Sudden Whim Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I'm thinking of getting a distortion/overdrive pedal because the band I play with really want to use this effect in a song of ours. But I can't think of any songs to play that use distortion on the bass and there's no point in getting a pedal just to play one song. Can anyone suggest some decent songs that use distortion or overdrive on the bass? The only thing I can think of is I think Tool uses the effect in a couple of their songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getz out Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Most Ben Folds Five songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Red 67 Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Depends on what you play. Like "Big Bottoms". hehehe Big Red's Ride Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Ferrington III. Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 D'you have a "gain" knob on your amp? I'm wondering if you can't get the distortion from the amp without splurging on a pedal. Band MySpace My snazzy t-shirt empire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil W Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Lots of King Crimson - Red is the classic! the guy from Rage Against the Machine Audioslave uses it a bit. Alphonso Johnson uses it brilliantly on Weather Report's Gibraltar. etc.etc. http://philwbass.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brocko777 Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Geddy Lee's sound has a great overdriven sound also alot of Primus stuff is distorted or overdriven. Billy Sheehan is another and John Myung from Dream Theater plays with an overdriven distorted sound. Allot of variables. Is there a certain players sound you want to get or is the band just wanting a distorted bass sound? Don't have a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. ~ Johnny Carson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbn Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden has a pretty good bass distortion on many of the tracks on Badmotorfinger. One that comes to mind is Rusty Cage. Outshined has the best bass tone on the album and it is a medium to heavy overdrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Capasso Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Two things: First: Click here for a similar thread! Second: I remembered that I had made some very very specific comments about distortion in the last year or so. I used the DREADED search. Rather than put my own ID in (and have to scan through all those bad jokes), I selected the following: Low Down Lowdown forum (yes - it irks me that the forum you are in isn't clicked for you as a starting point).The search term I used was regrets (I remembered the name of the song, and it was a word that was more uniquely used than "distortion")left the click on "subject and body"put 1 in the "newer than", and selected the "year" dropdown. That meant it searched the last year of posts.I got a list of posts fairly quickly, and was able to spot what I was looking for. NOTE - Disclaimer I was working on some searches yesterday and got "time-out" errors. I am still studying this and will be sending some examples to the sys-admin. My guess is that there is either a patch or some tuning needed for this, and he'll get it figured out... And back on topic, I plan to wrap my hands around my own Little Big Muff bassed on basshappi's review and the light price. Thanks! Tom www.stoneflyrocks.com Acoustic Color Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground. - Theodore Roosevelt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbn Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 To help Tom out a little bit... Here is the "Search" link: http://usera.imagecave.com/NUTT/ldl-search.bmp.jpg To set your search up use the screenshot below. You will see that I used "quotation marks" to search for a specific phrase and the + symbol to search for the words "upright" and "bass". I also changed the time period to search for posts newer than 5 years old, which is the limit of the search function. http://usera.imagecave.com/NUTT/ldl-search-detail.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basshappi Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Listen to anything by Kings X! Doug Pinnick is a master in the application of overdrive and distortion on bass. Get the following CDs: Out of a Silent Planet Gretchen Goes to Nebraska Faith, Hope, Love Dogman Nothing is as it seems but everything is exactly what it is - B. Banzai Life is what happens while you are busy playing in bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruuve Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Are you targeting a subtle overdrive or all-out fuzz (or something in between?) I think there are LOTS of songs where there's some subtle (or not-so-subtle) overdrive on the bass. A large percentage of rock songs have some OD on the bass. A recent song that immediately comes to mind for me with some face-melting bass distortion is "Left Out" by Shinedown (on the Leave a Whisper CD). On the intro and chorus, the bass and guitars combined just present this wall of distortion...enough to vaporize small mammals. There's some substantial overdrive on the bass in the verses too. Check out a clip at Amazon.com. Dave Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs. - Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sudden Whim Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 Thanks for the all the info. Sounds like it could be worth getting a pedal after all! The kind of distortion I was going for isn't really subtle, we wanted a sound that would be quite obviously distorted to the ear but not over the top. There isn't really a particular persons's style we're going for Someone also mentioned using the gain on the amp - I have a cheap amp at the moment which doesn't have this setting...but I am getting a better one soon. Would the gain give you a decent sound if it was a decent amp? And could you get as much variation as with a pedal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil W Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 In a jazz context, Miroslav Vitous made wonderful use of distorted upright bass on the early Weather Report records. http://philwbass.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexclaber Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Very few bass amps do decent distortion by cranking up the gain, unlike guitar amps where it's more common to do so. If you're looking for a pedal, an used Fulltone BassDrive would be a fine choice - not as cheap as some but if you don't like it you can sell without loss, and it's one of the few distortion pedals that keeps all your bottom. Alex Barefaced Ltd - ultra lightweight, high ouput, toneful bass cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bear Jew Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Classic ginormous bass fuzz/distortion: "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go" by Curtis Mayfield. Also, almost every single Motorhead song has some degree of distortion on the bass. \m/ Erik "To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." --Sun Tzu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yourlord Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Anesthesia(Pulling Teeth) Feel free to visit my band's site Delusional Mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UTS-D Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 The latest bass distortion tone that I'm totally digging is from The Haunted on the recent release The Dead Eye. It's like the perfect amount of distortion. It's not an overdose of distortion but just enough for an awesome growl. Check it out. Listen to the song "The Drowning". The Haunted And if I'm not mistaken, the bass player plays through EBS amps and pedals. UNDER THE STONE Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basshappi Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Check out "Metal" by Brian Bromberg! What is your budget for pedals, it might help us to give you better advice if we know. Nothing is as it seems but everything is exactly what it is - B. Banzai Life is what happens while you are busy playing in bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruuve Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 The only two bass amps that really come to mind for me that yeild some distortion and/or overdrive are Ampeg and Gallien-Krueger. Ampeg's the classic overdrive grit that you hear in so many rock songs. I actually personally like what I've heard of Gallien-Krueger better...there's a boost knob that does some frequency-limited distortion...driven lows/mids with clean highs, really nice growl with what sounds like very even-ordered harmonics. Some of the GK's (not all) also have a high-gain distortion circuit...I don't think I've ever actually heard that, but from descriptions I'd expect it to yield a more fuzz-like vibe. Maybe Jason (G7TZ) will chime in...he has a GK 2001RBP preamp. I'd love to find a pedal that can do that GK driven lows/mids + clean highs. (There are two possibilities I've stumbled across recently...the Ashdown Bass Drive Plus has a low gain, high gain, and blend control...the MXR M-181 BlowTorch does mid distortion with clean lows and clean highs.) Actually, there's a couple of SWR heads that have a drive channel, and the SWR Interstellar Overdrive preamp as well...how could I forget those... Dave Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs. - Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric VB Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 I was thinking along the same lines as Dave, although my only exposure to Shinedown thus far has been the song "Heroes". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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