Why guitarists get all the fun!!?

J

Jouni

New member
God damn it!!!


On my way to a blistering gear-addict, and a bassist, I've noticed that ALL the interesting stuff like pedals/stompboxes/effects, preamps, floored tube-preamps and such are for guitarists!!...

Mesa, ENGL, Vox, and who knows what others manufacture Tube-based compressor/reverb/distortion-DI-preamp-stompboxes geared towards the stringed soprano!!..

And what's for the Bass?... ..A MEASELY tech21 transistor DI-box... :(
(counting out the digitech/Line6 DIGITAL multidisasters)

(I would've pointed this out to Mesa (which, btw is releasing a new "Fathom"-head I might be interested in) since I'm using their guitar-pre in a bass right now, but the company apparently HAS NO EMAIL!!!...)

I'm pretty fed up with the monotone soundscape and gear-drought of the bass right now, If the bassists weren't so few I'd trade in for guitar..:mad:

Rant over, carry on.
 
Look into ZOOM pedals, they make a multi-efx pedal for bass. And for what it's worth, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah pedal works the same for bass as it does for guitar.

In my opinion, many guitarists use efx in an attempt to sound better than they really are or to hide their sloppy playing. For me, toys (efx pedals) were fun when I only knew a few chords and scales, as I learned to play more and better I found I had less use for pedals.
 
Dani Pace said:
In my opinion, many guitarists use efx in an attempt to sound better than they really are or to hide their sloppy playing. For me, toys (efx pedals) were fun when I only knew a few chords and scales, as I learned to play more and better I found I had less use for pedals.
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I always say "If ya wanna know how good a guitar player REALLY is, give 'em an acoustic guitar, and see what happens." That's how I know I'm quite far from "guitar god," no matter how many neato and bitchin' licks I can manage to find, when I jam with an electric guitar. The only time I've ever experienced anybody being impressed with my acoustic playing was not for how well I play, but because I can even play guitar. "You're doing better than I can. I can play the radio."

Matt
 
darkcubus said:
Lord Marketing.
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Dude..sorry. From the bottom of my heart..seriously. See me do that again.


Dani Pace said:
Look into ZOOM pedals, they make a multi-efx pedal for bass. And for what it's worth, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah pedal works the same for bass as it does for guitar.

In my opinion, many guitarists use efx in an attempt to sound better than they really are or to hide their sloppy playing. For me, toys (efx pedals) were fun when I only knew a few chords and scales, as I learned to play more and better I found I had less use for pedals.
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Yes, I've got multiFX-pedals for bass, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about, there are multiFX and effects for bass. I don't like using them either..
I'm more after the Tone-shaping tools.(OK..distortion)
I'd like the option to have a HK, and ENGL and Vox (ka-chinng! goes the marketing register, sorry,again.) tube-tones, voiced for BASS, at my feet. (for preamps, direct to tape or PA)
I've tried the aforementioned guitar preamps for bass, but the bottom just isn't there, especially when overdriven.

Especially overdriven.. the best I've found from all those pedals and preamps is that, though sounds hideous by itself, my black "BigMuff" (ka-chiinngg!!) is the only one that keeps the bottom in a band situation, not turning the overall sound into screeching black-metal...

to sum up (and cash in):

Vox Tonelab
ENGL tubetoner
Mesa V-twin
HK tubeman

are all for guitar, and great. Bass only has the transistor gadgets..

(Ka-chiinng!!!!!!!!!!!!)
 
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Yeah, I always end up googling my favorite sounding musicians to research and find out specifically what gear they use that sounds so awesome to me. So much gear, yet the best sounding stuff almost always seems like just the right bass/pickups/strings/cables and amp/amp settings are all they use.

Now just need to get some good pitch-shifters to nail Last Days of Humanity's sound and I'll be set!
 
Get an amp you really like, and learn to get sounds out of your bass with your fingers. I'm not trying to sound snobbish, but check out plucking/picking positions everywhere from the bridge to the 12th fret. There's a wealth of tone-shaping options on the bass.

Don't know what your sound is, but try a set of LaBella flatwounds. You can still have bright attack (not as much of course as rounds) that cuts, but the body of the notes and tone shaping options as you vary your plucking position increases still more.

And with a tube amp or just preamp, try varying the intensity of your playing. You can play them clean and pretty or you can drive them to warm and fuzzy all with your fingers (and drive or gain knobs set right).

Two pickups? Experiment with full on neck vs. full on bridge. Huge difference right there.
 
