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Best bass for gigging Top 40

A

Audiojorge75

Mar 3, 2007
3
0
#1
Hi Guys,

Ill soon join a band to play some top 40 on corporate events and i'd like to know about your opinions on what could be the best bass for gigging that kind of material. I believe the most tones im able to reproduce out of the bass the better it'll be, also id like a fairly fast action neck.
I see lots of top 40 bands going for either the Fender Jazz bass or the Stingray. Based on that perception i thought about the Stingray or the Geddy Lee, but id like to know your thoughts about it. The choice of good basses if extremely large.
Also, theres a Warwick Thumb BO used at 1k bucks near where i am and, judging by the reviews, the spectrum of tone you can get out of it is extremely broad and usable however the reviews also say that the "neck dive" is awful. Aside from that, this bass seems quite interesting, anybody out there has tried it? What would be the best bass to play some popular top 40 songs ?
 
#2
First and foremost, it's the bass you wouldn't mind dinging up since that does and will happen.

For top 40 songs you'll have to cover a lot of sonic territory, so I'm guessing that a bass with an active preamp will be of help so you can make quick and precise EQ adjustments on the fly depending on what a song requires.

Next is playability and that's determined by you. Play what feels the best and you'll have YOUR bass.
 
#3
That's a hard question to answer, but my choice is a Precision bass. I can get a wide variety of tones from it. My amp helps too (TC Electronic), it has a "tube effect" if I want to dial in a little 60's distortion vibe. Works for me, but everyone has their own tastes, so beware the dogma. :D
 
#4
I am 51 and still a very active East coast freelancer. I have to play a really wide variety of things (Broadway, road tours, pit orchestras & classical work) and have done so for many years. I am no stranger ( although I am stranger than most) to top 40 "GB" type gigs. And by the way, these usually mean Top 40 from the 60's - 70's - and 80's in my experience.

After a lot of experimentation, I have gone back to Precisions. They cover it all and do it quite well. I get complaints when the P bass isn't there from more than a few contractors and I have have had several different basses at some of these gigs. Invariably, after the director, conductor, tour director, band leader has heard a few of them, I will get the nod of approval when the P is being played. It just works. I don't even bother bringing another electric to the gig anymore. I already know what the choice guys writing the check will make.
 
#11
any bass with a regular p bass pickup and common woods will do. A preamp is ok, alder is probably better than ash, maple neck and probably better to have rosewood than maple fretboard. It doesn't have to be a fender, but if it's a precision copy it will be just fine. What I mean by regular pickups is common ones that appear like fenders... all the cheap p pickups are even pretty good because they are humcancelling by design.
 
#13
Agree with P bass or 44-02 (although I was going to say 55-94 - 3 or 4 different useable tones available, plus the low B or ability to play alt tuning without re-tuning).

Roscoe's are fairly versatile as are Sadowsky's and Elricks
 
#14
A vote for a good P/J if you're gonna be covering funky or slappy stuff. I'm a huge fan of passive P/J's wired V/V/T, which can provide a huge range of tonal variation and cover the 1960's through today...without your battery ever crapping out.

And the guy above who said that "Top 40" means the cherished top 40 hits over the decades is so, so right. I've never done corporates as a bassist, but did plenty of them as a trombonist back in the day, and now sometimes attend them as a suit...you need to be able to cover the range from Motown to today, white, purple, green, black, whatever. Some guys can do that with the Jazz Bass, but to my ears P/J almost always works better.

Of course, you should also consider a 5-string, which may give you more range on covering pop tunes from the "80's on, but it also limits your good P/J choices. This perhaps points you toward Lakland 55-94 or 55-02, which emulate (but to my ear, do not nail) a range of Fender/MM sounds. However, in this context I think that if you are close on tone, your ability to groove the tunes will far outweigh any quibbles over tonal fidelity to the originals.
 
#16
Arguable either a precision or jazz will cover all your needs for a top 40 gigging band, i have seen some top 40's gig with warwick, spector, and ernie ball too. Those makes worked well too. If you need to go the active route a american deluxe jazz or ernie ball stingray/sterling should cover all your needs as well.
 
#19
BuffaloBass said:
I put an Audere pre in one of my J5s for exactly this scenario. It'll cop anything include old skool single coil P.

I might recommend an inexpensive Squier VM J and an Audere. What basses do you own now?
Click to expand...

Hi Buffalo Bass,

The best bass i own right now is an Ibanez SRX 300 i use it with a Sans Amp Bass Driver DI, the pickups are active but i find that the low E easily "farts" (and sounds awful when it does). I have to be careful with the volume and how hard i play on that string. Since i've never owned a bass that was more than in the 400-500 price range i was thinking about taking advantage of this occasion (paying gigs) to invest a little more in music equipment.
Ill check out your interesting proposition BuffaloBass ill also take a serious try out of several P-Basses at music stores nearby!

Thank you very much all for the great, very timely feedback!!
 

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