cheap/simple bass rig

you could always be Lemmy and get a 100 watt marshall guitar head! Shit was always rippin'

i was meaning garage rock as in like slightly hairy and a decent amount of oomph behind it like Cloud Nothings/Wavves or maybe black keys I'm not really sure where to go amp wise but thats an idea of tone i like

The V3 versions of the Fender Rumble have a lot of high end. I play a 500 combo with a 410 added. The older Rumble's have a bit more low end for some reason.

Ultimately, you don't NEED any pedals. A bass and a way to amplify it is the most simple rig. You can find amps that color your tone in ways you like and you can find basses that have distinct tones to them. Beyond that and your actual technique, everything else is extra.

The single, most important aspect of being a bass player, besides remembering to turn on your Pizza Hut sign when on deliveries, is ability to keep time. You don't have to be flashy or super talented to be accepted by most, you just need to be able to play exactly when you need to. I've seen guys who SUCKED at playing bass and stuck to quarter notes, but blended well with the band and were welcomed as a bass player. I've seen amazing, Billy Sheehan/Les Claypool style players who could do things I certainly could not, but could not do it in perfect time. You can play 400 notes a minute, but it's all worthless unless it's in the pocket. Bad tone doesn't keep you from doing your job either. Most other musicians don't even really recognize a good bass tone from a bad one unless they play bass or work well with them. A great bass player will of course incorporate all of this into one, agreeable package.

I get the feeling that this may be the first time you've played bass. You may not even enjoy it. I would love it before investing too much into it.

that's a biggie. i recommend just using the od controls on the amp and the amp EQ, and a volume pedal and octave pedal.

I don't know who those 1st 2 acts are but the black keys? tube amps, often more than 1 on bass and not usually the ubiquitous SVT.... y'know, when they have a dedicated bassist LOL they're one of those whitestripes bands

be it original garage and protopunk or this new fangled hipster stuff its a tube amp thing... its funny though, the lemmy bass aesthetic is not far removed from the modern garage sound

I'm really serious about that ampeg B25B though, I think it'll do exactly what you want with little to nothing out front... just turn up until it get hairy and tweak the very good EQ section to get the fur to sit where you want and the lows to kick against the drums the way you want.... you could split with a cheap passive DI out front or inbetween the pre and power sections of the amp if you wanna give a fairly dry signal to FOH as safety.... generally a good call to record DI as well as an amp too, even if you don't use the DI in the end. I have a very different take on bass than boom for instance who is like a bassists bassist. I was always a bass GUITARIST and I approached it a lot more like a Lemmy or an Auerbach. Even as a recording and FOH engineer I tended to drive rock bands in that direction. I was really notorious for keeping a dual showman on hand at festivals and we used the shit out of it over an SVT most of the time on my old band's record, Yes, its an old guitar amp, but tis got a ballsy bottom through bass speakers and a great grind that just says BASS GUITAR! STAND BACK BITCH!!! a solid state amp is never going to do that. It'll be loud, well defined but ultimately polite even with effects. The ashdown MAGs are like the one solid state bass amp I like for sleazy rock. But for what they cost there are a million options.

LINE6 ALERT!!!

y'know what? even the pre-HD pods for abss sound really great with the cabs disabled feeding a power amp and a decent 4x10. I forgot all about them. I knew a guy who swore by that rig and he always sounded great and he ahd all these presets and a foot controller to change them.... plus he sent an effected DI to FOH. It was just a good rig and it cost him nothing. I think he had like a 100 watt per side 80s peavey tube power amp and a stereo ampeg 4x10. It was a rack pod xt I think and eh had a korg rack tuner. It just worked. And the guy owned some sweet gear he recorded with, but live he did a lot of covers and he could dial in the right abss style for whatever and just recall it and instead of tweaking settings he used to adjust for rooms by changing the horn level on the 4x10. If the roomw as dark he cranked the horn tweeter up.

Ive been playing bass live at my church for 2 years running a Lakland skyline through a really nice peavey, but none of its mine its our other bassists gear so i cant take it from our church to jam sessions and stuff so im building a cheap rig and i normally play modern surf punk/garage rock type stuff, i know i can run straight to amp/speakers and sound fine, but i want to be able to play with different sounds when were are messing around without getting too expensive.

