I've primarily been a punk player all my life, but was recently asked to play on a pretty modern pop record and need tone advice. The guy I'm playing for asked for "modern, buttery, smooth pop tone" ala "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum for example. I've been tinkering with my gear and can't get that sound. Any advice? EQ settings? Strings? Mic a cab vs. DI? ANY advice whatsoever would be great.
Here's the gear available to me:
2004 MIA Jazz (my preferred bass)
1977 Gibson Grabber
Eden WT-800
Sansamp RBI
Ampeg Classic 8x10
Carvin Pro Bass 300 (old school SS head)
GK Neo 4x10
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Fender Jazz V and Rick 4001, GT10B/GT100, GR-55, VT-Bass, Marshall bass stack. Free Boss GT and GR55 editor available at fxfloorboard.sourceforge.net
Also, use a very light finger touch, a lot of his tone is probably coming from this. I can get a similar tone with my P-bass with flats, when I use a very light touch.
I'd say your Jazz through the DI on your Eden, roll off the highs (I cut the shelving treble one click and the upper para mid one or two clicks @ around 1.5k), boost the lows just a touch (the lowest paramid at around 80 to 120 or so by one click), stay away from too much enhance (at most 9 o'clock). If that doesn't get it then maybe some flatwounds will complete the picture.
That's also a concern of mine... I've NEVER used flatwounds and have no idea what to expect. Everything I've read says it's a "smoother" feel and sound, but simply from looking at them they seem like they would sound like an upright. Is that assumption crazy or is there some truth behind it? I've only heard one bass in a live setting with flats and it sounded kinda dead...
