Bass Amps and Cabs?

selta said:
Yes, there's a big market waiting to be tapped. I engage people on TalkBass.com a couple of times a week, and I know I personally have sold a small handful of Axe-Fx II's, and got one person on the waitlist of the AX8. But, I also have had a high number of bassists turn away when they couldn't pull up a GK, Acoustic, Hartke, SWR, Ashdown, Aguilar, Mesa/Boogie (etc. etc.) and work from there.
Click to expand...

[Quoted For Truth!]

Hell, given the number of bassists who are in love with the Aguilar Tonehammer, the SansAmp Bass Driver DI, and the Darkglass BK3, just the inclusion of those three items would spark the interest of likely hundreds of bassists, given the feedback I seen on TalkBass. The inclusion of a couple of esoteric/iconic/hard-to-get bass pedals would send it over-the-top for many more bassists. I'm not trying to trivialize the amount of work that would go into emulating even just a handful of bass items, but I have to think that a concerted marketing effort to make a stink over the addition of such items would quickly turn into TalkBass GAS-driven sales....ehhh...

JMHO
 
I would hope that at some point there will be some increased focus on bringing more bass amps to the palette. It can't hurt to keep asking can it? :cool:
 
ScottyB said:
I would hope that at some point there will be some increased focus on bringing more bass amps to the palette. It can't hurt to keep asking can it? :cool:
Click to expand...

No, it can't hurt. And I applaud anyone who can get it done. Personally, I'd rather just focus on other things. Been banging that drum for a long time...it eventually wore me out. You'd be surprised at the number of forum members who are/were of the opinion that, put in simple terms, "it just doesn't matter that much". Meh. The fact that very few official FAS representatives on the forum would weigh in to defend the value of bass-centric items also was disheartening. The silence speaks volumes.
 
^ Yeah, at this point I think the silence from FAS regarding more bass amps screams volumes. I know you, and many others, have been asking for some 'bass love' for a couple of years.

Do you recall the The Bass Preset Collection Project thread that was started by the office manager at FAS? It was helpful with sharing presets, but I was hoping that would have triggered some new bass amp interest as well.

Anyway, I'll jump in every time I see a 'more bass amps' thread just to keep the pressure on. ;)
 
while i understand where everyone is coming from...idk i got the box knowing it was a guitar-centric tool. and even then the bass tones i get from the axe are miles ahead of what i WOULD be getting going DI+VST, so honestly thats enough to tide me over (and if i ever do need a really nice tone recorded i just hook up my tonehammer 350 and go direct lmao).
 
jimfist said:
Exactly why lots of bassists would like to see a great emulation of this in the AxeFx.
Click to expand...
Pretty much. Brownmatthall, your post comes off pretty close to what jimfist mentioned earlier - "It doesn't matter". Yes, it does matter. The fact that you circumvent the Axe-Fx entirely in your recording process is almost spot on a major complaint of bass players - for a lot of familiar tones, we have to look elsewhere.
FAS would likely, actually, be better off removing all bass stuff entirely from their products - then they can at least remove the pathetic attempt at luring bass players in.
 
Personally, I'd just be happy to see a Gallien-Krueger RB and a MarkBass added to the amp list. I think that would give enough meat to appeal to many bassists, especially vs. the Helix. The effects list and routing on the Axe-FX are already world-class, and I'm sure with many hours I could get close with some creative use of amps and EQs... but the "GK sound" in particular is so signature and on so many hit songs that I'm surprised it wasn't modeled before the Orange.

I love the proliferation of features and capabilities on the guitar side of the Axe-FX, but now that Fractal is adding obscure boutique amps on the guitar side, I thought it would be worth bringing up here and discussing.
 
Yes, no love for us, bass player. Thats why I have my axefx unit in standy by here and purchase earlier this year the Fx8. That are fine to use with my real bass amps.
For sure is missing some low end effects (drive block for example)...
 
