# What does good bass tone even sound like?



## GuitarBizarre (Mar 10, 2017)

I have a Dean Edge 5 bass with EMG HZ pickups in it.

For the life of me, though I like it, I find it "clanks" when I want roundness, although it does sound good for slap.

I think a decent portion of my issues is that, as a guitar idiot, I just don't know what I'm looking for or how to get it, whereas with guitar, I can just say "I know the kind of gear that <band> used to get this sound" and throw some models together.

What are your favourite bass tones in mixes, and what makes them the way they are, for the kind of idiot that just wants a starting point?


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## MaxOfMetal (Mar 10, 2017)

One of my favorite examples is Dan Briggs of BTBAM. His tone is absolutely nothing special on it's own but in the context of the band mix it works perfectly. Check out the song Roboturner. 

Doesn't hurt that his classic rig is easy to replicate for pretty cheap.


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## LordCashew (Mar 10, 2017)

"Clank" is a function of setup and technique first and foremost. If you want a rounder sound, raise your string height and play with your fingertips in a way that doesn't cause the strings to strike the frets.

For the most part, good, prominent bass tones in mixes are all about the instrument's (relative) midrange. There is always the temptation to scoop mids because it makes the bass sound great by itself, but it will easily get buried in a mix (unless you're slapping) and leave you with clank and little note definition.

Distortion will also cause the bass to stand out in the mix and add color and complexity. Even mellow tones benefit from some subtle drive - the slight fizz you hear with the bass soloed will get swallowed by the cymbals, but the increased midrange complexity will still be evident.

I love Jon Stockman's sound in Karnivool.



He uses Warwick six strings and a crapload of ouboard gear to get his tones. You can hear a few pretty cool sounds (distortion, delay, etc) just in that one track.

I may be in the minority, but I actually really like John Myung's tone on Train of Thought. It's darker than his typical sound, but it fills a slot in the mix more effectively IMHO. You can actually hear what notes he's playing, and there's some fullness to the higher notes.

What specific tones/mixes are you trying to emulate?


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## vilk (Mar 10, 2017)

I don't listen to Cradle of Filth really at all anymore, but I remember the first time a bass tone jumped out at me was them. I don't even remember what song, but it was definitely off their compilation album Lovecraft and something some such. There's a music video made for the song as well (probably when it was released, not for the compliation album). Anyhow, I've always told myself that I want to get that kind of tone someday. He's playing a Maverick bass in the video. Anyone know it?


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## lemeker (Mar 10, 2017)

Nowadays, I don't mind a little clank n spank in my bass. I never really used to. After listening to Tool all these years, and my recent tries at recording, my opinions have changed a bit.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 10, 2017)

Robbie Merrill's live tone on Godsmack's Changes DVD, Eddie Jackon's tone on Queensyrche's Empire, Billy Gould's on FNM's King For a Day, and Flea's tone on RHCP's BSSM (especially Suck My Kiss). Tons of midrange grind and growl.


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## Nick (Mar 10, 2017)

I like big clanking ugly bass

06:05 onwards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EARa4Rg4aPI


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## buriedoutback (Mar 10, 2017)

I've only ever heard a few Periphery songs, but the 'bass playthrough' video for 'prayer position' has some awesome bass tone (IMO). I think it's a mix of DI and darkglass B7K.
I like to mix a beefy DI signal with a distorted signal to make a nice girthy, growly bass tone for recording. On my HD500 I cranked every knob to 10 on an Ampeg 8x10 amp model and it sounded amazing too (IMO).

also: Alex Webster


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## jephjacques (Mar 11, 2017)

meshuggah


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## b7string (Mar 11, 2017)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Robbie Merrill's live tone on Godsmack's Changes DVD, *Eddie Jackon's tone on Queensyrche's Empire*, Billy Gould's on FNM's King For a Day, and Flea's tone on RHCP's BSSM (especially Suck My Kiss). Tons of midrange grind and growl.



Couldn't agree more! 

In the end it's all subjective of course, and has to fit the vibe of the music. To be honest, I think it's really hard to mix and record bass, it has to pretty much be perfect. Able to hear it, and not distracting or overpowering. It also depends on the composition too, and a good bass player knows how to play with the arrangement to complement the piece, add tension, release, reinforce, embellish, etc. That makes a big difference, so it has it's own space and isn't fighting the guitars or anything else.

Another big thing is the player's pocket and groove too.

One of my fav recorded bass tones is Stanley Clarke, particularly the song Sorceress... ridiculous. Also, Robin Zielhorst seems to pull some pretty gnarly tones out of his basses in the stuff he's done with Exivious and his other bands.


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## GenghisCoyne (Mar 11, 2017)

listen to beyond creation. least clanky tone in the biz


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## budda (Mar 11, 2017)

I think this record has pretty good bass tone

/shameless self-promotion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7RgkajgKds


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## vilk (Mar 13, 2017)

GenghisCoyne said:


> listen to beyond creation. least clanky tone in the biz



Well, it is a fretless bass, so there's not much to clank against


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## bostjan (Mar 13, 2017)

1. Never trust the bass tone on its own. It has to sound good and cut well in the mix. If it sounds great on its own, but sounds like .... in the mix, your mix will sound like ..... It's easy for me to say it and probably easy enough for people to repeat it back, but it's really, truly, the reason why a lot of inexperienced audio engineers make recordings where the bass sounds like it was recorded by an inexperienced audio engineer.

2. It's much better to have too much response than too little. You might find a gross frequency on the bass and wwant to notch it completely out in pre. Don't. Instead, record things fairly flat and then tone shape the bass as you get closer to a final mix. Once a frequency band is notched out in the DI, you can never get it back, but if it's there, you can take it out in post an adjust however you like.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Mar 13, 2017)

GuitarBizarre, if you want less 'clank' and more 'smooth' you might want to try flatwounds.

They can have clank too depending on the type, setup and play style, but it doesn't dominate the tone as much as it does with roundwounds.

They sound really cool with some dirt too.

On the other end of the spectrum:

Sounds like overdrive, clank, and relatively little low end


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## bostjan (Mar 13, 2017)

My favourite bass player uses flatwounds on 34" scale fretless to eliminate "clank" entirely, whilst I prefer a healthy amount of "clank," so I use extended scale basses with bright roundwounds.


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## iron blast (Mar 16, 2017)

vilk said:


> I don't listen to Cradle of Filth really at all anymore, but I remember the first time a bass tone jumped out at me was them. I don't even remember what song, but it was definitely off their compilation album Lovecraft and something some such. There's a music video made for the song as well (probably when it was released, not for the compliation album). Anyhow, I've always told myself that I want to get that kind of tone someday. He's playing a Maverick bass in the video. Anyone know it?


 From the cradle to enslave most likely the bass tone in that song is epic


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## Floppystrings (Mar 18, 2017)

Example one:



Example two:



Example three:


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## Dr Bonkers (Mar 19, 2017)

For me good bass tone is filling that sweet spot between the drums and guitar without wiping out either one but being able to be heard. 

All the above examples mentioned do that well. 

JPJ from Led Zeppelin had a bass tone that could stand up to an army of guitars, ringing drums, and keyboards and still be heard with minimal clank too. Krist Novosolec from Nirvana had a big tone that fit right in that pocket too. Tim Commerford's work with Audioslave is another example of a less clanky and beefy tone that fills up the space between drums and guitar without stepping all over them.


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## Chi (Mar 19, 2017)

Very, very subjective. I can enjoy both - tight and articulate and just big, messy and over the top. 

I have to admit I prefer the latter...


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## DeKay (Mar 22, 2017)

Chi said:


> Very, very subjective. I can enjoy both - tight and articulate and just big, messy and over the top.
> 
> I have to admit I prefer the latter...




This is big and messy and I love it.
I want hamburgers now that I heard that beef.


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## Chi (Mar 22, 2017)

DeKay said:


> This is big and messy and I love it.
> I want hamburgers now that I heard that beef.



fokin' ye boi, im coming over


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## NickS (Mar 22, 2017)




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## Fathand (Mar 23, 2017)

Intro to "Ace of Spades" - need I say more?




...that and Alex Webster's tone define bass tone for me.


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## cardinal (Mar 23, 2017)

Look on YouTube for isolated bass tracks. IMHO there's some stuff from Mike Starr and Rex Brown that just sounds awesome.


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## dax21 (Mar 23, 2017)

cardinal said:


> Look on YouTube for isolated bass tracks. IMHO there's some stuff from Mike Starr and Rex Brown that just sounds awesome.







Pure grind.


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## vilk (Mar 23, 2017)

iron blast said:


> From the cradle to enslave most likely the bass tone in that song is epic



+rep!!


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## olejason (Mar 23, 2017)

dax21 said:


> Pure grind.




I had never really noticed they used a stacked bass track on that album. What kind of amp was he using for the mic'd track?


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## cardinal (Mar 23, 2017)

olejason said:


> I had never really noticed they used a stacked bass track on that album. What kind of amp was he using for the mic'd track?



I think he used the typical '90s set up: Spector bass with the HAZlab preamp into a cranked up Ampeg SVT.


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## dax21 (Mar 23, 2017)

olejason said:


> I had never really noticed they used a stacked bass track on that album. What kind of amp was he using for the mic'd track?



Rex switched a decent amount of gear back in the day, I'm not sure when exactly he moved to Spectors but that is 99% Spector with EMGs through a tube Ampeg that is being pushed really hard. There isn't that much drive but it's enough and it has that super creamy character. Would love to emulate that tone if I could.

His autobiography is fairly interesting if you are into the band, and he does get into the gear but I just can't remember all the details sadly. I know that he later used MXR Blowtorch, and also MXR M80 contains his signature settings in the manual but those are more disty/fuzzy pedals.

Edit: Apparently on the Far Beyond Driven tour it was: Spector basses, Ampeg SVT-IIP preamps, Crest poweramps and Ampeg 810 fridges. And Sansamp PSA1.
Source: http://pantera.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/5100.jpg


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## crg123 (Mar 23, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> I love Jon Stockman's sound in Karnivool.
> 
> 
> 
> He uses Warwick six strings and a crapload of outboard gear to get his tones. You can hear a few pretty cool sounds (distortion, delay, etc) just in that one track.





+1 I love Jon's sound.


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## beerandbeards (Mar 25, 2017)

I now this is all subjective but here are my thoughts:
Nick Schiendelos bass tone on Job For A Cowboy 'Sunday Eater' and HAVOK 'Conformicide' is very enjoyable. 

Nick is directly inspired totally by Ryan Martinie of Mudvayne. 

So for me BASSICALLY it's a Warwick with an Ampeg


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 26, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> I love Jon Stockman's sound in Karnivool.
> 
> He uses Warwick six strings and a crapload of ouboard gear to get his tones. You can hear a few pretty cool sounds (distortion, delay, etc) just in that one track.



He has a sig pedal coming out through Darkglass. The Alpha Omega.

Also, in my experience, I find a lot of the tones I love come from either 15, 12s, or a blend of 15's and 10s. I love the midrange growl a bigger speaker gives. 

My current rig is an old Gallien Krueger driving 2 older 1x15 cabs loaded with Electro-voice EVM15's, and let me tell you... That is THE sound in my head.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Mar 27, 2017)

I don't really like "metal" bass tone very much at all, or even what might be considered a rock bass tone in many cases. I like my tone clean, clean, clean.

I use a solid state Class D head (Aguilar TH500) with the EQ set more or less flat, the drive all the way down, and the gain down as low as I can get away with setting it while still having enough volume for the room. I prefer 10s over 15s for clarity, so I'm currently running a 2x10. The only "always on" effect I use at home is compression (Aguilar TLC Compressor pedal; Super clean, doesn't really add any extra color), and I don't have it set to do anything too drastic. Everything else on my board is either situational (fuzz, env filter), or used to improve the tone of sh!tty house amps or PAs when I play out (MXR Bass Pre, CAL Grizzly).

I bought a fretless a couple years back just for sh!ts and giggles, but I liked it so much that I've since bought a nicer one and use it at least 90% of the time (Fender Tony Franklin fretless, P/J, all passive). With flats, to boot. No clank, no rattle, no weird freq peaks (unless I feel like doing a sh!tty Jaco impression and solo the bridge pup ). Just nice, round, cleanness, with a healthy dose of thump. Less metal, more Motown. Less Alex Webster, more James Jamerson.


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## vilk (Mar 27, 2017)

Something I've always loved about Lykathea Aflame is that they have this punky sounding P bass with the heaviest metal ever


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## Esp Griffyn (Mar 27, 2017)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> I don't really like "metal" bass tone very much at all, or even what might be considered a rock bass tone in many cases. I like my tone clean, clean, clean.



Yes, yes, yes. I'm not a fan of clanky metal bass tone. Think about the clanky, awful tapping part in the intro to Necrophagist's "Fermented Offal Discharge", it just sounds so jarring, no wonder the bass is buried under the mix in the rest of the song, it would be so wearing to hear that for the rest of the track. I think it's a trap that a lot of metal bassists fall into of thinking "It clanks more, so it must be good!". Either that or they're just detuning to point where the strings are just banging off the frets and not realising that setting their instrument up properly would let them get the notes out cleanly - but I think the clank has become something of a musical phenomenon that many seem to want to replicate, at the cost of clean, crisp lines.

