Ever get more obsessed with your tone, then your actual playing?

[Modern Growl]

this may be interesting...

[Pennydreadful]

Yes...a lot more often than I'd like to admit...

[Goregrind29]

Yup, sometimes. But if it doesn't sound good, then whats the point of playing at all. It seems to me like notes and tone are equally important, this is not to say that one should only focus on tone and get that right before playing, but a player should be somewhat happy with his or her tone at all times. I remember there was a necrophagist show at BB kings in NYC where the whole band just walked off stage because there collective tone was so bad, with a few other reasons.

[lefty007]

Yup, sometimes, too. Until I realized that every room is different and you can only control your sound to a certain degree from gig to gig.

As a funny note, I have been playing with the same guitar player for 4 year and he has owned the same equipment forever, yet he still spends half of all the gigs just fighting with his sound. LOL.

Don't do drugs, kids.

.

[deadstar]

Yeah happens to me lol im rather picky with my tone.

[acleex38]

I've moved that direction, starting in '99 and even more so in the past year. What's weirder is I'm worrying about everyone else's tone too. I sold my chorus and eq pedals to our guitarist to help him move his electric 6-string playing more into the place where he liked it. I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to fake an mildly overdriven electric piano sound for our keyboardest.

All this on top of fiddling with my octave pedal and switching to flatwounds.

Sometimes, I just like to let a note ring on for a while...see where it goes and what it does. No, not in the middle of a song.

[Hyde]

Yes. Actually, with the kind of music my band plays, I'm convinced that as long as I have deep, powerful, aggressive tone, 95% of the audience would never know the difference between solid but not flashy bass playing and technically incredible bass playing. There are so many guitar pyrotechnics going on that my main job is anchoring the rhythm and adding depth and power to the sound. You could argue that doing restraining myself and doing that well IS good bass playing (and I would be inclined to), but there's no question that my tone is more important to my band than, say, whether or not I can play Jaco lines.

[matt"bass"]

Straight to the point: Yes, but sometimes its my playing stopping me from reaching that tone.

[joelb79]

yes.. yes... (sigh) yes...

usualy when im using my musicman. something about the tone.. too much something, too little something.. cant ever put my foot/eq on it.

HELP!

[Modern Growl]

Originally Posted by joelb79

yes.. yes... (sigh) yes...

usualy when im using my musicman. something about the tone.. too much something, too little something.. cant ever put my foot/eq on it.

HELP!

Help? - get rid of it!

thats my advice

I just got rid of my Stingray becuase I just didn't dig the tone... its seems its not your bag either.

[Mojo-Man]

I must say, YES!!!!!!

Way to much.

It's an obsession.

HELP!

[Don W]

For me I only really get obsessed with tone if I'm using any effects. Especially a distortion of any kind.

I'm pretty happy with my clean tone, and don't mess with anything for the most part. But anytime I turn on a distortion or overdrive, next thing you know everything comes to a halt and I start messing around with the knobs trying to get a good sound.

[SteveC]

Yes. I've spent WAY too much time and money chasing tone. I'm done chasing tone. I have an Eden head and cab. I have great tone. I need to practice more.

[agreatheight]

Nope, I dealt with my tone long ago, lol. I really don't get too worked up about it. I figure as long as it's a quality tone I have nothing to worry about. I am happy to play all kinds of amps and basses, and it usually sounds fine to me. If I have an Ampeg backline, so be it. GK? Cool. SWR? Ok! I like all kinds of tones so I guess I am just easy.

[tplyons]

Constantly. And I switch basses often, so I have to compromise between the unique tones of each instrument. I have my head dialed in to sound phenominal with my #1, and the #2 and #3 basses sound fine. But given more time, I'd never stop.

[Gegatso]

At times, yes. I think I get pretty lucky most of the time, though - both with playing well and having a good tone! What's really bad is those times when you ask some "pro level" player (usually a guitar guy) what he thought of your sound since he has a valid opinion and they say somrthing like: "It sounded like a bass..they all sound the same to me." Next time I hear that, I'll be making my posts from the nearest correctional facility.

Mark

[LifeIsBass]

Oh yeah...bigtime! That's most of the reason why I've been hanging out on TB so much lately. I obsess over both tone and playing but for me, tone comes first. I wish it was the other way around, but it's not.

Now I do think tone is important because if you're not happy with your tone you're not going to want to play. Tone can even inspire you. But if I had spent all the time over the last few years that I spent on seeking out that perfect tone and applied to theory, technique, etc. I'd be twice the bass player I am today.

And if I could have all that money back that I've spent on tone obsession...

[excane]

Absolutely. More time is spent on tone sometimes just to convince me to play.

[FaithNoMan]

I used to all the time, but now I realize I like midrange grit with an edge on top, and ever since I bought a passive bass, and lowered my action, I have had an easier time with my tone - the grittiness almost comes naturally, and with just a tweak of my Muff'n pedal, I'm pretty much satisfied....

Funny things happen when you injure yourself - I'm just happy to play bass once in a while

[Figjam]

*raises hand*