I feel like I'm in a rut where across 3 different basses (P-Bass, Rickenbacker, Stingray) with 4 different sets of strings, and across the two bass amps I own, I can never quite get an E string tone that maintains clarity and volume while getting thump. It's as the ADG strings all have a punch that noticeably goes away or is lessened the minute I got that lowest string.
The ONLY exception seems to be the E-string on my 5 string Ibanez ATK bass. For some reason there's no issues at all with that.
So what bass+string+amp combos have people used to get that clear, punchy E sound that balances well with the other 3 strings?
I play a 1982 Jazz with an all-maple neck and 70's Pickup spacing of 4" center to center. I bought it in mint condition in 1985. Prior to that I played a 1965 Jazz that I bought in 1966, but it was stolen along with all my touring gear in 1976. I played flatwounds on my 65 until late 1971 when I switched to Fender black nylon tape wound. The tapes were darker sounding than the flats back then. That worked well for the era.
When I bought my '82 Jazz in 1985, it had Dean Markely Blue Steel round wound strings on it. It was a much punchier and more percussive sound that the flats or tapes I'd used before. I replaced them a couple of times with the same strings. The balance between strings was not that good and you really wanted to avoid playing the lower 4-frets on the D and G strings. So I'd play those notes up higher on the previous string. Then. I replaced them with some DR Black Beauty strings (round wounds). The balance was a little better from string to string but I still avoided the lower 4-frets on the D and G strings. Granted, I was gigging a lot, but my Black Beauty Strings tuned into my Speckled Gray Ugly strings long before the strings wore out. After looking around a bit and watching various video comparisons, I decided to try a set of the LaBella White Tape Wound Strings. Bought those here on the TB market and absolutely love those strings.
LaBella makes 4 different sounding tape wounds now. The black tape wounds are the darkest/warmest sounding; the white tapes are the brightest sounding; and the white with gold core and white with copper core somewhere in between the two. The white tapes are semi-opaque and you can pretty easily discern the color of the core. The whites sound closer to the round wounds in that they have a lot of the higher harmonics that round wound have. Additionally, and a really big feature of them, they are really nicely balanced from string to string. If I'm playing and octave E or and octave A, I no longer have to move up to the 7th fret of the A and D strings. I can easily play them down on the second fret of the D and G strings. So I no longer avoid those lower 4-frets on the D and G strings and just play those notes wherever it is most convenient to fret them from my current hand position. I count this as a big plus and I love the sound I get out of them.
I'll play my current Jazz through three different amps as well as a DI with preamp and get the same sound out of all of them. It helps that all three were designed by David Nordschow (founder of Eden and DNA). For small venues, I'll use my Eden TN226 amp which is class D (4.7-lbs.) with 225-watts rms into 4Ω. That's my small venue amp and I match that with an Eden EX-112 cab. It gives me great, full sound for small venues. For most of my gigs, I'll used my DNA-800 amp (400 watts into 8Ω, 800-watts into 4Ω or 2Ω) into my DNS-210 by DNA. That 8Ω 210 cab handles 700-watts rms and putting a max or 400-watts into it will fill almost all indoor venues medium and large. If it's a long room, I may bring in my 8Ω DNS-410 cab (handles 1400-watts) for the extra decibels.
I'll also run that DNA-800 amp into my DNS-410 cab for outdoor venues where there are reflective surfaces in the area. For wide open music festivals though, I will break out my Eden WT500/800 and bridge it at 800-watts into my DNS-410. I get told at music festivals to turn down if I run my master up to 10:30, so I'll run it at 10:15 and everyone is happy. Evidently it is putting out too much sound for them to balance well through their FOH systems with my master set at10:30. I don't mind that at all because that means I never have to lug around a 200-lb. 810 cab for those wide open spaces.
On other thing I will use is my WTDI, which is a DI box with built-in Eden WT preamp. If I'm playing an indoors stage that has good monitors and mains, I will leave my amps and cabs at home and plug my WTDI into the snake to the board. Still get that same great sound. If I'm playing a place that has a back line, I'll plug that beauty into the effects in of the back line amp, which bypasses the amp's preamp and uses Eden preamp feeding the back line's power section. It's amazing the different amps that will sound like my Eden gear with that little rascal. I also use that WTDI for recording sessions. With most of my Eden gear I run a flat signal with the exception of a little boost up to 1:30 in the low mids at 250Hz. My WTDI can't address 250Hz because its low mids control is centered at 500Hz. My Jazz sounded so good through that that at a recording session in 2019 after our 3-hour session the sound engineer and the owner of the studio both came out to see what the heck I was using that sounded so good. So I use that for all my recording session now both amateur and pro.
I get great, punchy E-strings sounds out of all those combinations of gear. My '82 Jazz just sounds exceptionally good through all of them.
Here's my '82 Jazz:
This is my small venue rig that fits so nicely in a chair and can be loaded in or out in one trip:
this is my DNA-800 amp that I use for most gigs:
here's my Eden WT500/800 on top of my DNS-210 and DNS-410 cabs:
And lastly my WTDI:
