90's basses for that smooth jazz sound

[logdrum]

Wanted to throw back to the 90's when slap was still pretty big and active basses were the hot thing. Not sure how many of you liked the players on smooth jazz records, but that era was highly influential for me.

There were a good amount of basses being used, but the sound for me had to be the active jazz bass, both pickups on, tone rolled back around halfway with a little boost in the highs and lows. Gives you that juicy pop sound and a nice clear slap. And then you can just throw the knob on the back pickup when you want the more throaty sound for finger style and soloing.

Curious if anyone here was playing that style back and then can share setups. I remember the Eq's were usually cut a bit around 500 or so for slap. Not sure what compressors people were using back then but it was a huge part of the sound as well. Also stringwise - nickel, steel and what tensions?

I just figured the classic Pbasses and flats discussion has happened so many times here, I'd love to hear from anyone, especially folks who own 90's active basses in general and still play them. Sadly, mine have been gone for quite a while but I have found myself really wanting an active jazz again if I find the right one.

This era was when the "sadowsky sound" really blossomed too. Those basses are weapons for this style of music, maybe the best options out there.

Anyway, interested in hearing from the players from that era or people who are knowledgable about it. It would be super fun for me to build a 90's setup again.

Slap and Smiley EQ abound -

The Casino Lights 99 before the turn of the millennium.

 

[GreyBeard]

Ibanez

 

[Thumpin6string]

Fbass like Alain Carron played in Uzeb, Roscoe like Kim Stone played in the Rippingtons, or a Yamaha TRB like Patitucci played in the Chick Corea Elektric band. 3 great 90s bands with great bass players

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Old USA Peavey’s with humbuckers get a great slap tone.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Old USA Peavey’s with humbuckers get a great slap tone.

Yes for sure, I love the original Peavey Cirrus's. They have that Ken Smith vibe going for them. The more I think about it, I think the tone I like the most is the active Sadowsky Jazz. It's great for fusion and jazz since the mixes are more open and you can get away with scooping the mids. Plus for finger style you can solo the back pickup and the sadowsky pickups are so balanced that you don't lose much bottom end.

So it's a top tier slap tone, back pickup funk tone and pseudo pbass all in one. Tough to go wrong there.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Yes for sure, I love the original Peavey Cirrus's. They have that Ken Smith vibe going for them. The more I think about it, I think the tone I like the most is the active Sadowsky Jazz. It's great for fusion and jazz since the mixes are more open and you can get away with scooping the mids. Plus for finger style you can solo the back pickup and the sadowsky pickups are so balanced that you don't lose much bottom end.

So it's a top tier slap tone, back pickup funk tone and pseudo pbass all in one. Tough to go wrong there.

I cannot argue with your logic!

 

[frankie5string]

Back that far, there were lots of Yamaha BBs and TRBs at the time... So many session guys had a Yamaha bass on hand ready for that style of music.

 

[BASSDROID]

Back that far, there were lots of Yamaha BBs and TRBs at the time... So many session guys had a Yamaha bass on hand ready for that style of music.

I was thinking that myself. A handful of years ago I flipped a Yamaha BBNE2 Nathan East, which seems to me the ideal bass for this kind of thing. Kind of wish I still had it, as one does.

 

[frankie5string]

I was thinking that myself. A handful of years ago I flipped a Yamaha BBNE2 Nathan East, which seems to me the ideal bass for this kind of thing. Kind of wish I still had it, as one does.

If you can find one of those NE-1 "Magic Boxes," those will get you into the smooth-jazz tone territory. They have both a mid scoop and a treble-cut contour that works for that genre.

 

[Jeff Scott]

If you can find one of those NE-1 "Magic Boxes," those will get you into the smooth-jazz tone territory. They have both a mid scoop and a treble-cut contour that works for that genre.

Not unlike the VLE and VPF controls on a Markbass.

 

[frankie5string]

Not unlike the VLE and VPF controls on a Markbass.

View attachment 5351365

It's actually not the same. The OPAmp Yamaha used in the NE-1 has it's own kind-of "fuzzy" texture which those two controls don't impart on the tone. Also, the midrange-cut point is variable across a fairly wide range. Remember the box had Nathan's favourite settings on it, and plugging my TRB into it I can kind-of see why....

