If a Bass Guitar sounds good "unplugged", then should it sound good amplified?

[Hues]

Originally Posted by sbpark

Who the heck cares what it sounds like unplugged if it's an electric bass?

I care.

I live in a condo and if I'm not using my headphone amps, I play it unplugged. Which I find myself doing more often then not....I absolutely love the sound my bass and strings make naturally. It's almost like a softer stand-up double bass sound that I can't get enough of.

[GeorgeBerlin]

With "standard" all wooden bolt-on basses like my G&L's I find a strong correlation between acoustic and amplified sound, both in the dynamics and timbre departments. With graphite neck specimen like the early Vigier's I used to have, less so.

At retailers when I check a bass, I prefer unplugged but still in the booth if any possible, also checking details of workmanship (I often have a checklist handy so I don't miss things). Playing over an amp I tend to miss the subtleties that make a bass shine (or loose) in the long term, the higher the volume the more so and the better the amp the more I might judge the amp's tone instead of the bass.

But real-time testing at retailers seems sketchy at any rate, I prefer to convince the staff that I may take the bass home, set it up and re-string it if requiered and then play the thing several days to check it out thoroughly. Today with internet dealers and their guaranteed return policy this is easy, too. If I decide to return it, the next user will enjoy a bass set up properly and with fresh strings.

[sbpark]

Originally Posted by Hues

I care.

I live in a condo and if I'm not using my headphone amps, I play it unplugged. Which I find myself doing more often then not....I absolutely love the sound my bass and strings make naturally. It's almost like a softer stand-up double bass sound that I can't get enough of.

Then get a semi-hollow body or an acoustic bass! Seriously, if you're that concerned about the ridiculously subtle, minute, and unnecessary differences of the way electric bases sound acoustically from electric bass to electric bass, you have too much time on your hands.

But then again, like the rest of my post mentioned, if thats one of the criteria that is important to you and is a deciding factor in your mental list of things that you think make a great instrument, then it's all good, and it's all matter of personal taste and opinion!

[JoeWPgh]

If a bass has lousy sustain acoustically, it's not going to magically develop it once plugged into an amp. Same goes for dead spots. Often these things are more apparant 'in the nude' as it were.

[Hues]

Originally Posted by sbpark

Then get a semi-hollow body or an acoustic bass!...

If I had the extra scratch, I might...But that's not my point...I genuinely like and enjoy the sound of the thing.

Some folks walk by one of the most beautiful sights every day and never notice it....Others will stop and look and take it in.

[wolfmancharlie]

Reading this thread is just so much better than watching snowflakes fall or watching or in this case listening to grass grow,just makes me Happy Happy Happy !!!! Never mind me ,just continue.

[Fuzzbass]

Originally Posted by Hues

Some folks walk by one of the most beautiful sights every day and never notice it....Others will stop and look and take it in.

I don't know that I want anyone else to see my girlfriend naked. Just sayin'.

[Silver Blues]

Originally Posted by Fuzzbass

I don't know that I want anyone else to see my girlfriend naked. Just sayin'.

lol well played

--Silvie

[Hues]

Originally Posted by Fuzzbass

I don't know that I want anyone else to see my girlfriend naked. Just sayin'.

Well, until you know for sure....Ya got any pics?

* Yes, I'm joking.

[Brad Johnson]

Originally Posted by preside

I love these kind of threads ..they let me know whose posts I can ignore in the future. Oh and Brad J when I went to Berklee back in the 70's you were not allowed to practice in your dorm room. I used to sit in the bathroom with my bass against the wall and play all the time , it was a good way to hear myself and my trusty jazz bass sounded just like it was going thru an amp. I play a bass not a set of pickups.

Okay, so now there's two of us.

[Sartori]

Originally Posted by Fuzzbass

I don't know that I want anyone else to see my girlfriend naked. Just sayin'.

I wouldn't mind.

[Fuzzbass]

Originally Posted by Sartori

I wouldn't mind.

