Make a Bass Sound Like a Guitar and a Bass - Bass Practice Diary - 1st June 2021

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Make a Bass Sound Like a Guitar and a Bass - Bass Practice Diary - 1st June 2021
For a long time I've been playing with the idea of making electric guitar sounds on bass. As technology has improved over the years it's getting easier and easier and the idea is becoming more and more popular. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the popular duo called Royal Blood. Bassist Mike Kerr makes his bass sound like a guitar and he takes care of all the guitar and bass parts at once. It used to be the case that there were a lot of octave pedals on the market that created an octave or even two octaves down. But there weren't many good affordable pedals that could create an octave above.
Using Line 6 Helix with Bass
The Line 6 Helix range of products, which includes the Helix LT that I'm using, have caused quite a sensation amongst guitar players. But they're not as heavily used by bass players. However, the Helix products are designed to be used with both guitar and bass, and although I wouldn't use them for everything bass related, there are a few situations where they are really useful. For example, if you want to create a vintage bass tone without investing in heavy and expensive vintage gear, the Helix has some good vintage bass amps modelled, like the Ampeg B-15.
Another situation where the Helix comes into its own is when you want to use lots of effects. You can set the Helix up to be like an all in one pedal board with all your effects controllable by foot switches. You can also import patches into your Helix from other artists. That's exactly what I've done here with this lead guitar patch from the guitarist Johnathan Cordy. It's worth knowing that he sells his entire patch collection for Helix for £5 including the patch I'm using in the video. However, be aware that he is a guitarist, not a bass player and the patches are all designed to be used with guitar.
My Setup
My setup in the video is actually pretty simple. I've split my signal coming out of the bass using a Morley ABC pedal (although I'm only using A and B). From the Morley pedal, one signal goes straight to my Warwick Hellborg bass amp and the other goes to the Helix. I recorded the lead guitar sound straight from the Helix and I took a line from my Warwick Hellborg Preamp for my bass sound.
The patch from Johnathan Cordy is doing all the work. The patch contains an octave pitch shift, distortion, reverb and delay as well as guitar amp simulation. You could probably reproduce all of that with individual pedals and a guitar amp. But it might end up being more expensive than buying a Helix and maybe not sound as good. For live use I would use both a guitar amp and a bass amp and I would plug the Helix into the guitar amp.

[@JamesJoseph1000]

Imagine combining this with the Royal Blood sound. It would be a hit for shows!

[@michaelrose4082]

More avenues for creative expression. Fabulous!

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Hi Michael. Absolutely, it's another voice to try and be creative with. Thank you! 👍🎶

[@ANTiBassMetal]

yeah been doing this bass to sound like a guitar for almost 20 years, didn’t get the line split till 6 years ago has definitely helped hear the bass with the overdrive

[@Tony21TT]

Mixed together it sounds great..interesting

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Thank you! 👍🎶

[@ImYourOverlord]

I'm after the same goal, to a point. I don't want my bass' high signal (above 150 Hz) to be at electric guitar pitch, but to have a more electric guitar tone (or tonal range). Currently, I send my high signal through one set of effects on my pedalboard and into a bass head with EQ dialed in as though it was a guitar amp, going out a 4x10 cab, and my low signal through a much smaller set of effects and into a different bass head with EQ boosting the bass a bit and cutting down mid and treble all the way (although I could probably leave those two flat), going out a 1x15 cab. I'm pondering whether or not changing anything in my bi-amp setup would improve this setup and be more efficient while getting me closer to my goal. One option I see is to ditch the mid/high bass head, and run my high signal into a guitar head instead, but I think I want to keep wattage fairly even between the two signals. That might not be necessary.

[@edwardoe6012]

Good stuff. Interesting sounds

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Thank you! 👍🎶

[@LeoNovel]

On iPhone speakers, it sounds exactly like a guitar!! 😁

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Excellent. I haven't tried listening back to this on my phone yet! 👍🎶

[@harrisonmathews1406]

@@JohnnyCoxMusic im using a potato with a calculator screen built in, i have no idea how any sound is produced from this but it sounds amazing

[@Sergmanny46]

Once I heard both guitar and bass at the same time, I was sold. Now all I need is a bass.

[@pafaccount4454]

Based af Prototype pfp.

[@patrickr12342]

It is like you ' ve said. Like a lot of sounds, it is a question of taste. Very helpful. Thank you, for that creative example .

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Thanks Patrick! 👍🎶

[@missyb1020]

OMG that was amazing ❤ I didn't know that could be done!!!

[@adik6528]

Cool idea! I'm gonna take my cheap multieffect (zoom B1four) and do something similar now!

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Cool, I've never used one but I know some people love those Zoom effects. 👍🎶

[@RHINOSAUR]

Yep. I’ve got the Zoom as well and created a very good patch that does virtually what this video demonstrates.

[@jacoboy99]

I just got the Zoom B6 recently and now I’m definitely intrigued by it knowing that someone with a Zoom multi effect is doing it too!

[@hotwheel6663]

I love this

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

👍🎶

[@EclecticSoundBox]

Royal Blood: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@vinsinfletcher8019]

Awesome, your bass playing is so clean. Love the way you made it sound like an electric guitar,, wish you displayed the exact device you used or give the name of it (possibly you said it and i missed it).

[@infernalnosferatu]

Thanks man!

[@earthlastdaybiblechannel]

amazing

[@advancedtrance]

This is what I've been looking for!! Im having a hard time looking for the link to purchase the Helix with the patch. Any way you can give me a link or some guidance?..... Another thing, is this patch computer only or a modified pedal?

[@doom5895]

Wish there were more videos of how to do this I'm trying to sound like cliff playing anesthesia but getting no results

[@ikon4255]

there are many videos on cliff tone lmao

[@ianscharaga6639]

I love this video man well done. So do you think its feasable to perform double duty (multi task ) as both a bassist and rythym guitar by splitting the output? Would it sound too mechanical or diffused by any chance?

[@tea2920]

I want to make Midwest emo/math rock, the main instrument in both genres often times is the guitar but I don't like it so I'm gonna use my bass

[@kengagnon6192]

Hi can the guitar patch be played clean or with other effects like chorus or reverb or is the patch design with just distortion , I like the octave up as well is that being done by the line 6 setting , thanks for response

[@flexmingus]

Bass guitar is a guitar after all, same with the baritone guitar... The only real basses are upright and tubas. Christian Gálvez is a nice example of guitar/chord driven bass playing. The guy is superb.

[@vick_3354]

jun 1st 2021 is where i turned 12

[@ElBellacko1]

im using good speakers and it sounds like a guitar

[@joninawhitecoat]

Have you tried that guitar tone with a fretless bass?

[@Superplexmusic]

Cool. I just use piccolo strings on my p bass with guitar amps and effects

[@onutube6392]

Could it do metal soloing?

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

I guess it could if you found the right patch. 👍🎶

[@nosenseguy148]

What do you use for this?

[@GavinSideways]

Any octave pedals you would recommend?

[@mudpockets]

TC Electronics sub n up has a pretty natural octave up. The micro version is around $100

[@km1842]

Why??

[@JohnnyCoxMusic]

Why do we do anything? Just because I want to, do I need a better reason than that? 👍🎶

[@ihatetheinternetitsawesome3578]

Unique sound

[@lolimac]

Is Fake