What surprised me the most about the little box was the Veroboard they used to assemble the circuit. I thought for sure it would be a printed board of some sort... Nope... It was something that was basically the equivalent of Veroboard!

 

[Jeff Scott]

It's actually not the same. The OPAmp Yamaha used in the NE-1 has it's own kind-of "fuzzy" texture which those two controls don't impart on the tone. Also, the midrange-cut point is variable across a fairly wide range. Remember the box had Nathan's favourite settings on it, and plugging my TRB into it I can kind-of see why....

What surprised me the most about the little box was the Veroboard they used to assemble the circuit. I thought for sure it would be a printed board of some sort... Nope... It was something that was basically the equivalent of Veroboard!

Does the "fuzzy" texture come from those controls or is it a "built-in" sound from the NE-1 itself, regardless of the control settings?

 

[AngelCrusher]

Not unlike the VLE and VPF controls on a Markbass.

View attachment 5351365

On that note I wonder what modern amps are clean enough for that 90s Hifi sound? Markbass has their mini amp but I’m sure there are more. I have not looked at gear much at all in so long.

id honestly grab an old trace Elliot for cheap if the old combos weren’t so freaking heavy. I remember those and markbass and Eden were running the show. Of course since I was a kid with no money I had to scrounge for a hartke.

 

[frankie5string]

Does the "fuzzy" texture come from those controls or is it a "built-in" sound from the NE-1 itself, regardless of the control settings?

It's always there as long as you have the volume turned all the way up (which is unity, since the volume control is cut-only) and select either shallow or deep curves...

 

[Jeff Scott]

It's always there as long as you have the volume turned all the way up (which is unity, since the volume control is cut-only) and select either shallow or deep curves...

Interesting. Is the NE-1 a passive device?

 

[Jeff Scott]

On that note I wonder what modern amps are clean enough for that 90s Hifi sound? Markbass has their mini amp but I’m sure there are more. I have not looked at gear much at all in so long.

id honestly grab an old trace Elliot for cheap if the old combos weren’t so freaking heavy. I remember those and markbass and Eden were running the show. Of course since I was a kid with no money I had to scrounge for a hartke.

SWR definitely fits the bill (IME) for clean hi-fi tone. Markbass wasn't around in the '90s, that I know of (I first recall hearing about them in the mid '00s) but there was, before that, some amps and cabs made by Markbass for Ernie Ball Music Man called Audiophile Bass Systems.

 

[frankie5string]

Interesting. Is the NE-1 a passive device?

No... It's active... hence the OpAmp... it's powered by a 9 volt battery... It powers up as soon as you plug into the input. It doesn't even have a DC input jack - so if you want to power it with an adaptor you have to use a 9V battery-snap-on-adaptor.

 

[Iridescentone]

Interesting. Is the NE-1 a passive device?

There must have been two NE-1 models then, a passive and and active version? I used to have an NE-1. It was a small chromed passive pedal that acted like a varitone of sorts. The battery was only there to power the LED on/off light on mine. If there's an active NE pedal that duplicates Nathan East's signature sound (like the onboard elecs on a Yamaha BB604), I'd like to grab one...love that sound!

 

[AngelCrusher]

So were a lot of players were running their active basses with some onboard EQ boost into another eq pedal to engage when slapping, to get that real nice snappy pop sound going? I'm thinking about how I'd set that up when I have a sadowsky with some boost and then into a smiley Eq and then into a preamp with the mids cut a little. I don't have an EQ pedal at the moment so im using the Boss LMB3 enhance, and it seems to work pretty well. But I have a sadowsky PJ and not a J. The tone is rather different.

Just trying to recreate how a lot of them were doing it. Also have an EBS multicomp that I use in multiband mode. Unfortunately no active jazz bass at the moment, but working on changing that.

 

[jim nolte]

Forgot how huge Tobias bases were back in the day as well.

That was the first one I thought about, in that style of music it seemed like half of the bass players I saw were playing Tobias 5 strings.