guitar amp as bass distortion...is something gonna blow?

[jkhuri44]

yo duudz,

wanting to use a hi-gain guitar amp as a bass distortion.... not gonna use a cab..going directly into a Palmer Load box, and line out into a hardware comp..

do u'ze reckon im gonna screw the amp?? or has anyone tried this with success before?

cheers,

J.

[TimS]

You'll be fine JK..

[Kurt]

Works fine, dunno if it could have any ill effects but haven't seen any.

Why not just di -> Amplitube ;)

[jkhuri44]

will be DI (to reamp later) ..but i was interested in trying bass overdrive on a guitar amp...in place of a pedal distortion....


I want to use a guitar amp..coz well...same reason why u'd use a real amp for recording a guitar part :) sounds better !

[Kurt]

If you're using a dummy load and a line out it's not the sound of the amp anyway! And if you don't know if it'll work, you obviously don't know what it will sound like ;)

I like micing things up as a rule, but I just found out one of my fave bands, with one of the best guitar sounds I've come across, use pods for both recording and live. (Check out My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness Words Of Light. Both guitars are done with three tracks of podness, Mesa, Marshall, Peavey)

[jkhuri44]

sorry, i should rephrase:

im taking the amps output, that would go into a cab...and putting that into my Palmer box, its the sound of the amp, just not the sound of the cab...and when i said line out, i was refering to the line out on the Palmer box

the amp will be fully loaded, i assure u :) dunno why i said dummy load, its getting late :P

[Kurt]

I knew what you meant but to me a guitar amp's "sound" comes from many parts.

Room, head (and settings), cab, mic, pre, etc. By taking a DI out of a dummy load (it ain't a speaker) you're losing much of the stuff that makes "the sound".

So when you say "we got this totally awesome bass sound by running it through a triple rectifier" what you really mean is "we used a guitar amp head as a distortion processor before we DI'd it"

It will work and probably sound very good, but will it sound better than running through a Boss OD1 into a DI? Or running though a software emulator rather than a hardware one? (I assume a Palmer is a cab/mic emulator)

[jkhuri44]

i dont have an OD 1, i wouldnt mind trying one though, hehe


thats half the reason im distorting with a Mesa head :P

[Kurt]

Bass player in my last band swore by them :)

[Sheer Noise]

The green Big Muff for bass distortion is the bomb. I'd loan you mine, but I'm using it all the time. :)

I'm a bass player, with a really lush sounding Lab Systems rig that I swear by, but when I record, I run straight in through a countryman and process with AmpegSVX plugin. It's beautiful.... and sooo many options. The Muff is whacked on the output (amp out or whatever it's called) of the countryman and DI'd separately when needed. I always find I need to blend just a touch of the clean signal back in whenever I distort bass so that it keeps the richness down low... but that's just me.

Dave

[TimS]

The green Big Muff for bass distortion is the bomb. I'd loan you mine, but I'm using it all the time. :)

I'm a bass player, with a really lush sounding Lab Systems rig that I swear by, but when I record, I run straight in through a countryman and process with AmpegSVX plugin. It's beautiful.... and sooo many options. The Muff is whacked on the output (amp out or whatever it's called) of the countryman and DI'd separately when needed. I always find I need to blend just a touch of the clean signal back in whenever I distort bass so that it keeps the richness down low... but that's just me.

Dave

I've used the Ampex SVX plugin - its really nice..

JK, which Palmer you got? I just got an 'as new' PDI-03 off Gearslutz - super price considering its condition as well.
Magic!!!
Looks like I'm going back to doing live work, so my guitar rig will have to go back into the portable rack for gigs - well, at least it will leave room in my studio rack for more gear!!! Ahh, bad GAS!!!
The Palmer will definately be slotted in..
Tim..

[tunetown]

I've used the palmer PDI-03 with a marshall head with Bass for good results. Didn't cause any problems that I'm aware of. I also run the palmer out through an API pre.

