Chasing Tone vs Creating Tone

[kev451]

So I posted my main player in another thread today and it got me thinking.

I've been playing bass for right around 26 years. Been through all kinds of rigs in that time. My first bass love was Matt Freeman of Rancid, so I chased that tone around for years and years, never really satisfied, always modding, trading, swapping strings and on and on forever.

Then, 10 years or so ago, I put together my first warmoth, a swamp ash 72 with a 90's MIM neck. Suddenly, it felt totally correct. Every part of the bass fit perfectly into what I wanted. I still didn't have that tone though!

So I kept going. I went through Tbirds, a couple Jazz basses, a schecter, a million different string brands, mods, flats, back to rounds, 4-5 different amp setups, pedals, all that stuff. The warmoth main player just kind of stuck around. Then about 4 years ago, I stopped changing the strings. I sold my last Jazz bass. I got down to a 115 combo amp and a simple boss overdrive.

Now, 10 years or so later, I found the tone! It's not Freeman's tone. It's mine. It took me 26 years of playing, 10 years of playing the same bass, and 4 years on the same strings to finally figure out that it's not the tone that's in my head that I'm reaching for, it's the tone that's in my hands that i cultivated over almost 3 decades.

Moral of the story is that if you're searching for a tone, it'll almost never be the new one. It'll be the old tone you've had forever that just keeps coming back. A new amp or bass or strings or whatever might not be the fix-it might be just sticking to the gear that feels the best over a looooong period of time.

As always, ymmv. Just thought I'd ramble.

damn, this spoke to me on so many levels

So I posted my main player in another thread today and it got me thinking.

I've been playing bass for right around 26 years. Been through all kinds of rigs in that time. My first bass love was Matt Freeman of Rancid, so I chased that tone around for years and years, never really satisfied, always modding, trading, swapping strings and on and on forever.

Then, 10 years or so ago, I put together my first warmoth, a swamp ash 72 with a 90's MIM neck. Suddenly, it felt totally correct. Every part of the bass fit perfectly into what I wanted. I still didn't have that tone though!

So I kept going. I went through Tbirds, a couple Jazz basses, a schecter, a million different string brands, mods, flats, back to rounds, 4-5 different amp setups, pedals, all that stuff. The warmoth main player just kind of stuck around. Then about 4 years ago, I stopped changing the strings. I sold my last Jazz bass. I got down to a 115 combo amp and a simple boss overdrive.

Now, 10 years or so later, I found the tone! It's not Freeman's tone. It's mine. It took me 26 years of playing, 10 years of playing the same bass, and 4 years on the same strings to finally figure out that it's not the tone that's in my head that I'm reaching for, it's the tone that's in my hands that i cultivated over almost 3 decades.

Moral of the story is that if you're searching for a tone, it'll almost never be the new one. It'll be the old tone you've had forever that just keeps coming back. A new amp or bass or strings or whatever might not be the fix-it might be just sticking to the gear that feels the best over a looooong period of time.

As always, ymmv. Just thought I'd ramble.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

My experience is nearly identical, tho I'll admit to figuring out that it was My tone all along I was wanting. Well, actually? NOT wanting. I wanted to sound like all my heroes. I tried every bass and amp under a sun. Nothing changed. I always sounded close to others, but never could quite pull off the impression to meet my expectations.

Then, one day, I read or was told something that hit home for me. "You can never succeed at being another, you can never fail to be yourself." Suddenly, a lot of things I'd read in the words of my heroes and others made perfect sense. I never heard them say they were tryin to get another guy's sound. They were describing how they got their sound. Two different guys play the exact same song, neither sounded identical to the other. And they didn't seem to mind.

My issue was? I didn't want that to be true. I didn't like the way I sounded. I truly wanted to have a sound that incorporated many things I heard in others' tones, but I could not hear it in mine. Was a frustrating realization. I had to learn to hear what I did. To hear it as a positive. And, if I had no choice in how I sounded, I was going to learn to control what I sounded like very precisely.

