My drummer friend and I have had enough trying to find another person to make music with. We've been playing together for so long now we're on the same mental wavelength constantly and don't have the luck/patients to find someone else to play guitar or bass.

So I'm looking to try and get a sound out of my guitar that will sound more like a bass. Hopefully something more than dropping the signal an octave and tweaking the EQ.

Certainly they make a chinese crap sounding box that will do this? Or have you done something?

In my head right now I'm looking to split the signal from my guitar with one to my guitar amp and the other into *something* and then into my bass amp.

I really prefer to playing my bass and splitting the signal. I like to have a solid bass tone and then mess around and have a wacky guitar tone going along with it. I have done this before and been really happy. But it's really limiting the (guitar) parts for me because I play a four string. So I'd like to try playing the guitar.

Any sugguestions? Thanks.

Man I m in the same boat, I have considered growing two more arms more than once, uh, maybe split the difference and get a baritone? I have been playing "rythyms" on the guitar through a sample loop pedal and then playing on top for extra texture, but it can get tricky to switch parts in mid song. best of luck (shame pitts and phila. are so far)

I can't imagine such a box existing which would magically make a guitar sound like a bass, and one that doesn't involve an octave downshift and an EQ.

Your best bet, in my opinion, would be to find the best octave pedal/rack unit you can afford, one that tracks almost perfectly. No idea if such a product exists, but I'm certain that some octave pedals/units are much better at tracking than others.

Then, try and mask the tracking discrepancies with a high quality EQ.

Or, perhaps you could wire your guitar up with a Midi Sequencer pickup and trigger "bass" sounds via that? I don't know if those pickups are still around, but I recall some people getting decent results with them.

Or, try and convert one of your friends into a bass player. Depending on the style of music you are doing, as long as the person can keep decent time, it's not that hard to learn bass.

Or use a bass sequencer and let the drummer be in charge of it. I've seen drummers turn sequencers off/on and even select tracks by hitting a midi sensor pad.

(Seems like playing both guitar and "bass" at once on the same guitar would be limiting. "Stick" players do it pretty well, but they get to use two hands and that's entirely different...not to mention geeky looking...)

gnangle wrote:Man I m in the same boat, I have considered growing two more arms more than once, uh, maybe split the difference and get a baritone? I have been playing "rythyms" on the guitar through a sample loop pedal and then playing on top for extra texture, but it can get tricky to switch parts in mid song. best of luck (shame pitts and phila. are so far)

Actually I didn't mention but I'm running a loop pedal right now as well. Same mid song problems sometimes. I actually bounce between PGH and Phili all the time and in a month will be bouncing between NYC and Phili. Small world.

telefunken wrote:I can't imagine such a box existing which would magically make a guitar sound like a bass, and one that doesn't involve an octave downshift and an EQ.

Yeah, I said hopefully something more than just that. I've seen crazy synth pedals for bass and it seemed to me that some company would have thought to make something for this application as it obviously isn't rare.

telefunken wrote:Or, try and convert one of your friends into a bass player. Depending on the style of music you are doing, as long as the person can keep decent time, it's not that hard to learn bass.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I can't find someone who wants to head in the direction we do and who can A. keep time or B. show up. Nuts.

Admit it, you're in a Local H cover band.

get a friend who can't play but wants to be in a band to learn bass... it's pretty easy to play simple basslines that work.

Yeah, I said hopefully something more than just that. I've seen crazy synth pedals for bass and it seemed to me that some company would have thought to make something for this application as it obviously isn't rare.

I'd imagine if something did it exist, it would not sound very good. Semi-related example: the Boss Acoustic Simulator pedal. Sounded like pure shit with an electric guitar. I think a high quality octave unit with a musical EQ could sound pretty damn good.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I can't find someone who wants to head in the direction we do and who can A. keep time or B. show up. Nuts.

Yeah, sometimes it's a blessing in disguise to convert friends into bassists, as they tend to be so jazzed that they are actually in a band, they don't offer their unwanted musical inputs.

Whenever I find time to put a new band together, I'm going to get my girlfriend to play bass. She plays a little guitar, and we've jammed before with her on bass, she's decent. I'll have a hard enough time finding a drummer, and I've encountered far too many bassists who think it's brilliant to play slap/funk 5-string bass over a White Album-esque tune.

Just curious, what type of music are you doing? Have any sound clips online?

my friends band does the signal splitter --> octave pedal ---> into bass amp thing cause they don't have a bass player. Sounds more like an analogue keyboard than a bass guitar but it works all the same.

Do as US Maple.... add a few bass strings to your guitar... split the output...bass strings to one pickup/output/amp... guitar strings to another pickup/output/amp. Leads to crazy and unique sounding playing.