Do I need active bass ?

[wishforbass]

Yeah your answer could be as easy as a nice outboard preamp. A pedal. But def try new strings first. It sounds to me like your ear is wanting to hear something that your gear isn't giving you.

How did you come about using the stuff you have now @wishforbass? Hand me downs? Bought after searching and researching? Bought on a recommendation? I would suggest this as well, go to a music store and try out everything they have available in the bass room. See if something speaks to you. Because it really does just sound like your staled on your gear to me. But I could be wrong. Maybe you just need an exciter or something like that....

They enter my things ,
Don't laugh as local bassist I'm alone ,in city there are less than 10 .
We buy things from shop then they enter our stuff for us .
Like I wanna a bass ,there is no good bass available .so I go store (they know us ),we search in a website like sweetwater .
Then they say their price for enter then we go other shop they say their price too and we choose which ship enter our stuff from Italia or USA mostly and Indonesia .
So there is no pedal available till I want it .
Bass room ,sorry we don't have even string so room is too much.
Expect normal guitar and electric guitar because have too much fan .

 

[wishforbass]

IMO And IMO only........
I would replace the Rumble. I have one and cannot get a tone I like out of it. My experience is exactly the same as yours in regard to tone. Sounds muted to me.

The Mesa D800 puts the Rumble to shame tone wise. As does the Hartke and Ampeg I tested out prior to purchasing the Mesa.

Lol ,yes but messa is not available in my country .or you can pay 4500$ for d800 and well no cabinet .

I choose between fender bassman and rumble and roland .
The roland sound digital and the bassman was good but need extra care and the sound was not warm .rumble sound better both and better than low end Marshall .
But really if I can maybe one day I will get me
sa .

 

[Altitude]

You don't need a Mesa amp to sound good. Your equipment is fine.

I suspect that part of your issue is reconciling the way you expect to sound in your mind with the way things sound in the dark ugly world when you play with actual people. I'm 30+ years into it myself and I still wrestle with that, everybody does. Repetition helps.

 

[wishforbass]

No, I don't think EQ/preamp/active bass is the solution to your problem, but it can be a bandaid. I suggest instead you look for the real origin/root of the problem and deal with it. Some ideas below:

What cable are you using, and how long is it? A very long, high capacitance cable can darken the sound of a passive bass. Some more than others, but it's a factor to pay attention to.

The Yamaha should sound fine, but try it with other amps, like it's been suggested. If it sounds good, then it's your amp. If not, then it's the bass. Of course, you can try different cables at the same time.

If it's the amp: The Rumble can sound fine, but I preferred (and got) the Ampeg in that price range. While it sounds "drier", it has a more usable tone imo. The Rumble sounded "bloated", with boomy lows and sort of sharp highs, with undefined mids.

If it's the bass: Try different strings and tweak the setup. The P will be mid-forward, but you can tame it with technique adjustment. The Yamaha is a PJ, yes? Bring in the J to scoop some of the mids out...

I use 5 meter some times 3 Meters .

I like my Yamaha p sound and j sound much more than fender .(although people make fun of me a lot about this and say I'm like a poor kid in music Industry but well I like Yamaha sound more even I could afford Mexican fender bass I think I would choose Yamaha .)
I tried the Yamaha with pa system and sound ok specially that I usually only play on bridge because I feel I have too much bass and low end and less high end .

Rumble sound ok ,I think . although it sound better when I tried Ibanez sr 505 and sr 800 with it . because it was like there is more control and more full sound come in amp .

I didn't have problem in sound till I wanted do some cover like tool and wanted sound of Robert Trujillo . the sharpness that their bass have and can be hear in mix easily .

Yamaha use aggressive pj pickup .

 

[wishforbass]

Although a few onboard preamps seem to impart some tonal character to a bass, they're really just another tone control circuit. If you're plugged into an amp or preamp that has any kind of EQ or tone shaping, you can manipulate your tone that way with as much flexibility as the active circuit on the instrument. You can also do a great deal with your right hand, like people have written here.

So - if you can't get where you want to be using your amp's controls, I bet you just don't like the way your bass sounds.

Edit: 1:50 in that video sounds like the neck pickup solo, the guy is plucking right on top of the neck pickup and not digging in much. That recipe will yield a beefy, P-bassish tone. The tone he gets right there doesn't present to me as active, really, even though it is. A Yamaha BB415 should be able to get right in that tone neighborhood if you solo the split pickup.

Let's say more mix problem .I sound same in evey song.a good tone that never change make songs boring .I need a sound with sharpness but same time have mid .


I want as bright as this



But something don't lost in mix .
Usallaay the is a zing sound in a lot of metal songs that let you hear the sound of bass .

 

[Altitude]

Yes, that is professionally mixed, to some degree, even though it's a live cut. It's also Rob Trujillo and Andy Irvine, and they are both career professionals who make any bass sound good.

 

[sikamikanico]

I'm not really into those sounds, but I'd start with running both pickups, not just the J. While a PJ may not be the best bass to get those specific sounds, I think it will be in the ballpark when both pickups are engaged.

I see two approaches might work - one, both pickups on full. The trick will be to get the mids, and you might be able by playing closer to the bridge. Two, run the J on full and P at 70-90% (or whatever it takes). This will help get more mids out on the J, while having some fullness from the P, without excessive bass. Of course, in both scenarios (as always), the right strings and setup are a must. You might need to EQ to taste.

If you have one of those Yamahas with a switch, you're limited to the first option. One thing you can try is to lower the P more (physically, with the height adjustment screws), so that it's less prominent in the mix. But you can get it modded for volume-volume to start blending the pups. If you start modding, I'd experiment with series-parallel too, that can get you a more aggressive yet middy sound.