Happy experimenting.

Peter

[jkhuri44]

TimS, i've got the Palmer PD04 sitting here, the blue one, with craploads of knobs, hehehe


Peter, ill be doing what u did, replace the Marshall with a Mesa head...and an API pre with a PYE compressor, hehe


thx for confirming the suspected guys :)

[TimS]

Jamil,
I run my CAE 3+ preamp into a Mesa Boogie 50/50 straight into the Palmer.
Lexicon MPX G2 for FX and away we go!!!
Its all good..

[tunetown]

Jamil,
Just make sure the Mesa head is set for 8 Ohms. The Palmers boxes only dummy load 8 Ohms.

Cheers
Peter

[jkhuri44]

sessions over .

that was sweet :)

thx for replying guys!


ps. im super paranoid about load matching Peter, i cant afford blowing any amps, not now, not ever :P

[TimS]

sessions over .

that was sweet :)

thx for replying guys!


ps. im super paranoid about load matching Peter, i cant afford blowing any amps, not now, not ever :P

JK,
Alternatively, you can always get a THD Hotplate...

[jkhuri44]

Tim, thats just a volume attenuator from amp to speaker isnt it?
...wouldnt be changing impedance ?

[Simon B]

I have a heat absorbant dummy load that just goes to the second speaker out on the amp, sound doesnt go through it, just absorbs one of the speakers loads drops volume about 20 percent

you can get these heat absorber things from WES components

[TimS]

Tim, thats just a volume attenuator from amp to speaker isnt it?
...wouldnt be changing impedance ?

JK,
Yeah, its a load box alright- allows you to dime the amp but at bedroom volumes - still need a speaker plugged in, but you can play a 100W amp ffully wound out, but at a minute volumes..
Just handy..
T..

[jkhuri44]

hey tim,

u recorded any guitars with the Palmer?? i've got the PGA 04 not the 03

i just did a trial with some nu metal sorta sounding stuff, it sounds frikkin perfect for that style of music :) cant wait to hear it on thursday with a JLM TG pre + quad eight eq's...oh boy :P

[heathen]

Jamil are you abusing my amp?








Hope so. :)

[jkhuri44]

hey man, nah...pots are too annoying to use for real recording as of yet :(

[heathen]

hey man, nah...pots are too annoying to use for real recording as of yet :(

Yeah the thing is not in good condition at all. :)

[jkhuri44]

for ur information, i WAS looking forward to abusind ur amo :P


J.

[mfdu]

for the future (where you want to wind an amp out, keep volume low and still mic a speaker up), a trick i did was actually fit a J-Pad (8ohm attenuator - ) to one of the two inputs on my speaker cab.


http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AC1673&CATID=15&keywords=&SPECIAL=&form=CAT&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=459

so i can jam amp signal straight in, with nothing in the way, and get full power through the cab.

or else, i can run the amp output into the J-Pad and wind off as much volume as i want / need with only a slight loss of highs at very extreme attenuation.

works for me in most cases . . .

chris.mfdu

[jkhuri44]

thats neat chris!

i've heard of stuff like that, didnt know was at jaycar

[mfdu]

my original mistake was to use the mono version. this meant all the attenuation was in the last 1/4 turn of the pot. if you wire the stereo up as a dual-gang mono, then it provides a smoother sweep from hot to not.

but 50W max on the jaycar version, so running a 50W marshall head couldmelt it. i generally use it on (eg) fender blues jnr, vox ac15, epiphone valve junior.

it's hooked up on a single 12" closed-back cab with a 70's Rola 25W speaker. . .

[Guest]

I think that little gadget might just solve a problem I was going to run into next week. Thanks.

[mfdu]

just remember that they drain power as heat. a totally pinned blues junior produces discernible heat through the J-Pad.

and they're a fixed 8ohm.

an all-valve 50W head at large attenuation could potentially melt these suckers.

nasty.