I still struggle with this on a nearly daily basis. I gig a lot. The folk giving me compliments help me to hear what they hear. But with this break in my usual routine of gigging, idle time wears away my resolve a bit. I think too much. Listen too hard. My Jazz is NOT Geddy's or JPJ's. My fretless is NOT Tony Franklin's. Learning to appreciate my sound was maybe the most difficult lesson of my career. One that I think many of my heroes either learned very early, or, just didn't care. And that might be a secret to their success.

For my first 40 years of playing bass I pretty much did the same, boosted bass and treble and cut mids and wondering why it only sounded good when playing by myself, and mostly inaudible when playing in a band. Every band, every rig it was the same thing over and over again.

Before we moved to Virginia in the mid 90s, I sold my rigs. About ten years later I was offered a gig, and had to borrow a rig and when I went to check it out, I just plugged in my bass and powered up without making EQ adjustments to the head. And there it was, my sound I'd been looking for for decades.

Over the following two years I put together the rig in my Avatar, and also added several other pieces and now I have more equipment than I know what to do with...lol.

 

[David McIntire]

For my first 40 years of playing bass I pretty much did the same, boosted bass and treble and cut mids and wondering why it only sounded good when playing by myself, and mostly inaudible when playing in a band. Every band, every rig it was the same thing over and over again.

Before we moved to Virginia in the mid 90s, I sold my rigs. About ten years later I was offered a gig, and had to borrow a rig and when I went to check it out, I just plugged in my bass and powered up without making EQ adjustments to the head. And there it was, my sound I'd been looking for for decades.

Over the following two years I put together the rig in my Avatar, and also added several other pieces and now I have more equipment than I know what to do with...lol.

Love that story, man! And that rig is hawt!!! I know I have my sound. But part of that sound is related to the gear I use, in that, I LOVE the gear I use. That confidence, faith, that my gear is doin what I ask is priceless. Changes my attitude from worry to happy! And that ATTITUDE changes my tone.

I am happy to say I can, today, use any piece of gear, be it instrument or amp, successfully to both Express myself and get a job done. But that doesn't mean I would BUY every piece of gear that I use. Some represent me far better than others. And that's what I like to have behind me on my stages. Or strapped to my chest. Congrats on that rig, brutha. I LOVE Eden's representation of tone! And that rig is a monster!

 

[SimonSays32]

I approach tone from two different perspectives:

1) Live setting - I have had to play on many different setups at open mic's over the years ranging from amazing to very subpar for the setting. Outside of a few live pa setups where I didn't have control of the source sound, we are usually able to find a good volume that allows everyone to be heard. Broadly speaking, finding a good tone for the room at the start of the set typically means the bass will sound good throughout the performance with no real need to change up the sound throughout the set.

It took me about 3 years to arrive at rolling the low-end off slightly and leaving most everything fairly even on the EQ - but that is my generic live bass tone for the last 17 years. Recently I invested in a Stu-Amp 1000 - and for this I have the solid state gain turned up a little over a quarter full, and the tube I have turned about about a third full which gives my live tone a really warm but precise sound now that I absolutely love and can't wait to try out in a live setting (when/if things settle down).

2) Studio setting - in the studio the bass tone is very important in its role as it has a very large impact on the overall sound of the song. It cuts across the length of the song typically sitting in one place (slightly to the left/right of center 99% of the time). So I find it is important and fun to spend some time narrowing down my tone before takes - definitely taking a more focused approach to the actually settings and how they are effecting the mix because the opportunity is afforded. I typically like to lock down my effects when recording because not only does it add a bit of artistic permanence to the track - so it is amps, mic's and FX pedals for as much as possible (and bouncing direct-in plugin FX as soon as the take is complete).

All that said - I still believe it is mostly in the fingers that dictate tone and also I have found that like anything else - mood ultimately determines how it is going to sound to me personally. So it is important to have a good handle on both mood and parts - dialing in a tone for a song is pretty easy even when you are taking time and working with various special FX pedals (or plugins).

 

[Yellow Bang66]

I completely believe that there's some sort of psychoacoustic 'fingerprint' embedded in each of us that results in the 'sounds like me'. For along time, I've found that if you give me most any bass and any amp, gimme about five minutes twiddling knobs, and it's . . . . . . going to sound like me. And I'm totally convinced that their is far more power in where and how you pluck the strings as far as tone goes, totally hand-related.

