LLroomtempJ Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 holy crap...i just learned how to get an overdriven tone from my amplifier(thanks benloy). It brings a smile to my face just to think about the beauty (and clear evenness) of the tone. My question is: Are bass amplifiers designed to do this? How safe is this for the life of the amplifier? I trust my gk amp, but i'm just wondering what results you guys have had in general with preamp gain overdriven tones on your amplifiers. oh...i demonstrated the tone difference to guys in my house and it bought smiles even to the most conservative of musicians. jason 2cor5:21 Soli Deo Gloria "it's the beauty of a community. it takes a village to raise a[n] [LLroomtempJ]." -robb My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruuve Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Hey Jason: If you're doing it by cranking the preamp knob on your amp, your GK (or any other head that I know of) should be able to do this for years without blinking. If you're doing it by driving the power amp section into clipping (which I seriously, seriously doubt), go ahead and buy some new drivers for your cabs now 'cause you gonna need 'em... Try getting it just to where you've got some grit but with other instruments combined it's not noticeable that you're overdriving it...that'll cut through without being noticeably distorted (just another sonic option). Have fun 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...
alexclaber Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Something I've noticed with my SWR Grand Prix is that as you push it harder it gets more bite and growl and starts to almost snarl but in a very tight funky way. I suspect GK heads do a similar thing but maybe more aggressively judging by Flea's tone of the last couple of RHCP albums. On the other hand my experience with overdriving either very convincing sounding pedals (Fulltone Bassdrive) or valve amps is that the tone gets thicker and looser as you push the amp harder, which makes for a great thundering rock bass sound. What do everyone else's amps do when overdriven - Maury, how about your Demeter and Kern? Or the little Eden? Donut, the Alembic? All you Ampeg users - Wraub? JWH? Edendude, am I on the right track about the GK? Alex Barefaced Ltd - ultra lightweight, high ouput, toneful bass cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getz out Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 The Demeter will never growl in to overdrive territory. The Kern is uber-fat. Close tot eh Demeter. The little Eden WT-330 does growl - it has a "Warm" feature that gives crunchy good distortion. Now, pushing that little switch that's attached to the Z.Vex Woolly Mammoth with my toe... now that's out-of-site. Oh, and the gain on my Traynor YCV-40 guitar amp is blistering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLroomtempJ Posted February 10, 2005 Author Share Posted February 10, 2005 what is this that i hear about needing new drivers for my cab if i use a lot of distortion? My cab handles the new signal pretty well. I have an ashdown abm410 which can handle 600 rms and 900 peak. jason 2cor5:21 Soli Deo Gloria "it's the beauty of a community. it takes a village to raise a[n] [LLroomtempJ]." -robb My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruuve Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Jason: Don't panic...I was just jibbing you... Any preamp level distortion is fine...it's not going to damage anything in your rig. If you drive the power amp section (rather than the preamp secton) into clipping far enough to get a distorted signal from the power amp itself, it would not only cook the speakers, it would sound absolutely horrible in a very loud way while doing it. (No one in their right mind would get distortion this way....well, actually I guess guitar players do it with tube power amps, don't they? As I was saying... ) You're not going to damage anything...now go let some fuzz ooze about your place of residence... Come to think of it, I haven't tried running the preamp on my SWR SM-900 into over-drive in a long time...I could swear it did that once and really didn't like how it sounded. Maybe I'll try it tonight. The preamp has to be pretty hot to get it into distortion on the SM-900... L8r, 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...
LizzyD Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 I recently picked up an SWR Interstellar Overdrive. I run it as a second preamp into its own cab, while my big main cab stays all clean. I use the external drive pedal to control the amount of drive, so I can kick the distortion up or down according to my whims. It is just mighty sounding. My site | Facebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfiend Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Originally posted by LizzyD: I recently picked up an SWR Interstellar Overdrive. I run it as a second preamp into its own cab, while my big main cab stays all clean. I use the external drive pedal to control the amount of drive, so I can kick the distortion up or down according to my whims. It is just mighty sounding. Very a like to the setup bryan beller had in his "old rig". You can findthe schematics on his site www.bryanbeller.com He apparently went from using an extra cab for distortion and also using a pedalboard to relying on his new amp and subsequent cabs. The new amp is a swr mobass. Bumcity uses one also. Hiram Bullock thinks I like the band volume too soft (but he plays guitar). Joe Sample thinks I like it way too loud (but he plays piano). -Marcus Miller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Here's a tip for recording overdriven/distorted/fuzz bass. When tracking, split the signal and record both a clean track (DI) and the overdriven track (speaker cab) simultaneously. In the mix, blend both of these signals together for a PHAT, warm, overdriven bass tone that will CRUSH. https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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