GZ Hellion as high gain bass amp

[MadAsAHatter]

I was messing around earlier this week and for shits & giggles I decided to hook my Hellion up to my Ashdown 610 bass cab with a standard P Bass. I was really surprised to how well it handled high gain bass tones. A lot of modern guitar amps usually sound wimpy with bass or get over powered ad fart out too much on the low notes. The Hellion had some thump to it. It also kept articulation on the low end without sounding thin.

Though mostly more modern, I was able to get a good number of tones out of it. The Hellion did do the Lemmy thing really f-ing well. Don't expect it to do clean at all and it's a bit too high gain to pull off true classic overdrive. For comparison, I usually do high gain bass through my G-K 2001RBP preamp into my BV300's power section. I really like the G-K, but against the Hellion it sounded like ass. <- That might be an overstatement, though I did like the sound of the Hellion much better.

At 100 watts I'm not 100% sure it could hang in there with a full band. But then an Ampeg V4B is 100 watts and does just fine. So if you're not wanting a clean tone at all and aren't at too large a venue I'd think it could keep up well enough.

Beef it up to 200-300 watts and add a proper clean channel for more classic tones and I think the Hellion would be a full fledged, gigable bass amp. @RedPlated if you ever consider doing this I call dibs on the first one.

 

[JackBootedThug]

Unrelated but I’m a big typonegative fan and Pete always used boss guitar pedals…not sure what amps. Anyway I don’t see why it would not work. I have played through bass cabs and it sounded good. The only problem I see is possibly the cab being an issue….back in the Jurassic era all of the players used the same amps for guitar and bass…

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Yeah, a lot of the old amps were multipurpose as long as you ran it through the right cab. Orange/Matamp, Super Bass, Bassman, Sunn off the top of my head. With newer guitar amps; especially the high gain ones, the EQ isn't geared enough to work as well for bass. That's not to say it can't, but from my playing around they usually lack enough low end. Still, it's always fun to mess around with something different.

 

[Devin]

Fuck yea


I used to occasionally play bass through my Deliverance 60 and it was dope

 

[ners]

Well now I need to buy a bass to try this!

I use the modern setting and absolutely could see it being good for bass.

 

[RedPlated]

This is super cool. Never thought of the Hellion being used for bass. I’ll have to try it myself.

Curious…how are you setting up the amp/ EQ?

 

[MadAsAHatter]

This is super cool. Never thought of the Hellion being used for bass. I’ll have to try it myself.

Curious…how are you setting up the amp/ EQ?

The EQ settings can be fairly dependent on the bass; or more specifically pickups & string. My Ibanez Talman bass is rather bright and clanky so backing off the NFB, presence, and treble a little more is needed. On the other end my Explorer P bass with flat wounds & Duncan Quarter Pounders is a lot more mellow than the Talman so I can push those knobs a little higher. I was also playing thought a 610 which is rather punchy. I'd think you could probably get a little rounder sound running through a 115 or 215 cab.

My P bass copy with DiMarzio Willpower pups and round wound strings is a good median between those two. Here's a few good starting points that I like and worked well for me. From there it's adjusting to taste.

I was able to work a mostly clean tone. Though to get to band volumes it'll likely go into power tube overdrive.
Switches: Depth Frequency & Signal Enhance = Deep, Mid Structure = Full, Voicing = Vintage, Gain Style = 2nd position.
Push Pre-Amp and/or Gain Trim up a little for some mild overdrive

For heavier overdrive most things stay the same but push Pre-Amp up and blend in some diode clipping
Switches: Depth Frequency & Signal Enhance = Deep, Mid Structure = Full, Voicing = Vintage, Gain Style = 2nd position

Going into distortion tones up the NFB, Presence, Treble and back off a little on the Depth & Bass. This worked for me to keep enough boom on the low notes but not so much they start to fart out. This also helped with clarity/note separation so the heavier distortion didn't sound like a garbled mess.
Switches: Depth Frequency & Signal Enhance = Deep, Mid Structure = Full, Voicing = Classic, Gain Style = 2nd position