Dialing and processing a 5 string tuned to F

Brownmatthall

Power User
I have a project coming up where the guitars are tuned down to F, the lowest I've seriously dealt with prior to this point is G# and I figured I'd check in with the resident experts around here proactively to get ahead of the ordeal I'm going to have on my hands with the bass being this low. The bass being used is a Brice HXB2-405 MN; it's active I believe with a 35 in scale length, on-board BMT, and the stock brice pickups. What I'm looking for are tips for on how to go about processing it for the mix, and the type of tone I should be aiming for to still give the guitars a nice pillow of low end to sit on without fighting my kick which has a lot of sub content (slates kick 10 blended with another sample). I'm guessing the fundamental is out of the question so I'm gonna have to focus on the lower midrange but any help is good help right now!
 
Think of the bass as a low extension of the guitars, so it'd be best to concentrate on how the bass sits with the guitars in the midrange. I use a two amp setup, a clean bass amp (USA Bass 400 1 or 2) and a dirty guitar amp (Recto, 5153, etc). I also use a Darkglass B7K Ultra on the guitar amp side in the FX Loop, with only a small amount of overdrive dialed in, which helps the low notes (bass is tuned F#-B-E-A-D) come through. I also have a pitch block set an octave up mixed in very subtlely, which also helps the low notes cut through. If it helps, I've attached the preset I use. The FX Loop block in the preset is the B7K.
 

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  • F# Bass.syx
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Think of the bass as a low extension of the guitars, so it'd be best to concentrate on how the bass sits with the guitars in the midrange. I use a two amp setup, a clean bass amp (USA Bass 400 1 or 2) and a dirty guitar amp (Recto, 5153, etc). I also use a Darkglass B7K Ultra on the guitar amp side in the FX Loop, with only a small amount of overdrive dialed in, which helps the low notes (bass is tuned F#-B-E-A-D) come through. I also have a pitch block set an octave up mixed in very subtlely, which also helps the low notes cut through. If it helps, I've attached the preset I use. The FX Loop block in the preset is the B7K.
Thank you! I'll load it up later and let you know how it plays without the darkglass in the chain
 
Are you able to comfortably play on the low string without it changing pitch too much?
I play a 35" scale Lakland with heavier than normal strings (lowest is a .142 now) and it's very stable. I don't know if I'd wanna go any slacker on the tuning without beefing up my string gauges, but it's solid enough that I would consider playing it live tuned like that.
 
OK, been a couple days since I've been able to take a proper swing at this and I think I'm going to end up settling on something much cleaner than what I was going for originally aiming for. The guys I'm doing this for have said they want the full effect of F's low end to come through and I've decided to just focus in on that with a big clean tone and some Tape distortion at the very end, 50/50 mix. the TD adds a really nice quality to the pick attack and top end which lends itself to clarity on the low string. I also got an email this morning from 3 Sigma saying they've reshot all of their IR's and the update was free so absolutely perfect timing for me! I play the main riff twice in this solo then the drums come in for context, I Still have some fine tuning to do but its definitely underway, I'm using one of 3 Sigmas acoustic 8x10 IR's for this too.
 
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