And im a firm believer in pick bass

Im definitely a bass guitarist ive just never had to make my own rig for live, i always used our church's others bass players gear

wow, I just looked up ampeg B25Bs? dude, they are upwards of $600 now for just the head. LOL I never paid more than $250, that's why I liked 'em. damn

you can still get a clean bassman 50 or 100 for 500 at least. They are n nice fucking bass amps, highly underrated. And super reliable. Can't kill a pre-80s fender

that's a lot though.... maybe stick with your rumble and get that fly rig for out front

I didnt even think of it, mike dirnts live tone would be close to what im after

Yea i was looking at bassmans i saw some 100w heads for 400-500

again, you are definitely better off just using the OD and EQ on the amp with an octave pedal or volume pedal.

really wanna stay simple, though, just the amp should do you.

unless it's a p/j jazz bass you aren't hitting mike dirnt's tone with a j-bass. you'd need a p. trust me i have tried and tried to recreate every pop-punk, punk, garage rock bassist ever. for black keys shit, j-basses rock. cloud nothings too. but mike dirnt? that's p-bass shit.

you want a 70s bassman 50, 100 or 120... not the enw ones and not the oens without the numbers on the front plate (the value on regular bassmans is higher and theya re better for guitar).... for Mike Dirnt the fender bassman 100 or 120 will get you in the ballpark. He uses those 300 watt 'bassmans' that are really fender badged Sunn heads. Sunns are great abss amps, but many they cost a lot now. Used to be a deal though. Sunns are pretty fender though. Not ampegy at all. I might get soemthign out front like an mxr bass comp pedal for 100 bucks or so more and call it a day. You want to even the response of your bass with the comp (either slow attack and release, low threshold and lowr atio or fast attack and release, high threshold high ratio) and then slam the output into the front of the amp until you get the amount of rattley drity grunge you like, then turn up until the sound starts to clip audibly and then back off 1 volume number so the power amp is breaking up a smidge on your hardest transients.

anyway, that's my bassman for bass advice.... you can also use a dirt pedal in lieu of the compressor for more preamp hair.... the old abss tubescreamer sounds okay.... the zvex distortron works a treat on bass with subs at 3 as does the red llama or SCOD type of pedals.... then there's lots of dedicated shit too that's come out lately. Lots ofs tuff to whack a tube bass head with. I always favored the compressor approach though since my playing was not always the most even when I used a pick to be ore rockin' I am a much better figner player on bass.

again, you are definitely better off just using the OD and EQ on the amp with an octave pedal or volume pedal.

really wanna stay simple, though, just the amp should do you.

unless it's a p/j jazz bass you aren't hitting mike dirnt's tone with a j-bass. you'd need a p.

you can get the style with a nice whack into the front end, henc why I suggested he use a compressor.... maybe a little bump in the mids from what mike what do since the lower mdis are so much stronger from a split single. I mean, exact tone? big fender head or sunn.... P-Bass.... LOUDNESS. Biggest cab you can afford.

I would justs tick with the bass he has and invest in a bassman, big cab that still fits in his car and a bass compressor for subtle levelling and a nice fat VCA boost into the front end

Yea for now ill have to settle for a ball park tone until i can afford a new bass, ive been living of borrowed gear and im between a mim jazz or p bass as my first personal bass, its just tough affording my own gear and paying for college while in school

yeah, i think a better idea than an mim would be to get another squier, a p bass.

the P-bass is just so much more rockin.... I love Js soemtimes, but P-bass man.... desert island shit! best of both worlds? MIJ fender aerodyne bass.... has a P and a J pickup, trade for about $300 to 500, worth every penny

I would but i dont care for squier necks if i didnt have to borrow my stuff id have a mim 50's p bass in black with the gold pickguard but i work part time and am a full tume student so a used mim standard is looking pretty nice as a future purchase

I want a standard jaguar bass because its pj and has a ton of switching but they are so expensive

shortscale.... those pickups will perform so differently on a short scale..... scale is so much more influential on harmonic content than electronics

The recent mentioning of Mike Dirnt and picks being preferred for bass has forced my angry exile from this thread. However, I must make one final post.

Jazz basses. P basses. J/P Basses. Stingrays. They all fail in comparison to the JMJ.

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