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An ode to 'one trick pony basses'

#21
Pdaddy1978 said:
Your right...but
Some only have two.
The mighty mudbucker for instance.... muddy....and muddier
If you can coax more than that out of an EB-O, I'll shake your hand. :meh:
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Well, the 'mudbucker' tone is easily altered by lowering the pole pieces all the way down lol! I mean do most bass players even bother with pickup height and pole piece adjustment?

'Mudbucker' tone can easily be shaped by changing the EQ and a powerful amp with clean headroom......Does Andy Fraser have the same tone as Jack Bruce? No...Andys is a much cleaner almost 'tuba' tone at times...try getting that with any Fender bass, its impossible.

Plus Andy liked to use his thumb a lot near the bridge...then you throw in a variety of string options today....i am amazed at some of the YouTube clips of 'mudbucker' basses quite frankly.....lower the pickup...lower the polepieces!! You will get a way cleaner tone, those double magnets along with the high resistance winding dont need to be setting so close to the strings...
 
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#23
Energy said:
In my experience, in 99% of all cases it's not the bass but the user that's the one trick pony.
Click to expand...
This!
There are far too many that think "If you pick up THIS bass,you must play it in THIS way because of such and such famous person played it that way"
 
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#24
jd56hawk said:
One-trick pony?
Tone knob proves otherwise.
View attachment 4006361
Click to expand...

What do you think the EQ knobs on your amp are for? Also, there are no knobs for where you pluck the strings. Speaking of strings, they can make a profound difference in the sound as well. No, I agree with the earlier post that said more than likely, it’s not the bass, but the bassist that’s got one trick.
 
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#26
dbsfgyd1 said:
What do you think the EQ knobs on your amp are for? Also, there are no knobs for where you pluck the strings. Speaking of strings, they can make a profound difference in the sound as well. No, I agree with the earlier post that said more than likely, it’s not the bass, but the bassist that’s got one trick.
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This...i come from the guitar world of geekdom...constantly adjusting pickup height....1/2 the time ive seen excellent players that seem clueless and/or stubborn about EQ adjustment....some wont use a comp when they need to, some dont have enough clean headroom in their amp/speaker setup, wont vary their picking technique.
 
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#30
jd56hawk said:
Yes, I know what they're for.
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I’m just going to ask this for the sake of understanding your earlier post, not to be Jack a*s. With all of those tonal variables in play, not to mention other effects that can be added to the signal chain, I’m having a hard time understanding your post that because a PB only has a tone knob, it’s a one trick pony? How so?

The reason I ask is over 40 years of playing PBs, I’ve covered just about every genre there is with the exception of symphonic, reggae, and slap (if you think my reggae sounds awkward, you ought to hear me slap). In every situation the PB is played with the pickup and tone wide open. All tonal adjustments to fit the genre were done with EQ adjustments, strings, and or where and how I plucked the strings.

IMO, A PB is the antithesis of a one trick pony. It’s more like a utility tool.
 
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#33
dbsfgyd1 said:
I’m just going to ask this for the sake of understanding your earlier post, not to be Jack a*s. With all of those tonal variables in play, not to mention other effects that can be added to the signal chain, I’m having a hard time understanding your post that because a PB only has a tone knob, it’s a one trick pony? How so?

The reason I ask is over 40 years of playing PBs, I’ve covered just about every genre there is with the exception of symphonic, reggae, and slap (if you think my reggae sounds awkward, you ought to hear me slap). In every situation the PB is played with the pickup and tone wide open. All tonal adjustments to fit the genre were done with EQ adjustments, strings, and or where and how I plucked the strings.

IMO, A PB is the antithesis of a one trick pony. It’s more like a utility tool.
Click to expand...
EQ pedals and adjustments are avoided by most imo...P bass? Well, i can get close to a P bass on my Epiphone Newport w 'mudbucker' but it takes a LOT of EQ! Very hard to get a P bass to sound like a 'mudbucker' as the pickup is vastly different and some (or most) have no desire to go there but with all of the different OD and gain pedals a lot is possible with a P bass...P bass is a great 'plug and play' bass though, cant argue that in my book, the pickup doesnt overdrive lesser amps the way a 'mudbucker' does (unless you do like my suggestion and lower the mudbucker and/or polepieces).
 
#35
dbsfgyd1 said:
I’m just going to ask this for the sake of understanding your earlier post, not to be Jack a*s. With all of those tonal variables in play, not to mention other effects that can be added to the signal chain, I’m having a hard time understanding your post that because a PB only has a tone knob, it’s a one trick pony? How so?

The reason I ask is over 40 years of playing PBs, I’ve covered just about every genre there is with the exception of symphonic, reggae, and slap (if you think my reggae sounds awkward, you ought to hear me slap). In every situation the PB is played with the pickup and tone wide open. All tonal adjustments to fit the genre were done with EQ adjustments, strings, and or where and how I plucked the strings.

IMO, A PB is the antithesis of a one trick pony. It’s more like a utility tool.
Click to expand...
Did you read my post or just glance at it.
It's pretty clear that my bass is not a one-trick pony...hence, the question mark and reference to the tone knob proves otherwise.
 
#36
dbsfgyd1 said:
I’m just going to ask this for the sake of understanding your earlier post, not to be Jack a*s. With all of those tonal variables in play, not to mention other effects that can be added to the signal chain, I’m having a hard time understanding your post that because a PB only has a tone knob, it’s a one trick pony? How so?

The reason I ask is over 40 years of playing PBs, I’ve covered just about every genre there is with the exception of symphonic, reggae, and slap (if you think my reggae sounds awkward, you ought to hear me slap). In every situation the PB is played with the pickup and tone wide open. All tonal adjustments to fit the genre were done with EQ adjustments, strings, and or where and how I plucked the strings.

IMO, A PB is the antithesis of a one trick pony. It’s more like a utility tool.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the guy you're trying to argue with was the one that said a p bass was not a one trick pony. He posted a pic of a p bass and said it is not a 1 trick pony because you can get some much from using the tone knob.
 
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#37
DavidEdenAria said:
This...i come from the guitar world of geekdom...constantly adjusting pickup height....1/2 the time ive seen excellent players that seem clueless and/or stubborn about EQ adjustment....some wont use a comp when they need to, some dont have enough clean headroom in their amp/speaker setup, wont vary their picking technique.
Click to expand...
And those same ones will readily ask about new pickups to change the tone of their bass when they almost never test out the EQ on the amp.
Turning a knob or two costs nothing if it solved the problem.
 
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#39
Hofners, Rics, Musicman basses, p-basses, etc all these are sometimes called 1-trick and yet in my hands they all feel at least reasonably tonaly diverse to me depending on setting and hand position.

The only basses that I've found that feel close to 1-trick ponys are basses with a single passive pickup in the extreme neck or bridge position. In that vein, for a decade I was in-love with the muckbucker telebass sound. Then I got a T-40 and realized I could have a better version of that and alot of other sounds too. When the mudbucker telebass was finally released by Squier it didn't impress me anymore.

So, I guess I'm not going to defend the1-trick pony.
 
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