Metal bass tone doesn't have to be bad, just ask Ryan Martinie, or listen to the last Job For a Cowboy album. Clean, crisp, natural low mid growl rather than piling a load of gain on the signal. All the notes ring out clear and it can be mixed so much better.

My personal idea of good tone is clean. I run a Warwick Thumb 5 and a Spector Euro 5LX into a Markbass Little Mark III and a Markbass 2x10 cab. I may add a 15" extension cab for more low end, although if I turn the bass up on my active EQs a little I can get so much bass that everything in the room vibrates wildly. I don't do a crazy EQ, just a little bass boost on the active EQs and a little low mid push on the amp EQ. Let the instrument speak - don't muffle it's voice with a terrible setup or loads of gain. A well-eq'd bass will sound good in any situation.

I think this sounds amazing (not the best quality recording though) but this guy won't be popular on ss.org, he uses really light strings and only plays a 4 string!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiC5Xc5f7HE

Keep it clean, let us hear the actual instrument, not an artifice of pedals, laptop software or bad setups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpeeH0UuYo4

Heavier than just about any metal performance I can think of - and clean!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8k53ZzJbc


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 27, 2017)

^I was such a fan of Ryan Martinie's sound that I kinda stole his technique when I play fingerstyle.  Instead of plucking the string, I tap/slap it instead. Really hard to get used to, but it gives it that slap-style growl and bite.

I used to really love that grindy, high gain sound. I still like SOME uses of it, mostly Nolly's tone in Periphery (even though he doesn't go for super insane OD and still let the bass' natural tone ring out), but nowadays I either go for a compressed clean tone or a slightly overdriven grind ala the "GK growl."


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## neotronic (Mar 28, 2017)

Chi said:


> Very, very subjective. I can enjoy both - tight and articulate and just big, messy and over the top.
> 
> I have to admit I prefer the latter...




Damn, that's one hell of a raw material. Love it!


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## Veldar (Mar 29, 2017)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> I don't really like "metal" bass tone very much at all, or even what might be considered a rock bass tone in many cases. I like my tone clean, clean, clean.
> 
> I use a solid state Class D head (Aguilar TH500) with the EQ set more or less flat, the drive all the way down, and the gain down as low as I can get away with setting it while still having enough volume for the room. I prefer 10s over 15s for clarity, so I'm currently running a 2x10. The only "always on" effect I use at home is compression (Aguilar TLC Compressor pedal; Super clean, doesn't really add any extra color), and I don't have it set to do anything too drastic. Everything else on my board is either situational (fuzz, env filter), or used to improve the tone of sh!tty house amps or PAs when I play out (MXR Bass Pre, CAL Grizzly).
> 
> I bought a fretless a couple years back just for sh!ts and giggles, but I liked it so much that I've since bought a nicer one and use it at least 90% of the time (Fender Tony Franklin fretless, P/J, all passive). With flats, to boot. No clank, no rattle, no weird freq peaks (unless I feel like doing a sh!tty Jaco impression and solo the bridge pup ). Just nice, round, cleanness, with a healthy dose of thump. Less metal, more Motown. Less Alex Webster, more James Jamerson.





Same! I run a Bongo 6 into a Aguilar TLC just to even out the B string into a Aguilar TH500 for a nice clean sound, lots of mids from the while chain. For every non modern sound I use pedals, lots and lots of weirs sounds haha


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## A-Branger (Mar 29, 2017)




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## Chi (Mar 29, 2017)

neotronic said:


> Damn, that's one hell of a raw material. Love it!



Cheers my dude! Can't get any more raw than this: Pod HD and a Harley Benton (made in china) bass dropped to a low F with some fat ass kalium strings.


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## LordCashew (Mar 29, 2017)

Chi said:


> Cheers my dude! Can't get any more raw than this: Pod HD and a Harley Benton (made in china) bass dropped to a low F with some fat ass kalium strings.



What?! I thought that was an Ibanez BTB in the video. That's a pretty good sounding low F. What's the scale length?


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## Chi (Mar 29, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> What?! I thought that was an Ibanez BTB in the video. That's a pretty good sounding low F. What's the scale length?



35"!


