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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i dont think the bassist of deeds of flesh uses a distortion

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Exhumed's Old Bass Player Bud used a distortion pedal...boss I think. And he only used it when it felt right. Like In the song Decrepit Cresendo he only used it during the intro/chorus parts and that's really it. The rest he just used a clean tone. Well since his 4 string bass was tunned down to B standard it gave off alot of buzz/distortion on it's own.

Another player is Ross Sewage of Impaled. He only uses the distortion pedal on a bass when he feels it would fit.

I think that's better than just using a pedal all the way through a song. It all depends on what feeling you want to give...like if you want to cover a Napalm Death (Scum era) song....clean tone is out of the question. LOL

P.S. I tried a DOD Death Metal pedal on both a guitar and bass. On guitar it sounds more like fuzz than distortion and on bass it sorta takes the bottom off.

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Ahh, the good old Flanger!!! I use a chorus pedal from time to time, or a digital delay, just to open the sound up a bit. Flangers, I find, have the same effect.

Cheers.



PS: New MP3's up at our label's site http://www.krankenhaus.ca Nature of Repention has some fun bass lines!!!!!!!!!

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Your the only band on the label...

Nice work though

Is your singer a chick?

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Nope, just clean bass tone, the way all brutal death metal bands should have it.

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I've noticed that there are a lot of bassists, (especially in metal) who are nothing more than failed guitarists. That might explain why some use distortion.

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are you sure thats what he uses? i really like his sound but i can't get it w/the BOSS Overdrive. anyone else have ideas how to get the Cephalic sound or what he actually uses?

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bass sounds like shit if you use anything other than wah, chorus, or maybe just a slight fuzz anything else is a waste of time and sounds like shit.

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Not really, thats just your opinion..

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most likely

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thats great, so what the fuck setup does the Cephalic guy use?

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fairly true even if it is his opinion, i mean there are other fun effects out there ( delay, reverb my two faves), but those only sound good by themselves. Wah, chorus, and minor fuzz are the only really effective effects within songs.

that was my main point sorry if i was a little vague

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The SWR 750x seems to have a nice distortion channel going!