Just last week we premiered Bones, the red hot new EP from Brisbane four piece Former Angels. Taking cues from the hard, fast, and loud legends of the past, the band are specialists when it comes to no-holds-barred rock ‘n’ roll.
To find out a little more about those crunching low end tones, we reached out to bassist Mitch Gardner for a pedal rundown. Here’s what he’s sporting on his board.
Want to know how to turn your bass into a fuzzy, punchy powerhouse? Find out how Mitch from Former Angels gets his massive sound.
BOSS TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
The original tuner/noise-stopping pedal. Pretty straightforward!
BOSS ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
The first pedal I ever bought, the ODB-3 is my go-to for muddying up bass tone and adding a bit of growl to the low end. It’s the only pedal (except for the tuner) that’s always on my pedal board, and almost always switched on.
The pedal is capable of mild, rough-around-the-edges overdrive all the way through to completely blown-out, fuzzed-up noise.
MXR Dyna-Comp (JHS mod)
Perfect for adjusting the attack and making sure those fuzzy bass lines shine through in the live mix, and bringing extra clarity and punch to anything clean.
This one is a modded version of the standard Dyna-Comp, based on the vintage Ross compressors from the ‘70s – capable of producing the extra low end thump necessary for a good bass tone!
Walrus Audio Luminary
Currently probably my favourite pedal on my board, and a true all-rounder! A ‘quad octave generator’, the Luminary functions as both an octave pedal and a pseudo-bass synthesiser – I use it for beefing up low end frequencies if I’m playing higher up the neck, adding higher octaves for bass leads, and for a classic rock organ sound when paired with the Pharaoh Fuzz.
This recently replaced a Electro-Harmonix POG2 on my pedal board – as much as I miss the warbly organ sounds of the POG, the Luminary has far superior tracking and clarity on the low end rumble.
Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz
One of the best fuzzes I’ve ever played, the Pharaoh has a huge range of sounds – thanks mostly to the use of both Germanium and Silicon diodes on the circuit, and the potential to blend the two together for an absolutely huge fuzz tone.
While this pedal is primarily aimed at guitarists (and so loses a bit of the bass frequencies), linked up with the ODB-3 and Luminary the Pharaoh is unstoppable for producing walls of sound.
Bonus: Cable Spaghetti
The bane of every pedal fanatic, you can never escape the mess of power cables and leads that join together your expensive noise boxes. I use flat/pancake plug cables to reduce the amount of space taken up on the pedal board, and make things look that little bit neater!
Former Angels’ debut EP Bones is out now.
