How Many Sounds Do You Use?

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Everybody seems to like versatile instruments and equipment, but how many sounds do you actually really use?

I personally use about 3 or 4. I've got a nice big clean sound, a distorted sound, a P-like sound, and a mild gritty sound. I use the clean one 85% of the time. I've never been much of a tweaker; just set up and go. On occasion I'll bring out the pedalboard, but not often these days.

[seanm]

Bassically one: clean. I will move my plucking hand around to get different tones. For example, on the P bass there is a huge difference between playing in front of the pickup, playing over the pickup, and playing behind it.

But 90% of the time in front of the pickup for a full, fat sound.

I am currently playing mainly country and country players don't seem to obsess about tweaking their tone for each song the way rock players do. Even the lead guitar sets up his "sound" at the start of the gig and dosen't touch it after that.

When playing rock I will usually bring an OD or two and a BDDI.

[NegatroN]

Originally Posted by seanm

Bassically one: clean. I will move my plucking hand around to get different tones. For example, on the P bass there is a huge difference between playing in front of the pickup, playing over the pickup, and playing behind it.

But 90% of the time in front of the pickup for a full, fat sound.

Same here. I have one basic sound which is completely attunded to the rest of the band. I make all the variations I need by changing the way I play (plec / fingers / slap / etc.).

[Rat]

Same here....Variations of my sound comes from how I attack the strings

[BassChuck]

Same for me too. One sound, but I move the plucking hand around for different sounds.

Having a variety of sounds posible is important, but only to be able to deal with different rooms and sound environments.

One place we play a lot has a ceiling above the band I can touch (I'm 5'10"), other places have a good 20' above the stage.

[trog]

I'm a pedal whore, so bajillions. However, 80% of the time I'm either using my clean, slightly gritty, or full on fuzz-synth-mayhem-bass tones.

Tunes tend to sound pretty shoddy if you switch effects every 30 seconds

[Chris A]

I've got a Lexicon in my rack, but I only end up using it on a couple of songs. I do like the chorus a bit on fretless, and for one song I use the flanger, but other than that it's on standby. For fretted I pan the pickups a little differently for slap than I do for finger playing, but that's it.


Chris A.

[Lazylion]

I play mostly country, so I'm always looking for a clean sound. On the real old tunes, I stuff a piece of foam rubber under the G and D strings, right by the bridge, to kill the highs and sustain. One thing that's fun about that: I can play some high notes and pluck real hard on those 2 strings, and get an unusual sound.
One sound I never use is a full on fuzz-synth-mayhem tone.

[zac2944]

My band covers old funk and disco tunes. Since most of those tunes were recorded on either a P-bass or J-bass, I bring both a P and J to gigs. I try to go for the same tone as the recording where possible.

For example the tune "I'm Coming Out", by Diana Ross, is a Jazz bass with the bridge pickup soloed, or "Mary Jane", by Rick James, that's a funky P-bass all the way.

I don't always change basses for each song. That would be pretty tough. I end up playing the J more than the P. Between those two basses I probably use what I would consider 10-15 different tones. It all comes from the bass, my fingers, and technique. I don't use pedals and only adjust my amp once before we start the show.

[Mojo-Man]

1-Clean Fender sound, plucked with fingers.
2-Overdriven slightly destorted.
3-Compressed fretless sound.

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Of course, I was meaning different sounds other than adjusting picking technique and placement, but good to know.

Pedals are fun, but I often find that when I use them I am consciously trying to make them fit in. They can inspire different playing and ideas though. I have incorporated the SansAmp BDDI as part of my sound, especially for the overdrive/distortion so it doesn't really feel like an effect.

[Figjam]

Just one really. Few pedals, not used often.

[paulodumb]

Pretty much one, though with subtle variations. I record all the time, and I usually just randomly pick an amp model and spend a few second playing with the EQ settings to find something I like. I use very little gain and no effects. I'm not really much of a tone tweaker, I just want to play. When it sounds decent, I'm ready to go.

[Marcus]

Big edit -

As many as it takes!

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by Smallmouth_Bass

but how many sounds do you actually really use?

one--mine.



anyways, i like to use different one...in my ambient looped band, i like to add a whole lot of textures when i am looping so i use several effect boxs to get different sounds...with my blues-rock band, i only use two. clean bridge pickup, and clean bridge pickup with loads of distortion

[Aaron Saunders]

Short answer: Whatever the song requires.

Long answer...

DB - a variety of tones for different musical sit-yee-eh-chuns, mostly using difference in right hand technique.

BG fretted (active soapbars) - 1. Bridge pickup favoured with a bit of mid and treble boost, most in the mids. (General funk grooving and harmonics.)
2. Neck pickup soloed, bass up, treble down, mids flat.
3. Both even, bass up, mids flat, treble slightly boosted (slapping.)
4. Both even, EQ flat -- or maybe a SLIGHT boost in the mids. This is my general utility setting that brings out the bass' natural tone and sounds great for tapping.

BG Fretless - Similar settings, but it's passive with J pickups -- except for #3 -- I have a tendency not to slap very often. I find myself tweaking the knobs on this a LOT more.

[Jazzin']

Fretless Jazz:
Upright immitation sound
Jaco immitation sound
My fretless sound

Fretted Jazz:
Slappy sound
Nonslappy sound

P Bass:
P bass sound

I se a different one for each style.

[werbo1]

It's all in the hand.

Same settings - 50/50 neck/bridge and i can get a great slap sound, the deep tone, or the defined twang just in the right hand, and i use them about 40, 10, 50 respectively %ages.

On the fretless - same thing.

[j-bass-kreep]

4 sounds :
JAzz bass with distortion
Jazz bass clean with pick ( the one I use most)
jazz bass clean only the neck pickup on with pick
jazz bass clean with fingers (I pluck the strings between the neck and bridge pickups. .

Fretless jazz style bass:

-ghetto black metal uber-downtuned baritone guitar fuzzed out sound, varying attacks depending on what type of percussive sound I want, my solo metal project sound
-ghetto upright sound, neck pickup soloed with tone wide open
-jaco sound, need a description?
-uber-metal cold sound, neck and bridge open, tone closed, and all treble with no bass on the amp
-my signature sound, everything wide open with lots of bass and a decent amount of treble, a fretless-Geddy Lee or Steve Digiorgio sound