How the Strymon Iridium can be Awesome for Bass Guitar

Mar 16, 2022

I recently got my first bass, a JMJ Mustang Bass*. I needed to find a decent sound for recording bass without breaking the bank. I was trying to make the most out of the gear that I already had, and the result is not too shabby.

I didn’t find many resources on using the Strymon Iridium* on bass. But when researching for production tricks to get good bass sounds, I often stumbled over people recording bass through guitar amps…

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When I first plugged in my bass into the Iridium, I was a bit disappointed. No setting had the OOOMPH I was looking for. It’s not that the stock cabinets are completely unusable for bass. But, for my taste, they shelf off too much low end for most applications.

I knew I enjoyed those OwnHammer IRs that came with the Iridium for guitar. So I got their awesome bass cab pack called AMPG Bass (IRs from 4x10 and 2x10 SVT cabs).

Those 30 dollars got me the best bang for buck in a long time as for music gear acquisitions.

After loading some on the Iridium and A/B testing for an hour, I was super stoked on that sound!

The cab pack has a lot of options to choose from – lots of different mic and speaker combinations. I went for the “stock” Ampeg® speakers. These are the ones loaded onto my Iridium now for the ROUND amp:

a: OH 410 AMPG SVT-10 FAT MIX EQ
b: OH 210 AMPG SVT-10 FAT MIX EQ
c: OH 210 AMPG SVT-10 CUT MIX EQ

MIX means there are a few microphones mixed together for the “best” sound. I assume the fine people from OwnHammer do a better job of mixing mics than I would. FAT has more of the lower bass frequencies, CUT is, well… cut. EQ means there was some EQ applied to make the bass sit better in a mix. Again, I assume that’s done by people who know much more than me.

It’s like choosing plain vanilla ice cream, but it’s luxurious and creamy.

The ROUND setting (Fender® inspired preamp section) works best on bass. It only gives some subtle saturation. I don’t know a lot about bass amps. But, this gets close to recorded bass tones that I know are from saturated Ampeg® SVTs. Carlos D from Interpol and Michael Shuman from Queens of the Stone Age are currently big inspirations for me.

Also, the MIDDLE control on the ROUND setting is a great tool for dialing in your bass tone. Turn it up for a mid-focused sound to stand out in the mix. Turn it down to scoop out the mids and make space for guitars in a busy mix.

This makes the Iridium an ultra versatile allrounder for my recording setup. I have a preset for my favourite guitar tone on the CHIME (Vox® inspired) model. My SVT inspired bass tone is on the ROUND amp model.

This makes for a more streamlined setup. This is huge for someone like. I produce 1-2 demo tracks per week.

I know there are great plugins out there to get killer bass tones. But, I’m happy that I can get a great bass sound by turning some knobs. I commit to that sound rather than obsessing over it in the DAW.

Signal Chain

JMJ Mustang Bass* (tone 100% up, Fender flatwound strings)
Iridium
GarageBand
GarageBand drummer is Gavin (Indie Rock, Brooklyn kit) juiced up with the FreeAMP plugin from Klevgrand
Mild compression and limiter on backing track and bass to glue them together

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