Describe your bass tone!

[atomicdog]

Burpy and a little bit slurpy. OK, maybe not so slurpy. I have different tones for different purposes—that's how I justify owning 10 basses. If I'm sitting around those house, I tend to play those burpy midrange tones, because I love that sound and it's pretty good for melodic jazz stuff I do in the provacy of my home. When I play with an overbearing control freak guitarist, who objects to me stepping on his space (those mid E regions), I play low, which is also where dancers want to groove.

[Bassist Jay]

On my Bongo's, I love to set everything at 50% and set the eq on my amp completely flat across the board to get the natural sound out of the basses. Same with my Stingray 4H. On my Sterling 4H, I do pretty much the same but I have the selector switch set all the way back towards the bridge. On my Stingray Classic, it is the only one that I max everything out because it has a lower volume output in it but they all sound great cutting through the mix.

[smogg]

Eagles meets Skynyrd meets Bowie with a touch of Stones = me. OK, that's the game plan at least.

[Primakurtz]

I strive to sound like a pack of Walruses having an orgy during an earthquake.
Or at least kind of like Entwistle.

[VeganThump]

P-bass w/flats, boosted mids, bass and treble at noon, little bit of overdrive when i really dig in, nice and warm, not too boomy, not too muddy, a la John Paul Jones on the first two albums, and of course good and LOUD!

[atomicdog]

Originally Posted by MLouis1981

P-bass w/flats, boosted mids, bass and treble at noon, little bit of overdrive when i really dig in, nice and warm, not too boomy, not too muddy, a la John Paul Jones on the first two albums, and of course good and LOUD!

I've been digging into that JP Jones Zep I&II sound all weekend. It never grows old. What flats do you use? I find that TI and Chromes are too low tension and noisy. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[jetjon]

I have a BIG bottom tone w/ a lot of crisp high end snap for slappin'-always need the bottom to fill a room.I like the whole sound of a Jazz w/knobs on full to make me feel satisfied! EMG X'S Rule!

[VeganThump]

Originally Posted by atomicdog

I've been digging into that JP Jones Zep I&II sound all weekend. It never grows old. What flats do you use? I find that TI and Chromes are too low tension and noisy. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

i play a 5 string p-bass and i just put chromes on it for the first time last week, i fell in love immediately. Though i did have to adjust the neck and action a bit, the tension is a little different but not enough to bother me. That tone works for almost any kind of music you can play the electric bass to, at least IMO.

[Alexdeth89]

Originally Posted by jetjon

I have a BIG bottom tone w/ a lot of crisp high end snap for slappin'-always need the bottom to fill a room.I like the whole sound of a Jazz w/knobs on full to make me feel satisfied! EMG X'S Rule!

absolutley, emg-hz's are just awesome too!

[tuckomf]

Fender Jazz, soloed neck pickup, tone turned up about a third. It goes through an Ampeg PF-500 - bass at about 11 o'clock, mids at about 2 o'clock, highs at 10 o'clock. It goes through two full range PA cabinets. If you want one of those wacky descriptions -

if sound had a texture, this one would be chunky peanut butter.

[Nahguavkire]

As similar to Juan Alderete as I can make it. Rich, dark and smooth. Occasionally with lots of effects.

[vin*tone]

Vintage. I tend to set everything flat, maybe boost the bass a notch. Flatwounds. No effects.

[Dan B]

Depends on the bass.

My Tune:
Very middy with a good amount of lows to support the tone and enough highs to give it some shine. Can also go to smooth and clean to round and burpy (especially if played fingerstyle near the bridge). Versatile as they come.

My Schecter:
Smooth low ends to loud angry piano. Can cop a Spector ReBop vibe with new steel roundwounds, and has some grit in it. Actually a very versatile bass.

My Peavey (fretless):
Mellow and smooth but I can get a loud "muaaah" out of it if I try hard enough.

My plywood shortscale:
Sounded like a shoebox but once it's restored I hope to make it into a thump machine.

[two fingers]

Big. Really big.

[Coolhandjjl]

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
-Martin Mull, et al.

[xUptheIronsx]

I try to get the cleanest most powerful undoctored sound using a QSC Power amp, Sans Amp RBI, and the cabs are an Avatar B410, and homemade 2x15 with Emminence speakers. I don't like "fuzz" or distortion on my sound, other than any natural growl from the basses and round wound strings.

I tend to have the EQ on the Sans Amp set with the bass at about noon, mids at about 9 o' clock, and highs at about noon. The drive is at about 1, the blend and presence at about 9.

On both basses I have the volume and tones all the way up. The 72 P-bass has the original pups, and the 80 J bass has EMG's from the late 80's in it. I use Ernie Ball stings.

I like my sound to be the foundation that the distorted guitars sit on, and not fight with distortion of my own. My parts are a mix of Steve Harris, Geddy, Geezer, Mike Dean, Joey Vera, Joe DiBiase, Eddie Jackson, Frank Bello etc. I feel like distortion takes away from what I am playing...

[1SHOT1HIT]

I wish I knew, I'm still learning all the different sounds this instrument will produce.

My Squire Classic Vibes are clean punchy mixed with a little twangy sound.
The P is a little more punchy than the Jazz.

The 62 Jazz is just amazingly beautiful.

[kurosawa]

Nothing added, nothing masked, which adds up to a sound that is anything but flat (the pieces all add up to a strongly flavored P sound, the only trick being to get enough stuff out of its way to let it sound as much like itself as possible).

[mc_muench]

I run a clean/dirty dual rig setup.

Fretless P bass with roundwounds for some bright overtones and a hint of Mwahh.

My clean side is an Ampeg B2R with an BOSS ODB-3, EQ'd for big clean bass and a bit of grit on the top end, into a Sunn 2x15.

My dirty side is a pre/power amp setup. My preamp is based off an old SS Sunn Concert, with the gain and distortion cranked.And then an old 70's Acoustic power amp. Creates this LOUD, ROARING FUZZ. Kicking on more fuzz makes complete chaos. That also runs into matching Sunn 2x15.

Running both together makes a thunderous full DOOM tone.

[klokker]

P bass tone control all the way up. Lows rolled off on the amp, slight mid bump at about 250hz. A bit honky. Slides into the mix like butter.