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## A-Branger (Mar 30, 2017)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> I don't really like "metal" bass tone very much at all, or even what might be considered a rock bass tone in many cases. I like my tone clean, clean, clean.





Esp Griffyn said:


> Yes, yes, yes. I'm not a fan of clanky metal bass tone.
> 
> I think it's a trap that a lot of metal bassists fall into of thinking "It clanks more, so it must be good!". Either that or they're just detuning to point where the strings are just banging off the frets and not realising that setting their instrument up properly would let them get the notes out cleanly - but I think the clank has become something of a musical phenomenon that many seem to want to replicate, at the cost of clean, crisp lines.
> 
> ...



yes!!!!  I found my people in this forum <3 <3 !!!  

do you wanna know my pedalboard?:

Bass > tunner> ..........?.......>amp

I do would like a good compressor tho, but thats it. No FX, no distorsion, clean. Let the guitars do the dirty work. If you have a nice clean mid growl bass, you dont need distorsion. The bass should be (for metal context) adding the sound of the guitar, not making it more dirty.

Both instrumetns should be EQ differently thinking of each others. In other words, take the bass out of the guitar!!.. And just because its a "bass" it doesnt mean you need to crank the "bass" knob in your amp. I used ot work on a reharsal rooms studio, and most bass players (beginners) used to do that.

I think thats one of the biggest mistakes ppl do out there with their guitars on a band context (to add too much low end), so by default the bass player as to find a way to jump out of the muddiness, and using dirt and *clank* does the trick. Guitarrist often try to replicate the sound of X player in Y album, problem is that the guitar sound they are hearing is made up out guitar+bass. If you isolate the guitar track you would find it to be really "thin". Plus as you dont have a band in your room of course the guitar sounds better with low end.

I use an Ampeg (dnt remember name atm, its the flip top series) and I fricking love it. I also discover than the best "growl" sound comes from single coils J pickups. REason why I like the Nordstrand equiped SR ibanez. Or maybe its the "humcuker" part of it that I like??

I still am really keen to try an MM with a J combination, the "jazzMan". just to add a bit extra of treble


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Mar 30, 2017)

+1.


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## LordCashew (Mar 30, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> No FX, no distorsion, clean. Let the guitars do the dirty work. If you have a nice clean mid growl bass, you dont need distorsion. The bass should be (for metal context) adding the sound of the guitar, not making it more dirty.



I think I get what you're saying, and I would agree in many contexts. But I think it's worth noting that a "clean amp" tone still often colors the sound with subtle distortion.

AFAIK, the cleanest sound you can get is a DI going straight into a fullrange system. Not my favorite tone for a rock mix, not by a long shot. Like you, I would rather go through an amp. But many amps (and certainly a flip-top in my experience) add some harmonic complexity in the gain stages with third-harmonic distortion. This certainly adds some lovely growl to the midrange. It doesn't sound like "distortion" in the fuzzy, grindy effect sense, but it certainly is distortion from a technical standpoint. 

I'm not trying to split hairs semantically, and I realize you may already understand this. But for those who don't, I think it's worth pointing out that a lot of good "clean" bass tones actually have some subtle harmonic distortion or drive that makes them more interesting and noticeable in a mix. This is a very valuable concept to know for recording purposes, especially when working with plugins on a digital workstation. And I do think this may be a component of your tone, though I can't say for sure without hearing it.




A-Branger said:


> I think thats one of the biggest mistakes ppl do out there with their guitars on a band context (to add too much low end), so by default the bass player as to find a way to jump out of the muddiness, and using dirt and *clank* does the trick. Guitarrist often try to replicate the sound of X player in Y album, problem is that the guitar sound they are hearing is made up out guitar+bass. If you isolate the guitar track you would find it to be really "thin". Plus as you dont have a band in your room of course the guitar sounds better with low end.



This is 100% spot on and not mentioned frequently enough. I think this is something most guitarists have to work through, my younger self included.


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## A-Branger (Mar 30, 2017)

yeeah I know what you mean  when I say "clean" I was refering to Bass-->Amp. no pedal distortion.

