Digging my P Bass Direct

[mambo4]

since listening to some 2008 Police and Sting live tracks, I have fallen in love with that grit and growl of a single coil PBass. But I have discovered I maybe don't need a single coil ...

Last weekend friends made a short ambient E minor track. I trotted out my old DAW, figured I'd try my 1971 Precision ( strung with 10 year old DR sunbeams ) - not single coil. Lo and behold, there was the same growl! It may not be exclusive to a single coil after all.

It was also an nice illustration of how idiot proof a PBass is to track and mix.
This is direct PBass - > Focusrite Scarlet -> Reaper - > render to MP3. No plugins, cab sims, no nuthin'

If it were a "real" recording I might have gone direct from my Streamliner, or added compression ( and polished my execution ... )
But, tracked naked and direct, It sounds 90% like I wanted. So maybe next time I won't bother with any extras?

 

[rstephens]

I’m always buying effects and multi effects and preamps and all kinds of stuff but I’m with you: I think my favorite sound is just plugging my P bass straight into my little quilter bb800 and the barefaced cab.

 

[DJ Bebop]

since listening to some 2008 Police and Sting live tracks, I have fallen in love with that grit and growl of a single coil PBass. But I have discovered I maybe don't need a single coil ...

Last weekend friends made a short ambient E minor track. I trotted out my old DAW, figured I'd try my 1971 Precision ( strung with 10 year old DR sunbeams ) - not single coil. Lo and behold, there was the same growl! It may not be exclusive to a single coil after all.

It was also an nice illustration of how idiot proof a PBass is to track and mix.
This is direct PBass - > Focusrite Scarlet -> Reaper - > render to MP3. No plugins, cab sims, no nuthin'

View attachment 7355649

If it were a "real" recording I might have gone direct from my Streamliner, or added compression ( and polished my execution ... )
But, tracked naked and direct, It sounds 90% like I wanted. So maybe next time I won't bother with any extras?

That was my downfall, hearing my bass, direct to tape. I wanted that sound live on stage. This was long before big FOH systems we know today. This was back when your stuff on stage carried the house. I stumbled down the road of bi-amping and trying to find the biggest amps for less distortion, something that was not in vogue at the time, to sound the same as I did through the playback monitors in the studio on stage

 

[murphy]

since listening to some 2008 Police and Sting live tracks, I have fallen in love with that grit and growl of a single coil PBass. But I have discovered I maybe don't need a single coil ...

Last weekend friends made a short ambient E minor track. I trotted out my old DAW, figured I'd try my 1971 Precision ( strung with 10 year old DR sunbeams ) - not single coil. Lo and behold, there was the same growl! It may not be exclusive to a single coil after all.

It was also an nice illustration of how idiot proof a PBass is to track and mix.
This is direct PBass - > Focusrite Scarlet -> Reaper - > render to MP3. No plugins, cab sims, no nuthin'

View attachment 7355649

If it were a "real" recording I might have gone direct from my Streamliner, or added compression ( and polished my execution ... )
But, tracked naked and direct, It sounds 90% like I wanted. So maybe next time I won't bother with any extras?

Sounds great!!
I found it liberating when I stopped using pedals live.

 

[joeLowB]

Dude! That's terrific! Thanks for posting... clean and great!

 

[Brandon Shea]

since listening to some 2008 Police and Sting live tracks, I have fallen in love with that grit and growl of a single coil PBass. But I have discovered I maybe don't need a single coil ...

Last weekend friends made a short ambient E minor track. I trotted out my old DAW, figured I'd try my 1971 Precision ( strung with 10 year old DR sunbeams ) - not single coil. Lo and behold, there was the same growl! It may not be exclusive to a single coil after all.

It was also an nice illustration of how idiot proof a PBass is to track and mix.
This is direct PBass - > Focusrite Scarlet -> Reaper - > render to MP3. No plugins, cab sims, no nuthin'

View attachment 7355649

If it were a "real" recording I might have gone direct from my Streamliner, or added compression ( and polished my execution ... )
But, tracked naked and direct, It sounds 90% like I wanted. So maybe next time I won't bother with any extras?

Nice tone! I'll go a step further and say that most basses probably sound good direct, or at least they should. Still, there's a real beauty in the simplicity of a P Bass since there's really nothing extra to distract yourself with.

 

[shirojiro]

Great tone! I agree that a growly Pbass really sounds terrific. Those mids are where it's at.

 

[monsterthompson]

Nice track!

