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Amp or Bass: Which is more Important to tone??

Bassline_Delux

Bassline_Delux

Dec 24, 2003
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London, England
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#1
Well, we all know that they both affect tone, but which would you say is more important? I think the amp is a bit more important, perhaps 70:30, or 65:35...Casue, if you play a great bass through a piece o' crap amp, it'll sound, well, crap. Whereas, if you play a piece o' crap bass, through an Uber amp of Dominion, you'll at least sound passable.
 
#2
i thought this horse was dead a long time ago.

but, FWIW, to me a good amp is a bit more important than a good bass only because you can gig out with an adequate amp and an ok bass, but you cant gig out (in most cases) with a 3000 dollar bass and a 25 watt 1x10 amp.
 
#3
Well, I dont believe that to be true.
Obviously they both affect tone, though a good bass IS a good bass and a bad bass will sound terrible thru any amp...

I Have a ****ty combo at home, for practice, and when I'm jamming with the band, I use a Warwick setup at the studio...
the important thing is that the bass itself is good. and I can take it and plug it in ANYWHERE and it will sound good.
Not so with My Aria Pro for example. the original PUs are ****ty, the wood isnt the greatest.... OBviously you can notice that its not a great bass more on my combo, But the diference in sound is absolutely shocking at the studio... just by changing the bass.
 
#6
Aussiephoenix said:
Well, I dont believe that to be true.
Obviously they both affect tone, though a good bass IS a good bass and a bad bass will sound terrible thru any amp...

I Have a ****ty combo at home, for practice, and when I'm jamming with the band, I use a Warwick setup at the studio...
the important thing is that the bass itself is good. and I can take it and plug it in ANYWHERE and it will sound good.
Not so with My Aria Pro for example. the original PUs are ****ty, the wood isnt the greatest.... OBviously you can notice that its not a great bass more on my combo, But the diference in sound is absolutely shocking at the studio... just by changing the bass.
Click to expand...
i don't necissarily disagree with you. look up, i never said anything about the tone being better with an adequate amp and an ok bass, just that the amp will cut it at the gig. A sadowsky and a 25 watt amp at a loud rock gig just wont do it. :)
 
#7
Which is more Important to tone??

No question about it. Your instrument is THE single most important piece of equipment.

Amplifiers, umm, well...amplify! Amplify what?

I was having a discussion today with someone about this very thing.

We were talking about how we always test our basses acoustically before even plugging them into an amp. You can tell what kind of tone the bass will have by how it resonates acoustically, sans electronics.

No amount of EQ'ing, or tone control, or effects are going to make a terrible bass sound better. Conversely, a great sounding bass (acoustically) can sound great through a crappy amp. With a great sounding bass, you only need to amplify that sound.

You can't say that the amp is more important because you can have an amp with small wattage that the bass sound great through, but won't go loud enough to play out with, but power was not part of the thread's question.

When I read all these posts about basses, cabs, heads, etc. and the poster talks about trying to get "their" sound dialed in, I wonder how many of them are even aware if they have "their" sound coming from the bass itself or not.

Think of orchestral musicians who play their intruments with no amplification. Think the amp contributes more to their tone, or is it their instrument?

Which are you playing, the bass or your amp?
 

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