P bass tonal solutions

[James Judson]

Lots of good suggestions here. But you are battling PU placement as well. The closer that PU is to the center of the string (12th fret) the more fundamental and less overtones you'll get. You may be fighting a losing battle cuz of this. Good luck.

[PJRL]

Or..... What is the SD pickup you have in it ? The SPB-1 is a great classic vintage-ish P sound.

[sitonafender]

[quote=James Judson;13580890]Lots of good suggestions here.]

I completely agree. After one day of membership here. I feel %1000 more confident in takling this issue. Talkbass is great. Thanks dudes.
I see a tun of questions you guys have asked. I will get to those questions promptley. Forgive me if my lack of knowledge on some of these questions is lacking. I know a bit of what I'm talking about, though after seeing all of your knowledge base. I can see I know quite a bit less than I previously thought.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by woolysock

You might try another pickup just to see...
My 62 reissue has a Lollar pup in it and usually DR nickel Low Riders and the tone is rich, complex and plenty bright.
You do have the bass's tone and volume knobs wide open, yes?
That makes a difference.'
And your amp set relatively flat, yes?

Lollar Pup? Who manufactures these.
Dr strings has been talked about here a couple of times also, but its been stainless steels strings that was recommended. Is a nickel string set going to be adequately bright?
I do the tone pot at %50, and the volume at close to %85. Reason being is the highs on the bassman 135 that I'm running through is just a little closer to what I'm looking for. So I've tryed to blend the two. The amp itself is set as follows. Bass 10, mids 7.5, treb 7.5, channel volume 3.75, and master at 4.
I would try to boost my amps volume more, but this 135 watt amps seems to bit more powerful than my 400 watt cab. I would try to add in a second cab, but that would entail combining 12", and 15" speakers. Not a good combination as I have heard.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by ronlitz

Which SD pickup do you have? The "hot" model has more mids and less highs. If you want more highs, and you have the "hot" model, you need to swap that pickup.

The pickups are SD Bass Lines. I have had good experiences with the Bass Lines mm replacements. Now I am questioning the p pickups of that brand.
I not quite sure what the "hot" model is.
Is that a bass lines model as well or a different pick up altogether?
I do belive switching pickups is about the best answer I have heard here. Well aside from technique.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by megafiddle

Ok, you are referring to the tone, then.

Lowering the A and D pickups will not affect the overall tone. It will not reduce the mids.
What that will mainly do is reduce the level of the A and D strings. I say mainly, because
the primary effect of pickup height is on the level of the string above it. Aside from that,
you will get some effect on tone. But moving the pickup height will not make a neck pickup
sound like a bridge pickup, or make a high turns pickup sound like a low turns pickup.

Generally there is a best setting for the pickup height. Too close and it will affect the string
vibration, causing warbling or intonation problems. Too far and it gets thin sounding.

Your pickup type will make a big difference, and the string type and age will make a big
difference also.

So basically what I'm doing is some what like fixing a burned out light bulb with a hammer huh lol.
Looks. Like I'm just going to have to look into pickups, and electronics. I see a tun of recommendations here. So I have plenty to research now. Thanks to you all btw.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by bumperbass

"around 6 or 8 k in frequency response". Seriously? There's not much useful stuff up there except clank and hiss. If you want the most top-end, don't even discuss tone caps. You don't need one.
What strings are you using? (you never answered this) Roundwound, I hope, for the sound you're looking for. 500K pots.....good idea.
Do some research on pickups and pick one. EQ amp judiciously, and by that I mean TAKE AWAY as much as ADD. Good luck.
Re-reading your original post, I am not so sure that you don't have a wiring/pot/cap problem. You should be able to get at least close to the amount of highs you're looking for.

If 6 or 8 k is not a good idea. The what frequency range would be responsible for a more crisp sound tone?
Right now I'm using GHS round wounds Dynamite alloy strings. These will be changed to DR round wounds. Mostly because most of you here seem to agree on that choice. So there must be something to that. I probably would have already made at least a similar change, but Ive had the bass for a couple of days, and was sorting out some issues that the previous owner ignored. The pots will most likely be changed looking around looks like Stellertone ToneStyler is the route I will go. If I can find them any where currently their site has only a lefty version in stock. I do agree 500 k is a very good digestion.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by James Judson

Lots of good suggestions here. But you are battling PU placement as well. The closer that PU is to the center of the string (12th fret) the more fundamental and less overtones you'll get. You may be fighting a losing battle cuz of this. Good luck.

And that is among the biggest issues. If its not the biggest. How do you make a cow sound like a chicken lol?
Really though I'm looking for a touch more on the highs. Not enough to justify adding a bridge pickup, but I digress I hope your wrong, but you may very well be right.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by PJRL

Or..... What is the SD pickup you have in it ? The SPB-1 is a great classic vintage-ish P sound.

