Did you find YOUR perfect tone and please decribe it

[Kenova]

This is somehow extension of Dr. Cheese thread, but more focused.

I want to know did you find YOUR perfect tone and please decribe why you like it and in what kind of music you use it.

In last year I was in pursuit of warm, thick, great low end but focused but not hard midrange tone with rounded and subtle high end with great dynamice range, I wanted to have mellow sound and growly sound when I dig in.
I achived that with Pevey Patriot and Rick positioned pickups, La Bella FS strings and TC BH250 amp + Tone Print is very useful.

I use it from ambient music, pop to metal.

 

[IronLung1986]

I found my perfect tone the first time I played a Markbass amp. I still get excited every time I switch one of mine on. I have some nice basses, some of which are closer to "perfect" than others, but the markbass stuff brings out the best in all of them. Whatever bass I play, whatever cab I'm playing through, I'm going to want an LM800 doing the heavy lifting.

 

[JonKim]

Sadowsky jazz + Mesa walkabout scout.

Words cannot describe it. I just know and feel this is it.

 

[jasmangan]

It's a journey that never ends, the Quest For Tone.
Right now I've found a heavily overdriven sound pushed through a tube amp with a little bit of chorus in it is audio bliss. Right now it's my perfect sound.
Although primarily a rock player I've found this tone to work with almost everything.

 

[jd56hawk]

I found my perfect tone the first time I played a Markbass amp. I still get excited every time I switch one of mine on. I have some nice basses, some of which are closer to "perfect" than others, but the markbass stuff brings out the best in all of them. Whatever bass I play, whatever cab I'm playing through, I'm going to want an LM800 doing the heavy lifting.

Crazy coincidence. I've said pretty much the same thing several times before...I still can't get over how good my Markbass sounds.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

G&L ASAT into a H&K tube amp into a Markbass cab. I love that I can pull off a Lemmy tone w/o any trouble at all.

 

[joeaba]

Fender 4 string Jazz bass Deluxe, N3 noiseless pickups. Rotosound flats. Playing through a fender rumble 500 with an Ampeg 4x10. my goal for tone is warm. If I want a tone with a bit more mids and treble, I switch to a 4 string fender dimension HH, the double humbucker,double 9 volt active pick ups are sick. The dimension setup is good for my slap bass wannabe sound. Occasionally I play a 74 Rickenbacker with an mod tone effect pedal, it has a sci-fi bootsy sound that can't be beat. For me, there are so many tones, why settle for just one.

 

[Jeff Scott]

My perfect tone is a moving target, so multiple options are good to have.

 

[Old Fart]

It's a journey that never ends, the Quest For Tone.

This ^^^

I play in a nightclub band that does pop music from six decades. I use a variety of tones, limited largely by the fact that you just can't be changing basses for every song. I play through a 1980 SVT and Bergantino HT322. I recently acquired an AVRI 63 P. This thing is a fatness MONSTER. Not muddy, and with some highs and high mids, but a MASSIVE low mid tone. Everybody in the band is happy about it. Other times, I'll use a Jazz, etc. It depends on the song. That said, it is a BLAST playing the AVRI 63 P.

 

[mpdd]

the mesa d180 is a pretty sweet sounding amp, but when you plug a super deep voiced early L2000 into it, it's amazing imo, really warm, thick, and round

 

[Bassmunnky]

G&L L1000 + Ampeg Pf500 115x2

 

[20db pad]

I essentially gave up the chase. Bought a Sadowsky or three over time, and more recently a few P Basses. If I can't sound good on those axes, the problem is with me, not the basses, no matter how much money I throw at it. I stopped worrying so much about tone and got really deep into the music I had to play and getting the best possible response from the instrument with just my bare hands or a pick. A lot of my concerns about EQ went away as I raised my action over time as well.

I actually get more compliments about my sound now than I did years ago with a 3k amp rig and a dozen pedals.

 

[Eilif]

-1979 Peavey T-40 Both pups full on Volume, tones in the middle.
-Nice Dead Fender Pure Nickel Medium strings
-Peavey VB2 Set flat with the Mids on the second notch from the top.
-Avater B410 Neo cab with the tweeter turned off.

This has been my favorite tone for about 5 years. For most of the 5 years before that it was the same bass through a different amp. It's round and thick, pillowy, punchy and lovely. Unfortunately for gigging it's almost useless outside of "acoustic" shows. Live I have to boost the mids and add some highs and sometimes switch the bridge pup to single to give it a bit of cut.

Still, it's my preferred practice tone and it just sounds right to me. To get where I'm coming from, I started on upright and my previous favorite sounding bass was a Mudbucker Telebass that I would repeatedly go to Chicago Music Exchange to play in the early 00's.

 

[monsterthompson]

Nash PB 63 with DiMarzio pickup. Mesa Buster. Barefaced Super Compact. It's pretty damn close to perfect clean bass tone for a heavier rock sound, and just what I like to hear solo. Kinda Steve Harris but a bit more low mid punch and bigger bottom than his recording mixes. Bright enough to cut and sheen but not airy and sparkly or ice pick bright. More upper mid teeth but not nasal or honky.

The Demeter VTBP M 800D head into a Super Midget with a pedal board of a BBBOD, Idiot Box Blower, and a W&C TFR, Aguilar Agro, and a TC Corona chorus can get me pretty close to that sound in certain settings (usually with just the head). It also tends to be a Swiss Army knife for getting a variety of sounds from Misfits to Sabbath to classic rock to industrial to shoe gaze. None of those sounds quite make me smile like the Buster, but they are very useful in their appropriate settings when the Buster sound isn't quite there. For more "modern metal" sounds, I find the Nash JB63 or Spector Forte SS single coil sounds work a little better, in context.

 

[chris_b]

There are lots of perfect tones.

I've got a good one at the moment. It's the latest in a long line of great sounds.

They are not difficult to come by.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Modern: Tobias Classic 5, DR rounds, Thunderfunk head into tweetered cabs. Versatile from polite to growly to burpy to thumpy. Walnut neck/body give a deep but clear, very focussed sound.

Rock/Motown: Passive P, Sadowsky SS Flats, Mesa WalkAbout head, Berg CN212. Pick + heavy attack. aka "the freight train". Thump city.

Fretless: Rob Allen Mouse, Jule Monique preamp (yet to buy), Baer ML112. From beefy thumpy to singing mwahs to burpy groove to hollowbody bloom.

I like many sounds. It's an expensive addiction.