- Nov 4, 2003
- 11,943
- 3,137
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist- Suhr basses, PedalTrain, GHS, Ultimate Ears
Yeah, different strokes. In dozens and dozens of GTG's and in decades of experience with P's and P players, I don't think I've ever run into anyone who uses a P like that. However, my peers are more pop/funk players, and most of them use rounds and 'modern clean rigs' that relatively emulate a front of house system (i.e., clean, big, wide, full range, solid state). I again come from the Bob Glaub type P tone for pop and rock, and the Ready Freddie Washington school of tone for funk. If you listen to, for example, Brazilian Love Affair by George Duke, that is the P tone general profile that I go for, at least when 'funking' (back then, those guys used reasonably bright new flats, but you can get there pretty nicely with a set of nickels like the Sadowsky black label that have a lot of midrange character).
I again, am pretty sure that a P into an old school fridge or something would be a different thing and benefit from that massive upper mid/lower treble output. Also, an alder/RW P with old flats... well there you go. +1. I totally agree, when you dial down the tone control too much on a spec like that, you end up in Pino land... fat, but flubby and very little note definition unless you are very careful. I heard Pino live a while back and it sounded so bad I almost cried, given what I saw him doing. ZERO note definition. Ready Freddie, who has gone very old school with Steely Dan, sounded similar live, with that 'alder/RW/flats' and the tone control turned down. +1... mud.
As you might have heard from my clips on Youtube, my P tone is VERY present in the top end, and very articulate. Most of those clips were made with the passive tone control at around 40%, which is right at the point where, through a modern rig (i.e, full range and evenly voiced from the lows all the way up) the top end of the P comes alive and does not sound massively upper mid bright and a bit thin down low.
SVT with a fridge and flats... whole different story!
Again, lots going on with different experience. Thanks again guys for the input. Sometimes it is easy to forget that there are so many different ways to get to a good place. This discussion also explains why I VERY rarely see a PJ spec in the universe of players I associate with and that have similar tone goals to me. I guess it is 'the right tool for the right job', as with anything else. All good stuff that each excels in different contexts!
I'll continue to keep my eye out for a Sadowsky ash/maple P5. Nothing better to my ear than an ash/maple P with the Nordstrand P5 pickup and broken-in nickel wounds. Would love to have the Sadowsky flavor of that in my collection! I prefer a passive P tone, but it would be fun to have an active model like the Sadowsky!
Man Ken, my head hurts from seeing your posts these days...from that uber modern MTD zing down to a passive P-Bass.....WHEW!!! Killin' me!!! LOL!!!
And, I had an ash/wenge MTD for about a decade, which is the 'king of zing'
I feel like I've gone from a Ferrari to an Abrams M-1 tank over the years... both impressive in their own way
