Had Blues Trio Practice Today.......
 

I had practice with the blues trio today and I took my Gibson SG Bass. Both the guitarist and the drummer could tell right away that something didn't sound right. My Precision was missing. A Precision and Texas blues just go together.

A Precision and just about everything go together.

Well, then there was SRV with Tommy Shannon rockin' a J......

Your problem was the mudbucker. They're terrible pickups. :( IMO

A P or J, or just about ANY other bass out there would have worked better.

am i the only one who finds the term "mudbucker" couterintuitive?
humbucker = no hum
mudbucker = no mud

Lets face it. Everybody here knows that when you say "bass guitar" you can ONLY mean a Fender "P" or a "J". Nothing else is a bass guitar! The rest are all posers...especially anything with Gibson on it...

:hiding:

They also probably noticed that it sounded different. For some, different is bad when you are used to a great sound.

For me, a P Bass works the best in a one guitar band - I get better results in a 2 guitar band with a Jazz, EBMM, T-bird, or Spector/Warwick... IMO, a P Bass sits in a one guitar mix just right, whereas I prefer something with a little more cutting ability with more than 1 guitar...


- georgestrings

try adjusting the settings on your amp to dial in the Gibson. I use several different Gibsons for blues without any problems getting it to sound right. and let's face it, there are many basses that don't say Fender on the headstock that sound great, including Gibsons.

Pretty sure I saw him playing a Carvin on Austin City Limits a long time ago!

I had an SG bass for like a week. It was a really cool bass, but once I played it with my band I knew it wasn't going to work out. "Hey...can you turn up? I can't hear the bass..." in between every song until I switched to my J.

Just IMO too, but I agree.

:confused:

I see where you're going, but they're definitely muddy to my ears. Certain aftermarket models aren't, but the standard Gibson is.

he's most often associated with a beat up early 60s J. No doubt he played other instruments from time to time, but that's his signature bass.

i'm not saying the stock gibson pickups are not muddy, i'm just sayin the mudbucker term used to desribe them sounds odd to me. it would be better used to describe aftermarket eb style pickups that aren't muddy, hence "mudbucker", no more mud. thats kinda what i meant by the mudbucker = no mud. that's just my thoughts on it.

:cool:

I love both P and J basses.
But for a Trio, I prefer the P-Bass. It sits better in the mix.
More thump.

Amen my favorite part about playing trio.

BIG FAT TONE,,,works. So much sonic space:hiding:

You cannot EQ the SG the same way as a Fender and expect good results.
That said, the SG is going to naturally be low mid focused but it can be made to sound very good in it's own right. Don't give up.

oh yeah! the '64 olypic white jazz. nice.:bassist:

http://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=66312

I don't know what amp you use, what strings, how loud or how well you play but there was a blues trio called "Cream" that well......

They were just an average garage band. Somewhere in all that music was a Gibson EB3.

Your tone could have been fuller but not as punchy. I know it was different. It is possible to get more than mud from that bass. I did quite well with the single pickup EBO back in those days.

I have a Jazz also, but the other two guys seem to like the Precision Better.

Cream was a rock band and yes a EB3 was used. I have a Gibson SG Bass with the same pickups as the EB3. With the blues we are doing it requires a lot of walks and clean articulation at times. My Gibson just muddies up too much without messing with the amps EQ from song to song. I guess that's the beauty of having both two Fenders and a Gibson. My Carvin LB70 Active/Passive is a little too clean. I'm using a Carvin BX500 head and a Carvin 4x10 cab or a Carvin B2000 head and 2 Carvin 4x10 cabs depending on the venue. I play flats on all my basses. I certaily haven't given up on my Gibson. It sounds good for a lot of classic rock I do in another band. I like the feel of the neck on the Precision and the only thing I really have to tweak when playing it is the tone control on the bass.