Deep Reggae Bass sound,

[mathius34]

Okay so I've just been getting into playing music on the bass and Im trying to get that deep bass sound like in some bands such as Rebelution, fortunate youth and tribal seeds, Do I change the tuning or how can I achieve that deep sound

[kwantize]

Flatwound strings, and EQ'ing out some of the bright snappy highs from your bass is a good place to start. Having a 5 string is a bit of a help, but not really necessary. Most of the originators of the style played four string basses in standard tuning with pretty stellar results. Flatwounds are definitely where it's at for deep tone

[IPA]

Play with your thumb, near the neck. Everything else is trivial.

[elavate7]

flats and rolling up your bass on the eq......that should get you plenty of low end

[bass12]

Originally Posted by IPA

Play with your thumb, near the neck. Everything else is trivial.

You shouldn't need to resort to using this technique to get a "deep" bass tone. A lot of reggae players (including many of the greats) play/played primarily with their fingers (and not their thumbs). On some basses playing with your plucking hand closer to the neck helps. Otherwise, boost your bass and low mid frequencies and roll of some top end and that should do the trick (oh, and +1 to the flats). Don't get all muddy though - one should still be able to discern the notes you're playing!

[XylemBassGuitar]

Originally Posted by bass12

You shouldn't need to resort to using [the thumb] technique to get a "deep" bass tone.


On some basses playing with your plucking hand closer to the neck helps.

+1 to both! You should be able to get a Reggae-y tone from several different techniques, although you definitely don't have to avoid the thumb technique either.

Like bass12 said, playing closer to the neck will also help, the strings tend to sound more trebly and punchy towards the bridge. Also make sure that your neck pickup is turned up, you'll get a bassier tone out of a neck pickup. You could even find a bass with a neck pickup that's really close to the neck.

You can also turn your tone knobs down a little and you'll get a bassier sound.

A ton of a bass' tone comes from the player's style and ability. Keep practicing the techniques that get you close to the kind of tone you want and you will get there eventually.

[BurningSkies]

Originally Posted by IPA

Play with your thumb, near the neck. Everything else is trivial.

Really? Everything else is trivial?

Seriously though, there are a lot of ways to get a traditional reggae sound...but the heart of the sound is fingerstyle closer to the neck and a good serious attention to both left and right hand (fingers) muting.

[wideyes]

I would like to note that most of what you hear on albums and at live shows anytime in the last two decades has been heavily altered by signal processing - lots of compression, lots of hi-fi EQ tweaking, and sometimes a little light synthesis blended in to thicken up the tone a bit. I've seen all kinds of basses with all kinds of setups onstage at reggae shows, and I'll tell you that it's not the bass making the difference. I saw Pato Banton play a few years back, and his bassist was playing an EBMM Stingray! It's all FOH subwoofers, compression and EQ. I'd say the biggest step you can take towards getting that sound is playing through large powerful PAs or getting a few 4x10 cabs onstage. You need the oomph.

The most common reggae bass I've seen is the Fender Jazz. Family Man's choice axe.

[makkE]

I get my reggae sound mostly from my flatwounds. (labella 760FM)
I roll of the treble on the bass, boost the bass on my amp and it's there.
Simplest and cheapest approach

Example

[bosw04k]

Palm muting is worth a play with too, just play around untill its sounding good

[PurpleDrank]

FWIW, the most common reggae basses I see around my area are J-basses, EBMM Stingrays (both 4's and 5's, but usually with two pickups in either case) and, strangely enough, Steinberger copies (and I don't think ANYONE ever uses flats on those). I think the message there is that having a neck pickup helps, an onboard preamp also helps, but good technique helps the most. Right and left hand muting and right hand position are probably the most important things to have command of, IMO.

The amps I see used on stage are all over the place, and I really don't think they play that big a role in the big reggae sound. Having a booming PA in the club (which is omnipresent here) and a good DI with some eq is definitely important in a bigger band or one with horns.

[BurningSkies]

The Steinberger thing came from the period in the mid-to-late 80's when Robbie Shakespear played a Steinberger...Lots of people playing follow the leader.

[Electricblue]

Play fingerstyle, roughly over the 17th fret with your right hand. Sounds deep and rubbery

[silvertone]

So many Reggae Bands I've seen since the '70s used Ampeg heads and Refrigerator Box Cabs with 8 10's... Deep, profound Bass tone.

[PurpleDrank]

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

The Steinberger thing came from the period in the mid-to-late 80's when Robbie Shakespear played a Steinberger...Lots of people playing follow the leader.

Good to know. Still a lot of people down here playing them, so they've probably been handed down a generation or two.

The Sublime rip off acts are still big here too, and I see a lot of those guys playing Warwicks. I never really felt like those were an appropriate sound for dub. Most guys generally seem to pull it off pretty well though, so I'm feeling that good use of eq is generally more important than what bass you bring to the stage.

[wideyes]

It seems like definition and a hi-fi approach are more key in reggae than in some other genres. Gibsons are notoriously muddy and have that tubby shortscale thing with the neck mudbucker, basically a phat sandwich, yet you don't really see them in reggae. I think having pitch clarity is important when you're bumping such fat bass, which is why Stingrays and Steinbergers seem to have been preferred.

[bass12]

Originally Posted by wideyes

It seems like definition and a hi-fi approach are more key in reggae than in some other genres. Gibsons are notoriously muddy and have that tubby shortscale thing with the neck mudbucker, basically a phat sandwich, yet you don't really see them in reggae. I think having pitch clarity is important when you're bumping such fat bass, which is why Stingrays and Steinbergers seem to have been preferred.

I agree about the pitch clarity. If you can't pick out enough of the notes then a major part of what defines the riddim is lost. As for Steinbergers, I think Burningskies is right. Those basses were flavour-of-the-month back in the day more for their unique look and construction than for their tone (though there's nothing wrong with their tone). They also (by virtue of their being made of graphite) made sense for the type of climate found in Jamaica.

[stingraysvt]

My Eden rig would make a perfect reggae rig, just crank the enhance wide open, boost the lows at 80 hz and viola!!

I'd think a musician stingray or PJ would work pretty smooth as a main player, but you can pull it off with just about anything with the right chops

[bass12]

Originally Posted by stingraysvt

My Eden rig would make a perfect reggae rig, just crank the enhance wide open, boost the lows at 80 hz and viola!!

Whatever you do, don't bring a viola to a reggae gig!

[pacojas]

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

Really? Everything else is trivial?

Seriously though, there are a lot of ways to get a traditional reggae sound...but the heart of the sound is fingerstyle closer to the neck and a good serious attention to both left and right hand (fingers) muting.

+1

i tend to gauge the amount of mute against the amount of attack for the desired effect. it can go from subtle to bone-crushing according to each songs requirement. gl.