I'd be totally happy with a bass with a volume and tone, and a bass rig with gain, master gain, and 3-band EQ: I can do the rest, and . . . . . it will sound like me.

Yeah,Yeah. I believe that too! no offense, but I think it our "inner Chick"( never happy with what we have or the club that would have us!"). I get a lot of compliments on my tone with my #1 & Rig, Initially, Im Flattered, but not for long 'til I start "adjusting/Tinkering" things I say its my hobby but it's really a sickness! I need a group intervention! I guess im scarred to admit it that I 'm scared i'll miss out on some new tech, that'll transform "my tone", without me having to work endlessly(hours) on my technique! Yes, I 'm insecure I started out as a lazy Hack! but now my own drill sargeant! I guess I should just learn to accept the compliments! my hack days are long over, I've done the hardwork & gotten over the big humps, so When I feel like chasing after tone/My tail, I must just buckle down & get in the shed,instead!

Wouldn't it be a shame if I finally Got the"Tone", but it was all because a piece of tech,and not have anything to do with my technique or playing Style, It was all just a piece of equipment, anyone can sound like that?!?

 

[JimmyM]

Yeah,Yeah. I believe that too! no offense, but I think it our "inner Chick"( never happy with what we have or the club that would have us!"). I get a lot of compliments on my tone with my #1 & Rig, Initially, Im Flattered, but not for long 'til I start "adjusting/Tinkering" things I say its my hobby but it's really a sickness! I need a group intervention! I guess im scarred to admit it that I 'm scared i'll miss out on some new tech, that'll transform "my tone", without me having to work endlessly(hours) on my technique! Yes, I 'm insecure I started out as a lazy Hack! but now my own drill sargeant! I guess I should just learn to accept the compliments! my hack days are long over, I've done the hardwork & gotten over the big humps, so When I feel like chasing after tone/My tail, I must just buckle down & get in the shed,instead!

Wouldn't it be a shame if I finally Got the"Tone", but it was all because a piece of tech,and not have anything to do with my technique or playing Style, It was all just a piece of equipment, anyone can sound like that?!?

What is a bass if not a piece of tech? What is an amp if not a piece of tech? Pieces of tech don't absolve you from any responsibility for the way you sound.

 

[SimonSays32]

What is a bass if not a piece of tech? What is an amp if not a piece of tech? Pieces of tech don't absolve you from any responsibility for the way you sound.

Depending on the situation I love fx gear - and the best pieces react differently to the nuances of your personal style in subtle ways as much as you might react to the effect itself in your playing.

Though in a live setting I am always thinking as simple as possible to get the best sound for the room (rarely as loud as everyone else seems to think a band should be in the room).

In the studio I think of fx as various different brushes - and how I apply my brush is likely to be different enough from the next.

Because everyone has idiosyncrasies in how the communicate - and it comes across whether it is amplified or not.

 

[kodiakblair]

Comfortable neck + bass that balances + comfortable strings = my tone

 

[David Jayne]

Same. I've owned everything, always with the thought that 'if it's expensive, it's good.' Turns out not always to be true, for ME. Other folks get their tone from an exotic bass and very complex amp. The more I simplify the happier I get.

 

[dramatwist]

...tone is in your fingers... but, enjoy the ride...

 

[Watchootognbout]

I don't chase a tone.
As if there is one bass tone on all of the music that I listen to.

Stanley's tone sounded different from Jaco's tone.
Jaco's tone sounded different from Louis's tone.
Louis's tone sounded different from Anthony's tone.
Anthony's tone sounded different from "Flim's.
Flim's tone sounded different from Chris's tone.

I don't need to play the exact same bass and rig that my favorites do.

 

[CallMeAl]

My first bass was an Ibanez PJ bass, chosen solely on feel (and low price.) My first amp was a SS Ampeg B15, chosen on availability, and IIRC most likely inspired by Mr Duck Dunn.

Quite a few basses and amps later, I've settled on a P bass, partly due to TB, but also feels like coming home. I'm using a Mark combo now, but the more amps I try, the more I think I could make just about any of them work for me.