his work!

One final comment: Try to keep at least one week between recording everything and mixing everything down. This is to "clean out" your ears of what you have been doing very intensely for some time while recording. This way you can ensure yourself that you keep an open mind towards the final product.
It is my experience that when you start mixing down the next day after the recordings you tend to have a deaf spot for certain things in the recordings. When you have taken a rest for a week (or more), and that means at least one week of playing no bass whatsoever and preferably listening to other music than metal, you will hear everything you and your bandmates have recorded with a fresh ear and if there are mistakes you will porbably spot them easier compared to mixing down right after finishing recording.
Don't forget that not every mistake has to be bad and sometimes "mistakes" tend to dissolve during the mixdown.

Hey everyone, im going to be buying a bass tonight, and i'm looking for something decent around the ballpark of under 300 bucks. anyone have any suggestions?

Rondomusic.com

http://www.rondomusic.com/hxb405natb.html

Under 300, a lot nicer than most stuff you'd get for under 300 in other stores to be honest. Alder body, active pickups and it's 5 string.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

It surely seems very nice for that price. You would almost expect a catch somewhere!

Wow, that IS a nice mooking bass! I ended up etting one of theose Epiphone Gothic Thunderbirds because the price was slashed down to over half off. Not a bad little bass

I am thinking of dabbling in the realm of the 6 to 7 string bass (fretted or fretless) What would you guys suggest bass wise(Bass, amp, effects, etc).

First of all: do you intend to use all those strings or is it just to impress other people? Don't get me wrong: if you intend to use the bass the way it should there is nothing wrong with it but there are a lot of guys out there who just buy such basses to impress others and all they end up using in the end are the standard four or five strings that can also be found on a regular 4 or 5 string.
Be honest to yourself about that at first! Don't look at what your favourite bass-player is playing but when you buy something make sure you make good use of it!

Second: buy something that feels goods to you and sounds awesome as well. If the looks are less flashy, so be it. What matters is the sound it produces.

Be sure you've got an amp that can handle the frequencies produced by the bass you buy and the same goes for your cabinets.

Effects wise I would say that this is also a matter of what you want. If you like a dirty sound you could try some distortion effects but maybe you could also look for a decent multi-effects rack or floorboard. That way you can produce whatever tone you like out of one machine!

@Rob1, I did have time to experiment with the controls on my bass, amp and console. I ended up disabling the EQ on the amplifier and minimizing the use of active EQ on the bass guitar. I figured out that the parametric EQ on the console was a better solution. That way the sound was more punchy and clear. I used the balanced DI output of the amplifier. I could not mic the cabinet, due to the lack of a dedicated bass microphone and besides the twitter on the cabinet is fucked up at the moment.

Glad to have been of some assistance!
Will you post some samples of the end product here in due time?

I can post some stuff now, as it is a test recording. It was done to better understand the gear and to prepare for an upcoming recording with the drummer in the rehearsal environment, i.e. live environment.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/a594kv
http://www.sendspace.com/file/tmdgd6

#1 Bass, Guitar, Metronome
#2 Bass and Guitar (same tracks as in the first one).

Bass and guitar went to one channel, to have metronome in the other. This is the way our drummer prefers to have his practice. Hence bass and guitar were mixed on the spot.

Doesn't sound too bad. It's a pity you copy a lot of the guitar's lines directly in speed as well as tone. If you use half of the notes in the fast parts the bass wil stand out better and it won't affect the style you are playing.
Some of the lower notes stand out better than the higher notes though.

I still need to work on the tone, and besides on that recording I had old strings.

Speaking about the style of the bass parts, I have to disagree slightly. At this point I don't see much possibilities to make the bass parts in the fast parts even more diverse. For example in the first song, I can only re-arrange the bass parts for the riff starting at 1:40 and the slow part after it. The part from 00:39 till 01:40 is where the vocals are supposed to start. It does sound monotonous, but I can't think of any ways to re-arrange it.
In the second song I have written melodic bass lines for the first and the last parts, but they are still in works. For the third song I do see some possible changes in the fast parts, but not much. I can shift my parts to lower intervals and accent only certain notes.

What is the way you see it ? It would be interesting to see your musical way of thinking in work.

Like I said: when you use half the notes you are using now the bass will stand out more for each tone has more impact compared to playing fast. You complement the lines the guitar-player is making and still do your own thing.
If you want to do something different try using fifths as well. That way you are still in the same key but you also use a different note compared to the guitar player.

In the Death Metal band I was in years ago, called Winterpain http://www.metal-archives.com/index.php, we had an instrumental (called King of Kings) where I copied the rythm pattern of the guitars but with different complementing notes interlaced with fifths. This gave a very different feel to the complete song.

In another band I was in, more hard rock based, I started pumpin out D's while the guitar player started a riff that was based on that same ground note. After him playing that riff twice I went back to B flat and after doing that twice we both went up to F before returning to D. This gave the impression that the Key of the song changed while all in all it didn't.

Those are just some examples of how you can affect the sound of the songs as a bass player. You don't have to play out of Key to be different. Just use the key the song is in to the best of its possibilities.

Best way to budge your 3 fingers is - using rubber band.I used that method and it's pretty good.

Went with the GK Neo 4x10 cab with a GK 700RBII head. I'm really enjoying it so far. Definitely gives me some voice at band practice, that's for sure. I'm sure it'll do well for live shows too. Eventually I'm probably going to hook up a 1x15 to it, and get a new bass guitar. Then it'll be all complete.

Are you planning to replace the 4x10 with the 1x15 or are you going to use it as an addition? The latter setup would have my preference. That way you'll have good highs and lows as well!

Yeah, I'll be adding it to the 4x10 for more power and versatility. At some point I really want to invest in an Ibanez SR series bass.

Could you explain a little more?