Are we ever satisfied with our tone?

[fly agaric]

I feel very lucky that I don't fret too much about my tone. I have a few rules about EQ and roughly how I like things to sound, but I try not to be too fickle about perfecting anything since I learned a long time ago that a different room can change what sounded perfect elsewhere.

Trust the sound person is my big rule. My amp is my monitor. It's up to me to make sure I sound right and play appropriately on stage. It's up to the sound person to make sure I sound right to the crowd. In the studio, it's up to the engineer to make sure I sound good on record.

 

[phillybass101]

I'm happy with my Tone. For me the challenge is getting it in different places with different gear. So yeah the search is never ending from that aspect.

 

[Maiden Bass]

Yes, but only after years and years of searching!
And lots of $$$ too!

Finally found the ultimate tone for my sound and it was definitely worth the time and money!

Don't give up until you find it folks!



And FYI for me it was Zon + Darkglass.

 

[WardEarth]

Isn't this tone thing an endless cycle? Personally, I keep seeking tone nirvana and I'm not sure if there's ever an end to it, and I don't think I'm alone. There are some nights that what I hear is nearly, 'kind of pretty close' to what's in my head, but more times than not, the room doesn't cooperate. There is ONE place I've played where I live that actually makes my bass sound ALMOST exactly what I want it to sound but still, I feel there's something missing. I can't even describe what's missing most of the time, but that's what makes this endless 'holy grail tone' thing an endless search. Couple that with all these descriptions of tone bass players tend to use, such as 'grunt' 'punch', 'tight', 'tubey', etc. and I go into a tailspin trying to figure out what gadget, amp, cab, string, is going to get me "closer".

I also feel that, of all instruments in a typical cover band, the bass is the hardest to get a good tone from, only slightly rivaled by getting a good kick tone, but bass is definitely harder.
I might be saying this because I'm not a guitar player, but in my mind they can easily get a pretty decent tone with most any well-repected amp-speaker setup.
I wish I had the chance to take 3 amps and/or 3 cabs to a gig to compare through the night.
It's frustrating because music stores typically have very few brands/models to choose from in stock and even if you try them out in a store, that's nowhere near how they'll sound on a gig.
Now I see why so many people are trading in the classifieds. Youtube videos don't seem to help, either.
Guess I'm going to exercise the 'if you don't like it, send it back' option some online retailers offer. I never have done this because I feel like if I try something and send it back, it's typically USED, right? And the retailer takes a hit, right or wrong?

Maybe this search for tone is part of the journey, and I should just enjoy the trip rather than find the destination.

What rig and bass do you play?
I recommend starting with a great speaker and decent amp. I've been loving my bergantino, but there are plenty of great speakers out there. The speaker matters more than the amp imo, but you need a good amp too.
Once you have that set up, you will be able to feel the true tone of whatever bass you put into your rig.
Most of the online places don't have the really badass speakers. Not saying none of it's good, but you prob won't find a place you can buy and try a berg or fearful or anything like that. Buy used and pass it on if it's not your thing, do your research and just take the chance.

 

[jamro217]

Remember, we're dealing with long sound waves that require a relatively massive amount of power to reproduce in rooms whose acoustical properties change throughout the night. We're human, with bodies and ears that tire, play tricks on us, and feel pain. Added to that responsibility is to remain professional while putting on a good show, breaking down the equipment afterwards and still knowing you have to wake up in the morning to life's tedium. Where is there time to worry about your perfect tone? If it's on a recording, absolutely. Live? Just do your best. Hope this helps.

 

[Mastermold]

I feel very lucky that I don't fret too much about my tone. I have a few rules about EQ and roughly how I like things to sound, but I try not to be too fickle about perfecting anything since I learned a long time ago that a different room can change what sounded perfect elsewhere.

Trust the sound person is my big rule. My amp is my monitor. It's up to me to make sure I sound right and play appropriately on stage. It's up to the sound person to make sure I sound right to the crowd. In the studio, it's up to the engineer to make sure I sound good on record.

True I never know on stage how we sound in the audience. We do a sound check but otherwise you're depending on the soundman to EQ everything properly. My amp tone is always set to my liking, however, and I try to make sure I'm happy with the tone I'm hearing on stage. Usually I'm using an SVT-CL and it's hard to get bad tone from that amp.

 

[CapnSev]

3. 96% of the people in the crowd do not care.

I see this come up a lot, and I kinda disagree with that notion. The crowd certainly has little interest in how your mids are set, what string you use, how many different fuzz pedals you have, etc.

