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Complex bass and too many tones!

#61
I get what you're saying, but IME the bass sounds like the bass and all a whole bunch of controls does is complicate what the bass sounds like with eq that is compromised in some way.

Gimme a volume and a varitone and some outboard gear with a bass that nestles into a mix and I'll have all I'll ever need.

(Caviat: maybe there's basses out there that have all the amazing tones in an easy to manipulate package, but all the complex ones I have found have a bunch of slightly sub-par tones in frustrating to operate packages)
 
#64
The main things for me are that when you gig, play with confidence, fit your bass lines to the music, hear the whole mix, smile, and have a good time.

Details about the bass aren’t directly in that list. My experience has been that my approaches, techniques, and gear evolve as the gigs go by. Work in progress. Which suits me, because I like solving puzzles. A different artist might primarily get one sound down, and then play that the rest of their time on earth. No specific approach is necessarily correct. Or incorrect.

Regarding knobs and different tones from the bass; the main thing for me is that the tones in an instrument should be useful on the gig. I don’t care so much what the instrument sounds like in the practice space. It needs to be present, musical, and provide the appropriate sound in the mix. @40Hz was entirely correct that we have much bigger challenges with bass instrument projection in the modern soundstage than getting tribal about tone controls. If the bass has controls to access different tones, they should be useful tones, and the player should be fluent in accessing those tones in performance.

Nuff said.
 
#65
JimmyM said:
If you're happy, never let the opinions of others bother you.


So many bassists are passive aggressive approval junkies who already have a chip on their shoulder just from playing bass, and the way they deal with it is to try to get everyone in the world to like the exact same things they like. If they don't, then they get insulting. Like what you just did. There is a big difference between not knowing how to deal with an EQ and not WANTING to deal with an EQ. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to twist a few knobs. But I will agree that some folks can get real pompous about their likes and dislikes. Like what you just did.

What other people like and don't like affects my life in zero ways. You should all be more like me.

:D
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He can't be a man 'cause he don't smoke the same cigarettes as me.
 
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#66
rtav said:
I am on the fence about the new Bongo 6 John Myung signature bass bc while John has enjoyed the benefits of the full compliment of Ernie Ball tone controls plus that awesome tight string spacing, they ripped out the tone controls - why? John didn’t play that.

Let’s not forget it’s only available in a HH config - again, John has basses with HS config, which I would order over the HH.

So the John Myung Signature Bongo bass lacks the controls (and configuration possibilities) that John has used on his Bongos for years.

I would love to get a bass with the stock Bongo config to get the tonal options and tight string spacing he has made use of - that I could have used, too.
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there’s a rig rundown from years ago where John Myung himself says he never uses the preamp EQ controls on his Bongos
 
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#67
N4860 said:
Haha yeah I don't disagree really, but if we all come to that same conclusion we might not being seeing as many NBD threads here. I was just curious about people's feelings here and like a good discussion. Seems most people are favouring the simple passive bass.
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I think for for some of us (or me at least) complexity is part of the bass player’s rite of passage. I started fully acoustic on upright bass. I went from there to simple passive (Fender JB and fretless PB) to slightly more complex passives (Ripper); and from there, on to a variety of increasingly complex passive wiring schemes (cap switchers, pickup splitting and coil tapping, q-filters,etc.) then on to the wonders of active basses (first my homebrews, later on an Alembic) and more recently into the realm of non-mag pickups (piezo, infrared diode optical).

But in the end you inevitably wade through the valley and make it out to to the other side. And you then realize that, while difference basses and electronics may excel in places and make them a better choice for a given situation, at the end of they day they can all get our job done regardless.

For some it’s a bitter pill to swallow. For others (like me) it’s liberating to finally grasp that “The Bass“ isn’t just the instrument. It’s mostly the player, with a little help from his/her axe and amp.

I like flatter myself to think I can get a good sound that will serve the song out of anything you hand me these days. And use it to fulfill my role as a bassist. And I think most TBers here can do the same once they’ve gotten a little experience under their belt. Because I’m no musical prodigy.

The scariest thing about complexity for its own sake is what happens to a lot of musicians who spend years mostly accumulating gear. One day they sit down to “seriously do some music” surrounded by their rack of instruments, their pedals, their tricked out DAW and huge library of virtual instruments and plugins…

And surrounded by all these “infinite creativity possibilities limited only by your imagination” (as the ads put it) they suddenly realize - they don’t have really have anything worthwhile to say.

