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Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 26 2013, 12:43 AM

Hey guys ~ and Todd, I know you'll have some insider info if Bogdan is not around, but basically - I picked up a new bass and have really been getting into it - kind of a situation that was born out of necessity as my current cover band lost our bass player and we needed someone to fill in ~ and I had just purchased http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/JBassSVMNat?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CJK92Z_oy7gCFa9fQgod4koAkw :

Anywas, back on point!

New to the world of bass and tone, I'm trying to find a tone comparable to Hunter's tone of AFI from this song - whether it's a pedal, a plugin, an EQ... whatever I can get my hands on. Any recommendations?



Thanks in advance!
Chris!

Posted by: Darius Wave Jul 26 2013, 10:15 AM

Hey Man! Those Squiers are pretty good for the price. I work at the music shop and we had at least a few of them to try out.

About the tone...the bacis thing in there seems to be a lot of mid scooped. If You want a plug-in thatis close to this I recommend Amplitube 1.1 there is a preset called bass solid or rock solid and it's pretty what You here in there

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jul 26 2013, 11:02 AM

Great to hear you are playing bass!

The tone in this song sounds very natural to me. Try killing the brightness a bit with the tone knob on the bass. Since it is not an active bass, you should be able to use subtle EQ (via some pedal or better yet, via amp) to add a bit of bass and lower (scoop) mids a touch. New strings will give you that sizzle you can hear in the recording.

With bass it is always simple. Always start with completely flat settings on bass and amp and tweak a bit from there. When recording, in most cases recording completely dry signal using a DI will give you great recording tone.

Please let me know how it goes and if you need any help with bass related stuff

Posted by: waynedcoville Jul 26 2013, 12:10 PM

probably an ampeg amp for that faint hint of gain, although the brightness makes me wonder if its a hartke. play with a pick to achieve that attack. dial in just a touch of compression - not too much or you'll kill your tone. i hate to step on Bogdans balls, but i'd say keep the brightness for this particular tone quest. maybe not boost it, but don't damp it. new strings or or old strings kept alive with fastfret. i've been playing bass for over 20 years and through my journey, i've been on many a tone quest. i've discovered that there are so many inherent variables including obvious ones such as brand/alloy of string and species of wood that the bass is made out of, to not no obvious one such as the room you're in and the physical make up of the player him/herself. also, try not to emulate anothers sound. that sound already exists and has its place. enjoy it where it is. keep questing. you'll find your voice.
hail satan.

Posted by: Darius Wave Jul 26 2013, 02:00 PM

I'll stand in line with You about this. Forgot to add the pick factor. I'm afraid Jazz Bass guitars won't sound this way with a 12'o clock eq'ing. More like Spector has naturally contorued tone. Fender are rather very warm...ain't say that's bad

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 26 2013, 05:33 PM

Bogdan! Just the man I was hoping to hear from!
I'm having such a great time with the bass - I think I've found my new love. It's interesting - after picking it up and playing it for practically the first time, I realized it's the bass (not the guitar) I hear in my head when I'm humming song concepts to myself. I never realized that was the case. Composition all of a sudden got much easier!

When you say all "flat settings", you mean everything completely turned down to 0, then move up from there?
Also, what amp would you recommend to get a live sound like that? For recording, I'll go DI, but I have a show in a month where I debut on the bass, and want to get a nice sizzle-thumping sound like what you heard in the AFI song!

Much appreciated!
Chris!





I bought it because i was cheap and as my first bass, I didn't figure I'd know what felt comfortable to play until I've become accustomed to at least 1 bass - all highly praised for the price, so I just bit the bullet and went for it. I have to say, it feels really natural, and the long neck plays like a dream, even slung low the way I like it on my guitar! The 3 tone knobs are a bit too much to chew on though Gonna take time to figure out how to dial in a good tone with those

Amplitube for bass? who woulda guessed? I'll hunt it down and give it a try after I've recorded a track.

Much appreciated!
Chris!



Then I'll add +.001% to the mids of that tone and keep everything else the same I love that natural sound Hunter gets in that particular song, and if you love something, go for it is my thought on the matter. Besides, who besides me actually listens to AFI ? I'm sure no one will know the difference.

I've never used fastfret before ~ perhaps I'll give it a try. Instructions say put it on the back of the neck too? How weird ~ I slide just fine without it - in fact, I like my thumb to stick a bit when I plant it for anchor sake!

Much appreciate the feedback!

Posted by: waynedcoville Jul 26 2013, 05:37 PM

I've never used fastfret before ~ perhaps I'll give it a try. Instructions say put it on the back of the neck too? How weird ~ I slide just fine without it - in fact, I like my thumb to stick a bit when I plant it for anchor sake!

Much appreciate the feedback!
[/quote]

i never put it on the back of the neck. makes things too slippery and i overshoot the mark, but applied to the strings, it keeps them sounding new

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 26 2013, 05:38 PM

I just googled this pertaining to amps :

"He uses an Ampeg SVT head, 8x10 & 2x15 setup while recording. He also uses a P-bass when he doesn't need to cut through that much. There's a small clip on ares (p2p network) that's called "Hunter Bass Tracking" I think. Cool little clip. For example listen to "The Nephilim" - P bass, "Sacrifice Theory" - Jazz. I wish one of these boutique bass-slinging guys in here would go toe to toe with Hunter....that would be good video."

Chris!

