When playing a gig, do you find yourself changing up your tone depending on the song you're playing? Or do you try to keep a consistent sound throughout the night?

I keep finding myself torn on the issue. On the one hand, I like to have my tone fit the song (like blending all the way to the single-coil neck for that 50s p-bass kind of sound when we play some
heavy blues). But on the other hand, I like the thought of developing my own consistent tone.

Haha, I think my main problem is that I just love too many different tones.

Thoughts?

I used to, but, I've found that more often than not, nobody cares as long as it sounds good. Now, if you are playing originals, I say experiment away and have fun with it. If you are playing covers, you may want to exercise caution or restraint in the experimental process...

Just my $0.02, YMMV, ect., ect., ect...

Russ

The only tonal changes I make during a gig are either playing closer to the neck or closer to the bridge with my precision, or flipping the switch on my Ric from both PUP's to either the bridge or the neck PUP. Some songs call for thumpy neck position stuff, and I like to be a bit brighter when it's just me solo.

I'm pretty much with Phalex. I play a Jazz, and I change tones by changing right hand position and attack. On fairly rare occasion I will kick in the Fulltone Bass Drive when the bass is supposed to be very prominent.

Ideally, I like to stick to one tone once I'm satisfied with it. If I want to alter the tone for a specific song, I roll back the volume on one of the pickups or the tone. But 95% of the time, everything is fully turned on on my jazz. I do minimal adjustments on the amp once I have it set as I like it.

Edit: I also change tone by playing in different ways - softer/harder and closer/farther away from the bridge. That's enough most of the times.

Well I don't know if this applies, but I play two different basses live and they are setup to have different tones...

I have a cut through mid boost tone that i like set up on my bass eq for my streamer S1 and my amp eq for my streamer STD (which I bypass when I plug in the S1). However if the song needs alot of harmonics I will always blend in the bridge pup of my S1 (if im playing the S1) and boost the treble alittle so they cut through as much as the rest of the playing. arty harmonics are harder to deal with as they are by deffinition muted slightly so its harder to get them to cut through as much but i manage.

I've got a couple of sounds set up - one clean and one dirty. I just pick the one that's most approiate for the moment. Some nights I'll stick on the dirty sound all night, as it sounds HUGE, other times I'll feel I need to use clean for more songs.

However I don't really chase the sound of the original version - more just avoiding anything drastically inappropriate. They're both "my" sounds, and I use the "my" sound that fits best.

Ian

When playing a gig, do you find yourself changing up your tone depending on the song you're playing? Or do you try to keep a consistent sound throughout the night?

I keep finding myself torn on the issue. On the one hand, I like to have my tone fit the song (like blending all the way to the single-coil neck for that 50s p-bass kind of sound when we play some
heavy blues). But on the other hand, I like the thought of developing my own consistent tone.

Haha, I think my main problem is that I just love too many different tones.

Thoughts?

Depends on the gig. During church gigs, we often go from very soft, acoustic/piano songs to full-out gospel & CCW. A Line6 Variax is great for going from a vintage Jazz with flats tone to an MTD 535 push of a button. When I'm using my MTD instead of the Variax, I often tweak the onboard preamp, often during songs... I'll boost the bass a bit and turn the treble all the way down during soft parts, and flatten it back out during loud parts. I often use my volume knob to control dynamics and fade ins/outs more easily, also.

During gigs with my funk band, it's pretty much set & forget - I have a setting on my Line6 preamp for my MTD into my Schroeder, and I just keep my onboard EQ flat, going into that setting, throughout the night.

I think it will depend on the types of music the band is playing and the types of parts you've come up with for the songs. The band I'm with does post-punk influenced stuff, but the moods and textures vary wildly from song to song (and sometimes within songs). On my bass, I'll switch pickup configurations. On my amp, I'll boost the high mids for a couple of songs, and boost lows and overall volume on a couple of songs where I use a certain pickup combination that requires beefing up. And on my pedals, there's a number of things I may do...

For my classic rock band, I make minor adjustments to the blend knob, using the neck p/u for slower songs that require a deeper tone, and blending in the neck p/u to help cut through the guitars for the more rocking songs.

That's about it. Everythings else, from amp EQ to Bass EQ is pretty much set and forget.

I leave my bass itself at one setting, but my amp is a Genz Benz GBE with all the optional footpedals. I use them to constantly change my tone in mid song, though not randomly. I have tones pre-planned/programmed depending on the needs of the material.

Before that I used my SansAmp PDDI for the same thing.

Nobody ever notices :bassist:

I use a Geddy Lee jazz, and in the last few months I have found
myself wanting a deeper tone as the basic tone, with
almost no clank or finger noise. There are few songs I need
some high definition on, so I just roll the tone knob towards
treble a little with my pinky.

So yes, I do change on the fly, but I try to make it as simple
as possible.

When playing a gig, do you find yourself changing up your tone depending on the song you're playing? Or do you try to keep a consistent sound throughout the night?

I keep finding myself torn on the issue. On the one hand, I like to have my tone fit the song (like blending all the way to the single-coil neck for that 50s p-bass kind of sound when we play some
heavy blues). But on the other hand, I like the thought of developing my own consistent tone.

Haha, I think my main problem is that I just love too many different tones.

Thoughts?

The best thing to do is find one good tone, if you go overboard with patches or just knob twiddleing it will hurt your overall band sound and can cause sound problems.

I used to alternate between two main tones- one warm midrangey tone dialed in on my head, and a cleaner more slap-oriented tone on my Sansamp BDDI. I'd also adjust the sweep on my pickups if I wanted a less aggressive tone.

These days I just use the Ultimate Tone which was created by running the Sansamp through my FX loop.

I do minor changes throughout the night, but that's probably my ears getting overloaded and not feeling like the sound is quite right. I'd say that if you have "covers", like mentioned before, that you're doing and the bass sound needs to change for the specific tune you're doing, then by all means change it! Otherwise, find the tone you like that's full, cuts through and is clean enough to not muddy up with the bass drum or guitars and go for it for the night!

I usually have 2 or more basses and a bass pod with different patches. Then there is the pick vs fingers approach, and I can get a flatwound sound with palm muting. So I can get several different sounds from my equipment.

I play gigs that go from a more midrangey modern tone to a very old-school phat tone. I just dial in more or less neck pickup, and move my right hand to get what I want.

I switch back and forth from P to PJ sometimes. That's about it.

I modify my tone and technique (including right hand position on the instrument) and my fx (compression/overdrive/chorus and very occasionally some env filter) all the way through a set to match the song/performance.

But at the center of all of this is a really good starting point generic tone from my hands and instrument, amplified by a great amp etc...

The rest is just color.

I dont care if the punters arent aware that the bass has changed much, they will enjoy the sound if I do it right - before now I've over heard people talking to guitarists in bands I have been in asking how the guitarist got 'that great effect thing' and the guitarist has hd to point them in my direction on more than oine occasion - which is fine!

Its all about the whole band sound anyway.

With my metal band my tone is always the same, for some lead parts I'll click on the distortion and wah, sometimes put a little envelope or bassballs on some chords for a synth like sound. Other than effects, my tone stays the same.

I change tones constantly. One, my plucking hand moves all over the bass, from right by the bridge to plucking on the fretboard. Then, I adjust my pickup blend all the time. Finally, I use the two channels on my head for two totally different tones, one eq'd flat and the other with the mid scooped out and the bass and treble boosted. Does the audience care? I dunno, but it makes a huge difference to how I feel about my playing, and we all know that feel is everything.

As far as overall tone is concerned I am using more varied sounds now than in the last twenty years or so. Especially since using 2 very different instruments. I've foundmyself gravitating towards my Barker more and more except when I need a more aggressive sound or some prolonged slapping and then the P-bass is what I usually end up with.

For many years it was just me and the P-bass. So many options these days...

JKT:bassist:

I've wondered about this, only not for myself but the lead guitarist. He uses a PodXT Live and usually switches up tones between songs... the problem is it takes him a while, and he usually ends up noodling. :scowl:

I use one bass - a 78 Fender P with EMG PJ pickups. I run a SansAmp BBDI in-line between my bass and my SWR WorkingPro 400. Between the SansAmp and the footswitchable Bass Intensifier on the WP 400, I can get three main "tones" as follows:

1) Motown/R&B/ballad - Bass Intensifier on, SansAmp off. I set my WP 400 to get a solid, punchy "core" sound, almost Motown but with a little more punch and articulation. P pickup runs just a hair under wide-open and the J pickup is off zero just a touch (I don't have a pickup blend knob, each pickup is 0 to 100%).

2) Classic Rock - Bass Intensifier off, SansAmp on. The main difference between this and tone 1 is a little less "thud" and a little more high end, drive and tube emulation provided by the SansAmp. Out of courtesy to the sound tech I set the Level knob on the SansAmp to keep the output level the same between this tone and #1. P pickup is wide open and J pickup is open about 1/4 (less if I'm using a pick).

3) Modern Rock/Modern Country/Funk - Bass Intensifier and SansAmp both on. This is a really ballsy tone ("a lot of everything") which isn't appropriate for a lot of the material we play but is just what some of the songs need. Since this setting basically stacks two tones on each other I usually back off the volume of the bass to roughly equal the output of the other two tones, plus about 10% if the song is really bass-centric.

So that's three tones without ever hitting more than two (analog) footswitches which is all I ever want to really deal with. Then of course any of these can be tweaked by neck vs. bridge finger placement, fingers vs. pick, etc. Although by the time all this gets through the P.A. a lot of the subtleties are gone anyway so I don't obsess about it too much. If your bandmates are grinning and the dance floor is hopping then your tone is probably "right".

I had my first large venue gig, in my jazz group playing basically cocktail/dinner background music in a huge domed space, about 600 seated. I had my basic tone set, but felt like I discovered what the jazz bass's bridge p/up was truly for as I turned it up. It was like a little revelation! :)

That space really needed a little more neck p/up to balance and blend and cut a little. It mellowed out the boominess more than it added cut.

Definitely I use different tones, both of which are 'my sound.' I've found two tones that I like to use in general:
1. For my alternative country band I set the switches on my G&L to passive/bridge pickup and the preamp on my amp to tube with a little distortion.
2. For modern rock/Worship music I change the switches to active with treble boost/both pickups. On the amp I bring up the solid-state side of the preamp to clean up the sound, though I leave just enough tube to distort when I really dig in.

Other than that I change for specific songs. For Johnny Cash I mute the strings and play with my thumb for a bottom-heavy upright sound. For 'The Distance' by Cake I switch to active with bass boost/neck pickup and blast away with the reggae-like tone. Does anyone notice? They don't notice that they notice, but they do.

My tone never changes...not on rehearsals, not live, not at home. Always the same...works wonderfully.