concretebadger

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. I have to say I like the sound of the B3K but it's really out of my price range sadly. Maybe when I' more experienced on the bass I might be able to justify it, but right now I'd feel it would be wasted on me, if that makes any sense. It's interesting that the Juggernaut isn't all it's cracked up to be...looks like another RAT is the way to go then, until I can afford a Darkglass. What's the Boss bass OD like by the way? In my experience their guitar distortions are hit and miss - some are lacklustre sound-wise and are popular because of their reliability rather than sounding outstanding. EDIT: now I think of it, a bass playing friend of mine used to use a Jackhammer and may even be selling it. Hmm... And yeah, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs are a really fun but little-known band. Glad you liked that! The guitarist left fairly recently though, so I'm not sure when their next record will be out.

I've never used an amp's effects loop either (and I use a lot of reverb and delay effects, which are traditionally used that way!) because it would bypass the amp's eq controls and add to the amount of cable the signal would have to run through. If I made use of the amp's preamp distortion I'd try it but it's never felt necessary. That's what I've always done with guitar. Chorus before distortion sounds a bit muddy to me and I'd expect a wah post-distortion to be particularly sensitive and hard to control since the Big Muff is so drastically scooped in the highs and lows. A tuner is supposed to be first in line though, so it has the pure and uneffected sound to work with, Using the LS-2 as a wet/dry mix box for the effects is a neat idea though... I'd personally go tuner -> LS-2 -> *split signal* wah -> fuzz -> chorus but experimentation really is the best plan!

I'm running a simple recording setup of a Fender J through a pedal tuner, Sansamp D.I. and reverb pedal into a USB mixer but I'm after a dirt box that can add some texture and sustain for the 'loud bits'. The D.I. compresses and EQs things nicely but there's virtually no distortion at all on its own. I've tried some of the stompboxes I use for guitar to give you a general idea of what I'm after. Also, [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQc-2bBmdfw"]this vid[/url] has a kicking bass sound - the bass break at the 3:10 mark is roughly what I'm aiming for. Big Muff: there's plenty of thickness and sustain but I'm not really after a fuzz because the 'square wave' distortion is too 'regular' and smooth. Danelectro Fab Tone: the high end is too loose and fizzly but I like the tweakability of the bass and treble. Proco RAT: this is close. Plenty of mids (the Sansamp can bring out enough bottom end), sustain and grit. Didn't ProCo make a bass version at some point? Right now the nearest I've got to the sound in my head is a RAT-like distortion but since I'm a newcomer to the bass recording thing I'm not sure how the requirements and approach differ from, say, a rhythm guitar part or how bass dirt boxes differ from their guitar counterparts. I'm assuming the emphasis should be on the lower mids, rather than scooping the tone through boosting the highs and lows, so would a good port of call be a bass-friendly RAT? I've so far worked out that I want a high-ish gain distortion/valvelike overdrive rather than a fuzz but beyond that I'm feeling spoilt for choice. Any advice in narrowing it down would be appreciated!

I've used an EHX Holy Grail Plus, which is fairly compact and has a blend knob (which can go up to 100% effected, which I'm assuming might be useful for your style) in addition to decay time and mode selection. The Hall setting's nice and the Spring sounds authentic (unlike the equivalent on Boss units) but the only drawback is it needs its own individual 9V supply. The connector's the standard centre-negative barrel type, but daisy-chained with other pedals it adds an annoying background whine which gets louder when you add gain/distortion. Other than that, the HG+ is, in of itself, a great little box. Because of the daisy-chaining noise issues my HG+ is now off my board and I use Boss RV-5s for both guitar and bass. I personally like them, but the Spring setting is useless and you need to roll off the tone knob to keep the decay warm-sounding. They don't do 100% wet either, which is why I keep an RV-3. You might have guessed I'm into reverb-y post rock swashes of sound too. The TC Electronic Hall of Fame is another pedalboard-friendly box that I was tempted to try out, but never got around to it.

Yup, Thirsk isn't far from where I am at all. Sunderland's a bit further north though...

Oh yes, Catherine Wheel...I love the Ferment album. Indigo Is Blue is another fave of mine. Currently listening to To The Loveless by the Boom Boom Satellites...Back On My Feet is one heck of an album opener: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-Nn535K9Y[/media]

Hi all My name's Martin and I currently live in the rural backwater between Leeds and Newcastle. I was pointed in the direction of the forums via a work colleague and figured it would be a good place to lurk and pick up tips on bass playing/recording. I've played guitar for over a decade but after deciding to start a home recording project a few months back I realised I needed a bass to get the thing off the ground. I'm naturally left-handed but always played right-handed guitars so when going over to four strings I took it as a chance to start learning from scratch. I picked up a left-handed MIM Fender J-bass and I'm now in the process of re-learning everything...and it's a lot of fun! I'm pretty much a novice in bass playing but I've been looking towards the likes of Mogwai, Joy Division, Caspian and Mass of the Fermenting Dregs for inspiration. I was brought up on the classic rock faves but my own style is shoegaze/post rock and 90s alternative (I hate categorising music like this, but sometimes it's easier that way!). I'm still getting my rig together so I'm currently running the Jazz through a ProCo RAT 2 and RV-5 reverb into a Marshall valve combo that I used to use for guitar...a Sansamp D.I. or similar is probably more suitable for that, so that's at the top of my shopping list right now. Anyhow, it's good to meet you all!