No bassist, important gig - what to do gear wise?

[goroth]

Alright, we've got a gig coming up that we have to take (in the positive sense of the word) but our bassist can't make it. Any tips on surviving/trying to make the best out of the situation? The gig is on Saturday, so we've got pretty much zero time. We can take a bass amp. We don't have time to rearrange our material for two guitars and bass (and have one of the guitarists do a hack job on bass). We play metal, tuned to D, and have three guitarists so it won't sound super pathetically weak but... .

I'm thinking, should I:
1) EQ the guitar differently? (how??)
2) Buy an AB/Y and split my signal and send it to the bass amp? Active or passive splitter?
3a) Split the signal and run some sort of octave down on the "bass" signal? If so, cleanish octave like a POG, or fuzz octave, like ah... Blue Box?
3b) Do I need an eq in there, or some sort of cross over to make sure that I don't send a bunch of treble to the bass amp?
4) Fuck it and hope that our audience is stupid and doesn't notice anything?
5) Some other rad ILF solution I haven't thought of?

Any ideas dudez?

[D.o.S.]

Blue Box is a no go--and a polyphonic octave down that can track quickly and accurately is going to be kind of tricky.

My vote is to plug in to the bass amp, which will Kyuss-ify the guitar tone. One thing about guitar into bass cab is that the frequency response of a lot of them will kill most of the high end anyway--and make the low end sound monsterous--so I recommend your "most rhythm" guitarist for that role.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah i think plugging one of the guitarists into the bass amp would be better than using an octaver. Just eq it so it's pretty bassy and try to play low down and it shouldn't sound too bad unless thre are basslines that are a huge part of the music.

[jrmy]

I'm gonna go with these guys, and add to DoS's assessment that while I love the POG, it's definitely more than plug & play, especially if you'd be running chords and dirt into it - it can handle them for sure, but it'll take a bit of tweaking to get it to work right without turning things to mud.

I'd say add the bass amp to your rhythm-est guitar and go for it.

EDIT: what type of bass amp is it? He won't be going clean into it, right? It's not a super-bright solid-state amp, is it? Those things could all result in badness.

[univalve]

Octave Down won't work with just playing through like always. You have to play in The Way The Pedal wants it and reacts...

I would Split The Signal and Set a static Filter with a HUGE low end Setting before The bass amp Channel. Leave The guitar sound like it is always.

[goroth]

Ok sweet!
We're using whatever backline they have, likely a basic solid state EBS. Can pick up a splitter tonight, passive ok?

Clean guitar out> split > fuzz> eq/filter > bass amp.
Yeah? Will test a bunch of fuzz through the bassist's amp to see what sounds ok. Uni would a 6 band mxr work? Think it has 100 200 and 400 hz in the lower end of the spectrum.

[goroth]

Oh yeah, I should add for all the help thus far!

[hbombgraphics]

running through the bass amp is a great idea, and I think you could EQ right off the amp to get some thump, maybe run a fuzz into it but mostly the extra low end will be enough, I used to run a bass amp and a guitar amp even when we did have a bass player: Played metal/hardcore in D and had great success that way, since our bass player wasn't just playing the guitar parts down an octave it worked out great.

I definitely wouldn't change your guitar tone to compensate, if you could get your hands on one an MXR bass DI would be awesome, run it first, run the parallel out to your guitar board (which we all know is awesome) and then EQ and dirt up the bass signal as needed.

I have to hear your band dude,

[goroth]

Hearing the band... entails that we have to finish our demo...



It's taken sooooo long. And the drums are in cubase and the rest is in logic (which also deserves a face palm). But I'll knock off the vocals on the 9th of March and then hopefully get it mixed and mastered by the end of March - woooo! But we're going to book studio time in September and do things right (not half ok, half DIY crap), which will be great. The new material is a lot better than some of the stuff we've recorded for this demo.

Will nick down to the music store and see if they have an MXR bass DI

[univalve]

Ok sweet!
We're using whatever backline they have, likely a basic solid state EBS. Can pick up a splitter tonight, passive ok?

Clean guitar out> split > fuzz> eq/filter > bass amp.
Yeah? Will test a bunch of fuzz through the bassist's amp to see what sounds ok. Uni would a 6 band mxr work? Think it has 100 200 and 400 hz in the lower end of the spectrum.

Yeah, Take whatever you have Handy and tune it to the amp at the Stage. Don't think about the Sound alone. Just go for Boom and depth. I have no idea how fast you guys Play, but i would Look for a pretty "fast sound Feedback/response" so that your playing is Not Affected.
The 6 Band should work - also any Filter that can be Set to a static Setting. Somehow the 200 and maybe a Bit of the 400 will do the Job Fine.
Passive ok, but use it maybe After an always active Pedal to Not Loose to much of your Output - if you use active pus you are golden.
My idea behind this: You have basicly a shitload of Bass in normal Guitar Riffs. Just get rid of the overtones and pronounce simply the bassy response are.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

obligatory bassist joke...

[aen]

Even though we have a "bass player" sometimes, I still have to hold down the low end when I play guitar or baritone.
My solution - Stick to the neck pickup, if possible. Split your signal into a guitar and a bass amp. Use the biggest, boomiest, muddiest bass cab you can. I have a 1x15 cab that really magnifies the lows, and I think the cab structure even introduces subharmonics. If you really push your guitar's lows through a bass amp, you can at least make the mix sound intentional, rather than "Where the fuck is that bass?"

I haven't had much luck with octave pedals, but I did see a band do it right. He had 2 outputs from his guitar, and half the pole pieces removed from each pickup. So treble came from the high 3 strings to one amp, and the bass came from the low 3 strings to octave pedals and then bass amp.

You probably dont want to go dismantling pickups or adding jacks to a guitar though...

[goroth]

Good call on making it sound intentional Aen. I'll also keep it in mind when talking with the sound guy that the bass amp should be boomy and bassy as shit.

[kosta]

+1 for the Guitar -> EQ -> Bass Amp situation. Petey Dammit from Thee Oh Sees does that to great effect. Makes that Jazzmaster sound like natural born bass I'd say.

[space6oy]

i use a splitter and run through a whammy for polyphonic octave down. why there isn't gonna be a bassist in one of the two bands i'm working on. love it aside from not being perfectly clear and the whammy taking up too much space... spent a few looking for suggestions another option but haven't found a smaller octave that's anything decently comparable...