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by **Greg H.** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:46 pm

Anyone know of a decently cheap bass distortion stompbox? I want to emulate the distortion in Radiohead's National Anthem, or Exit Music. I know that their bassist used a rare Shin Ei Companion Fuzz, but considering those are discontinued, they're hard to find, and not cheap when you find them.
Also wouldn't mind something close to muse's bass distortion.

Anything would probably help. Unless you told me about putting distortion on a china cymbal. That wouldn't help.

by **Greg H.** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:48 pm

I really should have put this in the "Sounds Good" forum... Wasn't thinking. Moderator can move me if he/she feels necessary!

Done...

^ lol, "she". Girls can't go on the computer! They have food to make!
*DISCLAIMER* just kidding */DISCLAIMER*

by **clinton** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:21 am

I know literally nothing about bass gear BUT I love the sound of the my SD-1 over-drive pedal for distortion. Perhaps these would work on a bass?

Adam....where are you?

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:38 am

Greg H. wrote:
Done...

^ lol, "she". Girls can't go on the computer! They have food to make!
*DISCLAIMER* just kidding */DISCLAIMER*

The only girl that I know of that is signed up is Shelley. Good point though, it's a big ol' sausage fest in here. We need more women.

by **clinton** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:42 am

I'm a woman

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:46 am

This explains my attraction to you.

BTW, The Boss DS-1 is ultra cheap and not a bad choice. When you guys came in that afternoon and we were reamping the bass on that track and the bass rig was set on stun. We were running the reamped track through the DS-1 and it was pretty cool. I think they're under $50 if I'm not mistaken.

by **Malcolm Boyce** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:51 am

Drumwaiter wrote:The only girl that I know of that is signed up is Shelley. ....

...and she'd kick all our asses if she weren't, well... so... preggers.

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:57 am

Preggers or not, she'd probably still kick all our asses.

by **macrae11** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:43 pm

Drumwaiter wrote:This explains my attraction to you.

BTW, The Boss DS-1 is ultra cheap and not a bad choice. When you guys came in that afternoon and we were reamping the bass on that track and the bass rig was set on stun. We were running the reamped track through the DS-1 and it was pretty cool. I think they're under $50 if I'm not mistaken.

+1

Also nothing like a good ol' fashion amp set to stun. Bassman for an older vibe, SVT for a bit more modern. I'd have to listen to the tracks you mentioned though, as I can't recall the bass tone off the top of my head.

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:58 pm

I should collect that off the hard drive and post both bass tracks individually and blended together. If for no other reason than I thought it was pure genius on the part of you and Jon.

by **Crimson Chameleon** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:35 pm

re: National Anthem and Exit Music: I have loved those bass tones for years and have never been fully satisfied with my attempts at replicating the sounds with bass distortion pedals. To my ear, most pedals I have used end up losing the low end and all that seems to cut thru the mix is the fuzz/distortion. I think that is why I agree with macrae11's suggestion of a good tube amp on bust.

As for replicating the sound in a recording I think it can be done by having one "clean" take of the bass and blending it with a distorted take.

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:49 pm

Crimson Chameleon wrote: As for replicating the sound in a recording I think it can be done by having one "clean" take of the bass and blending it with a distorted take.

Exackery. So I'm thinking it's time to play replicate that sound and post your results! :-)

by **Crimson Chameleon** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:48 pm

Drumwaiter wrote:
Crimson Chameleon wrote: As for replicating the sound in a recording I think it can be done by having one "clean" take of the bass and blending it with a distorted take.

Exackery. So I'm thinking it's time to play replicate that sound and post your results!

This could be a fun project for the weekend.

by **adam** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:46 pm

There's NO way you're hearing a Shin-Ei on "National Anthem". They are (and I say this with love) strident, awful, compressy and sick sounding and that bass tone is way more "pushed tube amp" than "ailing, 40 year old germanium transistors".

Your best bet in getting that sort of tone is to push a naturally midrangey tube amp until it starts to compress and distort when you dig in and hit it fairly hard from there. I have a 74 Fender Bassman 50 and a 79 Fender PA 135 that both can easily sound like that (actually one of my favourite bass sounds ever is a Twin through a bass cab!); something like an Ampeg B15N eq'd right can do that sort of tone as well. But if you're going for that sort of "feel" with a pedal... still dynamic and able to clean up a bit... you want an overdrive (and, IMO, a really, really responsive compressor), not a distortion or a fuzz.

I am not knocking fuzz or distortion pedals, of course-- I own or have owned 20-ish distortions, fuzzes & ODs. For bass and where overdrive is concerned, I have had the best luck with real cheapies-- obviously ostensibly "better" pedals are better contoured for a guitar's frequency range. (My Fulltone OCD sounded absolutely horrible as a bass OD, for instance.)

I've been able to get really nice midrangey overdriven bass out of this guy especially. It's my primary guitar OD at the moment but with a turn of the bass knob it works just fabulously for bass.

