Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Educate me on Flat wounds on P-basses
- Thread starter Gunner77
- Start date
I think that's a fretted bass isn't it? From what I have read, he says he's playing his original 61 P with a 63 neck
Look closely at the fretboard, and what's him slide...pretty sure it's fretless....then again...I could be wrong...it's known to happen;-)
+1 on GHS precision flats. They are the same as laklands Joe osborn flats. I'm even going to try these on my modulus.
The playing is smooth and the frets are small, but surely there's frets on that clip.
Ah...and the fretboard coated...very shiny for rosewood....must have thrown me off.
I know that flats on a P bass is an old school concept and I really appreciate you guys that have been around the block explaining things to me. I'm still basically a noob and I am just begining to realize how many different variables effect tone. I have been struggling to get the tone I want out of my American Standard P bass. I'm thinking this is the bass that started it all pretty much and I can't get it to sound very good to my ears. When I push the button on my amp to engage the graphic eq it just seemed like it was too much and did not matter how I adjusted I couldn't get it to sound right. When I pushed the button for the -15db it was just too subdued. Messing with the tone knob on the bass didn't seem to dial things in either. I was reading a discussion on here today about G&L SB-2 vs P bass and one poster talked about how the volume knob changed the resistance hence effecting the tone. Ding ding ding! Light bulb moment! I have basically just been playing with the volume knob wide open and changing the volume with the gain keeping the master pretty much set in one place. Well I turned the volume knob on the bass down some adjusted the gain a little and turned the master up and voila! Much better tone! I guess I was overdriving the input for lack of a better term. I also never realized how much different the tone sounds when you stand farther away from the cab. Long story short I've got a lot to learn and I'm glad you guys don't mind discussing stuff that has been talked about so many times before. I'll crawl back under my rock now and listen. 
Gunner
Gunner
I know that flats on a P bass is an old school concept and I really appreciate you guys that have been around the block explaining things to me. I'm still basically a noob and I am just begining to realize how many different variables effect tone. I have been struggling to get the tone I want out of my American Standard P bass. I'm thinking this is the bass that started it all pretty much and I can't get it to sound very good to my ears. When I push the button on my amp to engage the graphic eq it just seemed like it was too much and did not matter how I adjusted I couldn't get it to sound right. When I pushed the button for the -15db it was just too subdued. Messing with the tone knob on the bass didn't seem to dial things in either. I was reading a discussion on here today about G&L SB-2 vs P bass and one poster talked about how the volume knob changed the resistance hence effecting the tone. Ding ding ding! Light bulb moment! I have basically just been playing with the volume knob wide open and changing the volume with the gain keeping the master pretty much set in one place. Well I turned the volume knob on the bass down some adjusted the gain a little and turned the master up and voila! Much better tone! I guess I was overdriving the input for lack of a better term. I also never realized how much different the tone sounds when you stand farther away from the cab. Long story short I've got a lot to learn and I'm glad you guys don't mind discussing stuff that has been talked about so many times before. I'll crawl back under my rock now and listen.
Gunner
Sounds a bit strange- normally Ps sound best with the volume knob up all the way. Have you tried adjusting the gain structure at the amp better with the volume wide open?
Mabe your PUP height needs adjusting, too. This single thing can radically change the tone of a P from boomy and bottom heavy to very middy and growly, and allsorts in between.
No I haven't tried those two things. Do they respond in a big way to small adjustments to the pickup height? In other words how big of an adjustment should I make at one time?
Gunner
I setup my Fenders first so the string height is set, then I set the PUP height- no bass is the same and each ends up a little different. Try a whole turn of each little screw each time and go by the sound, not the look of it. This is the way to get even string to string volume as well.
As to gain structure, every amp model is different and some are more sensitive to getting it right than others.For example my Eden wakes up and becomes a different beast entirely when the gain is set properly, and is comparatively dull and lifeless at lower gain settings.
Good luck, hope this helps a bit.
Putting flatwounds on a P bass gives you an IMMENSE low end and a great thumping sound. Great for blues, maybe metal, anything that requires that type of sound. A problem I have is that (me being kind of a string thrasher) slapping or just plucking too hard on the E string can lead to a very annoying sound on many lower end P basses.
I agree that Jamerson is a good example of a vintage recording of a flat wound P-bass sound, but that was yesterday.
Today, the quality of strings, pickups, amplifiers, and recording equipment is noticably better than it used to be. I'm not saying that those old Motown songs weren't some of the best, but Jamerson's recordings aren't the only--or even the best--sound recordings of a flat wound P-bass. There are some more clear (speaking of audio quality) recordings of flat wound P-basses available. Maybe not better examples of PLAYING, but better examples of tone quality.
...just sayin'
After putting some loud, beefy Seymour Duncan pickups in my P-bass, I still couldn't get "the sound" from it that I heard in my head. Since I switched to flat wounds on it, I know I can never go back. It sounds just the way it should now.
As it was explained to me, the cycle of the frequency of your low E string takes about 8 feet to complete. In other words, you basically don't get the entire low 'E' (open string) tone if you are closer than 8 feet to the cab. Closer than 8 feet it will sound brighter. This is one reason why many players struggle with their sound on stage. They don't realize that what they hear from their amp on stage is different from what people in the audience hear.
I think cabs sound different from out in the room for a variety of reasons, but that's not one of them, fortunately. We have enough to worry about without needing enough room for bass waves 'to develop'.
