Annoying Twit Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Up until late last year I was putting equal emphasis on g**t*r and bass. Now I'm not. I've found a re-use for guitars I have - as tuned in all-fourths tuning, like a bass, that I can use guitars to achieve higher ranges without buying a 10 string bass or something. While I always use a pick on the guitar, but usually play bass fingerstyle, I play it very much like a bass, just using higher notes. I'm finding uses for other bits too. One of my basses, a Rockbass Streamer standard, is nice to play now that I've fiddled with the setup until I found something suitable except it has a bit too much clank (I may put tapewound strings on it). But, the pickups aren't strong enough. And the tone control isn't very useful. I've got a bid on ebay on a Behringer BDI21, but then I spotted a Marshall Guv'nor GV-2 lying around. It's got a pre-amp and four-band EQ, so I thought why not give it a go. It certainly gives the Streamer a lot of output, as much as I need. And while the EQ doesn't change the fundamental nature of the sound, it certainly gives quite a lot of ability to shape the sound. I'm having a bit of difficulty getting a bass sound that's both strongly bassy but also well defined, but maybe I just need to play around with the gain and the EQ bands. Oh, and I used a Roland Microcube guitar (not bass) amp as a headphone amp for it. At one point, I cut all lows from the bass, turned the gain of the GV-2 up, and added delay and chorus via the microcube. A very useful 'heavy' sound which sounded good even on the open low B string. Anyone else re-using guitar bits for bassy purposes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annoying Twit Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) I have a bass at work for odd minutes here and there practice. I'm using a Vox AC30 amplug as a headphone amp on it, with a jack cable from a laptop which has a drum machine. I wondered about buying the bass amplug, but this one seems to do the job. The simple effects and amp models on my (guitar) microcube seem to work fine with bass. But I haven't played bass through the speaker on it, even at low levels, in case I damage it. Edited March 22, 2014 by Annoying Twit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 I'm too lazy to unpack the gig bag between gigs and rehearsals, so dug out my old guitar rack bag with a Marshall JMP1 guitar preamp, Boss VF-1 effects unit and a Marshall Valvestate 40+40 power amp. It's set up as a dual purpose guitar/bass practice setup with a Zoom B3 fed into the JMP1, VF1 in the JMP1's effects loop, and then the power amp into an Ashdown 210 Deep bass cab. Tweeter long since blown up and replaced with a square of plywood! I usually plug the B3 straight into the VF1 input for bass so the JMP1 is only really being used as a volume control, but it still sort of counts, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annoying Twit Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) I started this thread just after I put a lowish (but plausible) bid on a Behringer BDI21, but then spotted my Guv'nor GV-2 and gave it a go. As it turns out (Murphy's law - though I'm by no means unhappy) I won the auction for the BDI21. Hence, I'll now be able to compare the proper bass approach to the guitar re-use approach. Edited March 24, 2014 by Annoying Twit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.