what do you do if your bassist uses too much distortion?

[CiceroTJones]

Tell him the sound is fatter with less distortion. Let him know that the OD doesn't add low end, it steals it.

[natasmi]

I play bass and guitar,I'm the bassist for the band I started. I write the songs, music and lyrics, If the guitar player gave me any {censored} he would be gone, kicked out instantly. There's a hundred other guitarists out there to replace him. I write heavy stuff with huge distorted bass and I want the guitar clean and modulated most of the time. Don't like it, leave now, I'll do it myself or get another guy in here by tommorow. When he writes a song I'll let him have his way, but don't {censored} with MY songs.

[Kassanova]

Try this:

50,000 volts of electricity should straighten his ass out!

[garyfanclub]

Play a Tele through a cranked Twin. Loud and clean on the high end. Might even out the mud on the low end....

 

 

So we'll have {censored} in our pants, AND bleeding ears.

 

 

great.

 

 

I wouldn't suggest any extremes, maybe tell him to EQ his bass a little bit differently to smooth things out?

[Jules-RM]

I've been looking for something for my bass player as well. He uses a Clone Theory for chorus and it totally robs his low end, he has to EQ it differently on his amp head just to make it sound ok.

Anyone use a Morley FX blender? Looks like it might work. It blends the instrument signal with the efx loop. But i've not had good experiences with Morley products in the past.

[olejason]

Nothing wrong with distorted bass. It's probably more a matter of his tone clashing with your own. Too much gain in any mix is bad.

[Servant]

Do you have a dedicated band-leader type person who deals with situations like this? If not, I'd suggest at least trying it. Kinda like having a moderator so that people get their feelings hurt as little as possible. Works for me anyway.