popping and slapping tone?

[duality]

hi all i am new to these forums so bear with me. i own a yamaha RBX375 5-STRING it has the original pick-ups. i am looking for a bright, clean tone like say staind-mudshovel. i can get the punchy sound but the clean clear brightness is not there and if i try for the brite sound, the treble makes my sound too trebley. i would really love to play some slap funk stuff, but i cannot get a good tone. so any ideas? is this bass not capable of this?
strings?
pre-amp?
pick-ups?

[McGroovin']

Try blending the pickups so that you get more of the neck pickup and less of the bridge.

[jsingles]

dont boost the treble too much on your bass, keep it relatively low actually... try boosting the treble to a comfortable level on the AMP. the treble CAN get a little out of control on the bass, especially if it is active. see how that works for you.

and welcome to the forum!

[awall]

The Controls on that bass are boost only. They are set flat when they are dialed all the way back, not at the center detent. I tried for two years to get that tone on a RBX374 and just this week I bought a Fender Jazz. It has the tone I was looking for. Use both pick ups full on and kill the knobs, dial them in a little at a time. I left mine flat and used my amp for EQing.
Al

[duality]

ahhh i c.what model fender jazz did you buy?ive heard they are one of the best basses for slapping.

[capnsandwich]

What kind of strings are you using? Stainless steel round wound string are probably going to be your best bet for slapping and brightness. Also EMG pickups have a nice bright aggressive tone that's great for slapping, IMO of course.

[gimmeagig]

Check out the bassplayer who has the tone that you are looking for and then get what he plays.
Guys with great slap tone (as far as I'm concerned) are
Marcus Miller,Peter Muller,John Pena,Will Lee,Alex Al,Larry Kimpel,Melvin Davis,John Pattituci,Wayne Braithwaite just to name a few.They are all Jazz Bass players.
Not the only way to go but you really can't go wrong with a good Jazz bass.

[chaosMK]

The "presence" and "blend" features on a Sansamp BDDI will get you exactly what you are looking for.

[theunknowndude]

hey, I have the exact same bass / problem... probably amplified a bit with the tone I get on the DR black beauties too tho...

heres what I have done to combat it... (ok I bought a new bass as well but shhh) to get the best tone I could out of the stock rbx375 I set the pickups to middle, the bass to 1/4 boosted off centre and the treble boosted just a tiny bit off centre,... I dont overly like it but its the best I could do to get slapping and finger tone nice on the same setting... I love my bass for a rock tone it sounds freaking awesome... but for slapping im not liking it my teacher thinks it sounds good in a weird way, more of a dark grungy tone than the usual bright and punchy stuff you hear ala flea tone... its semi growing on me the way that this bass has such a dark tone, still hoping the new bass is more versatile for slap stuff though!

good luck with it!