Making a three piece sound HUGE

[daveno1]

Thinking of getting a three piece band on the go and I have a few questions.

 

I have a DSL 50 head and Marshall cab.

 

Is it possible to set up another cab so that my sweep echo and delay comes through one cab alone and my normal tone through the other?

 

I know this would work if u use the dry and wet in whammy signals but im sure thats only if the whammy is activated.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited December 7, 2013 by daveno1

[Dave.]

As someone who plays in a 3 piece (not including our vocalist), I find the big key to filling out the sound is the bass. A lot of the power we feel when a band plays live is the bass and drums.

 

Setting up another cab would only add to the chances of having phase-cancellation which would diminish your sound.

[Jaicen]

I sort of agree.

 

You will need two amps, to run your gear in stereo, but you have to make sure that your guitar doesn't trip up the bass. There's a reason that Matt's tone is all treble and high mids. When you've go Chris running that much fuzz it fills up the low mids, so get the guitar out of the way there.

 

So yeah, by all means go for the stereo set up, but make sure you've got the fundamentals of tone right first.

[haze015]

Setting up another cab would only add to the chances of having phase-cancellation which would diminish your sound.

 

All cabs with multiple speakers will have phase issues, reflections from the room will mess with phase and it all varies based on your position.

 

But yeah, setting up more amps with different sounds for either the bass or guitar will fill out the sound, doesn't necessarily have to be the bass.

[matthijs]

The bass can fill up a lot with some effects such as octavers mixed with fuzz. LS-2 to keep in the lows...

 

If you look at the Showbiz setup of Chris, it can give you a nice idea of what you could do.

[Crowella]

Thinking of getting a three piece band on the go and I have a few questions.

 

I have a DSL 50 head and Marshall cab.

 

Is it possible to set up another cab so that my sweep echo and delay comes through one cab alone and my normal tone through the other?

 

I know this would work if u use the dry and wet in whammy signals but im sure thats only if the whammy is activated.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Splitting the signal should be easy enough if you have some form of splitting pedal but I don't think you can split the cabs, that really requires two amps. Whammy can do the trick before the amp if it's left on IIRC but you could use something like a LS-2 to do something like that, I think the LS-2 is awesome for blending anyway if you don't want to bi-amp, like me.

 

The trick with three pieces I have found is at least one of the instruments needs to do "more" to fill than the others. Guitar is usually the easiest to add this to be honest, then bass, then drums (unless you have a really competent drummer). Delay/Octave types work pretty well as do loopers. Our guitarist's pedalboard probably has about 20 pedals on it, four of which are delays.

[haze015]

Bi-amping a bass guitar with the clean signal going through a normal bass amp for the lows and a guitar amp for effects sounds fantastic.

[daveno1]

So with ls2 would i need another full amp or just cab? And what would benefit would that give ?

[daveno1]

My bass player has just ordered a boss oc3 and os3 so that will be a start.

 

So haze you reckon he should get a ls and have clean signal through his normal amp and then send another lead to his effects and in to a guitar amp?

[Jaicen]

My bass player has just ordered a boss oc3 and os3 so that will be a start.

 

So haze you reckon he should get a ls and have clean signal through his normal amp and then send another lead to his effects and in to a guitar amp?

 

I'd certainly try that. Pick up a smallish guitar combo to run in parallel with your Bass cab.

[matthijs]

That could definitely work; if he doesn't want to do bi-amping, you can still blend in a clean signal with the LS-2 by using A+B mode and keeping one chain clean.

 

I have pedals in both chains, but I make sure I keep low end in regardless of which combination I use.

[haze015]

My bass player has just ordered a boss oc3 and os3 so that will be a start.

 

So haze you reckon he should get a ls and have clean signal through his normal amp and then send another lead to his effects and in to a guitar amp?

 

There might be less expensive options than the LS2, might be better to look at those and put money towards a good compressor for the clean signal.

 

The problem with running through the same amp and blending in a clean signal is that bass amps are usually pretty limited in their frequency range and never quite sounds as big as it could do to me, just seems to always end up with a bit of fizz to a clean bass and this method, what you end up with is a deep low end and what sounds like a huge downtuned guitar and then your guitar.

[cheddatom]

Bass should always have lots of low end and low mids. To fatten out a 3 peice band you have to push the high mids. Most modern bass cabs will be able to put out enough high mids for you to fatten up the sound. I wouldn't bother bi-amping, it's a lot of hassle to take it all to gigs. But, if you're not bi-amping, you will need a clean blend or a pedal with built in clean blend. Also your rythm section has to be tight as fuck as there's not a lot of room to hide