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 26 2013, 06:27 PM

How often do you find you need to change bass strings, and do you use locking tuners on a bass (is there such a thing?)

hail scotty! There's something wrong with the coffee maker!

thanks!
Chris

Posted by: waynedcoville Jul 26 2013, 07:55 PM

i use to change a lot when i had the money. now that i have a fiancee, so i change once a year. bass strings are expensive so i don't do it more than that. my personal favs are Fedora nickle plated compression wounds. they are have the best string-to-string balance and sound phenomenal. they are the first set of strings i've tried where the B isnt floppy but resonates in your sternum. im sure there are locking bass tuners, but i don't use them nor do i feel the need for them, but to each their own.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jul 26 2013, 10:35 PM

Flat settings means that you start 12 o'clock position on the knobs. That means you are in neutral (0). From there when you move to left you cut and when you move to right you boost certain frequencies. That is your starting point and then you should gently move the pots to dial in the tone you are after.

Since you found out that he uses Ampeg amp live, I can recommend this "budget" one as a nice option : http://www.ampeg.com/products/bassamp/ba115/

Keep in mind that 100 watts for bass amp is not that much but should work nicely for rehearsals and gigs. Usually bass goes straight to PA via DI box unit on any gig that is larger then small clubs. One disappointment may be that tone engineers sometimes on gigs prefer to take DI signal out of your bass and skip micing the amp completely. In such cases the amp is up there for on stage monitoring and to look good

About fastfret - I'm a fan and use it all the time!
It can really make your strings sound "like new" (to some extent) but there is trick I found with it. Ignore the number 2 step in the instructors and do not wipe the excess away with a cloth, rather let it dry on its own over night. In the morning, the strings will sound as new again. When I was following directions and wiping off excess after application, I didn't notice much tone change (and yet I did get greasy strings). I think it takes some time for chemistry to kick in and properly clean the strings, trying leaeving it over night and see what happens

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 26 2013, 10:57 PM

Awesome! Thanks for the info!

Posted by: Darius Wave Jul 27 2013, 12:21 AM

Here You have some samples of mine. I wouldn't mess in Your topic but I just found that the bass tone You search is pretty much what I like too

Tone of the bass itself is a key to success. I had a few basses (I was searching for the RIGHT bass tone to my recordings). I neede a scooped bass tone with a tons of attack, treble end....I found it it a cheap Spector Performer (Very short series...even cheaper than Legend...but it works for me and I would never guess it costed so little amount of money while I was testing it).


Here is the direct tone from the bass:

 spector_direct.mp3 ( 631.84K ) : 88


Here is the factory "Rock Solid" preset from Amplitube 1.1 (Yeah...good old amplitube):

 spector_amplitube_rock_solid.mp3 ( 610.61K ) : 114


And here is the Amplitube with "circle about" the eq I usually would do:

 spector_amplitube_rock_solid_eq.mp3 ( 631.84K ) : 93

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 29 2013, 05:40 PM

Hey, these are great tones - I think I like the last one the best because of its dark thundering bass undertones. I'm unfamiliar with the "circle about" eq setting, but I'm guessing it's a preset in Amplitube? Thanks for the sound samples. I tried recording my bass last night, but my computer hand-me down is not quite up to snuff like I had hoped so I'm in the market for a new computer dedicated to recording.http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/CS450x ~ one day, you will be mine!

muahahaha.

Thanks!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 29 2013, 06:07 PM

I also think that the sound of that bass comes from an Ampeg. The cheaper way would be going for the Amplitube Ampeg plug in which combined with the right EQ and Compression can help you get a tone close to that one.

Check these samples:



Another cool emulator is the ons from Gallien Krueger. Here is a demo recorded by my brother, in the end he shows the software. (it's in Spanish)

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 29 2013, 06:23 PM

You're brother did an awesome job ~ wish I could speak Spanish, but I got the gist. Thanks for the info on GK. Good, natural tone. I'll have to toy with GK too.

Thanks!

Posted by: WeePee Jul 29 2013, 07:37 PM

Wow Mike Drint really knows how to make cool bass lines Your brother is a beast Gabe

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 30 2013, 04:56 AM

yes, I was impressed by the sound that he could get with this software. It's not a popular software but it should..



yeah, his bass lines are very good! and that's why my brother is Cirse's bassist.

Posted by: SirJamsalot Jul 30 2013, 05:31 PM

It is for this reason, I wish I had a brother! 2 even - one who plays drums!

Posted by: Darius Wave Jul 30 2013, 07:46 PM

I got both One is 1,5 year younger and play drums and the second is 4 years younger and play the bass This is some old recording from us...we played some rock stuff together then

Posted by: Todd Simpson Jul 31 2013, 05:38 AM

Good news Most of the guitar plugins have BASS RIGS built in. Which ever one you have already has bass presets just waiting to be used If you have Amplitude, Guitar Rig, etc. Just go to the BASS section and find a patch that you sorta like and start tweaking. Some of the bass amps are very convincing.

Congrats on getting a bass!! I got a 5 string Ibanez bass a bit back and I gotta say it's fun

Todd

Posted by: SirJamsalot Aug 1 2013, 12:21 AM

that's awesome!



Thanks Todd! I figured that might be the case - as of yet, I haven't used any plugins, but that's changing now that I need to record bass. I was using my HD500 for DI guitar work. Bass is new to me tho!

Cheers!