Yep... get used to it. I'm using a multi efx box from the early 90's 'cause I haven't found anything that can do what it does any better since...

They don't make the stuff, because we're in the minority. Just search any bass forum for DI vs Mic'ing an amp and you'll see what I mean. Half the bassists out there don't even seem to care about their amp or cab. Why would they buy a bunch of boutique pedals or Efx. There's not enough of a market out there apparently for them to worry about us.
 
I wouldn't exactly consider any of that guitar gear you're envious of to be "great". Guitarists don't need any of that shit to get a good sound, and neither does a bassist. The way I see it, the bass market is better off because it's not saturated with useless bullshit.
 
darkcubus said:
Yeah, I always end up googling my favorite sounding musicians to research and find out specifically what gear they use that sounds so awesome to me. So much gear, yet the best sounding stuff almost always seems like just the right bass/pickups/strings/cables and amp/amp settings are all they use.

Now just need to get some good pitch-shifters to nail Last Days of Humanity's sound and I'll be set!
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Whoa!.. DiD that... now I just need:

"..he used a mesa 400+ and a mes m2k. he ran both of those trhough 8x10 road ready cabinets (also mesa). and also the wal bass and a slew of effects. for live ..add another m-2000 and a 2x15 road ready. then now
..he apparently is using 2 m-pulse and a m2k for back up with the 2 8x10s"

and:

"2 24-fret 4-string with birdseye maple facings and chrome hardware.
1 24-fret 4-string with birdseye maple facings, greenburst finish.
1 Mach II 4-string with American walnut facings and chrome hardware."

According to Talkbass.com on bassgear on Tool...

Shit, can't afford... Line6???:D
 
I have plenty of fun, but none of it involves playing with toys.

Let's look at it from the other side: I show up at a gig with my bass, two cords (one for the bass and one to go from the amp's line out into the PA), an Ampeg combo, and stands for the bass and the amp. In five minutes I'm set up.

The guitar player has four pedals, two guitars, two amps, a myriad of cords and power supplies and tuners and whatnot, and it takes him half an hour to get everything set up and working.

Of course, now I'm back into guitar playing, so I just got a Floor Pod because, well, a guitar by itself isn't that interesting.

On the other hand, my Precision kills with just a cord and an amp on the other end.
 
Jouni said:
God damn it!!!


On my way to a blistering gear-addict, and a bassist, I've noticed that ALL the interesting stuff like pedals/stompboxes/effects, preamps, floored tube-preamps and such are for guitarists!!...

Mesa, ENGL, Vox, and who knows what others manufacture Tube-based compressor/reverb/distortion-DI-preamp-stompboxes geared towards the stringed soprano!!..

And what's for the Bass?... ..A MEASELY tech21 transistor DI-box... :(
(counting out the digitech/Line6 DIGITAL multidisasters)

(I would've pointed this out to Mesa (which, btw is releasing a new "Fathom"-head I might be interested in) since I'm using their guitar-pre in a bass right now, but the company apparently HAS NO EMAIL!!!...)

I'm pretty fed up with the monotone soundscape and gear-drought of the bass right now, If the bassists weren't so few I'd trade in for guitar..:mad:

Rant over, carry on.
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I was going to send you over to http://www.talkbass.com, but haven't I seen you over there?
 
lpdeluxe said:
Of course, now I'm back into guitar playing, so I just got a Floor Pod because, well, a guitar by itself isn't that interesting.
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That depends on the guitarist! :)

A proper pedal board makes a few pedals very easy to manage. I'm with the philosophy that "less is more" in most cases though. :D

(EDIT: Not that I'm interesting, just saying.)
 
metalhead28 said:
I wouldn't exactly consider any of that guitar gear you're envious of to be "great". Guitarists don't need any of that shit to get a good sound, and neither does a bassist. The way I see it, the bass market is better off because it's not saturated with useless bullshit.
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+1

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My bass & my marshall superbass mkII is usually all I need BUT I've used a tube pre to get some saturated/o'driven sounds as the amp doesn't have a sep gain knob. - Oh & atubecube attenuator for my ringing ears' sake.
Then again I use a Behri Bass DI to get some interesting variation/o'drive into the marshall as well.
I have a flat wound set on my semi acoustic bass & round woounds on my solid body.
I'll even use my old yamaha FX500 for it's 4 bass effects if I really want to go haywire.
Apart from all those toys (& they seem excessive to me) I'm just striving for a good BASSic tone.
 
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