Do you think the scale will ever tip back towards hi-fi/active basses?

[red_rhino]

I wasn't aware that the scales had ever tipped away from hi-fi/active basses.

And how is this thread at 8 pages and counting?

 

[6-3-2]

I was just pondering this---so much modern pop(the kind that stems from RnB) is sooo heavily 80's influenced these days. It's mostly synth bass on that kinda stuff, but bass guitar in that music is often "cast" in the production to evoke an era--for example you'll hear slap used in a retro, heck, sometimes ironic way. Maybe we'll start hearing more of those decidedly active bass sounds that were popular (and new-ish at the time) in the 80's make a comeback in pop.

I think you're spot on. With all the throwback productions, bass has so many faces now. Lizzo and Silk Sonic are probably two sides of that spectrum: real fidelity to early 80s and 70s bass tones respectively. I'm also hoping that throwback trend means I hear some "Still Life in Mobile Homes" or even the great tone Andy Rourke had with The Smiths. That assertive, bright tone is something special.

 

[Sam Dingle]

Out here in Nashville at least, theres still a bias towards the fancy looking basses in some circles even to the point of turning your nose up at 5 string basses, regardless of the type. But every professional I know has one they have just in case. I personally still need to get one, but I haven't found one I like much.

 

[jnuts1]

Phish, Dead and Panic. AKA improvisational hippie jam band music.

please keep panic off of the list when talking about the great and powerful phish and dead. i guess calling them the Jimmy Herring money machine is an acceptable way to bring them into the conversation though.....

 

[SunByrne]

the Top 40 radio has pretty much disappeared,

Unless you're Rick Beato making a clickbait video--you need the Top 40 as one of the things to complain about.

 

[jnuts1]

Out here in Nashville at least, theres still a bias towards the fancy looking basses in some circles even to the point of turning your nose up at 5 string basses, regardless of the type. But every professional I know has one they have just in case. I personally still need to get one, but I haven't found one I like much.

there are 46 bass guitars in all of Nashville. they are all identical and after gigs you just hand it to the next guy.

 

[Nephilymbass]

There's that story of Sean Hurley moving to L.A. with a five-string active Lakland to become a session player just to realize it's a P-bass world out there. It wasn't always the case though. There was time when hi-fi or active basses were all the rage, like Warwicks, Ken Smiths, Alembics, Tobias, Zons, Spector etc.

Do you think the scale will ever tip back towards hi-fi/active basses? If so, how do you think it'll happen?

Who knows. I’m in my 40s now. Every decade or so there is a big shift in trends. Some for me have been a step in the right direction others have been a step in the wrong direction. But it’s always changing. Often times in different directions at once as far as pop vs rock and so on. So Maybe…

I personally don’t care what guys like Sean Hurley are doing. I do have a lot of respect for him as a musician and a person. But I’ll never be in his shoes playing with the artist he’s playing with and I know from experience if I chase his sound by the time I’m really there it’ll already be old news. . He plays on some big records. But average music listeners are mostly focused on singers. And if you go out every weekend trying to sound like Sean Hurley with your average local band singers you’ll be worse off than you would have been if you just did your own thing from the get go. So be original.

 

[micguy]

Basses don't have to be active to be "Hi Fi" - you can make basses (I do this all the time) that have the bandwidth of an active bass, but with passive electronics - it's a matter of lowering the impedance so the cable isn't a big load on the pickups. This technique is used on dynamic mics - you can hook up a dynamic mic to hundreds of feet of cable, and it won't load it appreciably - all the bandwidth from the mic gets through just fine.

 

[direktor]

did the advent of "hi fi" basses occur, at least in part, as a way to try to overcome the crappy sound reinforcement

Possibly? Usually when designing anything, usually people will arrive at a “better to have it available if we can and throw away part of it if you want” then to not have it at all.

If you capture everything you can from the strings, you’re in better shape to subtractively craft your (or ANY) sound at the amp or board. Of course you need skill and know-how for that approach, something I see some players actively reject (“I just want to plug in and have it sound good. I don’t want to play with knobs. I don’t know what they do anyway.”)

Of course having achieved that long ago, the bass player market has arrived at selling a particular sound from the outset (see P pickups, Aguilar Amps, Darkglass).

 

[Stranger Danger]

please keep panic off of the list when talking about the great and powerful phish and dead. i guess calling them the Jimmy Herring money machine is an acceptable way to bring them into the conversation though.....

Haha fair enough

I still go to red rocks every year but I’m an OG Mikey panic guy

 

[Dr. Love]

The old always becomes new again.

 

[Stevorebob]

Where do I sign up for active/passive trend alerts? I need to be in trend.

 

[mcnach]

There's that story of Sean Hurley moving to L.A. with a five-string active Lakland to become a session player just to realize it's a P-bass world out there. It wasn't always the case though. There was time when hi-fi or active basses were all the rage, like Warwicks, Ken Smiths, Alembics, Tobias, Zons, Spector etc.

Do you think the scale will ever tip back towards hi-fi/active basses? If so, how do you think it'll happen?

hifi/active? huh?

 

[jnuts1]

Haha fair enough

I still go to red rocks every year but I’m an OG Mikey panic guy

I just wish Jimmy was still with Phil and friends. that line up!!

 

[Bass Ape]

I own a passive Reverend and an active Dean Zelinsky. Both 5s and I’m not planning on playing any sessions anytime soon. So…… I don’t really have a productive comment other than play what you like and like what you play.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I just wish Jimmy was still with Phil and friends. that line up!!

Or ARU or Jazz is dead

 

[pbass2]

.........or even the great tone Andy Rourke had with The Smiths. That assertive, bright tone is something special.

Pbass with a pick and roundwounds is one of the iconic bass sounds of all time and there's no shortage of it out there today. I'd venture to say it's the most ubiquitous bass sound in "indie" pop/rock. The differences I think are: (a)that kind of melodic playing has largely been replaced with plodding 8th note roots simply following the chord changes as the writing has generally become dumbed down/lazy, and (b) the production was different with someone like The Smiths--it was often sparser, there was more separation, there was less low end information in a track overall - as a result you heard the bass better. Kinda funny how advancements in music production has led us to lots of music that's just kind of a mush. I don't listen to rock much these days, but when I do I certainly favor artists who go for that leaner production, like The Strokes, some QOTSA, etc.

 

[bucephylus]

Unless you're Rick Beato making a clickbait video--you need the Top 40 as one of the things to complain about.

Right. In fact, I’m not even hip to Rick Beato, and have no idea who he is. One more example of the fragmentation on the web.

 

[ectoflanger]

I’ve got both and personally depends on the song. Thus far, three original songs, two of which I’m currently working on the basslines for, correlate as follows-

1). Song with a country/folk vocal melody with an atmospheric quasi-jazz backdrop gets the Fretless Warwick Thumb NT5 with its active pickups and EQ.

2). Hard rock/metal song gets a 1985 Aria Pro II ZZB Deluxe Explorer armed with MJS passive soapbars (split inline single coil at the neck and humbucker at the bridge) with passive master volume and tone controls.

3) Atmospheric rock song, a la 80’s Icehouse and Thomas Dolby, gets the Fretless Steinberger XL-25 with active pickups and HAZ system electronics.

As for the rest, it’s still open according to how the song genres and styles play out. Maybe one of my passive Jazz or P-basses will find a niche therein-

 

[ectoflanger]

With that said, my 2008 Fender American Standard Precision has thus far been the most comfortable bass I’ve ever played— neck wise, how the body feels with its contours, and weight. And it has a nice resonance to its sound.