 

[Tim Skaggs]

not single coil

Agree, the post 1957 PBass pickup has two coils, but the vibration of each string is picked up by one coil under the string vs. two side-by-side coils under the string.

The pickup fits the book definition of a humbucker, but the physical layout of the pickup helps retain some tonal qualities of a single coil, and it comes through sounding somewhat like a single-coil as you found out.

Leo’s design came from experimenting with mandolin pickups, which were single coil pickups, but he ended up using two of them almost end to end to get his final design.

 

[mambo4]

The kind comments are apricated.

there's a real beauty in the simplicity of a P Bass since there's really nothing extra to distract yourself with.

"Extra" = "more opportunities to get something wrong" in my experience.
I no longer believe in versatility as and end in itself.
It takes very well designed bells and whistles to be generally, broadly useful ( and hard to F up)
- my Streamliner or a G&L L2500 comes to mind. Many options, all useful.

 

[stretch80]

Great sound and playing!

 

[mambo4]

I wanted that sound live on stage.

How close have you gotten, live?

 

[MCS4]

Nice work. In my experience this isn't especially unusual or specific to P basses, though... I think recording bass direct and then applying minimal processing to taste is reasonably common, particularly if you have a solid bass player and a good bass, subject to the understanding that most producers/mixers are likely to at least add some level of compression and EQ in service of whatever their overall goals in terms of the mix.

 

[Gervais Cote]

A track like this just confirms to me why I use a p bass 95% of the time. Very expressive sounding bass on that sample.

 

[Lo-E]

I’ve found I get pretty reliable results in the studio with a simple bass > channel strip > compressor > “tape” signal chain no matter what bass I’m using but, yes, a P-bass is pretty fool-proof, even for this fool.

Which bass/channel strip/compressor combination is in use will provide different subtleties but most combinations, assuming good quality gear, will yield good results.

FWIW, my live sound is typically nothing like my recorded sound.

 

[JazznFunk]

Threads like this confirm one of my golden rules for live AND studio work: spend a good amount of time with your bass plugged in and recorded direct, and internalize what that sounds like. This will inform your decisions when setting up your amp and in sending a direct sound to the FOH. This is especially true with active basses with a lot of tone shaping possibilities. Knowing intimately, without an amp, the subtleties each setting/adjustment imparts on the sound, allows you to more critically examine what is or isn't right with your sound in the room when setting up your amp or dealing with the FOH. People love to mess around and insist on using amp sims, etc but I find that most of the time, it isn't necessary. The only times I found amp sims useful was when I wanted a very specific sound without having to haul in an amp.... and that was using the SansAmp VT Bass for an SVT sound without breaking my back.

 

[pbass2]

The sound of a DI'd P (or a J to a slightly lesser extent) through a nice mic pre/front end, (with whatever compression and maybe EQ applied typically in the final mix, though sometimes a little when tracking), is the sound of the electric bass in the majority of all the popular music ever recorded. An amp is/was used far less than the internet would have you believe. For me, it's the sound I hear in my head having grown up on the classics, and I go for that even live to send to FOH(there's a million ways to achieve that of course, and you don't have to break the bank to do it). Makes life easy, actually.

 

[pbass2]

....People love to mess around and insist on using amp sims, etc but I find that most of the time, it isn't necessary.

I can't count how many times I've been on bills with other bands where the bassist with all that stuff running sounds like a blur, and the guy with the meat and potatoes DI'd bass to FOH sounds clear as a bell.

 

[pbass2]

Nice work. In my experience this isn't especially unusual or specific to P basses, though... I think recording bass direct and then applying minimal processing to taste is reasonably common, particularly if you have a solid bass player and a good bass, subject to the understanding that most producers/mixers are likely to at least add some level of compression and EQ in service of whatever their overall goals in terms of the mix.

This right here. That's how it's done by the big dogs and always has been. You don't want to commit much processing or EQ decisions to the bass signal until it's time to work it into the final mix. Usually, a good player with a good bass--it needs very little unless you're going for a decidedly effected type of sound.

 

[SteveC]

I like the sound of all my basses that way. Bass --> Focusrite --> headphones and audio from whatever I'm using on the computer to practice, play along, whatever. I, too, use more than that live because I "need" certain things for my cover band gig, but when I play a singer/songwriter type thing, or an acoustic" gig, or maybe a pit gig, I run my bass to a tuner/mute for convenience and then my amp. Nothing between. I've never been an effects guy. Only when I "have" ton be.