I have a SD Bass Lines p pickup. I have had much success with the mm BassLines. I'm not sure the p style is what I'm looking for here though.
I was thinking about going with Bartolini, or nordstrand. I have seen a few recomendation that I should consider first though.

[ctmullins]

Originally Posted by sitonafender

but its lacking in the highs.

Originally Posted by sitonafender

I do the tone pot at %50

I think I know what your problem is...

[sitonafender]

Lol yeah that would seemed to be the problem, but really being a tone knob, and not seperate tonal knobs. I begin to lose low end if I go to far with it. If I had seperate bass,and high tonal pots it would solve at least part of the issue though.

[woolysock]

Run the tone and volume knobs on your bass ALL THE WAY ON. 100% OPEN.
You won't lose bottom, you only gain highs.
Problem solved.

[sethlow3]

New strings and a pick work for me. Preferably Ernie ball slinkys. They have a lot of treble response new. Tone knob cranked of course.

[BassBob1]

You should definitely be running your volume wide open and if you are running the tone knob on a P bass at 50% it is very unlikely that you will ever get the highs you seem to be looking for. Even if you got the brightest sounding stainless strings and changed the pickup running the tone like that will cut out most of the highs you want.

[Gasman]

Originally Posted by sitonafender

Lol yeah that would seemed to be the problem, but really being a tone knob, and not seperate tonal knobs. I begin to lose low end if I go to far with it. If I had seperate bass,and high tonal pots it would solve at least part of the issue though.

????! You're talking about a passive Fender P bass, right? You can't "lose low end" with the tone knob. You can only roll off the high end. Period. What you are hearing is not loss of bass but return of treble, which is what you say you want but I suspect you really want something else. Is there a particular sound/song/artist that you're trying to sound like? That might help us help you.

[sitonafender]

Yeah small update on volume. It's crackles at %100, but I have pulled it, and washed with alcohol. If that dosnt work. Then its probably due to some sloppy soldering, and possibly damaged. Not that I would be too upset about it. I see that they are 50 k pots, and could stand to be upgraded. I will let Yall know if %100 on the volume works out.
Also one of you guys asked about what pickup I have I see spb-3, and that's a SD Bass Lines.

[sitonafender]

Originally Posted by Gasman

????! You're talking about a passive Fender P bass, right? You can't "lose low end" with the tone knob. You can only roll off the high end. Period. What you are hearing is not loss of bass but return of treble, which is what you say you want but I suspect you really want something else. Is there a particular sound/song/artist that you're trying to sound like? That might help us help you.

Well as far as sound goes. You know the higher frequencys that you can get out of a Toby. That's what I'm looking for. Now that being said. I do love the tone of this bass, and I'm not looking to loose the tones that's it has, but add jus a touch of what a Toby can get. I love the mids as is. They help me to cut through the mix in some live situations so I don't want to loose that.

[bumperbass]

Originally Posted by woolysock

Run the tone and volume knobs on your bass ALL THE WAY ON. 100% OPEN.
You won't lose bottom, you only gain highs.
Problem solved.

BANG! Target hit and destroyed. 50K? Are you serious?
Do what this guy says! Run your knobs all the way open.
"I do the tone pot at %50, and the volume at close to %85. Reason being is the highs on the bassman 135 that I'm running through is just a little closer to what I'm looking for. So I've tryed to blend the two. The amp itself is set as follows. Bass 10, mids 7.5, treb 7.5, channel volume 3.75, and master at 4."
^^ Bass on 10? Whoa. Back her down, buddy. Turn the master UP unless you're looking for overdrive. Mess around with cutting highs more and boosting mids, and the other way around. If you're almost there with the highs on your 135, you may be there already if you quit turning down your vol and tone on your bass.

[Gasman]

Originally Posted by sitonafender

Well as far as sound goes. You know the higher frequencys that you can get out of a Toby. That's what I'm looking for. Now that being said. I do love the tone of this bass, and I'm not looking to loose the tones that's it has, but add jus a touch of what a Toby can get. I love the mids as is. They help me to cut through the mix in some live situations so I don't want to loose that.

Ok, now we are getting somewhere. By "Toby" I assume you are referring to Tobias or MTS basses, which are dual pickup (humbucker or jazz) and have active preamps. The active preamp is probably what you're looking for- it will add more of a trebly "bite" to your signal and give a "modern" sound. Unfortunately, the Fender P could not be further removed from this sound. A passive jazz might be better. The Precision has some highs and upper mids, but it's centered on the low mids and there's just not much you can do about that. I second putting some new strings on it (I'd use stainless steel myself for the brightest sound) and then adjust your amp. Take everything to 5 and cut/boost to taste

[sitonafender]

Sounds like you guys have a reasonable solution here. These pots are just about dry enough to try that out, but think I'll wait 30 mins more just to be sure.
So Is 50 k pots a horrible thing? If What you guys say with the volume at %100 works out. Should I still consider upgrading?