I wanted to highlight the tonal differences between two of my favorite basses, my new Skjold Lions' Pride 5 string and my Valenti J5. Recording a "duet" of the two basses turned out to be a fun way to do it.
The basses:
The Skjold Lions' Pride is in the right channel. This is a wonderful, built-to-spec bass made for me earlier this year by Pete Skjold of Skjold Design Guitars, and it is the second bass Pete has built for me. This one uses Pete's Fender J-derived body style, and has an alder body, a beautiful quilted maple top, and a maple neck with an ebony board. It uses Pete's proprietary neodymium humbucking pickups, with the bridge pickup in approximately the 60s J position and the neck pickup moved very far back, towards the bridge.
By result of these design choices, the bass sounds very smooth and creamy, with a defined upper midrange presence. The string-to-string balance is wonderfully even, and the bass sits very nicely in a live mix. There seems to be a natural compression in the bass' voice, allowing a very subtle slap approach where that makes sense. The bass is passive, with a Creation Labs Redeemer circuit.
EDIT: All of the design choices I mentioned above are the outcome of a tone-goal conversation between Pete Skjold and me. The pickup configuration and positioning, at least, is not a typical request and Pete and I were after something specific here. One of the great things about working with Pete is that he understands players' tone aspirations and can aptly design a bass around them. In other words, you could order a bass from Pete with a much different configuration that would provide a much different tone.
In the recording, I've got this bass run with the blend centered and the passive tone control all the way open.
The Valenti J5 is in the left channel. This is Valenti #51, built for me in 2007. Nino built this bass using a swamp ash body, a quited maple top, and a maple neck with a maple board. It has Sadowsky humcancelling pickups in the 60s position, with a Sadowsky preamp.
This Valenti is a great sounding jazz bass. The Sadowsky elex provide a modern edge, and the bass is assertive in all the right places. With a little reverb, as I've used in this recording, the Marcus mojo comes forth. This bass records marvelously.
I've got the Valenti run with the blend control centered, the VTC (passive tone circuit) turned back about 60% (which I find appropriate to tame out some of the maple board's "clickiness") and both the bass and treble preamp controls are boosted very slightly - 10% at most.
The drums in the recording are just a silly little beatbox app I downloaded for the iPad. I used a Fostex MR-8 to do the recording, both basses plugged right in to the unit.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] - please enjoy!
The basses:
The Skjold Lions' Pride is in the right channel. This is a wonderful, built-to-spec bass made for me earlier this year by Pete Skjold of Skjold Design Guitars, and it is the second bass Pete has built for me. This one uses Pete's Fender J-derived body style, and has an alder body, a beautiful quilted maple top, and a maple neck with an ebony board. It uses Pete's proprietary neodymium humbucking pickups, with the bridge pickup in approximately the 60s J position and the neck pickup moved very far back, towards the bridge.
By result of these design choices, the bass sounds very smooth and creamy, with a defined upper midrange presence. The string-to-string balance is wonderfully even, and the bass sits very nicely in a live mix. There seems to be a natural compression in the bass' voice, allowing a very subtle slap approach where that makes sense. The bass is passive, with a Creation Labs Redeemer circuit.
EDIT: All of the design choices I mentioned above are the outcome of a tone-goal conversation between Pete Skjold and me. The pickup configuration and positioning, at least, is not a typical request and Pete and I were after something specific here. One of the great things about working with Pete is that he understands players' tone aspirations and can aptly design a bass around them. In other words, you could order a bass from Pete with a much different configuration that would provide a much different tone.
In the recording, I've got this bass run with the blend centered and the passive tone control all the way open.
The Valenti J5 is in the left channel. This is Valenti #51, built for me in 2007. Nino built this bass using a swamp ash body, a quited maple top, and a maple neck with a maple board. It has Sadowsky humcancelling pickups in the 60s position, with a Sadowsky preamp.
This Valenti is a great sounding jazz bass. The Sadowsky elex provide a modern edge, and the bass is assertive in all the right places. With a little reverb, as I've used in this recording, the Marcus mojo comes forth. This bass records marvelously.
I've got the Valenti run with the blend control centered, the VTC (passive tone circuit) turned back about 60% (which I find appropriate to tame out some of the maple board's "clickiness") and both the bass and treble preamp controls are boosted very slightly - 10% at most.
The drums in the recording are just a silly little beatbox app I downloaded for the iPad. I used a Fostex MR-8 to do the recording, both basses plugged right in to the unit.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] - please enjoy!
