More aggressive / burpy pickup replacement?

[scyzoryk]

I've been playing the Roscoe Century Standard 5 in Black Onyx and while I love the bass and wood combo, I'm beginning to think that the tone is a little bit too warm/compressed/tame for my tastes. I'm currently going through a Little Mark III tube 800 with 2 bergantino cabs.

I know there are a few other threads on pickups right now, but could Gard or anyone comment on a few popular pickup mods that I could do on this bass?

I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like it to sound either as aggressive as possible (musicman, one single pickup in the back) .... think Jamiroquai, or back-pickup burpy J.

Right now I set the pickup selector to about 60% towards the front pickups. I just can't seem to get a decent, burpy, aggressive tone from this bass.

And would any of these pickup mods cause me to lose function of some of the knobs on the bass? (mid sweep, etc).

[nostatic]

When I think "aggressive" and "burp," I think bridge pup. What happens when you favor the bridge? Also where are you plucking the strings? To go more aggressive, I'd:

Favor the bridge (maybe 70:30 or more)
pluck closer to the bridge
add some mids and/or cut a bit of bass

[scyzoryk]

I'm only favouring the front pickup currently because any preference on the back pickup does not sound good at all to my ears.

The front pickup delivers a nice, smooth, round tone, but the back pickup is relatively lifeless, even when I adjust mids/bass and play on the back pickup. There's little response when I dig in and try to make it sound, aggressive and burpy. If I could get closer to a MM tone I'd be in heaven!

[Zanderwestcoast]

My suggestion is do not try and attempt to turn your Roscoe into something it isn't. If you are attracted to the MM sound you should buy a musicman. Same for the J bass bridge tone.

When I think burpy Jamiroquai bass tone I think of a Fender P bass like in this Runaway clip....I don't think I have heard a much better example of a "burpy" bass sound than this.

Cheers......Zander


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzyj3Wxhjr4

[Bipslapper]

Originally Posted by Zanderwestcoast

My suggestion is do not try and attempt to turn your Roscoe into something it isn't. If you are attracted to the MM sound you should buy a musicman. Same for the J bass bridge tone.

When I think burpy Jamiroquai bass tone I think of a Fender P bass like in this Runaway clip....I don't think I have heard a much better example of a "burpy" bass sound than this.

Cheers......Zander


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzyj3Wxhjr4

With that clip I see and hear Fender (or Sadowsky) P-bass sound. I have the exact same bass as Scyzork and I get a great tone, also I own a MM Sterling. My amps are GK 1001RB and SWR, both sound punchy. One suggestion is to talk to Gard about swapping pups- the Cen Stands are Bart CB's and my SKB are Roscoe Barts, maybe he will agree you could swap em'.

Also an Aguilar pre is more aggresive. FWIW- a used EB bass on the web is easy to find for $600-$800 usually.

Best of luck

[Gard]

Well, I'm of the same school that nostatic is, the tone you are looking for lurks in the BRIDGE pickup, not the neck.

I'd suggest going for a 75/25% blend favoring the bridge, back off on the treble, give the slightest bass boost, then use the down position on the mids and boost to taste to get where you want to go.

From your description, I'd be wondering if someone had lowered the bridge pickup a bit and that is affecting the output of that pickup.

[nostatic]

fwiw, the other thing I've found with other basses I've had is that I had to raise the bridge pup higher than the neck pup to get a balanced sound. And with some PJs, I had to shove the P pup way down to get it to balance with the bridge J. Other basses I've been able to get away with roughly even pup heights, but I'm with Gard - raise the bridge pup (or lower the neck pup) and favor the bridge. If you lower the neck pup you may have to turn up the input gain on your amp. That is another thing that can drastically affect tone. If you're not using all the headroom of the preamp stage, the bass can thin out. Sometimes that is an effect you want, other times not so much.

[CliffD]

I've got CBs (which is what you've for in your CS) in my CSVI and even if I think of moving the balance towards the bridge it starts to growl like a mo fo, let alone bringin the high mids back to center. I'd say Gard is probably right about the pickup height. If that's not enough throw some nickel strings on it, and if that's not enough drop some Roscoe Barts in it, they'll be a little more compressed but not as edgy. All IMO LOL YMMV etc.

[scyzoryk]

great advice -- the bridge pup is definitely thin sounding and it has been adjusted after I purchased it, so it would make sense that it might be sitting too low. I'll tinker around with it.

muchos gracias

[JOME77]

..nothing left to do here ........