Better EQing vs. Buying A Different Bass?

[Brad Johnson]

At the moment, nothing can "do it all", other than the $11 SX with the right technique.

Still, a good onboard EQ can have a nice range of tones. Everything? Not hardly.

I know. Guess it's just something else that's not being read.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

I really think what Fuzzbass said about technique is right spot-on. How the bass interfaces with my hands (the feel) is the dominant factor as to whether I'll keep a bass around or not. Playing uncomfortably is a losing proposition.

Better EQ vs, different bass?
I'd change everything else in the BUILDING to accomodate a super-comfy bass... strings, pickups, pots, preamps, effects, amp, speakers.... until I was just 100% sure it was not going to deliver sonically.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Another reason why knowing how to and willing to EQ is so important is because for a lot of us, the sound we're looking for changes over time and that can mean thousands and thousands of dollars spent on basses and mods, only to realize that you should have stuck with a bass you had a long time ago. For me, I started out liking a real bassy sound, then a scooped modern sound, J sound, then a P sound, so on and so forth.

You should learn how to use all of your gear. I would've thought that goes without saying.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I really think what Fuzzbass said about technique is right spot-on. How the bass interfaces with my hands (the feel) is the dominant factor as to whether I'll keep a bass around or not. Playing uncomfortably is a losing proposition.

Better EQ vs, different bass?
I'd change everything else in the BUILDING to accomodate a super-comfy bass... strings, pickups, pots, preamps, effects, amp, speakers.... until I was just 100% sure it was not going to deliver sonically.

A lot of playability issues are easily remedied with setups. Yet look at how many are clueless about that.

You can go through life hoping to find a bass that feels right that also happens to be set up to your liking but that severely narrows the field IMO.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

...of course. They don't have to come pre-set to my liking.

But once I get one that melts into my hands (whether it did out of the box or got tweaked into that state, it doesn't matter)... everything else in the signal chain becomes a little more expendable to me.

 

[dougjwray]

A lot of playability issues are easily remedied with setups. Yet look at how many are clueless about that.

You can go through life hoping to find a bass that feels right that also happens to be set up to your liking but that severely narrows the field IMO.

Yes, the "proper setup" part should be a given.

And I've played basses that took a long time to get comfortable simply because they sounded good. It's called "getting your chops up." It's also called "learning to get the most out of each instrument." Personally, I'm fascinated by the challenge of doing this.

As far as the role of EQ, it's important to know how to use it to overcome a bad-sounding room, for example. But I belong in the camp of people who maintain that you can't really use it to make the essential timbre of one type of bass sound just like another.

 

[jnammy]

By "knowing how to EQ", I don't simply mean learning how to use all of one's gear, but really knowing how to replicate a sound through EQing. I tried replicating a P sound with humbuckers, but I couldn't quite get it, until I hooked up both my P and humbucker basses simultaneously with the same amp, playing along with the same song.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

That's a GOOD one...Yeah, I love a good A/B switchbox.

 

[Brad Johnson]

...of course. They don't have to come pre-set to my liking.

But once I get one that melts into my hands (whether it did out of the box or got tweaked into that state, it doesn't matter)... everything else in the signal chain becomes a little more expendable to me.

A lot of people don't get that far. If it doesn't melt in the hands right off the bat, on to the next one.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

True, sadly...

 

[spade2you]

A lot of playability issues are easily remedied with setups.

Any SX can be set up to play like or better than a Fedora!

 

[gnjpowell]

Buying a new bass 'cause you don't like the sound of your existing bass is prolly The Best reason for buying a new bass! EQ is but a band-aid. It all starts with the instrument and your technique. If the foundation is not right the rest of the structure will suffer no matter how excellent the materials and workmanship may be... EQ is to compensate for varying acoustic environmental factors.

 

[SteveC]

Another reason why knowing how to and willing to EQ is so important is because for a lot of us, the sound we're looking for changes over time and that can mean thousands and thousands of dollars spent on basses and mods, only to realize that you should have stuck with a bass you had a long time ago.

Ain't that the truth. I am back to thinking I can do what I need/want with a passive 4 string "jazz" type bass and a good amp and maybe a couple pedals - like eq for some tweeking and an octave to fill out some bottom in a couple tunes when I don't have a low B.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Any SX can be set up to play like or better than a Fedora!

Melville would be proud.

 

[Fuzzbass]

Buying a new bass 'cause you don't like the sound of your existing bass is prolly The Best reason for buying a new bass!

"Best reason"? I disagree with your priorities. Would you prefer a bass that sounded great but played like crap?

EQ is but a band-aid. It all starts with the instrument and your technique. If the foundation is not right the rest of the structure will suffer no matter how excellent the materials and workmanship may be...

I would argue that the foundation is playability. If playability is good and overall quality is reasonable, then it's unlikely that the instrument will sound truly awful. A more common real-world scenario is a bass that plays great but sounds kind of blah. In this case it would be frivolous to discard the comfortable bass for tone alone without first seeing if other kinds of tweaking made it sound better: replacement pickups (relatively cheap), different strings (cheaper still), different EQ settings (free, if you own an amp).

EQ is to compensate for varying acoustic environmental factors.

That's your arbitrary limitation. EQ is used for many reasons, variety being just one. I'm delighted with the tone and playability of my basses, but I also like tonal variety. Tweaking both EQ and technique provides more tonal variety than either method alone.

Along with technique and EQ I like to keep tapes or flats on one bass, and sometimes use overdrive. Other folks use effects, nothing wrong with that either.

 

[Korladis]

I really think what Fuzzbass said about technique is right spot-on. How the bass interfaces with my hands (the feel) is the dominant factor as to whether I'll keep a bass around or not. Playing uncomfortably is a losing proposition.

Better EQ vs, different bass?
I'd change everything else in the BUILDING to accomodate a super-comfy bass... strings, pickups, pots, preamps, effects, amp, speakers.... until I was just 100% sure it was not going to deliver sonically.

Pretty much agree. Many things in a bass and its rig can be changed. How the bass feels to play is the most difficult of all these to change. If a bass feels perfect in my hands, I'd also try to make everything else work with that bass.

 

[Korladis]

But only in the same way you can make a Jazz mimic a P by favoring (or soloing) the neck pickup... No really P...

Sounds the same to me. Especially with my amp set how I like it. Grindy rock tone. Easy.

 

[Korladis]

That might only be true for heavy fuzz or a synth pedal, either of which can, at the extreme end, disguise tone and squash dynamics. Few bassists go that far.

Indeed. I have a distortion pedal, but I don't use it for the regular sound I have about 90% of the time.

That's wise enough. Everything between your brain and the sound waves you generate is part of your instrument. The differences in opinion are in how we use each component to get the sound waves we desire. "Flat" is fine, coloration is fine.

Certainly. My amp is set nowhere near flat. It sounds all right set flat, but it works great driven and with the mids cranked up.

The school of thought that pursues as transparent an amplifier as possible is okay, too, but I prefer my method.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

When I was young and poor, I did everything from cover bands to theatre work to prog rock to jazz trios, with one bass- a '64 P-bass.

I guess I was able to do it because nobody told me I couldn't. It probably helped that I noticed how little MacCartney's tone changed, when he switched from a Hofner to a Ric. Talk about apples and oranges...

 

[Korladis]

Paul's tone is a great example. It's deep and rumbly whether he's using the Hofner or the Rickenbacker.