i have recently noticed this but i have noticed alot of death metal and grind bands that use clean and distorted bass have something in common, sort of a pattern, i know not all of them have this but alot of em do recently, i have been looking for a good decent bass player for years now, and no luck but, i have wondered what i like best, clean bass or distorted bass, i love both sounds but my point here is have you noticed.. Bands that have 2 guitars have a clean bass player...and bands that only have 1 guitar have a distorted bass, like cattle decapitation 1guitar/dist.bass
the berzerker-1gtr/distbass.......cannibal corpse/origin 2 gutars and clean bass, is it a rule or something or do they distort the bass to make it sound more like a guitar? my main question here is about the 1and2 guitar clean and distorted pattern.

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That is the biggest run on sentence ever.

With that said, distorted bass is all the bassist's preference. I've played in bands with one guitarist and never used distortion. I've played in bands with one guitarist with distortion. It all depends on the music and how good innovative the bass player can be with an effect pedal.

There is no set rule on bass distortion.

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Cool, thank you for your input. Forgive me for my run on sentence, i usualy dont care much about these sorts of things when i am typing on a computer machine. when i write real letters it is usualy better. sorry. well now that i know there isnt any pattern, what do bass players usualy do for distortion? pedals, rack gear, pre-amps,? im not to smart when it comes to bass equiptment, do alot of good amps have distortion on them?

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Bass amps don't have distortion on them. Some bassist will use bass pedals. I myself prefer to use guitar pedals on my bass. My current pedal is the Digi-Tech Bad Monkey.

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I use the Boss ODB-3..

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Poser

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ah yes i have heard of this being done, using guitar pedals for bass. that was another question i had, thanks for answering before i asked.

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wrong, Look at the Crate BT100 bass amp. The distortion isn't the greatest but it's still distortion.

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He ment most bass amps (95 percent) dont have distortion on them, distortion is rare on a bass amp.

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i have seen over drive on a bass amp, i believe it was a crate

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Some peavy amps have gain. But it isn't distortion in the same sense as a guitar amp's distortion.

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distortion on basses sound kinda "weird" to me. I'd say leave the distortion to the guitars and let the bass do the heavyness

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i think it all depends on the band. Like cattle decapitation and mortician, i couldnt picture them with the normal sounding bass like bands such as dying fetus or cannibal corpse.

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Once in a while, I'll crank up the gain on my amp, and lower the master volume. This gives a slightly overloaded signal from the input, but it's definately different than using a distortion pedal. Alex Webster does this, too. Using the high gain setting and some compression gives a great heavy tone, but doesn't sound too distorted.

Also, I've notice when I have tried to use a distortion pedal (Ibanez tube screamer, I believe it was...) that I lost most of my thick bottom end tone from the sound...this was enough to convince me of the error of my ways...lol

As for using distortion on bass in situations where there is only 1 guitarist, and clean bass with 2, mostly (it seems to me) it is to flesh out the sound as much as possible. This will make the "heavy" sound still be there when the guitar player is doing a solo, or any clean fills, etc. because you'll still hear a "distorted" tone in the background.

As a bassist in a band with only 1 guitar player, I prefer other techniques, such as using chords in certain places, and doing harmony scalar runs with the guitar to flesh out our sound instead, but that's just me...

Cheers

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cephalic carnage 2 guitarists 1 bassist who has the dirtiest bass ive heard. he uses the boss heavy metal pedal

thanx everyone, hopefully i can get a damn bass player in my band who knows what the hell he is doing. has anybody tried the dod death metal pedal?? that must sound nuts on bass. im sure it kills alot of low notes and flatens it but, oh man, on a recording or something that must sound pretty nuts.

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DOD Death Metal pedal has paper thin tone.

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I really hate the sound of the bass on "Anomalies." I wish I could have mixed that album.

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As with most things, there are no hard and fast rules about when and when not to use distortion. Like I said, I'm in a band with one guitarist, but I prefer a clean tone, with just a hint of drive behind it using nothing other than my gain knob.

The other thing about using distortion is it can help a sloppier player to cover their mistakes much more easily. (not to say that this is why bassists use distortion, though)

Cheers

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I agree with 6string. I prefer to use clean tone. Though I like to play around on a flanger on occasion.

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