Finally had some time to test my new 6-way switch that was installed courtesy of my buddy Sean Fairchild who some of you may know from his work with
@tombowlus and the crew over at Bass Gear Magazine. I’d tag him but I can’t remember his TB handle. Whoops.
My SJ came with the standard 3X switch. Two years ago I had the switch replaced with a custom one from Mo that had all of the parallel pairs and all of the solo options. I hated the NM parallel pair, and only included the B solo option because I felt like I was “supposed to.” I ended up missing the BM series option and really wanted to try the Dingwall All-On option. I had Mo build me a version of the standard 6-way that has the greatest hits from both the standard and D-Roc switches, but in a different order more suited to the way my brain works. Those settings are as follows:
- All-on
- BM series
- BM parallel
- BN parallel
- M solo
- N solo
My thoughts on those positions with an SJ loaded with SF2s and the Glockenklang preamp are as follows:
- Scooped in a different way than a typical Jazz with both pickups on. It’s quite dark and then there’s this bright sparkle on top of the darkness. It’s an interesting tone. The setup is BM in parallel and then combined with N in series. I would love to hear BM in series (so they’d act like a single pickup) and then in parallel with N. In my mind that would be more akin to a J/MM pickup setup and may be a more usable sound for my taste. I’m not going to do another switch just to find out, but it does have me wondering.
- This to me is the most Stingray sounding option of the bunch. A cool sound in the right context, and the wrong sound in others. Not a sound that will work for everything, but when it works it’s just the thing. This setting is hotter than all the others by a decent margin.
- My go-to setting when playing live over the last two years and it’ll probably remain that way even with this new switch. More mids than a Jazz but a little more polite than a Stingray. It reminds me a bit of the so-called Avanti (sp?) pickup spacing on modern Sadowsky basses. I’ve grown to love this setting and it’s always the first thing I try when dialing in a tone on basically anything.
- The Jazz setting that doesn’t really sound like a Jazz. To my ears it’s more Spector’y but that’s not really right either. It’s scoopy with a bit more throaty character than a Jazz. It’s a usable sound but not my go to on a gig for anything but slap. With my S/P switches configured P for neck and S for bridge I quite like it but it still doesn’t compare, for my taste, to setting 3.
- Like a P but tighter and more aggressive. Ridiculously great rock tone. If you want to cut, this will do it. I recorded a 22-song record last year and did 21 of the songs with this setting. A studio I do sessions for in Vegas, which included the aforementioned record, has been saying “use that white bass with whatever setting you did last time” when giving me tracking notes. The engineer there loves this tone, and I don’t disagree. It’s not my personal go-to, but it’s an absolute workhorse for anything with drums and guitars in the mix.
- For most things I view this as a less good version of setting 5. Sure, it’s fatter but it’s also more bloated and less controlled for lack of a better term. If I put the bass in passive mode, roll off the tone a bit, palm mute and play with my thumb or the Jamerson hook technique it can get Motown’y in a pleasant way. That’s likely the extent of what I’ll use this setting for considering there’s what I consider to be a better sounding option one knob position away for most things.
I could easily get by with just settings 3 and 5 but am happy to have the others on tap for studio sessions where something different might be just the thing.
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