Well if your girlfriend wouldn't mind, send some pics of her to Hues.

[TRichardsbass]

Originally Posted by Just Thumpin'

I assume that you are talking about using our preamp to make fairly large adjustments to the active tone settings, because out of the box our preamps tend to be very neutral sounding...that is in active mode but with not adjustments made to the tone controls the bass will sound virtually identical to how it sounds passively.

Regards,

J

+1 My friend.

[ejaggers]

Originally Posted by Hues

I care.

I live in a condo and if I'm not using my headphone amps, I play it unplugged. Which I find myself doing more often then not....I absolutely love the sound my bass and strings make naturally. It's almost like a softer stand-up double bass sound that I can't get enough of.

+1

I also care, so I guess I've got too much time on my hands as well. And I do have a semi-hollow in my stable, but this seems beside the point. It's been stated many times that, there's a lot of info to be gathered from playing unplugged. And As I said earlier, I keep a bass by my bed that I grab often, and play unplugged.

057912

[Brad Johnson]

Originally Posted by ejaggers

+1 I also care, so I guess I've got too much time on my hands as well. And I do have a semi-hollow in my stable, but this seems beside the point. It's been stated many times that, there's a lot of info to be gathered from playing unplugged. And As I said earlier, I keep a bass by my bed that I grab often, and play unplugged.

057912

Agreed.

I get that for some folks it's unimportant, what I don't get is the apparent inability to understand that it does what others say it does.

[Brad Johnson]

Originally Posted by TRichardsbass

+1 My friend.

He assumed incorrectly.

[Fuzzbass]

Originally Posted by Brad Johnson

Agreed.

I get that for some folks it's unimportant, what I don't get is the apparent inability to understand that it does what others say it does.

There's no inability, simply disagreement that it *always* does what some claim it does.

This is yet another difference of opinion/shades of gray topic on TalkBass that some want to become binary: true/untrue, always/never.

[Brad Johnson]

Originally Posted by Fuzzbass

There's no inability, simply disagreement that it *always* does what some claim it does.

This is yet another difference of opinion/shades of gray topic on TalkBass that some want to become binary: true/untrue, always/never.

Geez. Does this ever stop?


Who said it ALWAYS does anything? This shouldn't be hard to show, go right ahead. Names please?


You (mis)reading and converting to binary is not the same as people actually doing what you keep thinking you're reading. If people post about their experience it does not mean they're lumping you in with them. We don't all experience the same things or say we ALL SHOULD yet you somehow keep seeing otherwise.

What this shows is either an inability or just plain refusal to step outside of your own box and read for content. I honestly don't get you at this point, not that I really got the earlier semantics fests either.

Nobody is saying you should play unplugged or find it in any way useful. Don't. You OTOH keep beating on the drum of how useless it is to people who don't find that to be so. What exactly is your point? That you find it useless so others should too?


Here's the ABSOLUTE I started with: "The vast majority of basses that I've owned/played that sounded great (not just good) sounded that way unplugged. I'm not a fan of electronics that override the acoustic sound of electric basses. I test basses out unplugged and play/practice that way quite often. So do lots of people that I know".

Here it is edited to fit this stuff: "Every bass ever made that sounded good plugged in sounded that way unplugged. no exceptions. blah blah blah. Any bass ever tested unplugged must be used to play/practice that way blah blah. Everyone knows that.

So there... now I'm actually writing what you're reading. I realize that by responding to you I run the risk of looking like "I'm" trolling so... you win again.

[Fuzzbass]

Originally Posted by Brad Johnson

What this shows is either an inability or just plain refusal to step outside of your own box and read for content.

Funny you should say that.

Originally Posted by Brad Johnson

Nobody is saying you should play unplugged or find it in any way useful. Don't. You OTOH keep beating on the drum of how useless it is

I have never said or implied that it's useless. I'm baffled how you could think I did!

So, we agree after all. I look forward to the make-up sex.

[Brad Johnson]

Is that was this was about? Fine, send your girlfriend over.