Best Bass For Metal

A friend of mine is a guitar player, who is playing bass in a metal band. He has that same bass and loves it. I've not seen it in person yet though.

What KIND of metal do you want to play? This will help me figure out what tone you are wanting and what features you will need on the bass.

If you wanted to go for an old school NWOBHM like Judas Priest, Iron Miaden, and Black Sabbath... I would say to get a 5 string Precision bass with a jazz neck, of any brand you wish.

If you want more Lamb of God, Cannibal Corpse, Meshugah... I'd say to go for something with growl like a Warwick or a Spector. 5 string of course. The day has come where too many songs need a B or an A. There's just no point in buying 4 strings anymore.

Thrash like Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer leave you needing a lot of peaked mids. I'd say Jacksons, Fenders, and even some Ibanezes.

So... what are you into?

For the types of bands you like, I would suggest a Spector 5 Legend. They are 35 inch scale, which you will need when you downtune like a mofo. They have a cool signature growl and are built well. You might not even notice the difference between a Euro LX for example, which runs 1500+ from the Legend.

Spector Legends run about 800 new, but can be found for 4-500.

I upgraded mine and I would suggest you do the same. I bought 2 EMG 40DCX pickups and hooked them up with the EMG BQC preamp. It's an 18v system ideally so you will want to add a double battery box and the cavity will need some modding to fit the preamp in. This system comes to $350 all together I think. I also added a brass nut to add depth. Get the action super low, maybe even use a shim, and you are in business sir with a killer bass. It's one of the two basses I have that sound guys cream their jeans over. I was trying to make my cheap bass sound like Alex Webster's $4,000 bass. It worked well. I think my bass has more umpf than his does truly.

If you don't want to do any customizing, the supposed "winner" of the "Best Bass for Metal" joke was an Ibanez 405. I don't see why though. It's 34 inch scale, it looks very generic, it has limited tone shaping capabilities. I don't get it. I really am not a super fan of Ibanez tones. I've own several myself and played on some really high end ones. They have sort of sound the same to me, and the signature sound is not as impressive to my ears. Very flat sounding.

You will really need to just get your hands on several models of bass and see which neck feels the best for you. Good metal is all about speed and accuracy. Getting a bass that has a neck that is hard for you to travel around on will only set you back.

My best bass is a custom Carvin made from their "Bass Kit BK50A" and some carvin upgraded parts. It has 2 Jazz pups and 1 MM style humbucker that is a nordstram. Even in passive mode, which I normally hate, it is satisfying to play. Here's the specs for my custom bass.

Specs:

Scale: 34" Spacing: 19mm Body Wood: Walnut Neck Wood: Walnut Finish: Tung oil Fredboard: Ebony Frets: STRF - Stainless Steel Regular Frets .043" H .080" W Pickups: 2 J99A pickups and 1 Nordstrand MM5.2 Preamp: Carvin 2 Band, 18V Knobs: V(push/pull active/passive),V,V, t/b, mini-toggle for MM5.2 (series/parallel/single)

I wasn't going to post on this because I am not a metal afficianado, but in my capacity as a recording engineer I think the most BROOTAL bass sound I ever put to tape was achieved with one of those little Steinberger basses with no headstock. That thing kicked like a mule just run direct with a little sansamp into an 1176. It was pure doom. Not sure how it would handle extreme downtuning, but the active electronics were great on it and it just had a pure thumping low, a little growl and super clear top that worked for that band. It just sounded unbelievably heavy. I coul be idealizing it in my head as I don't have a copy of that EP laying around, but I just remember wanting to headbang during playbacks, and the songs weren't that good LOL