Bass Gear Guide

Bass Setup: How Dylan Desmond Get’s His Sound On Stygian Bough Vol. II

Published

4 months ago

December 8, 2025

Revered bassist Dylan Desmond, known for his work with the critically acclaimed doom metal band BELL WITCH, has reunited with fellow doom act AERIAL RUIN for their second collaborative release, Stygian Bough Vol. II, which arrived on November 14th via Profound Lore.

About the Album…

In our human minds, according to the Law of Contagious Magic as described in The Golden Bough by anthropologist James Frazer, contact between two objects creates an inseparable thread between them. A gift from a dead friend forever holds this magic like a scar reflecting a wound. Similarly, a piece of food that touches the floor is suddenly abject and rotten. Pairing this notion with the Law of Similarity Magic, as described by Frazer, where an object resembling another can share its power, a musical notion can be understood to serve as an unbodied conduit of such magics; an emotional contact between the music and audience wherein such sorcery threads an inseparable seam that, for a time, resembles each other.

Aptly named in reference to the aforementioned book, on Stygian Bough Volume II, the collaboration between Bell Witch (Dylan Desmond, Jesse Shreibman) and Aerial Ruin (Erik Moggridge) enlivens its unbodied presence, resembling both collaborating projects as a conduit in its own separate entity. In the course of an hour, four musical pieces set themselves apart from the catalogs of both individual bands and branch into new territory, all the while threaded to the original encounter.

DYLAN’S BASS SETUP:

Ibanez BTB747 bass guitar
into
Lehle Volume pedal
into
Pettyjohn Compressor
into
Soursound ABCD splitter/effect loop
into

Channel 1
Benedict V1 distortion
Strymon DECO Tape
Strymon El Capistan delay
Strymon Bluesky reverb
Verellen Loucks
Sunn 4×12

Channel 2
Skreddy Pig Mine distortion
Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl chorus
Strymon El Capistan delay
Strymon Bluesky reverb
Ampeg V4 (70’s)
Lahar 4×12

Channel 3
Skreddy Perestroika
Ampeg SVT II
Ampeg 8×10

In Bell Witch I’ve always approached the bass guitar with the idea of recreating a bass/dual guitar trio on one instrument. To do this, I play the bass lines with my left hand and tap melodies on the right similar to a piano or Chapman Stick. I split my signal into three amplifiers –
1. SVT II representing bass and low frequencies. This one has minimal effects
2. Ampeg V4 representing the spectrum of mids with modulation and reverb
3. Verellen Loucks representing upper mids and highs with modulation and reverb.

The two guitar amps combined with different modulation patterns create a “doubling” or “dual mono” effect in the mid and high frequencies. Magic can happen in a live performance in instances such as one guitar amp falling into feedback while the other sustains a fretted note.

I’ve generally played on a six-string bass but the past few years I’ve gotten comfortable with a seven string. The extra high allows for notes to scream through like an electric guitar might in its upper registers.

I’m playing melody and bass lines simultaneously through three effect chains routed through a not-so-simple device I had custom-made by Soursounds in Portland, Oregon. It is a Phase Linear Distribution Amplifier, which is made to isolate and distribute signal between four outputs and a DI from one input. A few of the purposes it serves:
1. Splits signal from 1 to 4 sources
2. amplifies each source to compensate for loss of signal in split
3. has an effect loop for each channel, allowing all 4 channels to activate distortion at once instead of needing to each individual pedal.
4. can mute, change phase, change ground etc.
5. Has a DI

This device allows me to split my signal amongst three signal chains, while also sending a DI to FOH. Each chain is tailored to interact and complement the others with the speed/depth of chorus/flanger modulation, delays, reverb etc.

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