Bass or Amp - which affects sound more?

[InhumanResource]

In the never-ending quest for "the" sound, which component plays the larger role, the bass or the amp & cabinet?

I find myself often thinking of the bass as the main component with the amp playing a supporting role, but I wonder....

What do you think?

And would the answer be different if this was in the Amps & Cabs forum?

The only conclusion I can draw logically is "equal partners." I'll explain.

There is a wide, wide, totally subjective range of what sounds "good" and "bad" and what causes those things. The player, the equipment, their tastes, so on and so forth. There's also a wide, wide range of gear and what sounds good. I like Ampeg. There's super high end stuff I've hated, and junky old stuff like those ancient Peavey keyboard amps that I can actually get a usable tone out of. Vice versa, too.

I have to land on the bass and the amp being equal partners. They both have to be "good enough" (as in, not total junk but maybe not an Epifani rig and a Wal) both for the application and for the player to get their voice out so to speak. I think that "good enough" can be a lot of different things from cheapy Squiers or Ibanez and old Peavey amps or some other inexpensive amp and axe setup. Just as long as they are "good enough" to be used in whatever the situation is, someone out to make them sound nice. If you can go higher end at one day, great. If not, it's ok. What you are working with is good enough (until or unless it isn't).

 

[tattooSAM]

Not to be OCD about the whole thing, I kind of go with this thought process.

Bass "tone" is from:
1) The player
2) Preamp/pedals
3) Bass
4) Cabinet and speaker selection
5) Power amp
6) All the other stuff (i.e.room acoustics/strings)

In that order. These are subject to change depending on the rig.

 

[BrianVengeance]

Mu. A clean amp will affect the sound less than a colored amp, and the bass will only ever sound like itself.

I’ll take a great performance over great gear any day.

 

[tlc1976]

I've never had anything high end, but I've had crappy basses/amps and midgrade basses/amps.

IMO even a crappy bass can sound decent through a good amp, if you're a decent player and know the bass and it's shortcomings. Also the bass can often be tweaked for cheap or free to make it play or sound better. And in a band setting, it might be even less noticeable.

With a crappy amp, even a great bass played by a great player will sound like crap. Probably even worse during a band setting when you need the extra oomph. And there's usually little or nothing you can do to the amp to make it sound better for cheap or free. It is what it is. Not much choice but to just get a better amp.

 

[5StringBlues]

We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!

 

[Gizmot]

Conventional wisdom is that your system is only as good as its weakest part. However, I learned decades ago that you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken you know what.

In my experience, the amp is the difference maker. As others have said you can take a mediocre bass, play it through a good amp and get decent results. I try to use good instruments and amps in order to have a great sound.

 

[LT131]

Amp first. Beer second.

If you have enough of both you will sound great.

To you.

 

[Emanuel Apascaritei]

Well, if the combo amo & bass is your sound than both. But I use my amp as a monitor basically so I pretty much go towards the right election of the bass for my sound.

 

[jaybones]

Speaker.

You could run the highest quality pro rig (boutique bass, best strings, technique, effects and amp) into a 4" speaker, and (provided the speaker didn't blow up) it would sound like crap.

Guitar analogy, if you took Jimi and plugged him into a Pignose he'd sound like Jimi playing through a Pignose (not that they're all that bad. Frank Zappa played a TV set where he only used one, mic'ed well for sure, and it sounded amazing).

 

[bassboysam]

the real difference maker is the cab.

 

[SteveCS]

My epiphany came when I tried and eventually bought my Genz-Benz Shuttle. Through this amp I could hear every nuance of my bass. All of the subtleties of blends and tone settings, of hand position and dynamics. I played a number of different basses through the amp and the character of each was clear. Through my previous Ashdown amp, although I thought I could distinguish such things, the reality was that they all somehow still sounded the same and that this 'saminess' was down to the amp. So for me, if the amp is a 'character' or 'legendary tone' amp, then that character will tend to dominate whatever bass is plugged in, but if the amp is a modern flat amp like the Genz or Bergantino then all you hear is the bass.

 

[chaak]

the amplifier

 

[AshInAmsterdam]

For guitar I’d certainly go for a better amp before a better guitar.

Bass however, the instrument seems to have a much bigger effect on the sound.

 

[Ant Illington]

I agree with the reply that suggests the OP might not be being interpreted not as he intended (as many others have said, THAT question has been asked and answered 1000 times).

Even with my interpretation and conclusion, I'm sure this won't be settled so this is all just a fun exercise.

How many of you blindly walking into a room can listen to a series of basses and amps and say "that's a Mesa amp" or that's a GK amp" and on and on?

Now, how many of you can walk blindly into a room and listen to a series of basses and amps and say "that's a p bass" or "that's a Stingray" and on and on. One can eq a Stingray or P many ways and they will still be quite identifiable as a Stingray or P. The bass beats the amp in this case. Probably the same with Spector and possibly Jazz- and probably other basses I don't know so well. They tend to have distinct basic sound qualities that will show through a lot of tone shaping. Bass wins if measured this way, the practical way.

Yes, tweaking an amp can radically change the sound of a bass and impact sound "more" but many certain basses will have a baked in sound that transcends anything but extreme eq. I daresay one would find it near impossible to identify which amp is which when one starts messing w eq relatively little.

Just my different angle on it. If we boil things down to pick up placements and innards of amps such as capacitors and resistor or whatever gives amps their baked in sound, certain amp geeks may be able to identify an amp even if eq'ing it weirdly but...

This can be sliced a million ways... So thanks just my 2 cents from a different angle.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

I am in the everything counts camp,
from the first thought of what you will play to the density of the air your speaker will move,
it all counts.
Between the two choices, I'd say amp and speaker.
If they can't reproduce what the bass has to offer,
what's the point of having a better bass?
I have also heard a good amp bring out tone that I never knew a cheap bass had.

 

[Gasman]

Yin and yang. We tend to think it's more instrument because we physically hold it, but I can tell you the same bass will sound quite different through different amps. Two sides of the same coin. FWIW I would spend more on the amp given a fixed budget.

 

[Figjam]

diminishing returns at certain points

Quality of pickups/bass, not important

Type (P, jazz, etc) of pickup, important.

Type of amp (solid state, tube, EQ) important

Quality of amp, not as much. As long as its working.

Type and quality of speaker and cab dimensions; very important.

 

[Figjam]

the real difference maker is the cab.

Cab is so important. My bass setup sounds like poopie through a bad cab and amazing through my Peavey 215D.

 

[Super Bass]

I personally try and use the best of everything. From my bass, cords, amps and even the power cable!

 

[sawzalot]

I might be misinterpreting the intent of the question. There’s no way an amp is going to make a p-bass sound like a jazz with both pickups turned up or a Gibson thunderbird sound like a musicman stingray. There are characteristics of the bass that drive its fundamental tone that the amp simply makes louder, some better than others. So it’s primarily the bass that’s important.