Where I think we fail is in the assumption that "the crowd doesn't know any better". The crowd knows if you sound good or bad. They'll always notice when you put time in to sound your best, or sound like the recording they know and love. On the other hand, it's pretty easy for someone to pick out that guy that just doesn't care, plugs in and bangs out some noises that don't fit.

 

[MoeTown1986]

Sure we are! I've found that a jazz bass, 60's style pickups, a GK amp, and some compression is the sound in my head. I actually haven't had gas for almost 3 years. 3 years ago was when I finally got a jazz bass.

 

[klokker]

I used to be pretty cynical about "chasing tone" and thought the quest was a waste of time. Close was good enough. I guess I think differently about it now. If you have a heart at all, I think you want the "perfect tone", the "perfect mix'. But the desire brings with it the painful reality that you never quite get there. So you go after it for so long.........and try not to obsess about it. You have to be happy with less than perfect, that's pretty much how it goes. But you keep after it because if you don't you're just kind of dead. IMO.

 

[mbart203]

I'm always seeking a better tone.
I know equipment makes a difference but what I'm learning from this group is really developing a technique that builds great tone.
I typically use my fingers on my right hand but somewhat recently I really started using a pick more due to the tone I can get from it.
But now I've been going back to fingers more while playing on my Churches worship team.
My toughest thing in this situation is that we use in ear monitors.
I have a rig on stage but can't hear it with my ears in.
During a quick sound check, I heard how the sound guy had me coming through the FOH and it sounded nice. But while playing I only hear whats in my ears. It's not the tone I love but I can't let that stop me.

 

[SteveC]

My toughest thing in this situation is that we use in ear monitors.
I have a rig on stage but can't hear it with my ears in.
During a quick sound check, I heard how the sound guy had me coming through the FOH and it sounded nice. But while playing I only hear whats in my ears. It's not the tone I love but I can't let that stop me.

I don't use an amp at church or in my other band. All DI/IEM. I don't mind the sound in my ears at all really. I have nice buds, I get my own mix that I control from my phone, it's all good. I only use an amp for occasional jazz gigs. I'd like to upgrade my Genz Benz to Genzler, but it's not in the cards right now. Hard to justify it for home practice and 5-6 gigs a year.

 

[mbart203]

I have Westone UM Pro 20 buds and they sound very good.
I just love a good live Sound.
To me it's comparable to driving with the top down on a nice day as compared to having the windows up and the AC on.

 

[ThudThudThud]

It's always an approximation. There are so many things that aren't constant.
Is your tone the same:
* In your house
* In the rehearsal room
* Bass to bass
* Amp to amp
* At sound check (at every venue)
* Once the room has filled (at every venue)
* With string wear
* If other band members have changed their settings
* On different stage platforms
?

Probably not. It's an approximation, so it's barely worth sweating. Get real close, and enjoy yourself.

 

[Ric5]

Isn't this tone thing an endless cycle? Personally, I keep seeking tone nirvana and I'm not sure if there's ever an end to it, and I don't think I'm alone. There are some nights that what I hear is nearly, 'kind of pretty close' to what's in my head, but more times than not, the room doesn't cooperate. There is ONE place I've played where I live that actually makes my bass sound ALMOST exactly what I want it to sound but still, I feel there's something missing. I can't even describe what's missing most of the time, but that's what makes this endless 'holy grail tone' thing an endless search. Couple that with all these descriptions of tone bass players tend to use, such as 'grunt' 'punch', 'tight', 'tubey', etc. and I go into a tailspin trying to figure out what gadget, amp, cab, string, is going to get me "closer".

I also feel that, of all instruments in a typical cover band, the bass is the hardest to get a good tone from, only slightly rivaled by getting a good kick tone, but bass is definitely harder.
I might be saying this because I'm not a guitar player, but in my mind they can easily get a pretty decent tone with most any well-repected amp-speaker setup.
I wish I had the chance to take 3 amps and/or 3 cabs to a gig to compare through the night.
It's frustrating because music stores typically have very few brands/models to choose from in stock and even if you try them out in a store, that's nowhere near how they'll sound on a gig.
Now I see why so many people are trading in the classifieds. Youtube videos don't seem to help, either.
Guess I'm going to exercise the 'if you don't like it, send it back' option some online retailers offer. I never have done this because I feel like if I try something and send it back, it's typically USED, right? And the retailer takes a hit, right or wrong?

Maybe this search for tone is part of the journey, and I should just enjoy the trip rather than find the destination.

Yes the tone search is never ending ... but sometimes we have to back to a good tone from the past ....

