My first "Heavy Song" HELP

[Spencer]

I have never played a heavy song. The song is nerdy by poisen the well, my band wants to play it. Its my tone and strumming that fast on a bass should I use my finger? Its hard for me to go that fast with a pick. What should my settings be like? Im useing my 4 string ibanez that I defreted and tuned down to BEAD even tho im still useing small gauge strings.. I can do it but it sounds bad unless I take out all the trebel.. Anyway What kind of tone do heavier bassists use? What do I boost/cut? I know I should have a real 4 string or at least 5 string gauged strings but, I can't at the moment. So someone help me out?

[neatobassman]

mess around and find what you like. The fretless-ness might be what you don't like.

[Mr. Grill]

Most metal bassists have boosted lows and highs and scooped mids. It gives a tone that will sort of show the dynamics of what is being played more, its hard to explain.

[bottlerocket]

Poison the Well = one of the only good metalcore bands ever

Nerdy is a sick song. I love PTW. <3

The fact your bass is defretted is a killer.

Play with a pick close to the bridge (I play with my fingers but a pick may make it sound better). Boost your neck/bridge PUP and if your bass is passive, put tone all the way. If it's active, keep bass flat and boost treble slightly. On your amp, put bass at about 7, mids at about 5, and treble at about 4.

-Gav

[moghes69]

try some light distortion. the grittyness might help a little.

edit: or what gav said could help as seeing he knows the band better.

[wicked_child]

fretless produces a good tone. try boosting your lows use a neck pickup but pick at the bridge area. works for me. :)

[Spencer]

thanks everyone! And yea poison the well is the only "heavy" band that I found I like so far. Maby emory if they are heavy at all.

[Saberpunk]

boost highs and lows, scoop mids, actually use full bridge pickup, with middle pickup only slightly less, but play close to the bridge. Maybe use some slight distortion if you want things grittier. Having a fretted bass might probably help though...

[Raiven]

Botchla > Nerdy.

Then they went a bit weak with You Come Before You.

[tim_commerfordism]

lol?