Stoner distortion

[gutsofgold]

Perhaps you can help me here. I have a Sunn Concert Bass (solid state) that actually sounds kind of cool with guitar. Really beefy as you'd expect. Its got an awesome growl coming through my guitar speakers and I'd like to be able to give it that extra "push" into stoner rock/metal category. You know, really low sounding grit.

Any recommendations?

[foxfire]

ok me first, the BIG MUFF! or you could look at the fuzz jade or a modded fuzz face. i like the VMF by Dragonfly. nelson's citrus graphic is good. i'll think of more. rylan

oh yeah, i love my colorsound overdriver and my leadfooted fuzz. i have perf layouts for all of these i believe.

[ambulancevoice]

well, if you want a boost, to push the amp into distortion
maybe a big muff without diodes

for a drive
big muff, octave up sick box (meaty fuzz), mxr blue box (ive seen photos of Earth using one)

[foxfire]

or an LBP with diodes since you say your amps already got some growl. i'm a straight tube guy so i forget how boosters do in front of solid states.

[soulsonic]

The JFET preamp of the Concert Bass gets some nice thick crunch when pushed. Have you tried the built in overdrive? It's not heavy enough on its own, but if you juice the front end with a booster like you would a tube amp it should maybe start doing something.
Oh, and a BOSS HM-2 -> Gain all the way up, Lo almost all the way up, Hi almost all the way down (a good classic setting is to have them "facing each other"), Volume probably all the way up. Big, buzzy distortion!!! Very very fuzz-like distortion, but not as sloppy as most big fuzzes.
Something like a 3-knob Tone Bender maybe, or a Fuzz Face with a booster, or maybe even a Woolly Mammoth...

[trevize]

I have some friends with a stoner band, I was amazed by the guitar sound and I asked what they used.
Bass=rickembacker-bigmuff-ampeg head and 8x10 cab
Guitar= sg - bigmuff for chords - bigmuff for solos - plexi 100w

I personally nail that kyuss sound with telecaster - bigmuff triangle (ggg pcb) - pearl solid state amp from the 70s

[Dragonfly]

superfuzz
big muff
loud amp

[Processaurus]

muff is good, my fav for stoney riffs with friends is the Big Cheese/Great Cheddar, in the midscoop setting, which is the same tone circuit as the big muff.  The fuzz is just squishier and more saturated and stoned sounding.  I did the swollen pickle mod and that's great (change or switch the .010 uF in the tonestack to .033uF).  Also boosting input with a bassier signal is good.  When I made mine I'd check the heaviness with the first riff from Sleep: Dragonaut

[col]

You want loads of sustain!!!!!! Triangle Big muff/3 knob foxey Lady, Opamp big muff, Highway 89 you can stick a compressor in front as well for even more. I got an open E minor sustaining for 58 seconds with the Highway 89 before it slipped into feedback. You also need your amp on loud or a smaller amp driven hard and humbuckers. Well, that's my opinion anyway. There was a thread on stoner metal on here in the past, it might have been in the OT threads. It might be worth doing a search.

Col

[foxfire]

Gutsofgold, what pedals have you tried with the head, if any?

[gutsofgold]

I made this thread after immediately finding out how cool my guitar sounded through a solid state bass head. I didn't try any pedals yet.

Last night I did get a chance to run my big muff in front of it and holy  . I wouldn't put it in the stoner rock classification but it was still a really cool, really usable insanity. And I agree with you soulsonic, the overdrive on this amp is amazing, very moderate but quite useful. I was on my way to building a booster sometime soon for my actual guitar amp so I will try that in front of the sunn with the overdrive cranked to 10.

[foxfire]

one of my first and most used pedals that i made was a super booster. it was a LPB and a hogs foot on a switch with clipping diodes with a gain stage after it. it wasn't my most well thought out pedal but, if your amp sounds good then a custom booster might be just right?

[Gila_Crisis]

Big Muff
ZVex Octane2 (i got the schems....)
Foxx Tone Machine

[Dragonfly]

ZVex Octane2 (i got the schems....)

Lightly modded Superfuzz

[Gila_Crisis]

ZVex Octane2 (i got the schems....)

Lightly modded Superfuzz

yep!

[Solidhex]

Running a pretty clean amp like that you'll need something pretty gainy. Buzz from the Melvins' early setup was a Les Paul into a Rat into a Sunn Beta Lead head. Something about that setup accentuates the fuzziness of the Rat that you might not notice in other amps. Its a tone well suited to lower tunings and so called "stoner" music haha. I'd try one out. If you build one get the original IC from Small Bear. Makes a difference I feel.

--Brad

[Dragonfly]

Running a pretty clean amp like that you'll need something pretty gainy. Buzz from the Melvins' early setup was a Les Paul into a Rat into a Sunn Beta Lead head. Something about that setup accentuates the fuzziness of the Rat that you might not notice in other amps. Its a tone well suited to lower tunings and so called "stoner" music haha. I'd try one out. If you build one get the original IC from Small Bear. Makes a difference I feel.

--Brad

Dude, shut up...you don't know sh*t about "Stoner Rock"....





BTW...everything arrived just fine... I emailed you back ! Thanks again..

[DougH]

I made this thread after immediately finding out how cool my guitar sounded through a solid state bass head. I didn't try any pedals yet.

Last night I did get a chance to run my big muff in front of it and holy  . I wouldn't put it in the stoner rock classification but it was still a really cool, really usable insanity. And I agree with you soulsonic, the overdrive on this amp is amazing, very moderate but quite useful. I was on my way to building a booster sometime soon for my actual guitar amp so I will try that in front of the sunn with the overdrive cranked to 10.

I would suggest a Unidrive for a good booster for this sort of thing. 35-40db of crushing gain and a flat frequency response means -fat-  & -loud-. It will flat out roll over any booster circuit mentioned so far in this thread and leave it screaming in pitiful agony...

Seriously- if you are trying to get more of the goods out of your amp for fat sludgy stoner rock- this is the one you want. I use it to get metal tones out of my blues amp. With it only up halfway it is a great "strat fattener" for fluid leads. Turn it up all the way with humbuckers and you will have the 8th sign of the apocalypse coming out of your speakers. On second thought- please don't do that ... I have so much more life I'd like to live...  Just turn it up half to three-quarters with humbuckers and you'll be in stoner city.

[paperhouse]

i agree with the triangle spec muff. with humbuckers and a guitar tunes tuned to C it's instant boris tones

i'll add the zvex woolly mammoth, it's like a muff but meaner and with more bass. it also cleans up very well with your guitar's volume. not the best for leads but just huge for rhythms.

[newb]

may i sugest the bazz fuss change around the diode until you find the sound you like. it was ok with the stock diode setup but with 1 half of a 2n5088 it sounds alot like the big muff siamese dream sound. with half of a germanium transistor it sounds more like a 60s fuzz.  plus its a really simple build.