What is ruining my bass tone?

[theleteri]

I have recently purchased a Tregan 4 string bass in white. It is pretty unique looking... either you love it or hate it. I was getting tired of my UNO so i sold it and got the tregan at a huge discount. The tone by its self was amazing but when i played with my band the bass was not there at all. I figured it was the pickups so i have replaced the stock p bass pickup with a Dimarzio Split P and have disconnected the j pickup all together since the outputs were so different. I switched from the 500 tone and vol pot to a single vol pot (i like the tone wide open). this means the only electronic component that has not been replaced is the jack. It is a little better but it still gets completely lost in the mix... all you can hear is a sort of fat sound at times, especially from the a string. I also own a Peavy Zodiac DE Scorpio with stock quarter pounders and it sounds fantastic! I do not want both basses to sound the same (both are p j setup) so i decided against the quarter pounders. the split P i have heard is even better than the 1/4# anyway.

I am starting to wonder if the individual string bridges could be causing some of my problem. if i were to get the transtone bass bridge from hipshot would it solve my problem?

I have a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickup on order that i am hoping will solve my problem but am worried that it wont.

FYI: I have a markbass 102 cab and the little mark tube 800. the Peavy sounds PERFECT and cuts through the mix effortlessly.

The tregan is basswood and the peavy is alder... this should not make this much of a difference.

Please help! i love the look and feel of this bass and dont want to have to cut my losses and give up.

[lethargytartare]

So my first thought would be this: the peavey cuts through, so that means your whole rig sounds good when eq'd with the peavey. Swapping in the Tregan results in a poor mix -- so the Tregan is producing a different tone...which isn't a surprise. So at that point I think you have two choices: (a) keep changing things on the Tregan until it sounds the same as the Peavey so it fits in the mix the same as the Peavey -- but you don't want to do that; or (b) change your eq settings to get the Tregan to cut through the mix. It's not uncommon that people get a tone they like when playing alone that gets washed out when playing in a band. It just so happens that you like the Peavey tone both solo and in the mix -- but the Tregan isn't doing it for you. You just have to make some eq changes to fit the Tregan in the mix -- it can be done. Personally, I wouldn't look to a new bridge as a way to change my tone in the mix. And changing pickups will change your instrument's tone, but odds are good you'll STILL need to work on your amp's settings to get things in the mix.

Actually, better than changing pickups and the bridge, you could think about putting an active preamp in the bass (or changing the preamp if that Tregan has active electronics).

Good luck!
ltt

[darkstorm]

Ive noticed that when Ive had two diff sounding basses its impossible to be happy with the sound of both with same settings on my processor. I end up creating new banks, modifications of the previous main ones just for the one bass. As a result, I ended up just sticking with basses that are more similiar rather then different in their voice.

Changing the bridge will only result in very minor change in the sound at most.

Adding a 2band preamp to replace the passive single tone might make a real diff. Basslines blackout stacked bass/treble pot version would be easy upgrade for small amount of loot. And with tone controls flat you'll have small increase in output volume along with extended more articulate low bass and little bit extended treble. Not treblier voice really, but more like letting the pups uper treble range make it thru to the amp. This can make grind etc come out a little more. Which can help make a bass sound less weak in the mix with other bass heavy sounds going to.

As lethargytartare said, changing the eq settings on your amp or in your processor will get best results. This would include possibly also with tone controls of any effects units you use.

If your going to keep the tragen and are going to find having different eq settings for it on amp a real hassle. Give more concideration to either preamp for the traben or a seperate extensive (8band or more) eq pedal to go with it for sound tweak to amps settings.

If the peavey is active bass and the tragen passive, the passive will ussualy sound lacking and easilly lost oin the mix or just flat and bleh in the mix even though it sounds fine solo. Thats something Ive noticed with every passive bass Ive played next to a active one, with but one excepetion. And this without moving active basses tone controls more then a tiny amount from flat. Perfect example for me is dimarzio model P pup bass passive and one with same pups but with active eq onboard. Of course the passive one quickly had preamp installed to fix that problem.

[96tbird]

New bridge will do nothing. Eq and strings. Try DR Sunbeams, crazy full sound. I just tried a set and they totally changed the character of my jazz. From a lively bass to one that won't sit still.

[kevteop]

Tone is all in the fingers.

[theleteri]

i forgot i posted this until i was looking for info on hipshot bridges for a build i am doing. Turns out the strings were the biggest thing. i did not find this out until after i tried new pickups. I am glad i got the dimarzio split p and ultra jazz pickups though. This thing is a monster and i am using it over the peavey for my bands recordings.

BTW: my band is We Were Strangers out of phoenix. check us out facebook.com/wewerestrangerstheband