Dirt

   There are quite a few bass players who have made their career using distortion in their bass tone.  Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, John Entwhistle, Lemmy Kilmister.  They all utilized distortion on their bass in a unique way.  Some used it to cover more sonic area along with the guitars, some for color in their tone, and some to augment the definition of what they were playing.  It's funny to think that us bass players at times can distort our tone to have a more intelligible sound in the broad sonic spectrum that is a band.

Think back to the hollow bass tones of rock n' roll from the 50's for artists like Buddy Holly And The Crickets, or earlier Elvis Presley recordings.  You can hear the bass only if it was turned up quite a bit in the mix.  Otherwise, most of what you heard was the percussive snap of the plucking hand pulling at the strings of an upright bass and snapping onto the fingerboard.  Now think back to some of those Motown hits.  James Jamerson's P-Bass with decade old flat wound strings.  The tone was round, at times thuddy.  Both of these examples worked well for what was going on back then.  Why?  Because distortion on guitars, tone of drums, and overall production is nothing like what it was about to be like in a few more years.  I honestly don't know who was the very first to put dirt on guitars but I've heard stories about Ike Turner, The Kinks, and The Beatles all making the creative most out of a blown speaker or amp.  As years went by, people started finding ways to manipulate their amps to get these sounds in addition to the production of pedals made exclusively for the task of adding some dirt on to their guitar tone.  Now I suggest you put on a hard rock or heavy metal album from the 80's or later and hear how much dirt they put on guitars compared to the 60's or 70's.  Just like anything, the music community has continued to go bigger and more extreme with their sounds.... and why not?  In addition, the effects that were starting to get used on guitars we're projecting larger sounds and taking up more sonic space.

With the advent and utilization of so much distortion, the guitar became a much more featured instrument compared to the sparse clean tone stabs every other beat on a tune like "My Girl".  With more modern music there was a lot more overshadowing of the bass.  Unless we're talking bands like 311, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Iron Maiden where the bass is a focal point, much of the time the bass is felt and not heard to the average listener.  Some might call this a problem but who are we to say for so many successful artists?  Let's not forget to mention the countless modern artists who base their tones on more vintage sounds and have let the bass come back up front a bit more.  There's your history lesson for the day!

I didn't always use dirt in my bass tone but I have been for about the past 14 years.  Not for everything of course.  I could write pages and pages on all the various types of distortions.  I'm just going to talk about how it can augment tone and a few different applications.

Let's start with some obvious full on guitar type distortion carried over to bass.  Not hard to imagine.  Taking a listen to the first two bars of "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead will do!  I've used this type of distortion sparingly myself.  In one instance, I used some full on guitar distortion for a bass solo in a tune.  At first I was thinking it sounded "like a guitar".  Later I threw on some chorus effect and I thought "Like a keyboard emulating a guitar".  I found it a bit more unique.  There are some moments where I do use a full on distortion for the meat and potatoes of a song.  In this case I'm still opting to keep my clean bass tone in tact so the overall mix of the band doesn't just loose what it had.  I will typically run an A/B/Y box so I can keep the clean and dirt separate or combined.  A similar effect can be achieved with a distortion pedal that has a "blend" feature but it does take some experimenting.  In this case it lets you chose how much of their distortion you would like coupled with the natural tone of your bass before it hits whatever your amp has going on.

The dirt I usually add to my bass tone couldn't be identified through the full roar of a live band or even through recordings unless my instrument was isolated for the listener.  So why is it useful to create tones that listeners aren't going to get the literal effect of anyhow?  Good question, thanks for asking!

I personally like my low end to be nice and clean.  I'm typically utilizing my distortion to get right hand plucking articulation more present.  This is in attempt to not kill my stamina having to dig in as hard as I can for every note.  Again, I'm also going for an articulate tone that has some percussiveness in it but isn't louder than the melodic value of my notes.  Maybe I'm even trying to get the sound of my strings vibrating off the neck more musical sounding for those moments I do dig in.  This way I don't have to throw in so much treble into my amp or instrument tone controls.  The downside of dedicating a large portion of your amp control knobs to just articulation is you can't use them for other musical colorings which you may appreciate as well.  Simple yes?  Yes, I spent a few years being guilty of those practices trying to find ways to cut through heavy guitars and leaving casualties in my wake.  I'll never forget a show where every time I reached for a note on a higher string, one poor guy up the front row had to cover his ears.

More times than not, while I'm dialing in my bass tone, I'm only looking for a little grit.  I typically will boost the distortion until it starts to reveal it's self some through my tone.  At that point I'm usually adjusting the other knobs of the distortion pedal to make sure the high end is present but not harsh and my low end is still where it was before the pedal was on.  If I can't get these two important angles happening, I will just not use distortion.  It's that simple.

Fresh strings are very helpful when using distortion for bass.  In this case, your less likely to ask the distortion device to compensate high end for lack of brightness from your bass.  Typically I prefer the natural high end of my instrument and fresh strings to whatever high end I can throw in with a pedal.  I find it easier on the ears.

There are variations to be had on some of these dirt digging philosophies.  I find some pedals work better on basses with active pick-up's, some work better on basses with passive.  There's also the question of do you play finger style or with a pick.  What size are the speakers your playing through?  All these elements come into play when picking the right device for gettin' your grit on.

I'm sure I've a lot more to say on the subject and can get even more in depth.  For those of you interested in getting some grit in your bass tone, I'll leave a list below on some products that I've either owned, or spent some time with.  There are more and more great pedals coming out dedicated to just bass distortion but don't rule out some of the guitar pedals as well.  Just make sure they come with some tone control so you can address any changes in your fundamental bass tone it can possibly skew.  Also, I'll leave a playlist of various types of dirt on bass from the ultra-heavy and obvious to the crisp and discrete yet effective.

Thanks for reading!

Boxes of Dirt
Tech 21 - Bass Driver DI (This is a must have for all bass players, distortion theme aside.)
Tech 21- GT2  (More of a guitar type pedal but has a wide range of overdrives.)
Tech 21 - VT Bass (Again more of a multi function pedal, a different type of dirt than the Bass Driver.)
Tech 21 - RBI (A rack piece, not a pedal. Just like the Bass Driver but with "Mid" control and a few extra hardware options.)
Ibanez - Bass Tube Screamer (This pedal only gets so much drive but it's very usable and sounds great.  Some of the guitar Tube Screamers are worth trying out as well.)
Electro Harmonics - Big Muff Bass (Goes from very top end heavy dirt to the muddiest of muddy)


Playlist
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Yes - Roundabout
Rush - Circumstances
Overkill - Thanx For Nothing
Metallica - Orion (intro)
Black Sabbath - NIB