Al Cisneros Bass Tone

[ITheWitchfinder]

Recently Ive been searching far and wide for tone along the lines of Al's tone in OM

 

[video=youtube;kwbxcxfrBb8]

It's such a challenge since he hardly ever uses the same amps at shows. He alternates between 2 custom Green heads, 2 Sunn Coliseums, 2 Ampeg heads, and 2 custom Matamp heads.Some of which are more hi-gain than others. His pedals though, consist of an old DOD OD 250 and Mountainking Megalith Fuzz. Which would give me a similar sound through my Acoustic head? The OD 250 or the Megalith?

[starmansam]

good luck finding a megalith. You can definitely get close to his sound with the right muff. he has the advantage of not needing to cut through over a guitar, so it dosent really matter how scoop'd the mids get. I use black russian muffs and the bluebeard and they do the job quite well. If I were you I would spend some time trying out different muffs into clean amps and finding what works for you.

[starmansam]

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2666148-The-Doom-Room-HCFX-Edition

 

also, you are going to want to go and check out this thread. if you dig om, if you play slow and heavy and loud, then these are your people.

[sunburstbasser]

Part of his sound is the tube amps. They have a really different sound from solid state heads. You can sort of mimic the sound in that recording with a good fuzz pedal. As said, the Big Muff is a pretty good starting point.

[ITheWitchfinder]

From what ive looked at, he swaps between multiple hi gain bass heads ( Greens, SunnO)))'s, Matamps, and Acoustics) and plays through nothing more than a Boss DS1 and an old DOD OD 250. I hooked up to my head today with just a DS1 and it sounded pretty good but i just need to work around with different, almost plain od's or distortions i think.

[NITROHOLIC]

fz-2 lower gain then you think you should use then dont throw your purse at the strings

 

or just find a megalith. those NAIL this tone.

[ogreboy88]

I also want what you want.

 

I have a Megalith. It's one of my prized possessions, but it's not a magic wand.

I don't have a vintage tube amp, or custom greenies... yet.

I did just get an MXR bass distortion which Al has been spotted using and it does put out in good ways.

 

What Al's tone has that I continue to wish for (perhaps because of my lack of tubes) is a buttery roundness. There is a ton of fuzz, but it's full of "M" and "B" sounds rather than "N"s and "K"s. Listening to the opening of Antarcticans Thawed, it struck me that it almost sounds like a didgeridoo.

 

As for the DS-1, yes... but what's inside it?

The sad realty I don't want to face is that Al probably isn't lying when he says in interview that his tone is the result of a years-long and ongoing process of curating a "patchwork" of often custom-built equipment.

 

Ogreboy88