New toys are great for kicking out the cobwebs, inspiration, and keeping things fresh. New gear can open your mind to the possibilities. But it can’t work miracles. And as my guitarist SO put it: I may pray for miracles. But I don’t let myself rely on them. :laugh:
 
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#68
No matter what gear I'm using, I am looking around for the best tone I can find, when I think I have it, I try to leave it alone.

The nice thing about having controls on my bass is that I can quickly change my role for part of a song or an entire song on the fly.

I certainly wouldn't fault anyone else for keeping their setup less complicated. I happen to like tweaking... Having said that (and invested in some really nice gear) I spend most of my time tossing ideas around unplugged (haha).
 
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#70
N4860 said:
OK, I see this pretty often here that people don't want a bass with too many controls and/or pickups because its too complicated to use live. Most recently with the Bongo vs Big Al thread but it comes up a lot in many other comparisons.

My perspective is that with a bass with lots of controls and pickups (such as my Bongo HH) is that I can simply find a great unique sound, adjust my eq to my liking and have it set and forget it. Same with my SR HH. There's no rule that you have to constantly adjust the EQ and pickup settings to try to cover all of the different standard bass sounds. I just don't see how someone can say having too many tonal options is a negative. It's only a negative if you can't settle on it and are constantly changing. I have multiple stingrays so I can have 1 setup just on the bridge pickup, and then use my HH with both pickups and eqed just how I like it and it is a completely different flavour.

Anyone else feel this way? Why the hate for having options?
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The best sounding bass on the planet, can also be the worst with a light twist of a dial. That said, exploration is a good thing. It’s just more tools in the tool box.

I’m not a major know twister. Active Basses with onboard preamps are always set to flat. Fender Basses are always all knobs wide open. I much prefer to alter my tone, which is rare, using the EQ on my amp or preamp. The tone controls on my amp: everything is set to flat, with a boost to 125hz-150hz depending on the room. Any other tonal adjustment are made with the fingers and where I pluck the strings.

Of course, there are songs that require certain tonal characteristics, like “Don’t Stop Believing” where it would require a bridge PU only, with a higher mid bump for example. One would need to twist some knobs to get there.
 
#72
The most surprising thing to me in this thread is the number of posts that basically say, it’s my tone, I like it, I wanna use it all the time.

With my number 1 bass, there are at least 6 pickup selection / coil tap options that produce musical, useable sounds. That’s before I touch the EQ. I can’t imagine sounding exactly the same on every tune; I’d be bored to death in one set.
 
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#73
Options are great, and I agree no need to keep turning knobs once you have your go to sounds sorted. Yamaha have a neat solution to the knob dilemma with the TRBX - you have 4 knobs, vol, pup blend, treble and bass boost, but there's also a nifty 5 way toggle switch which gives you 5 preset tones without touching a knob. Best of both worlds!
 
#75
How your bass sounds in relation to the other instruments matters. I'll tweak the onboard EQ on my basses one way when playing with a couple of acoustic guitars versus two electrics, drums and keyboards. And if you're going DI, that's the only controls you have.
 
#76
One idea that kind of inspired me into the thought of posting this is when I picked up a EBMM SRHH a few weeks ago. I have 2 other rays with just the H sound so I have that tone covered but with the HH I wanted something different. I've seen some people say they don't like the HH because they don't like the neck pickup sound which is fair enough. I do hear the scoopiness of it with the settings that have both pickups running. I like that it's different though. What I have been doing is setting the pickup selector in the middle where it seems most scooped, and then cutting the bass and treble a bit to taste so that the mid scoop isn't so much. And then I have it set like that and don't change it and it is a nice bit of variety from my other rays while still feeling the same as the others.
 
#80
I have gone back and forth on this myself and for me, it really just depends on the day. I have a Fender Am. Elite J, and a slightly modded Squier Affinity P and I like them both equally. When I sit down to play, I find that I end up fiddling with the J a lot more because there are more knobs but on some days I really enjoy experimenting with the sounds I can get. Some days, I really dig the 2-knob simplicity of the P bass though.

I will say that it also depends on the bass and the sounds/tones that you generally favor - I have been through a couple of G&L L-2000's and have always ended up selling them because I wasn't able to fiddle my way around and find tones that I was satisfied with over the course of a year. A day here, a week there sure, but long-term I'm just partial to the sounds that I get from the basses that I own now, and I don't mind fiddling around with the J because the results are usually favorable to MY ear.
 

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