To be sure, I'm not claiming that the AxeFx sucks for bass. Not the case. I think you can get all kinds of great bass tones out of it, sometimes easily, sometimes not depending on exactly what you're looking for. But I do think that there are many well-known, revered, and easily identifiable tones missing as basic building blocks for bassists in the AxeFx. It also appears that lately, very little effort has been made to identify and really NAIL those sounds and highlight them as a selling point.

JMHO
 
Yup, it's workable. I have a few amp blocks set up how I like for tones I use in my bands. Thankfully, I'm not in a cover band where I have to drastically alter things and develop a varying landscape of tones. Now that I have those, I just copy/paste them across my presets.
 
selta said:
Yup, it's workable. I have a few amp blocks set up how I like for tones I use in my bands. Thankfully, I'm not in a cover band where I have to drastically alter things and develop a varying landscape of tones. Now that I have those, I just copy/paste them across my presets.
Click to expand...
G'day Selta,

How are you going with a preset that emulates the bass sound from Mark Days rush cover? I'm still a'waiting as I just cannot even get close!
I bought 2 Axe FXs - one for Bass & One for guitar... SO I really want to LOVE it for bass!

Thanks
Pauly
 
I haven't had a ton of time to put forth on community efforts like that lately... I should have a bit of time to throw at it next week - remember, I'll be using a Jazz bass though, so it'll take quite a bit of tweaking for your Ric (but, should mostly be EQ, nothing too difficult).
 
I think the axe-fx II does an OK job of bass. I've gotten it to do GREAT things for the recordings I've done, but I had to enlist a bit of help.

I'm going for a Justin Chancellor-type, modern, aggressive bass sound. So I've got an Origin Effects Cali76 and a B7K into the input of the Axe-fx II. I don't run it in the effects loop - it was just too noisy for me. I use the parallel output of the B7K to a Focusrite ISA One that I use (in this case) for a DI. This will be my low end. Then I just pick an amp model (be it one of the few bass models or a guitar amp) and I dial it for my grit/mids blend.

I've tried making all-in-one presets within the axe, but I just get such better results doing 2-channel recording I don't think I'll ever go back.

It would be super nice if one day Fractal gave one damn about people who play bass though. I earnestly think more people use it than they realize, and it would be awesome if the potential were as great as guitar processing.
 
To answer the original post: I have been mining the 'guitar amps' that were originally bass amps. My current fave is the 65 bass guy into the LA 15"

If you like a clean direct bass sound and you just want to add a little 'air' some of the 2x12" cabs (with sub bass rolled off) mixed with your direct sound might be enough to add a little vibe.

I played three gigs with bass and fractal this past week. I used a qsc power amp and a full range cabinet and I was totally pleased.

Happy tweaking.
 
I think some people are missing the point of this thread. Let me pivot a bit and present it with one shining example:

Try to create the classic GK sound (700rb / 1001rb type) from any combination of amp and cab.

Yes, there are serviceable tones in the Axe - no one is saying there isn't. I get plenty of decent tones from it day in and day out - gig after gig, recording after recording. But as soon as someone says "Make it sound like a GK!", I have to hang my head and say "sorry, that's not in here".
 
Robboman said:
Makes me wonder if they are saving it all up for Bass-FX (and the BX-8 floor version).
Click to expand...

If they did, I'd be shocked....and I'd also be one of the first in line to get a "BX8", followed shortly thereafter by my ditching 80% of all my other bass processing gear. I'm not holding my breath, though, but that would be great.
 
I'd honestly rather just see it all rolled up into the Axe-Fx II / AX8 / FX8 line. I play multiple instruments, so having multiple rack/pedalboard setups is just overly complicated. If I could just have my Axe-Fx II / AX8 for Bass (electric + upright), Guitar, Violin, and Cello, that would be pretty great. I wouldn't be too thrilled about XYZ widget for Bass, ABC widget for guitar, DEF widget for violin and so on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom