• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Concentrating on tone rather than playing...

4 string mofo

4 string mofo

May 28, 2012
98
31
34
Liverpool, UK
#1
Quite recently ive noticed ive been concentrating alot on how my bass sounds on its own or in a mix rather than actually playing or learning more on my bass. im quite a moderate player and im purely concentrating on my originals bands at the moment.

Is this necessarily a bad thing?
 
  • Like
Reactions: obimark
#2
While there is no doubt that tone is very important, some are inclined to go on an eternal quest for "the" tone, which IMO is futile, as it is like a dog chasing it's tail. :smug:

By all means try to get the tone you desire, but the nicest tone in the world wont make much difference if the player's ability is not up to much.

This is my slant on it....YMMV.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pacojas, petrus61, hintz and 2 others
#4
While seeking a good, useable tone is a worthwhile effort...

Doing so at the cost of practicing to become a better player is indeed a bad thing.

It's relatively easy to dial in a tone that 99.9% of people will recognize as a good bass tone. Extra effort beyond that is really only for us bass enthusiasts. Sure, it's fun, and we all spend time at it, but improving our playing skills is far more valuable, IMHO.

All the best,

Shane
 
  • Like
Reactions: Baird6869, DavC, SirMjac28 and 2 others
#5
fearceol said:
While there is no doubt that tone is very important, some are inclined to go on an eternal quest for "the" tone, which IMO is futile, as it is like a dog chasing it's tail. :smug:

By all means try to get the tone you desire, but the nicest tone in the world wont make much difference if the player's ability is not up to much.

This is my slant on it....YMMV.
Click to expand...
Fully agree
 
#6
Spin Doctor said:
I've heard it said from a very accomplished bassist that your tone doesn't matter, if you can play your ass off. Take it for what it's worth...
Click to expand...

Well, I've heard it the other way around many times (including from John Patitucci): RHYTHM and TONE are the most important factors.

EDIT: I guess that does somehow assume that you can perform the music you are asked to (or want to) perform. But most of the time, we bassist don't need to perform the most difficult parts - but we should always perform them with great tone and great rhythm.

EDIT 2: I'd also say that if you have great control over tone and rhythm, chances are pretty good that you have good ears and good technique.
 
#8
OP, I was doing the exact same thing not long ago. Its futile. Find something that just sounds nice and learn to play better. I personally found that the more i fiddled around with finding the right tone the more I became driven to find it and started to loose focus. Do yourself a favor and just stop and get back to practicing. Just spend an occasional Saturday at a guitar store to try other things just to keep your options open.

Also, I found once i started practicing more and getting better I started getting the tone I was looking for. Could try what i did, start practicing genres you don't normally listen to. Helped me out a lot.
 
#9
Technotitclan said:
Also, I found once i started practicing more and getting better I started getting the tone I was looking for. Could try what i did, start practicing genres you don't normally listen to. Helped me out a lot.
Click to expand...

I was on the tone quest for awhile. I would ask guys at their gigs how they set their EQ etc., and most of them said they just leave it flat. As time went on, I started to see that most of your tone comes from your hands, not your amp. You have to play in such a way that you kinda just get your sound out of your instrument. I'm still sorting all that out, so I could be completely wrong.

As far as tone being important, I suppose the advice I got meant that, if you can play, the tone takes care of itself. I dunno. Musicians can be pretty cryptic...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pillsy, bass_case and Technotitclan
#10
Spin Doctor said:
I was on the tone quest for awhile. I would ask guys at their gigs how they set their EQ etc., and most of them said they just leave it flat. As time went on, I started to see that most of your tone comes from your hands, not your amp.

As far as tone being important, I suppose the advice I got meant that, if you can play, the tone takes care of itself. I dunno. Musicians can be pretty cryptic...
Click to expand...

Very cryptic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spin Doctor
#12
Frank Zappa opined once that one should focus first on tone, and that speed and whatnot would follow... but what did he know? Needless to say (he said anyway) that implies that you will keep playing/practicing/improving. My feeling is, never mistake making music for a branch of athletics. Yes, you need to take care of your physical self, but diving headlong into the technique-at-all-costs mindset can be seriously counter-productive- one can easily wind up in another of Zappa's un-faves, the clouds of gnat-notes that don't mean s*&%.

Still and all, I think it does get easier to find a good tone the more you play, and yes, I agree it's more down to your fingers than your equipment (provided said equip. is at least functional); roadie-lore includes countless stories of how Musician X picked up some ol' POS axe backstage or whatever and- sounded just like themselves! Myself, I find that I obsess (if I do) about different things on different days; some days I feel like wanking up some slick licks, other days I'm more interested in just making a sound, even if it's all whole-notes. But of course when it's all being done by the same person, how can it not work together, at least in the long run?
 
#13
I believe the best compromise is to tweak your tone while practicing playing. Why pick one when you can do both? I am mostly a cover tune guy so I jam to dozens of songs for 2-3 hours every day. It's partly to learn the songs and a big part is just for fun. I mess with the tone Knobs and my B3k a little bit between songs and when I find a tone I like, I try to leave it right there. I make a mental picture of where all the knobs are and don't stray too far from that. Honestly, If you're playing around with tones, you are still playing and building dexterity. You are also committing some things to Muscle Memory IMO>
 
  • Like
Reactions: Technotitclan
#14
What I started doing recently to get my head out of the obsession of tone is using a second practice amp to simulate the bad amp i had when I started. When I fist started I had a Squier (still have and actually sounds good) and a hand me down guitar amp from the 70's or 80's with no badge on it, only ID i had was a Jensen 12" speaker. The amp had 3 controls, Gain, Volume and Tone. the pots were bad so it only made sound in certain spots on each nob. Because my mom usually slept during my normal practice time i essentially had it perminatly set to too quiet to get a good sound, it was tube. the thing sounded terrible.

Fast forward to today, I have a bass stack and a guitar combo (Fender Mustang II) so I've set the combo to sound like that super old shisty amp to make me appreciate my current gear.
 
#15
4 string mofo said:
Quite recently ive noticed ive been concentrating alot on how my bass sounds on its own or in a mix rather than actually playing or learning more on my bass. im quite a moderate player and im purely concentrating on my originals bands at the moment.

Is this necessarily a bad thing?
Click to expand...
Kudos to you for working on "sound", often times referred to as your timbre..it's one of the few essential ingredients that separate you from every other bass player..you can put this under the technique category, and yeah it's crucial. In fact if you take chances, experiment and come up with your own sound, you will reap the benefit of being discernible by listeners exclusively because of your sound id..I used to go see Tower Of Power play lots and was influenced by the great Rocco Prestia..he uses a left hand technique that mutes the strings, essentially fingering every note with the index finger, using the rest of your fingers as a mute, creating a strong thuddy timbre. Other players use a right handed palm mute to get a similar sound. Others play with index and middle finger, some use a pick..there are endless possibilities..String choice contributes too...in conclusion, I respect the fact that you are putting a priority on sound. Remember to work on groove, clarity, and harmony also to augment and strengthen your overall musicianship...
 
#16
mpdd said:
obsessing over stuff is normal in the creative field, just don't spend the next 3 YEARS twiddling knobs until you drive yourself insane
Click to expand...

FTFY.

At this rate I'm going to have to block TB and YouTube on my browser.

I haven't replaced a pedal on my board in a year. Why do I need to read/listen to every review of every pedal I've never heard of - let alone buy so many of them!?
 
  • Like
Reactions: mpdd and hintz
#17
Most bassists play with the EQ on their amp set flat. If you have a passive bass, there's not a lot that you can do to contour your tone.

So.... tone is in your fingers... to me, tone and playing are one in the same.

A few years ago, I had a chance to play Anthony Wellington's bass... it sounded just like me. He played my bass... sounded like him. The only difference I could think of was they way he played because everything else was equal.
 
#18
2 observations.

I recently was part of a quick jam (just going over a couple of songs we were going to play for the first time in that lineup the following weekend). I set up my rig, and started playing. One of the regulars at the place who hadn't seen me come in commented to someone else: "oh, Michael is here". I have MY tone.

Following on from that, at all the get-togethers I've been to almost everyone, no matter which equipment they used, dialled in "their tone" (or a best approximation of it) eventually.

I like my tone (punchy, clear, clean). YMMV. I didn't "work" on it, it just developed and fell into place.

Regards,
Michael
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back