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Beefing up the P or J sound, advise needed...

Bright Midnight

Bright Midnight

Oct 5, 2010
1,264
1,232
Belgium, Flanders
#1
Hey guys,

Years ago I played an American Precision at a local music shop, played nicely, sounded good. At some point during playing I used an effect of which I cannot recall the name, and I'm looking for it. The effect seemed to 'widen' and 'deepen' the dry sound of the P-bass. As if instead of a split coil pup I was now playing with a humbucker. The p-bass sound transformed into something bigger, fuller, just way better. There wasn't any distortion or so, and it wasn't a compressor, nor any type of chorus or flanger or so....I just can't remember what it was.....

Point is that I'm looking at buying a Fender Jazz fretless, love the sound. Yet I also want the bass to have that 'big wide' sound if I feel like it, and that effect I once used would do just that...

Any ideas or suggestions? ;-)
 
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#3
It doesn't "widen" the P bass, but I found the good old Dimarzio Model P emphasizes midrange frequencies in a very rude and thick way, making it both sound clankier and more substantial and less "polite". Especially when used with some amp or pedal drive(or both!)

I recently built a thin-sanded, hard maple bodied P bass that is already pretty bright, threw a set of ancient rounds I had lying around on it, and did a comparison between the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder(which also sounds great) and the Dimarzio Model P. I woudn't have bought the Dimarzio, except I thought the Duncan was dead - it was a cold solder right at the pickup. I fixed it but decided to try both to see which I was going to keep on the bass. I like metallic clanky tones so I figured the QP was going to stay, and the Model P would be much duller. I wound up being wrong about how I felt after hearing them. I felt the Dimarzio did something cool to the mids.

I know you're looking for an effect, but I felt this may be relevant. I felt the Duncan sounded smoother, whereas the Dimarzio had more attitude/attack.




 
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#4
Bright Midnight said:
Hey guys,

Years ago I played an American Precision at a local music shop, played nicely, sounded good. At some point during playing I used an effect of which I cannot recall the name, and I'm looking for it. The effect seemed to 'widen' and 'deepen' the dry sound of the P-bass. As if instead of a split coil pup I was now playing with a humbucker. The p-bass sound transformed into something bigger, fuller, just way better. There wasn't any distortion or so, and it wasn't a compressor, nor any type of chorus or flanger or so....I just can't remember what it was.....

Point is that I'm looking at buying a Fender Jazz fretless, love the sound. Yet I also want the bass to have that 'big wide' sound if I feel like it, and that effect I once used would do just that...

Any ideas or suggestions? ;-)
Click to expand...

Hmm, thinking further maybe that bass you played had a series/parallel switch and you started in parallel, which sounds a bit thinner?
 
#7
First thing I reach for with fretless is ... chorus and/or reverb. Generally I don't like Reverb or delay on bass but a touch on fretless can be very Pino'ish. And really, fretless sounds a lot more fat anyway. Just due to your finger and the fretboard.

I have no idea what you played through back in the day. I'm guessing it was something built into the amp. Like GK Contour or Eden Enhance. SWR had something similar as I recall. Variable scoops are popular simply because the bass sounds more full.

I gigged a long time using a rack mount parametric eq as my preamp. It was fat and wide based on a gentle boost in the lows a slight and broad shallow cut to the mids, a little emphasis at 1.5k and a roll off to nothing at about 5k. That was my blues and roots tone for a long time.

These days I'm back to amps and it is either the Mesa Subway Voice or GK Contour controls.
 
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#9
Easiest would be to install a preamp. I like Audere's preamps for jBs because they offer a drop in package that doesn't require any woodworking or modifications to your bass. But there are other equally good preamps out there.

I've got an Audere 4-band in my JB and the sound I get from it is massive.
 
#11
@OP, my guess is that you were playing through a pre-amp pedal. There's a number of them out there and a search on Talkbass will find you many threads discussing them. When I play my passive Ps or Js I always run through an MXR81, which has a 3 band EQ and a few frequency/ boost options. If I want a high gain, aggressive tone while using a passive bass, I just starting using an Echoplex preamp pedal by Dunlop. Technically they're guitar pedals, but I just really like how it sounds on bass. Like I said, there are a lot of options out there... have fun!
 
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#12
ehx-knockout-001.jpg
 
#13
Jrussblues said:
It was probably some sort of preamp. There are a bunch of options out there. Search for bass preamp pedal on YouTube. Hope that at least gets you pointed in the right direction.
Click to expand...

This. I do something similar with my Precision. It has a ton of low end and low output. So the pre-amp cuts the low, raises the level and adds a bit of drive and compression.
 
#18
Bright Midnight said:
Hey guys,

Years ago I played an American Precision at a local music shop, played nicely, sounded good. At some point during playing I used an effect of which I cannot recall the name, and I'm looking for it. The effect seemed to 'widen' and 'deepen' the dry sound of the P-bass. As if instead of a split coil pup I was now playing with a humbucker. The p-bass sound transformed into something bigger, fuller, just way better. There wasn't any distortion or so, and it wasn't a compressor, nor any type of chorus or flanger or so....I just can't remember what it was.....

Point is that I'm looking at buying a Fender Jazz fretless, love the sound. Yet I also want the bass to have that 'big wide' sound if I feel like it, and that effect I once used would do just that...

Any ideas or suggestions? ;-)
Click to expand...
A split is a humbucker. Ha.

But, I'd say the ampeg ultra low button would get that effect.
 
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