After the success of the previous cover of ‘Out of the Black’ (which is just under 1000 views within two weeks!) I’ve decided to post another Royal Blood cover, this time performing ‘Little Monster’. I also play this with my functions band DisCovered (www.wearediscovered.co.uk) so wasn’t too much hassle to learn or design the pedalboard for this one! This is played in Drop D (rather than the weird C tuning in the original)

http://http://youtu.be/tL7SeRxYzq8

Below is a similar write-up to last time, but with some additional details!

‘The huge sound that Mike Kerr creates is one of a mystery to most and no doubt many people are looking to unlock the secret to his tone. The majority have figured that with a combination of Bi-Amping different loop signals from the bass and a couple of Electro Harmonix POG2 pedals, that you’d be heading in the right direction to what is achieved to play Royal Blood songs effectively.

For me, I’ve always had an Electro Harmonix POG2 on my bass pedalboard to help achieve Sub-Bass and Octave up effects, but in particuarly with the latter, it’s always sounded a little weedy (even with overdrives/distortion pedals) and its only been since I’ve heard of Royal Blood that I’ve noticed the use of fuzz and the POG2 on a seperate line (to a different amp) that I’ve seen the benefit of such a setup (even for use in my regular functions band!)

 The signal splits at the Boss tuner, with the mute cutting out the bass whilst the fake guitar sound passes through the bypass jack into the LS-2, which in turn feeds the POG2 at the top of the board, through a Boss PS-6 (set to 5ths in key of D), and into an Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi (which is in the loop of the Boss NS-2). This is the loop for the guitar sound where the output is going straight into Logic Pro with an Orange clean amp emulator put on its channel. My bass sound features another POG2 (which works at the double guitar sound) into the Boss ODB3 (which I realise there isn’t a distorted bass sound in the Royal Blood tone but it works for me) and then into the Sansamp Bass Driver DI out into interface. Nothing too crazy (as I don’t have all the exact pedals) but this works as a general idea on how to achieve the sound. The bass has a huge impact as well. I’m using a Fender Jazz Deluxe and for this video I’m using the active circtui with both pickups to create a comparsion in tone and also tracking of all the pitched based effects. It’s also worth noting string gauge plays a part in the sound (particularly for the bends) of which I use a fairly heavy set (45-105s). Please note I also play the song in drop D rather than the drop C tuning in the original (although I suspect it may be a bit of an alternative tuning due to the position of the hand whilst playing the main riff)

Bass guitar/fake guitar signal go straight into Logic Pro 10 (which is where the drums have been sequenced and also a clean orange amp model on the guitar signal) and filming with built in camera on iMac and an iPhone 5 for the pedalboard cam.

Enjoy!’