Here is a good tone I generated on a recording about 12 years ago. Equipment used - Rickenbacker 5 string, Ampeg b2r bass head, bass cab my own DIY with eminence 10s, Line6 bass pod. Recorded from a direct send from the pa mixer board, all instruments miked.

 

[Phud]

Totally agree with what @two fingers just said. The quest for tone can be a futile one, since most times you're at the mercy of the sound guy in terms of how you'll sound to the audience. You kinda have to accept that you're never going to sound your definition of "perfect" depending on the room and/or the backline provided: You just have to find something that works for you and roll with it.

That last bit can be fun, too. I rehearse and gig with widely different amps (I own a PJB amp/cab that I gig with, rehearsal studio has GK, Ampeg, Hartke, Eden and Orange gear depending on the room we're in). My playing will change a bit depending on the rig I'm playing through. It can be a bit of a game: "Ok, so that's what I'm working with tonight: Now let's see if I can tweak my playing to take advantage of the signature sound of this rig and still sound like me!"

Either way The sound is at the mercy of the sound technician at live gigs.

 

[monsterthompson]

I'm pretty satisfied with my tone. That said, I mostly play DI or practice at home, so I have a lot of control over my environment. I've also been through several basses, amps, and pedals. I now have a flexible collection of essentials, which affords me the opportunity to tweak a few knobs and get what I'm after.

I do remember always feeling like it was a struggle for my live sound, back when I gigged more, to be consistent from room to room or gig to gig. I mainly gigged with a band that had a sometimes-keyboardist. On gigs with her, I had to change my sound from the gigs without her.

All part of the fun of playing live, I suppose

 

[fhm555]

Just one schlub's opinion, but i've never been obsessed with a "signature" or "perfect" tone. Far too many variables to line up, not the least of which is serving the song if i am covering some previously recorded work, or multiple examples in a single outing. I set my stuff up, and give it a little tweak if it's too far in any one direction, then ask my band mates what they think. It's very rare for one of them to say anything but "it's fine".

I do tend to set up with the most boom occuring when i'm playing over the neck. Then if i need more mids or highs i just move closer to whichever pickup i need to for the desired result.

 

[lz4005]

i used to chase tone. i became a better player when i started chasing overall competence and execution. miraculously, my tone improved.

1000x this.

Playing better makes you sound better.

The "perfect tone" doesn't lock you in with the drummer. Or make you play the right notes.

 

[Stewie]

I'm either on a fretted Fender, a fretless Fender or most of the time on an upright. Half the time I play through someone else's amp. I just want it loud enough. I'll roll off the bass if it is too boomy. On my own gear, all the knobs are at noon. I spent too much time and money chasing a sound. Since I switched to upright, all I care is "is it loud enough?"

 

[ThunderFox]

With bass, I can usually find the tone I like fairly easily, the only problems I have are usually to do with being too muddy or lacking too much low end. I struggle more with guitar. Though I think the perfect tone is to do with both, if you know what I mean.

I remember listening to one of my favourite songs and thinking, I want that tone, that's the tone in my head that I always wanted. My amps were fairly similar, only by coincidence. Marshall set up with a Les Paul. No matter how hard I tried, i could never get it right, close, but never close enough.

Years later, I was practicing with my bass, and was going to play this song. I found a studio isolated track on the internet which I was going to practice with. Just with the guitar. I heard it, but it didn't sound right to me. It didn't sound as good as I remembered. I thought to myself, this could be someone else playing the track who hadn't got the tone right. So I looked for an "inside the studio" video for some footage of them recording. The sound was the same. Too trebley, not enough lower end.

It then hit me when I played my bass with the track. The bass was the missing piece. The whole time, the bass had been accompanying the guitar to make it sound better. It was the two in unison that made the tone I liked, which I thought was the guitar on its own. Thats why I never found the tone I wanted. The bass is what I was not taking into account.

In my opinion, from this experience and from setting up my friends rig, is that the tone you hear of an instrument on its own may not lead to the overall tone you want as a band. Plus, what other members of your band consider to be their "perfect tone" may clash with yours, making the whole band sound bad. The perfect tone doesn't exist. We all have our own opinions, some have the same opinion, but no one is correct, and no one ever will be.

You can always sound better overall, regardless of styles and genre, by brushing up you playing, buying new gear, experimenting with different settings from your rig, etc. You may find your dream sound, but there will never be that one tone that everyone guaranteed will like. Just like everyone has their favourite genre of music, or favourite film, or favourite food, others will probably go against your judgement, some more than others.

This is the never ending topic of the musician, the search for the ultimate sound, is that which will never be found.