Describe your bass tone!

[Pilgrim]

Simple: passive with flats.

I have 12 basses and each sounds a bit different (otherwise, what's the point of having more than one) but only two have rounds...and those strings are years old.

The perfect tone: my 1963 P with flats installed in 1972. Yes, those strings are 40 years old...but there's still treble left in those strings.

 

[DrSpunkwater]

As my guitarist put it: "Somewhere between the roar of King Kong and the boom of God's scepter striking the ground."

 

[BassIsFun17]

i go for the Ben Shepherd tone from Superunknown

 

[JumboJack]

Frog fart.... But a big frog.

 

[ChuckTrucks]

Old school, a bit tubey, EQ usually set close to flat on damn near any amp, roll the treble off on a passive J bass with rounds by about 60-75%. Tweeters off.

 

[icecycle66]

Violent and muddy.

 

[jetbike]

Tubey, middy, alive, loud.

 

[GK Growl]

Like a chainsaw going through chocolate pudding.

What the ****ever. My tone is my username!

 

[lemongrenades]

Its a nice mix of Noel Redding, Joe Lally, Peter Hook and Nick Thieneman

 

[neo 7]

Old skool thumpy surf

 

[D.M.N.]

Precision Bass - Swing 66s, tone knob wide open. Raunchy, gutsy, with huge low mids.
Jazz Bass with Dagstar - Swing 66s, huge, broad and fat sounding. Chest-kicking punch.

Run through a Sunn 2000s and into 4 JBL K140s, I'd describe my tone as powerful and crisp. And Burly.

 

[JPMacJones]

I go for a melodic rumble. Bass and highs at 9 o'clock, kids at 12 o'clock. I run a DI off my amp into the board and have the signal sent to the subs. Subs give me my low end and my mad gives me cut. Also helps stage volume from getting out of hand.

 

[Geroi Asfalta]

my guitarist once said... "Your bass tone is like having ice picks of treble spikes jammed into your ears while experiencing an earthquake"

Otherwords, Steve harris but brighter. Bright, clicky, beefy. That's for my Ps and my Js.

My fretless is a monster currently. Fender flats and SPB 3 pickup, boosted mids and lows a hair, works great for an old jazz jam.

My Peavey is almost like the ******** love child of a Ric and a P. It's very thick and punchy, but can also be a it clanky and trebly at the same time. Pump bass just a hair and it almost sounds like a Ric

 

[burnunit]

Fat as Superman's ****.

 

[Modern Growl]

Fat, warm, but articulate and tight.

 

[rupture]

Ric GROWL That is all

 

[CauliColin]

Errrrrrrrrmmm......

I'd say fairly aggressive fingerstyle with steel rounds, with a clicking sound from my technique (which i don't mind). If I'm slapping/doing my chord tenchique, it all descends to a Claypool-esque noise, especially chording.
I can also get a fairly Steve Harris-ey tone if I want (I have come to realise my playing style is a Harris-Lee hybrid
...you asked

 

[Mystic Michael]

I work to sound like Bruce Thomas from those early Elvis Costello recordings: Accidents Will Happen, Lipstick Vogue, Pump It Up.

I love Bruce Thomas' tone!

What a great, under-rated player!

MM

 

[PBnJBassist]

The pink one: beaver snacking on a piece of wood.
The blue one: beaver smacking mud on a piece of wood.
The green one: beaver sleeping on a piece of wood.

That's the best I can describe the tone of my basses. None of which sound even close to Wynona's...

 

[Mystic Michael]

My ideal tone is smooth, balanced, full-range - and powerful: relatively high gain, yet clean. The kind of bass that permeates everything, filling up all the little "holes and cracks" in the music...yet is still subtle enough to support - not overwhelm.

Some early examples:

• Greg Lake's Jazz Bass tone from Take A Pebble (ELP)
• Greg Lake's Jazz Bass tone from early King Crimson
• John Paul Jones' Alembic tone during late Led Zeppelin
• Chris Squire's Rickenbacker tone during portions of the Close To The Edge suite and Siberian Khatru
• John Entwistle's Alembic tone from The Real Me (among others)

MM