Deep thundering tone?

[Count Bassie]

Well, yeah... You can't get thundering tone with a P bass into a 210 combo.

Unless you have decent FOH and monitoring. Depends on the logistics- tone is tone, wherever it comes from. And we're talking about the bass' own sound really, yes?

 

[dokazaado]

yep, get a Mexican P bass.

 

[Luckie]

The deeper you want it, the more power you will need. Make sure you use ample wattage. The lower frequencies really need alot of power to be reproduced at decent volumes. If you are looking for deepness at loud volume, you should look into amps that have at least 1000 watts (assuming solid state power section).

1000? That seems a bit high.
I think at this point, 450-500 is plenty.
I've never needed more than 400 watts, and I've played some large venues.

 

[Count Bassie]

1000? That seems a bit high.
I think at this point, 450-500 is plenty.
I've never needed more than 400 watts, and I've played some large venues.

Agreed... A Trace 250 has been more than adequate for anything, anywhere. So has a GK 400RB.

I think there's a real tendency (and marketing agenda) toward overkill, and an unwarranted rush to 'fundamental low end'. I really don't even think it's relevant! Bass guitar isn't really about 40 Hz. What bass guitar does, generally, is fool the ear into hearing bass.

Tony Levin had a 21" driver made by Trace Elliot, I understand. But I've seen vids of Crimson in concert and he's got a pretty diminutive bi-amp rig there nearby on the stage. I think it was a 350 head and 2 cabs.

I see a de-railing coming...

 

[Orangeclawhammr]

I'm basicly a home guitarist, and haven't ever realy played the bass. I like to play the blues, mostly. I'm looking to buy my first bass guitar, and went to a Guitar Center and tried out a few. The ones, that I felt very comfortable with were the Sterling sb14, Fender P bass special, and also the sterling ray34. Not knowing how to play the bass, I couldn't realy tell, if any of these will give me the sound I'm looking for. I'm lookinf for the realy deep, rumbling tone like in Blues Power by Albert King. Any help or suggestions, will be appreciated. Also, please forgive, if I don't describe something correctly. Also, am I putting the emphasis, too much on the bass itself, or should I be looking to accheive the sound I'm looking for, more from the amp/cabinet? I'm looking to purchase over the next 4 days, as Guitar Center has a 15% off sale, so any of the basses I've mentioned will be a little over 500.00 which is aproximately within my price range of 500.00 to 600.00

So what did you decide on? Are you having fun with it?

 

[PDGood]

I've owned just about everything over the years. The Gibson/Epiphone EBO and EB3 have that massive low more than any other bass, but....it has almost no highs with it at all. And one thing you'll notice when you get playing with a band is that treble frequencies disappear when you get louder so you need more than seems reasonable to start with. It's true that the EB3 has the additional pickup at the bridge which should add highs, but that pickup is really more about upper mids. So while those basses fit your description perfectly, I'd still recommend against them.
The Sterlings are great sounding basses - but they emphasize the low mid growl. I love it, but it doesn't sound like what you're asking for. I play a Precision because it is the perfect balance of lows, mids and highs. Although it doesn't match your description, you can't go wrong with it. T bird is a rocker bass, lows and highs and not so much mids.

For speakers you want a ported cabinet. That gives extra lows. In general, bigger speakers = lower lows, but modern cabinet designs are overcoming this. I just bought an Eden XLT cabinet with 2 tens (used you'll find them around 300-350) and it has unbelievably low lows. More so than most 15" speakers. It's in the cabinet design and speaker quality.

For amps you can get good bottom end out of most anything. The GKs are very deep and bright - but not so much mids and not very warm sounding. Inexpensive though and this sound is perfect for rock and similar music. Acoustics have a warm sound but not so much low lows. Markbass is great but more expensive. Ampegs are high dollar due to popularity back in the day. Peavey is a good option.

 

[richbassboy]

+1

I gotta go with my 2x15 over the 8x10.

 

[richardzbaraski]

the sterling is fantastic, maybe an epiphone thunderbird pro ? .. note the name

 

[richardzbaraski]

damn .. somebody got there with the thuderbird thing

 

[Punk Rock Jason]

If you can get a hold of one a used Peavey T-40 gives you plenty of tone options - I think you could get the rumble you're looking for. There are some on Ebay usually.

 

[dwm74]

Another vote for the P-bass. I'd not recommend the Ray34, though, for that deep rumbling tone you're seeking.

I had a Ray 34. Loved the playability, but the tone was a bit trebly for me. I figured I'd put flats on it and play around with the preamp and the EQ, but I could never quite get that definitive P-bass tone I was looking for. Since I already had that tone with my MIM P, I ended up selling it off. The Rays are great instruments, but their sound wasn't for me. YMMV