Best Cover Band Bass?

[Mike Cherry]

Playing in a cover bands sometimes requires a good bass to play different genres of music..

I you can use only one, which bass is more versatile to play in a cover band?

 

[Sean Riddle]

Try posting in the electric bass side, you'll have plenty of answers there!

 

[Bisounourse]

Well, a ply, hybrid or fully carved in 3/4 measurement will do...

 

[jasonrp]

I say plywood. Who's gonna do the chuck berry with a Fully carved?

ALCOAs are best for metal

 

[keiranohara]

Paul's Hatchez bass sounds great when the Punch Brothers do a cover.

 

[MrMerrey]

Dingwall wasn't an option so Ibanez gets my vote. When my BTB was my main I could get any tone I needed out of that.

 

[Dave Bassincus]

Jazz: wide variety of tone, used in many different styles of music, industry standard, engineers and band leaders love them.

 

[Gaolee]

Carrots:

Whatever you want to play. People who listen to cover bands probably don't know the difference anyway. I have played a Thunderbird, Ric, P, EB-2, EB, and a Japanese hollowbody in a cover band. Sometimes I change basses from one set or one gig to the next, but it's just for my own amusement. Nobody in the audience notices.

 

[hrodbert696]

Which models of Warwick, Ibanez, or Yamaha? They vary. And where are the options for "other" and "carrots?" Those are important, darn it!

Carrots:

Whatever you want to play. People who listen to cover bands probably don't know the difference anyway. I have played a Thunderbird, Ric, P, EB-2, EB, and a Japanese hollowbody in a cover band. Sometimes I change basses from one set or one gig to the next, but it's just for my own amusement. Nobody in the audience notices.

This.

Still, OK, what the heck. A P sounds like a P, period. A Rick sounds like a Rick, period. You don't buy those for versatility, you buy them because you want to sound like a P or like a Rick. Warwick and Ibanez, when I think of most of their models, have a couple of pickups, usually humbuckers or soapbars, and active EQ, so I imagine they're pretty versatile. I don't play them, though, so I'm going to ignore them. That leaves Fender J and Yamaha. Yamaha is a company, not a model, so which ones did you mean? The new TRBX series seems like it's made for versatility, so that's probably a good choice. But I don't play those either. I do play a Yammie BB415, which is a great bass. It's P/J and the three-way switch means you can genuinely isolate the P pickup for P bass tone if you want, which a lot of P/Js can't. Of the various basses I own, if I had to pick just one to be a swiss-army-knife bass, that would probably be the one. So I'll vote Yamaha.

 

[LowEZ]

People who listen to cover bands probably don't know the difference anyway.

Heck my band members don't know the difference! 6 different basses, 7 band members and the only comment I ever received was from one of the vocalists who thought one of the basses was pretty.

 

[Gaolee]

Heck my band members don't know the difference! 6 different basses, 7 band members and the only comment I ever received was from one of the vocalists who thought one of the basses was pretty.

I have had two comments - one from the BL who was happy when the Ric made its first appearance. He likes Rics, but I'm not sure he noticed the difference in sound between it and the P. He notices when I hit a sour note, but bass tone? He plays a Line 6 guitar. 'Nuff said.

The other comment was from a singer who thought the Gibson EB (2013 model) was beautiful. I like the EB a whole lot, but beautiful is the last thing I would ever accuse it of. So, that's all you need to know about the relationship the rest of the world has with bass guitars.

They do seem to know the difference between an upright and a bass guitar. Or most of 'em seem to. I wouldn't bet too much on it being universal.

 

[Baird6869]

My Fodera sounds great in my rock cover band but they ain't cheap. Unbelievably versitile.

As above, most comments I get are that it sounds great and looks pretty, but never comments like "you nailed Flea's Modulus tone" or "perfect P bass tone on the Eagles", etc.

 

[alembicguy]

Cirrus or an Alembic. Didn't see them on the vote. My preference.

 

[hrodbert696]

Heck my band members don't know the difference! 6 different basses, 7 band members and the only comment I ever received was from one of the vocalists who thought one of the basses was pretty.

I've heard opinions about my bass tone from band members - always guitarists with the opinions. Play in a couple of cover bands and of course they all disagree (180 degrees from each other) about which of my basses sounds best.

 

[Charley Umbria]

Thirteen replies and no one's suggested a T-40? Slackers...

 

[moody]

Scued poll. I vote for the whole brand yamaha just because I used to play one in a cover band. It was a five string active jazz but I removed the balance control so a fair amount of versatility was lost. I then proceeded to find one sound and use that sound for the whole evening. Conclusion? You don't really need that much versatility in a cover band.

 

[gfaulkner]

US Peavey Millennium+ with a J/MM pick up configuration.I have played standards from the 40's to current pop on this bass,and it can cop a lot of sounds.

 

[hrodbert696]

Scued poll. I vote for the whole brand yamaha just because I used to play one in a cover band. It was a five string active jazz but I removed the balance control so a fair amount of versatility was lost. I then proceeded to find one sound and use that sound for the whole evening. Conclusion? You don't really need that much versatility in a cover band.

And if you don't really need versatility in a cover band, you don't need versatility in any band. It's been pointed out that often the pros have smaller collections of basses than weekend warriors; they often have one main bass that is "their sound" for their original music, and don't really need a stable of different basses to get different sounds, nor for their #1 to be versatile. For me, I'll usually only play one bass on any given cover gig; I make some tweaks on the bass itself for different songs, and some others on the pedalboard to get the sound I want for particular songs. But for the most part, as far as the audience is concerned, if it sounds like bass, it sounds like bass, and that's all they care about (if that).

 

[lfmn16]

Best cover band bass? Whatever bass you want. No one cares but you.

 

[Stevorebob]

The bass you like and the bass you have. Otherwise, carrots.