Guitar bass crap

  • Thread starter Thread starter pdadda
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pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
Hey guys. I am just about to give up on finding a bass player for my band that isn't a giant douche. I want the low end, so I feel like I have 2 options.
1. Get a bass and bass amp and start playing myself
2. Get some sort of pedal that will double my part an octave down and use it sparingly on some songs. I could loop it using my DD20 Giga-Delay. I know this sounds strange, but can anyone recommend a pedal that might help me add the low end in?

I'm pretty sure I've seen Jack White use something like this before. Boss OC-3 maybe?
 
pdadda said:
Hey guys. I am just about to give up on finding a bass player for my band that isn't a giant douche. I want the low end, so I feel like I have 2 options.
1. Get a bass and bass amp and start playing myself
2. Get some sort of pedal that will double my part an octave down and use it sparingly on some songs. I could loop it using my DD20 Giga-Delay. I know this sounds strange, but can anyone recommend a pedal that might help me add the low end in?

I'm pretty sure I've seen Jack White use something like this before. Boss OC-3 maybe?

I'll vote for number 1, just pick up a bass and start playing yourself. Those octave devices are good for effect but I've never heard one that actually emulated a bass convincingly. :(

Plus IMHO it's always a good thing to get your head and hands around a different instrument, it will make you a much more versatile song writer/musician.
 
Don't forget the GROOVY

Clit Torres said:
Plus IMHO it's always a good thing to get your head and hands around a different instrument, it will make you a much more versatile song writer/musician.

I agree with Clit, you hear the song totally different from a bass perspective. You'll start changing your writing style to add more GRUVE.
 
honedawg said:
I agree with Clit, you hear the song totally different from a bass perspective. You'll start changing your writing style to add more GRUVE.
What everyone's said.

Bass will make you a better guitarist.

You'll also never have to scrape for a gig ever again. An adequate, conservative backline bassist who shows up on time will have bands begging you on bended knee to work with them.

Bass is simpler, but more difficult (no, that's not a contradiction). A guitarist can get away with absolute murder, but a bassist has to be flawless. That discipline is rough for a guitarist making the change, but it's really a valuable education.

Above all, practicing bass will get you acquainted with neighbors you've never seen before. :D
 
bongolation said:
A guitarist can get away with absolute murder, but a bassist has to be flawless.

Nothin' worse than a guitarist who tries to do all his favorite licks and emebellishmensts on the bass in a simple song.

Well, I suppose there are worse things...
 
Besides, not all of us Bass players are giant douches! :cool:
 
OK, but here's another part of the issue. My bandmates really want to have a bass player soon. Even if I bought a bass now, we would probably hire someone a month or two down the road, douche or not. So even if you think it would sound like ass, which octave pedal do you think would do the job best for a few gigs?
-EHX Octave Multiplexer
-Boss OC-2
-Boss OC-3
-Other
I am still considering buying a bass, but I can get most of these pedals used for around $50-$60, and I think they would get us by for a few gigs if used creatively.
 
pdadda said:
OK, but here's another part of the issue. My bandmates really want to have a bass player soon. Even if I bought a bass now, we would probably hire someone a month or two down the road, douche or not. So even if you think it would sound like ass, which octave pedal do you think would do the job best for a few gigs?
-EHX Octave Multiplexer
-Boss OC-2
-Boss OC-3
-Other
I am still considering buying a bass, but I can get most of these pedals used for around $50-$60, and I think they would get us by for a few gigs if used creatively.

Well if you are going to add an ocative pedal and play in the style of a bass, then you might as well play a real bass.
 
Bass is simpler, but more difficult...

Personally, I'd go with the bass. That's exactly what I did twenty-some years ago, after 10 of playing guitar. Just repeat to yourself the mantras:

--Oooommmm......it's NOT a 4-string guitar.....Ooooommmm

--Oooommmm......play with the drummer, not the singer....Ooooommmmm

--Oooommmm......if it's hard to play I'm doing it wrong...Oooommmmm

The last one is the hardest, and is right up there with "Bass is simpler, but more difficult." It's simpler because you're playing less with fewer notes. It's more difficult because every note has to be in the right place...hopefully right on top of a kick drum hit! It's a different animal, but if you survive all the guys saying "you sound like a guitar player playing a bass" for the first few gigs, you'll be a much smarter guitarist.
 
pdadda said:
OK, but here's another part of the issue. My bandmates really want to have a bass player soon. Even if I bought a bass now, we would probably hire someone a month or two down the road, douche or not. So even if you think it would sound like ass, which octave pedal do you think would do the job best for a few gigs?
-EHX Octave Multiplexer
-Boss OC-2
-Boss OC-3
-Other
I am still considering buying a bass, but I can get most of these pedals used for around $50-$60, and I think they would get us by for a few gigs if used creatively.

Haha. Please don't do this. Get yourself a bass player or don't use bass. Those pedals are very good, but aren't even meant for emulating a bass. I have the OC-3 and you won't be happy if you're trying to get a bass sound. And you can't used chords with it. Listen to the band CKY, they use the OC-2 on their recordings.
 
Yeah, I'm not really trying to emulate a bass. I just want to have some more low end in my guitar so the fact that we lack a bass player is less obvious musically.
I have listened to some clips online, and I really like the sound of the EHX Octave Multiplexer over the BOSS OC-3. Anyone here have the EHX Reissue?
 
pdadda said:
Yeah, I'm not really trying to emulate a bass. I just want to have some more low end in my guitar so the fact that we lack a bass player is less obvious musically.

IMO, you can have all the low end in the world and it will only be MORE obvious musically that you don't have a bass player. A bass players main role is not to provide more low end, but to solidify a good groove provided by a consistent drummer, with a melody consisting of notes that accent the guitar part/parts without clashing with the vocal line. An effect pedal will not do that no matter what, and you buying a bass will not do the either, unless you learn the instrument. Lpdeluxe had some great advice, re-read his post and practice the Mantra's, especially number 1.....

--Oooommmm......it's NOT a 4-string guitar.....Ooooommmm
--Oooommmm......it's NOT a 4-string guitar.....Ooooommmm
--Oooommmm......it's NOT a 4-string guitar.....Ooooommmm.....
 
pdadda said:
Yeah, I'm not really trying to emulate a bass. I just want to have some more low end in my guitar so the fact that we lack a bass player is less obvious musically.
I have listened to some clips online, and I really like the sound of the EHX Octave Multiplexer over the BOSS OC-3. Anyone here have the EHX Reissue?

If you go that route, you are going to hate it, in my opinion. I've got an octave box (Boss) that sounds pretty good, but if I feed it anything more complex than an open fifth, it sounds like someone is strangling a bullfrog. If you play chords, I don't think you'll like what it does to you.

If you must do this, then I'd say to split your signal upsteam from the octave box, run that branch through a lowpass filter in front of the box, and send its output to another amp or into the PA. Otherwise it will dump a load of mud into your guitar sound.

My true advice is to be patient and to find a bass player that you can depend on; they are out there. That, or pick up bass yourself unless your guitar playing gone missing would create another hole that you can't fill. After playing guitar for mumbledy mumble years, I started playing bass about 2 years ago (I'm in one band as a bassist and another where the other guitarist and I switch off), and I'm really enjoying it.

Many years ago, an incarnation of Savoy Brown played without a bass player. The second guitarist (Lonesome Dave?) had a custom nut cut for his, um, Fender Jaguar, I believe, where he put on two bass strings, and he played rhythm and bass together. It was an interesting approach, but there was a technique learning curve for him, I'll wager.
 
lpdeluxe said:
Just repeat to yourself the mantras:

--Oooommmm......it's NOT a 4-string guitar.....Ooooommmm

--Oooommmm......play with the drummer, not the singer....Ooooommmmm

--Oooommmm......if it's hard to play I'm doing it wrong...Oooommmmm

Do ya think it would help, any, to also mention a couple of bass line types? Like a 4-note square, straight-8, walking (particularly 12-bar blues). There's also just playing the root notes of the melody, but depending on the song, what fun is that?

Matt
 
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