Bass guitar chords

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Captain Ego

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Okay, as the thread name implies, I am having trouble with a bass guitar part using chords. It sounds great through the amp, using the 'presence' and all that stuff on his amp, but I don't have a good mic for recording a bass amp as I would like. I want it to be as similar as possible to the DI sound of the bass on the other tracks in my project instead of being the only one standing out as a crap mic in a crap room instead of the full DI sound. Going direct through the little sim pedal is what I have been doing for recordings but that was when it was mostly single notes. This song has a full-on strum part like a rhythm guitar and it sounds so muffled in headphones. Is there a common setting for DI bass guitars playing chords? I want to catch the string noise and pick scratchy rhythm guitarish side of the tone, but when I put in the bottom it all becomes overwhelmingly mush. Some way of compressing it maybe? Any ideas, because right now I've been just fiddling with the EQ (it just has a low and high shelf) and either losing the bottom from the overall mix, or overwhelming it with mud.
 
Most bass wankers (solo bassists) tend to stay above the 12th fret, I don't see how you're gonna get a lot of bottom in a strummed bass part without it turning into mud. But if it sounds good through the amp you should be able to record it, try a kick drum mic.
 
Most bass wankers (solo bassists)
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Hey! :P :) Go play with yer root. :D

Seriously, yer going to have to lose bottom, or record low volume and boost in the mix. I little OD or distortion might help; they add mids. I like the Boss DS1 set to a low growl for chords.

Chords too low just don't play. Mud is as mud does. :cool:
 
My foster brother, ramblin' Rick Elliott, has made a career out of playing chords, or at least pairs of notes, on a bass. He uses an old Les Paul Studio Bass with Rotosound lights tuned a half step high. He then runs it through a reference monitor power amp, which can handle the subsonic overtones much better than most bass amps, and EQ's the crap out of it. In the day, he played a good deal with Chuck Mangione at the Eastman school in Rochester, NY. Playing chords on a bass is *very* possible, but to put it out without mush, you need a setup designed to do it. He hasn't had good luck with mics, either, mostly because most available speakers can't handle it. For live work, he doesn't use a bass amp at all. He's had his best luck with a Fender Twin guitar amp. What you want to do is very possible, but not with most standard bass rigs. Good luck-Richie
 
Yes I have had the best results using the SVT 8 10" speaker cab for double/triple notes or so called chords on a bass.
 
I'm in a 3 piece right now and use power chords on my bass all the time. Especially during the guitar solos. Helps to fill out the middle.
I get good sound by picking up more toward the bridge when I'm chording and move more over the pickups when single notes.
I also bring a touch (just a touch) of chorus effect to give a little high end "sparkle" (for lack of a better term) to help it cut thru with less mud.
 
Careful arrangement is key to making this technique work. Get the other instruments out of the way.
 
Check out the likes of Seth Horan, he has some great videos on youtube, he used to endorse Warwick, but has changed affiliations. Great guy. He does chords, but he stays pretty well above the 12th fret. Jeff Schmidt has posted over at Warwick a couple of times, really nice guy, he plays bass chords, but uses piccolo strings tuned almost an octave high (I think he said he tunes the bottom string to D).

Seems the consensus is that a regular tuned bass through a regular amp is going to sound like mud doing chords.
 
here's an idea (maybe a bad one, but worth a shot). try recording it DI and putting a mic on the strings of the bass itself. mix those two so you get both the cleaner fuller sound like before, plus the pick/strum/string noise.
 
buzzard bass said:
Check out the likes of Seth Horan, he has some great videos on youtube, he used to endorse Warwick, but has changed affiliations. Great guy. He does chords, but he stays pretty well above the 12th fret. Jeff Schmidt has posted over at Warwick a couple of times, really nice guy, he plays bass chords, but uses piccolo strings tuned almost an octave high (I think he said he tunes the bottom string to D).

Seems the consensus is that a regular tuned bass through a regular amp is going to sound like mud doing chords.
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So I checked out Seth Horan. Nice. :cool::D:cool: Thanks.
 
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