blues bass settings?

[HoosierBassist]

I need help getting some good bluesy bass settings. Fender Rumble 75 watt combo amp. Sterling RAY34

[will33]

That would depend on the gear and the room you're in but in general, blues sounds good with fat lowmids, not a lot of clank in the uppermids/treble, not a lot of deep subwoofer type bass either. Think P bass with the tone rolled back a little bit. It's not lowmids only, just that they're the dominant part of the tone. Leave room further up for cleanish to mildly driven guitars. Thinking old school blues here so an old school tone. Not big wide open bottom to top modern sound.

[basslinejam]

My personal blues bass paradigm is to emulate an uprightish tone for Chicago/Chess records style (Willy Dixon) but remain flexible enough to go in the Paul Butterfield amp-cranked flatwound electric tone direction.

Blues is such a varied genre for bass. Many, many great players (i.e. Johnny B. Gayden with Albert Collins or Cesar Cruz with Joe Bonamasa) go with a full, modern 5-string tone and kick major blues a$$.

It's better to know how to really play the blues than worry about your "blues" tone.

To answer your question directly,
A Ray34 might sound best in a blues setting with the right hand playing closer to the neck. Roll up the bass control on the bass and lighten your touch. Try Palm muting techniques too -- huge range of possibilities there for blues and many other styles of music.

[will33]

Originally Posted by basslinejam

My personal blues bass paradigm is to emulate an uprightish tone for Chicago/Chess records style (Willy Dixon) but remain flexible enough to go in the Paul Butterfield amp-cranked flatwound electric tone direction.

Blues is such a varied genre for bass. Many, many great players (i.e. Johnny B. Gayden with Albert Collins or Cesar Cruz with Joe Bonamasa) go with a full, modern 5-string tone and kick major blues a$$.

It's better to know how to really play the blues than worry about your "blues" tone.

To answer your question directly,
A Ray34 might sound best in a blues setting with the right hand playing closer to the neck. Roll up the bass control on the bass and lighten your touch. Try Palm muting techniques too -- huge range of possibilities there for blues and many other styles of music.

Man, good points all there. Pretty wide genre. I went to my default Dunn/Cropper, Stax Soul/R&B end of the blues spectrum.

[Duckwater]

I usually cut my treble, high mids, and sub-bass, boost my gain, and play right over my neck pickup.

[Russell L]

Played a blues gig just last night---with a Markbass rig, no less. As modern as the Little Mark III and Traveler 151P cab are I was able to get a good blues tone with my Fender Jazz and Chromes flats. At first I had it set too deep, but after a few tunes and twiddling the knobs I ended up with the eq pretty much flat, just a tad of a boost on the lows, and a cut in high mids to account for my fingernails clacking. Sometimes I muted with the side of my palm while picking with my thumb, a dead ringer for the upright sound, I swear it is. Otherwise, I mostly played near the fingerboard to keep the sound fat. Once I was running nearly flat, though, I found that I could pick harder, which I sometimes wanted to do---and that sounded best for the jazzy tunes, especially if I picked further back toward the bridge. But, as said above there are so many styles of blues that you really have to consider each song individually as to what you want to do. What bugs me the most is trying to decide if I want to play a repeating pattern like 1356, 1188b7b755, or whatever, or walk around all over the place as in a jazz tune. Sometimes I think I use the same motif too much. That gets tricky when playing more than one 12-bar tune in a row. You want them to sound different. Of course, some tunes have their own usual lick to play, which makes the decision easier.

Anyway, I guess the best advice is to keep the tone fat without going into sub-bass, and avoid the honky mids and shimmering highs. If I had to pick only one frequency to use it would probably be something like 100 Hz.

[Lichtaffen]

Russell,
I'm always concerned that my patterns are repetitious, but most of the time soloists seem to want a predictable pattern so that they can solo over easier. I'm sure the more experienced cats don't care as much. In my case, I play with a harmonica player who learns Little Walter songs note-for-note and needs predictable notes behind what he's playing. He complains when I throw in too many passing tones. Go figure.

I'm finding that it's much less about note selection as it is getting a solid groove that carries the song. Tone definitely makes a difference as well. You don't want to cut into the soloists frequencies and muddy it up. I tend to go for the Duck Dunn tone that Will33 spoke of. You can't go wrong with the P bass with flats concept.

[Russell L]

I'll add that I often play my notes kinda short, and often with a muted little "chnk" in between the notes when applicable (that's like what the keys or guitar often plays on shuffles, etc.). The shorter notes help define the feel of the groove, I think. And they sound more like old, ancient, dead rounds, ya know.

[will33]

Man, you guys are dead on about playing blues right and not just worrying about tone settings. A lot of that tone will come out of your hands. Space between the notes, mimicking the thump and note decay of an upright, not getting repetitious, putting the R in R&B.....good stuff.

OP, you don't have to have a P, you can do this on any bass, just that a P is any easy way to get there, it's already built for it.

[dlb1001]

Just worry about staying in the groove. Most of the jams I have done, the other players appreciate solid, repeating groove, even if it does get a little boring.
I usually play closer to the fingerboard, except for the faster songs, where I will slide towards the bridge.

[pudgychef]

imho and ime with that combo (ray and an a Rumble 75) I agree with cut the high mids and treble and bump the low mids, bass flat on the amp.

[basslinejam]

I was thinking... If you want to hear how a Stingray sounds in a blues set, check out Johnny B. Gayden on the Albert Collins Live record. Sonically it sounds like a bootleg, but JBG is tearing it up all over that thing on a '78 Stingray!

[topcat2069]

Originally Posted by pudgychef

imho and ime with that combo (ray and an a Rumble 75) I agree with cut the high mids and treble and bump the low mids, bass flat on the amp.

What he said

I've played blues on all kind of stuff, IMHO 15" speakers or at least a cab that can reach a good solid 40hz (I played through a 4X10 cab that only went down to 75hz and it sounded real compressed)

I like Fender and String Ray style Basses My fav being the Fender Am. Deluxe P Bass... every note was clear on that Bass, but a good P/J pickup array is good too.

I played a Ray back in the day for Country and Pop and I recently built a 5 string Warmoth with a Nordy 5.2 and a John East MMST BTB 2 band pre that sounded just like my old '76 Ray but with a B string for a Blues Band I was in.

Now I'm playing a Lakland 55-01 which is kind of like a "thick" sounding Jazz Bass (that good old short A sound)

As korny as it sounds Blues is more about how you play than what you play it on.

[Tevatron]

All good advice above. + I like to use a foam mute down against the bridge. I also will do a lot of muting with both hands, as well, if I am trying for an upright sound.

[tevitag]

Originally Posted by will33

That would depend on the gear and the room you're in but in general, blues sounds good with fat lowmids, not a lot of clank in the uppermids/treble, not a lot of deep subwoofer type bass either. Think P bass with the tone rolled back a little bit. It's not lowmids only, just that they're the dominant part of the tone. Leave room further up for cleanish to mildly driven guitars. Thinking old school blues here so an old school tone. Not big wide open bottom to top modern sound.

very good, thank you! will try this at our next blues gig.