You also might wind up liking the Sansamp Bass Driver DI. As much as I WANT to hate them, I completely don't at all. They're not all vintage and analog and tubey and warm and wonderful like I usually require, but they sound consistent, dynamic, versatile, and... well... good.

by **adam** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:53 pm

Oh. A good way to emulate the Muse sound is to get hit by a train. Or buy this (click for telling sound sample.)

Also, Muse blows.

by **adam** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:19 pm

AAAAAAAAND ANOTHER THING

My preferred way to record bass for a very long time has been to run one track straight to DI and another from a fairly low-volume tube amp for some mids'n'grit. My favourites have been an Epiphone Valve Jr with an EQ pedal in front (seriously!) and this thing, which is basically a Deluxe (2x6v6 doing about 20 watts). I typically use these with a closed-back 212 guitar cab, and always with a 421 in front. I just picked up another 212 guitar cab with fairly junky (er, "vintage") speakers-- I'm going to throw some EVM12Ls in that soon as I believe it'll make a pretty incredible low-volume bass cabinet that way.

I also picked up a '73 B15N a few months back that should be alive again in the coming months. That will be pretty awesome.

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:31 pm

Now this is a guy that takes his bass tones seriously.

by **adam** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:43 pm

And because I've got nothing better to do on a Friday night, I found this, which I am soon to be ordering. OK!

by **Greg H.** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:04 am

Alrighty then, and heeeere we go

adam wrote:There's NO way you're hearing a Shin-Ei on "National Anthem".

I really don't know enough about different stompboxes to have a discussion on this, i read it somewhere haha... Might have been wikipedia come to think of it... Hmmmm, well that's a perfectly reliable source! :)

adam wrote: Also, Muse is great, almost like riding a train! Not as good as Radiohead, but surely not a carbon copy! I have great faith in them! Also I think Greg H. is amazingly attractive.

Thank you so much!!! I'm glad you agree!
I'll be here all week! :D (teehee)

I probably won't end up trying out all the bass distortion you mentioned adam, but i'll definetly look at a few of them. I'm really just more of a straight to amp and out kinda guy, it was never my direct intention to play bass in the band i'm in, but I figure I might as well spice it up for a few songs. Really I just need it for Exit Music... Muse is just for fun, and I really have no faith that we would ever pull of National Anthem live, considering we lack a brass section (One can only dream).

I must also say that your amp set up blows mine away... I'm saving up for a new one. The one I use now is pretty bad. It's loud, and that's where the fun stops... Take it this way: You need to use the compression knob to control the volume, once you get the volume at a working point.

Drumwaiter wrote: Now this is a guy that takes his bass tones seriously.

Apparently!

Drumwaiter wrote: Exackery. So I'm thinking it's time to play replicate that sound and post your results!

Mainly this is for a live sound, and a dick-around sound (does that sound bad?), but i suppose we may record Exit Music at some point. We enjoy playing it enough... I think i counted 3 times tonight, and we really weren't jamming very long at ALL.

Drumwaiter wrote: BTW, The Boss DS-1 is ultra cheap and not a bad choice. When you guys came in that afternoon and we were reamping the bass on that track and the bass rig was set on stun. We were running the reamped track through the DS-1 and it was pretty cool. I think they're under $50 if I'm not mistaken.

Under $50 would be amaaazing. I tried some sort of boss pedal today, but it definetly wasn't that one. The one i tried sounded like it should be in a, well, metal band. I mean it was kinda cool, if you were going to play noise! Still, i got some cool sounds out of it.

Whew... I feel like i'm writing a novel... or a short story... or the Flaming Bird Chronicles... Speaking of that... there's still no last chapter!!!

by **Mathieu Benoit** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:10 am

Greg H. wrote:Whew... I feel like i'm writing a novel... or a short story... or the Flaming Bird Chronicles... Speaking of that... there's still no last chapter!!!

It's been finished for over a year, but I can't think of good names for the new people. I'll try again this week though. I also need to get to work on teh "Teaching Jim Wilson Cubase" thread. My goal is to make sure that I'm all caught up before I leave for Asia in less than a month. So I'm gonna do as much posting as I can now.

by **fish** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:14 pm

Greg H. wrote: and I really have no faith that we would ever pull of National Anthem live, considering we lack a brass section (One can only dream).

I've seen 'em a few times and Thom just sings the brass melody (it's only 2 notes afterall :)

by **Greg H.** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:59 pm

fish wrote:
Greg H. wrote: and I really have no faith that we would ever pull of National Anthem live, considering we lack a brass section (One can only dream).

I've seen 'em a few times and Thom just sings the brass melody (it's only 2 notes afterall :)

Oh, really? That would work too, didn't even think of that. Whereabouts did you see them at?

by **fish** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:17 pm

Worcester, MA several years ago and Montreal last year. There is a live version of NA on the "I might be wrong" EP. There's also probably several versions on YouTube to inspire you.

by **fish** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:45 pm

Live, Colin uses a Lovetone Big Cheese pedal btw.

by **Crimson Chameleon** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:14 pm

From what can easily be read online, the bass for National Anthem on Kid A was actually played by Thom Yorke.

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