I like the sound with an amp instead of a DI for same reasons you mention. It colors the sound. It makes it sound different. Out of the few complete recordings of a band I did back in the day, the best sound I got it from taking the headphone out of my Crate bx50 into my interface. ANd that sound (for me), was heaaaaaaaps better than the sound my old teacher did in his recoding studio with a mix of some DI and some weird mic up bass amp

also a mate of mine from uni got a pretty great sound of my bass too using a DI. No idea what he did on the mix tho. Maybe he re-amped using like amplitube?, I dont think it was released at that point in time yet


I get the distortion, and for some context it works fine and even with a tinny bit, it sounds great too. But for me personally, I rather a "clean" sound


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## Bloody_Inferno (Apr 1, 2017)

Having doing a fair bit of bass sessions of late, I've become more attentive to different kind of tones and how it fits with the music is paramount, rather than trying to force my bass sound into it. 

I've never been a clean bassist and I've always hit pretty hard (usually with a pick). So no matter how clean my settings are, my playing (even with fingers) always gave that 'Stranglers' kind of clank sound. I blame John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, Phil Lynott, Billy Gould and Justin Chancellor for that. Also didn't help that every band I ever played bass for was almost always a 1 guitar band, so I was forced to fill in a lot of space. The first minor change I did was add a compressor just to emphasise harmonics, smoothen out my harsh playing and made slapping easier. The cleanest I'll ever go is when I play lighter with my fingers, something I had to do during the country sessions and slower parts in my album. 

Any kind of distorted/dirty/fuzzy/driven bass sounds for me is purely situational. 

For fretless playing I insist on a much cleaner tone than my usual, so I go for flatwounds and a compressor. 

Some favorite tones (trying to go for ones that haven't been posted):











...a few others more, but I can't remember.


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## GuitarBizarre (Apr 1, 2017)

OK, so I went away, did some screwing around, and threw a track together.

This is NOT mixed - at all. I just picked a guitar sound with a character I liked, a bass sound with a character I liked, and a drum sound with a character I liked, and threw them all together on top of each other. Guitars are doubletracked, everything else single. (Also I dick around on the bass for like a minute or two after the guitars drop out, so you can hear that tone more isolated)

The reason I'm sharing it is to give you guys an idea of what sounds good individually, to my ears. The guitar has a kind of "bark" to it I enjoy. THe bass sound is nice and round, with enough definition between notes and not excessive clank.

I know they don't fit together in the slightest, but what would you guys say is the main reason for that? Am I trying to square-peg, round hole? Or is there stuff I can do to make these sounds play nice? (Edit: I know the bass is way too high in the mix, first and foremost - it disappears otherwise)

https://soundcloud.com/gitbiz/cfgh

Double edit: I screwed with it a little more because it was even more rough than I thought after it was on soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/gitbiz/cfgh-slight-edit


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## prlgmnr (Apr 1, 2017)

I think that open hi hat that stays the same the entire time is doing more for the problems with everything fitting together than any other aspect.

You don't have to fear the bass disappearing into the mix as long as it's providing body to the sound - the sort of thing that you can't make out until you mute it and then realise how important it was.


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## ghostOG (Apr 20, 2017)

I picked up the bass a year ago, and have been on a quest for good tone ever since. At first, just trying to figure out what good bass tone sounds like.

I like a clean tight crisp full-bodied tone for metal (Tool, Job For A Cowboy). Sorta like the sound of a pick maybe... but I play fingerstyle. I think that kind of tone is also a good starting point if you are adding distortion. I had an Ampeg SVT-7 Pro through a 410HLF and it sounded pretty good... a time tested metal/rock rig. But it sounds to me all bass and lo mids, which is not what I'm looking for in a modern metal tone. I had a b3k pedal, and the harmonics of distortion don't do much in the mix unless I have some hi mids IMO. I sold the cab and got a Mesa Power House 410 and it sounded closer to what I want, but the speakers would fart out when the HLF410 would be thumping. And the combination of the SVT-7 and my old LTD bass just sounded flat and monotone... pretty much the opposite of the shimmering full-bodied bliss I'm after.

So I pretty much sold most my gear and started over from scratch. I got a 35" 5 string Spector with DR hi beams, through an Empress compressor... and I'm looking at getting some kind of bass rig so I can join a band again. Right now I'm listening between Aguilar and GK.

I think fingerstyle technique often used in metal... bouncing strings off the frets, sounds similar to slapping. Too much clank is usually from hitting the strings too hard (not enough tension, action too low, playing too hard, etc)... and/or too much treble. Also just having old dead strings with no tone. I like the tones in this video.


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## ghostOG (Apr 21, 2017)

Just saw this video today, and made me think of this thread... 30 different examples of good metal bass tones.

-

Also really impressed with this Hartke tone.


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