20 Bass Shootout!

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks Viking! Glad to hear that.

No, I'm not working in any music store. The guys at the Swedish music retailer 4Sound were nice enoght to lend 14 of the basses for the comparison. The 6 basses at the end are mine

Cheers!
Johan

Ditto for me. Love your videos Johan. Where do you get all these basses? Do you work in a music store?

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks Rezdog, I'm also up north: Sweden!

Cheers

Greetings from the North,

I preferred the American Standard P for tone and lack of ringing. Or was that you?

Rezdog

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks BassHappy! Roundwounds on all but the 73 P which had flatwounds. All basses were played att full tone and volume. The exeption was the EB2 where I had to roll of some volume so to avoid distortion.

The 2-610 had maximum gain and about 50% volume. EQ: everything below 200Hz boosted by 3dB and everuthing above 5k boosted by 3 dB.

Cheers
Johan

Very very interesting - Thanks so much for this!

It would be great to know which type of strings are on each (Flats, Rounds, Halfs) and also wondering about the placement of the tone controls? Was it the same for each bass? They were mostly bright enough that I might guess that they were all in the middle somewhere or possibly full up. Was the amp flat or was there a mid or top boost?

An amazing comparison - if you are doing more, I would love to hear each bass with the tone control rolled all the way off, in the middle and full on. That would also be a cool way to compare.

Thanks again, very cool.

BassHappy
www.innertainment.net

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks! It sure did

Precisions, Ric, and Yamaha were the stand outs for me!

Great vid must have taken a lot of effort!

Davo

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks, Gibson basses sound very cool showcased and in hardrock, but in dense mixes usually the Fenders are better "tools".

Cheers
Johan

I loved the tone on the les paul. I really didn't expect that. Hmm.

Actually, I liked almost all the gibson/epi tones (sans Gibson tbird and ripper).
And here I was thinking i was a fender guy

I liked that starcaster tone alot, too...

 

[BassHappy]

Thanks BassHappy! Roundwounds on all but the 73 P which had flatwounds. All basses were played att full tone and volume. The exeption was the EB2 where I had to roll of some volume so to avoid distortion.

The 2-610 had maximum gain and about 50% volume. EQ: everything below 200Hz boosted by 3dB and everuthing above 5k boosted by 3 dB.

Cheers
Johan

Thanks so much for the kind response - again - great exercise in all things bassism!

Very VERY enjoyable, I have watched several times and looking forward to the next one(s)!

BassHappy
Link Removed

 

[Jefff]

I was surprised at how much I liked the Squeir 51.

 

[2cooltoolz]

Super nice job!! Thanks for the effort you put into it!!

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks blindrabbit! I'll do a demonstration of the rick'o'sound soon as well, where the neck pickup goes to a bass amp and the bridge pickup goes to a guitar amp. Instant Motörhead. I'm still on the lookout for a Stingray.

Check out the next riff on tuesday and tell me how the basses turn out!

Cheers
Johan

Yeah., this does not help my Ric GAS out at all. It conclusively wins the shootout, IMO. Just a fantastic, unique, rounded yet aggressive tone. I. Want. One.

That EB-3 of yours continues to be impressive, I'd rank it a solid second. Also, I continue to be in love with the EB-2. It wouldn't be a bass I'd use 100% of the time, but it's got a lovely warm round tone that would fit perfectly into some tunes. The Yamaha was a pleasant surprise. Surprisingly, the EB13 didn't sound as good in this shoutout as it did in your previous clips.

The Ibanez and ESP sounded horrid to my ears. The Jazz also seemed very thin and wimpy - this coming from a long time Jazz fan and player.

Please, keep these coming! Any chance you can include a EBMM Sterling and/or Stingray in the future?

Thanks for all your efforts Johan!

 

[JohanSegeborn]

Thanks!

There wasn't a bad tone on that video.
+1 on adding a Stingray.
And the rick gas begins....

 

[JimmyM]

That was fun. I liked the 14 P, the Burns and the EB-2 for completely different reasons. Didn't care as much for the Ibanez, the Paul and the T-Birds.

 

[Mark4]

The Yamaha BB, Epi Thunderbird, 2014 American Fender P, and Ric sounded best to my ears, with all Gibsons except for the Krist Novoselic model sounding consistently better than average to me.

What I mostly listened for was clarity, character, and evenness of tone across the strings. I suspect that setup, especially pickup height and strings, may have played a big role. Especially in the case of the 2014 American P vs. the '73 P. I loved new P's tone, but the old P just didn't do it for me... mostly due to the E and A strings overpowering the others. This seemed to be a common problem with the Fenders. Especially when played through my laptop speakers. Although my desktop speakers helped a lot, I could still hear the disparity. That being said, if things like strings and pickup height could be adjusted to provide more of an even output, then I might judge them differently.

 

[superblues]

Great vid.

I was surprised to discover that I liked the Gibson RD and the Ric played in this context. Before this video, both of those are basses I have had zero interest in.

 

[mmbongo]

Quite honestly, this video goes to show why I don't like Fender basses. The Jaguar is by far the best Fender here and sounds like something I would like. Other than the Jag, all the Fenders sound clunky and uneven to me.

 

[thiocyclist]

Thanks, well the Jazz would have needed som more bass on the eq, to sound full, but I kept the settings equal over all basses.

Cheers
Johan

You did the right thing. If I can help it I'd rather use a bass that needs less processing than more (though it doesn't necessarily mean one is better).

 

[wild4oldcars]

Other than the Jag, all the Fenders sound clunky and uneven to me.

I heard this too. The whole time i was thinking "well, maybe a pickup height adjustment would fix that".

 

[DJJazzV]

That was very cool! Thank you for posting that and all the effort.
If I could only choose one, the Ric was it. It seemed to have a really good combination of the best tonal qualities of the others combined.

 

[BassDaddy77]

Another great vid Johan. I really appreciate your effort in bringing these shootouts to TB. They really are a lot of fun to watch. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of this 20 bass shootout series!

I have to say that the Am Std Jazz was really disappointing. Really weak and uneven sounding. I thought the Ric, Les Paul, and Jag sounded the best regarding the bridge pickup.

It seems a bit unfair to evaluate the single pickup equipped basses (3 Precisions and the EB-2) within this context as they certainly had much more bottom end. Having said that, I personally thought these 4 sounded great - especially that EB-2. The Squier is quite impressive for it's price point!

Is that Epiphone T-Bird the "Classic" model with the Gibson pickups?

 

[Papersen]

Great work buddy !!

 

[Twocan]

Love these! Nice work. Ric, Ibanez, Gibson Rd, Fender Amer Standard P and Squier 51 sounded nicest to me.