Bass tone excellence - Unsane

[DarkAxel]

hey dudes,

so recently I started playing in a second band. I'm playing bass (borrowing a nice Schecter, I'd prefer a jaguar or a precision, though... we'll see) and using a few effects. My current board has been a Fingerprint (not really sold on that tbh) into Mini into Digitech PDS 20/20 for flangers into a DM-2 clone. I play through a semi-decent warwick amp that's a bit wimpy (I have to run it almost at full blast), but gives me a quite nice tone through a 1x15 speaker

bottom line is - i don't have money for a new rig, so i play what i get to... still pretty happy with it

we're kind of a rock trio, i'm trying to give it a good groove and edge with some dirt and shit. Been focusing a lot on bass tones lately and noticed that Visqueen by Unsane has one of my favourite bass tones of all time... for example

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvaJngF3hoU[/youtube]

I can get pretty mean with the Mini, but this grating-wood-balsiness escapes me... any rather cheap way to get close those tones? Don't need necessarily that much dirt, but I like the impact so to speak.
Been thinking about trying maybe a Boss DS-1 or the new EHX Hot Tubes, so I don't have to rotate the Mini between my bass and guitar boards, but something tells me it might not get me even close. Should I try tweaking my Elements? Any good settings recommendations?

[pelliott]

Yeah fiddling around with the Elements ought to get you close to that. That's a RAT sound, isn't it?

[DarkAxel]

To be honest, I have no idea Had a Rat once, but haven't had the chance to try it on bass... Thanks for that, though!

I'm also relatively new to the bass world, I have been playing bass for the last 5 years for home recording sessions, but i haven't looked into the effects world, i'Ve always just been using what I had at the time... any advice is welcomed

[pelliott]

Yeah pretty sure that's a Rat so the Elements ought to get you close. I don't play bass so I couldn't tell you what settings to try, however. Sorry!

But I might scout out some Rats if I were you and get an LM308 chip one. Oh, and an Acoustic bass amp will be really cheap used if you need moar power if you get the money for both a pedal and a low-priced amp.

[DarkAxel]

I think I should sort out my own bass first though... all in due time I guess

will look more into the Elements then cheers

[pelliott]

Oh I missed you're borrowing the bass. My bad!

[DarkAxel]

It's cool... I got a rather good offer on the Schecter, so I might buy that... it's an active bass, sounds pretty good to me, thin and comfy neck, feels pretty great! not really a looker but oh well...

[D.o.S.]

Unsane Rules.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rW5VAwn3vI[/youtube]

[bronzetalon]

http://motleycustoms.blogspot.com/2010/ ... board.html

[D.o.S.]

Sansamp will totally do that tone.

[GAS KING]

Elements with clean blended in should get you close.....without losing low end.
Does the bass have individual volume controls for neck and bridge pickups? I would start with the bridge full on.......then add the neck pickup to fatten it up, but not too much.

I've found that dirtying up a round low end can just create flub...........unless you mix in the clean/clean-ish tone with the distorted one.

Never really listened to Unsane much, but my impressions from the clips are that it sounds like: uses pick, stainless strings, high tension (as in not tuning down a standard set so they are floppy).........can't really see the bass clearly....Fender P....but not sure if there's a J pickup in there or not.

Hopefully those things can get you close without spending much.

[Ancient Astronaught]

Rat with gain @ 11:00, filter around 1:00, and volume maxxed should get you a similar tone. That's how I run my Rat in my bass rig (p-bass > board > tube head > 8x10) and it sounds strikingly similar.

[DarkAxel]

Yeah, the bass has separate volumes... I actually currently run both dimed but I might try backing off that neck pickup

gonna bring my Elements and do a whole lot of tweaking next rehearsal it can do so much that i'm a bit clueless about finding the right sounds, so I wasn't able to make it work earlier

Thanks, AA! Will keep that in mind

edit: i'm actually retarded, it has a blend knob which i have in the middle

[DarkAxel]

Alright, tried a Rat on bass today! Definitely in the ballpark

Now I just need to get one/find the right settings on my Elements (probably that one ) thanks for pointing me in the right direction