Pedal to make electric bass sound like an old 50's standup?

[aaronkessman]

I'm wondering if it's possible to use a pedal to make a modern electric bass sound sort of like a stand up bass like in old 50's recordings. You'd probably have to pick it, but it seems like maybe decreasing the sustain is part of it? Not sure. If so an expander or noise gate maybe? any EQ suggestions?

thanks!

Aaron

[bigjonny]

Well, I can tell you it'd have to be fretless.  That affects the sounds dramatically, and I don't think there's an easy way to disguise the sound of frets.

[G Kresge]

As an upright bass player, I feel I can answer this one - especially since it doesn't require an degree in electronics.

There's no convincing way to simulate the "rockabilly" sound of the upright bass using and electric bass - by this I mean the slap-style of upright bass playing. There may be a few tricks for getting a fretless electric bass to sound similar when playing pizzicato-style or "jazz" style with a pedal, but I think you could simulate that just by tweaking your EQ to deaden the sound a bit and by palm-muting your plucked notes for a more deadened sound.

Maybe I'm wrong about the "rockabilly" thing, and maybe someone can come up with a way to do it, but to the ear of an upright player, it would have to pretty damned convincing.

[Rodgre]

Try an Ashbory bass!



It's the closest thing I've ever gotten to an upright tone in the studio without using an upright.

Roger

[squidsquad]

Ya may wanna drag it into a music store & try one of them pedals that claim to give an electric ax the acoustic sound.  I sure it'll never be *perfect* though.  I also recall seeing a schem for such a box somewhere on one of these sites...sorry I don't recall where.

[Alex C]

You might try adapting the Woody circuit to be used on bass.  
http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=112&highlight=woody

Alex

[Mark Hammer]

That was my thought too, but everything would need to be tuned downward by an octave or two (just double or triple the filter cap values).  Whether it would sound good is another matter entirely.  And as G Kresge accurately notes, there is a whole lot more that's different about a standup bass than simple some snazzy EQ-ing.  At the very least there is what the switch in playing axis (sideways vs up and down) does to hand movements, plus the way it changes one's use of body noise (no, not the "rewards" of beans or armpit tricks; I'm talking about slapping).  Then there is the drone that comes from fretless fingerboards.  I've found that the modded MXR Envelope Filter (see Tonepad's "A-Gua") with Q set to minimum, and attack set long, has a nice timbral swell that sounds like some kinds of *electric* fretless basses, but I strongly doubt that you could nail it simply by plugging one of those into an adapted acoustic simulator.

If you can find an Ashbory, snag one.  They are an absolute gas.

[aaronkessman]

are those the ones with big thick rubber strings?

yeah, figured it'd be more complex than that, but i was hoping for just a little feel of it.

[squidsquad]

BTW,

Hope this isn't TOO far off-topic.  But I got a decent ac bass sound (on a recording) by using my old cheap acoustic...playing with my finger...and using a good plug-in pitch shifter to drop it an octave.

[Marek]

Well, if you are going to be playing some Serbian/Croatian folk or Gipsy music, than you can find a pedal which gives you the acoustic simulation (AC-2, maybe? :-) )
and you can always claim afterwords that you were after that special 'Begesh' sound and not a standard double-bass:

http://home.pages.at/tamb/photo/gross/berda_gr1.gif

Note the frets...

un-ca, un-ca, un-ca...

Greetings,
Marek

[birt]

try an acoustic bass guitar :?

[Paul Marossy]

As a bass player, as well as a guitarist, two things come to mind. First, an electric bass with frets will not ever sound convincingly like a fretless bass, be it stand up or electric. Second, the technique used by those stand up bass players with the strings slapping on the fretboard would also be very difficult to mimic with anything other than a stand up bass. That is not to say that you couldn't get an approximation, though. Some keyboards have some very convincing guitar/bass patches - I have one Chieli Minucci CD with a tune on it that definitely sounds like a stand up bass, but it's in fact a keyboard.

[Boofhead]

I'm assuming you mean that thud sort or bass sound as opposed to the purring resonance of Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke's sound.

- Flat wound strings will help a lot; and the right brand.
- The right EQ.
- Muck around with the pickup balance and tone control.

There was DSP based effect unit around about 12-15 years ago.  It wasn't on the market long.   I never got a chance to play through one so I can't comment on what aspect of the sound it simulated.

[RDV]

Stick a piece of foam under the strings back at the bridge.

RDV

[dansamp]

what RDV said...
i have a jerry jones danelectro clone with lipstick pickups
and i used it on a recording a while back i stuffed a small towel between my bridge pick up and the bridge along with pyramid flatwound strings
it sounded pretty convincing on the recording  :wink:

[Paul Marossy]

Ah, yes, flat wounds. Duh. I used to have those on a '77 fretless P-Bass that I used to have. I think that could go a long way towards helping you get that sound. That foam under the bridge trick is a good one, I hadn't thought of that.  

[aaronkessman]

yes, i definitely mean the thud sound, not the purring one.

Cool, thanks for all the advice folks!

[StephenGiles]

Try stuffing a sponge under the strings near the bridge - quite common in the UK in the early 60s.
Stephen

[RDV]

Try stuffing a sponge under the strings near the bridge - quite common in the UK in the early 60s.

MAN! I wish I'd thought of that!  :wink:  :wink:

RDV

[Paul Marossy]

I assume the sponge would be dry? Or would it be damp? Gee, that would be a literal string damper!  :lol: