Basses that have that have a good tonal variety.

G&l L-2000? Tons o' tone, and it probably can get that hollow sound. I think I have made that sound before on mine.

 

+1 for G&L

Im a big fan of active/passive switches w/ EMG pups, the TW series i belive has coil taps, so you can get just about any sound out of them.

Alot of your tone is in the pups : /

 

Try a precision?

 

i love my p bass.....but not exactly what i call a variety of sounds bass : )

If your feeling the sound is hollow....a P bass might be in order, nothing like a big thump sound of a P

 

This is gonna sound weird, coming from an outspoken Line6 Variax fanatic, but tonal variety is in your fingers

There are two kinds of versatility: a bass that can do a lot of different tones, and a P bass. A P bass may only have "one" sound, but despite that, they are great for slap/funk, thuddy Motown, punk, classic rock, even metal.

I'll tell ya, the more basses I try out, the more I realize that the bass you have doesn't matter that much. I'd say technique is probably 70% of tone, the amp/cab 12%, the bass 8%, and strings, pickups, body wood, bridge mass, finish type, etc the rest. Of course, if you're talking about the difference between flats & rounds, that will be a bigger difference, and I'm only talking about a clean tone - effects will obviously have a huge effect on the tone, depending on what you're going for.

But, really, it is in your fingers. Something I would recommend to all bassists is to take some classical guitar lessons (really). You learn so much about how to get different sounds just by adjusting your technique slightly, and there really is a lot that you can do without changing your bass.

If you're set on trying something new, my advice is just to play as MANY basses as you can. Based on what you posted, a Jazz, Precision, Warwick/Ibanez, Stingray/Bongo, etc could all work for you with great results. Try 'em out and let us know what you think.

 

sush : P

 

i know you probably wont believe me, but i have $.02 in front of me and i feel like spending it.

A BC Rich NJ (or now NT) series bass... im not joking with you... but you have to try one probably before you believe it... active double p pickups - just bass and treble for eq but its enough when you start playing with the blend... it lets you change the tone as much as you can on the bass itself, then i have to agree its all in the fingers

 

Free for all to point and laugh but right now Im loving the variation in tone I get from my Ibanez BTB. string spacing is about 18 19 mm I think and that may take a little getting used to at first if you've only played with narrower spacings.

Thats my say and now I'll go away

 

There is a certain "it's in the fingers" element, but part of it is having a flexible rig to work with your fingers. I tend not to worry about a bass that will work in every single environment, mostly because I have a decent assortment of stuff.

Anyway, one way to stay flexible is to make sure your tone CAN change. If you get a bass that's too bass or treble heavy, there's not much you can do to get the bass to offer you different tones. Your amp needs to allow different tones, too. If you expect to get lots of high end out of an old tube amp with 15" speakers, probably doesn't happen. If you want warm lows with a solid state amp sent to 8x10s, not gonna happen.

 

Anyone who's seen my posts knows I pimp the Lakland flag wherever I possibly can. Versatility is one of the main reasons I do so. The 02 and 94 series Laklands are what I like to call Leo Fender's Greatest Hits. The pickup selectability and blend options alone (much more with the 3 band eq) make this bass formidalble in many different arenas. I does a fairly convincing J, P and Stingray (if you mess around with the coil taps and blend knobs enough). It's not exact but pretty darn close, and I believe it gets closer to those sounds than any other bass does and it has a sound all it's own that I personally dig even more.

 

Check out this thread. Check put the pic in post #66.


There's this thread too.

I like the idea of a MM pup mixed in with a P/J [J in 70's position].