Am I tone deaf or tone dumb?

[funkinbottom]

On bass, I just don't seem to learn to care at all... what's wrong with me?

Absolutely nothing. Been playin' 40 years and have used zero pedals, and rarely roll the tone knob at all. Roll volumes back and forth to varying degrees between neck& bridge PU, depending on the song.

 

[smeet]

I have a lot of effects on my board, 3 are always on (tube pre, eq, compressor). The rest (synth, dirt, octave, filter) aren't used super often, but when they are it tickles my brain just right.

P bass with flats is the number 2 pencil of the sonic spectrum.

So a 17 string Torzal Twist multiscale with rounds and ALL THE EFFECTS must be #1 then!!!

 

[bassbrad]

I can definitely hear different bass tones in different songs. I got myself a Zoom B1four a couple of years ago to experiment with tones but I am not using it with the band. I even almost always just use the same pickup and tone knob position all down; with few songs exceptions when I open the tone a bit.

The weird thing is, on guitar I am addicted to effects, I cannot stand the pure clear sound of an electric guitar (I have to add at least a bit of reverb on clear, or otherwise some distortion), and I have to seek different tone+effects settings for almost every song.

On bass, I just don't seem to learn to care at all... what's wrong with me?

Nothing wrong, often times the simpler the bass tone the better it might be for any given song or band.

OTOH there is nothing wrong with experimenting on expanding your bass tone choices, it's up to each player to decide.

 

[DWA2469]

A little saturation can go a long way!

 

[GrowlerBox]

I'm the same and you'll probably find many bass players who double on guitar to have similar conclusions, and for a lot of the same reasons as laid out in this thread.

One thing to try, since you're a guitarist too, is an A/B/Y pedal to split your signal chain into two amps, one colored, and one straight bass. I've got an amp that will biamp as well, but the split chain works for most signal chains. This lets you have a straight bass signal, in my case, mostly treble and upper mids rolled down, and then an effected signal into another amp. This reopened my mind quite a bit to new possibilities. I don't use this setup in my cover band, where I'm aiming more for tones that match the original songs, but it's great for my originals bands where I can open up and do whatever.

I’ve recently started doing this, too — a "dry" signal to a low-power tube amp in parallel with a "wet" solid-state. Each has its own identical speaker. Everything sounds better . So far, at home only, though.