Engineers and Precision Basses. The truth comes out.

[JimmyM]

P’s will zing plenty with zingy strings.

 

[Chrisk-K]

He laughed and said, “That’s not because the p-bass is better. It’s because the engineer is lazy and doesn’t want to waste time dialing in a new bass tone.”

Just one lazy engineer’s opinion

 

[Slax]

I'd say it depends on the mix you're going for and how much you're paying for the recording and/or the the engineer themselves. If you're rolling out cash, I'm sure you could get a rubber band nailed to a 2x4 to sound good with the right engineer. Most budget guys will go to their own "defaults" to save time and time = money. The longer they have to fiddle with a mix to make it sound good to their client the less money they're making on the recording. That said, some guys just love mixing and want the best sound regardless of pay.

Pbass/Jbass are a "safe" route to go for most mixes and many engineers know how to mix them in to sound good.

 

[BazzaBass]

Last week, I had a session with a very seasoned sound engineer. I’ve known him a long time and he always digs the tone of my basses… until now.

I normally play something with 2 pickups, like a jazz or jazz-adjacent bass. They’re versatile and I like the tone. This time, I decided to bring my righteous Olinto Precision bass, since we all know sound engineers prefer to mix a P, right? Ummm… not exactly.

We had a good session. When it was done the sound engineer and I were talking and I asked him how much he was digging that beautiful bass. His response was very ‘meh’. He then proceeded to go into a deep dive about frequencies & such that I didn’t quite understand. But in the end, he definitely preferred something with a bit more ‘zing’ in the higher frequencies.

So I asked him, “what about all the stories we hear about some pro bassist who went to the studio with his fancy boutique bass and the engineer had him play the whole session on the in-house p-bass… and the rest is history?”

He laughed and said, “That’s not because the p-bass is better. It’s because the engineer is lazy and doesn’t want to waste time dialing in a new bass tone.”

That was a humbling and enlightening response. And also more proof that the only person bass tone matters to is the bassist.



Disclaimer- Yes, I recognize this is only one guy’s opinion. But it’s a pretty good one.

Thank goodness for the P Bass. Without it TB would not have any content

 

[Krisfield]

I think a P Bass is a very versatile instrument. It can be as hi fi or vintage sounding as you want, just depends on the pickup and string combinations. But an interesting anecdote by the OP.

 

[HMZ]

I think it also comes down to P basses and Jazz basses are the most common basses around. Every engineer has had experience with them and they know what to do with them to make them sound great. When you show up with your $6000 custom bass it scares the crap out of some sound guys.

 

[lbbc]

I have owned 4 Pbasses, and while they were/are great instruments, I still prefer my G&L Fallout and my Alembic Persuader. It's all a matter of preference. I've had many sound men take the time to "dial" in my bass and actually made mention of how much they liked it. No "bro-science" just my experience

 

[Honkey tonk]

Few reasons, the P bass has the deepest roots, for some homages are cheats, very few engineers studied bass,. in schools for audio its sorta taught to stick with standards

Path of least resistance

 

[DwaynieAD]

This battle over p basses never ceases to be hilarious.

Yep. You all cracked this case wide open.

 

[dougfr67]

Also funny how people with the least experience recording or mixing tend to have the most black and white views of what’s true about recording or mixing.

About 99% of TB users in a nutshell.

 

[dangevans]

I never had an engineer care about what bass I had at a session. The ones that know what they are doing will dial it in to what they prefer anyway, no matter what you bring.

 

[Lowbrow]

Since the thread is TL/DR at this point, I’d ask you TB how you had the bass set up — strings, tone knob.

 

[Lowbrow]

… and to those that believe ‘zing’ is unnecessary I’d suggest that there is a world of difference between good recorded results and the sound that some find most pleasing when listening solo — and that the engineer didn’t exactly lay out his definition of what frequencies constituted zing in his mind. Maybe he’s talking about 7k, but he might also be talking about 1.6k, 3.2k, which are essential.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

if your intention is to play electric bass professionally, you better have a Precision bass (or two) in your arsenal... have several others too. Always bring two or three basses to the session as well.

 

[Paul New]

Crap, you're right. Somebody come get these moldy old P basses out of my house. Or I might just put them under the bed and wait for fashion to come back around.

 

[COYS]

That was a humbling and enlightening response. And also more proof that the only person bass tone matters to is the bassist.

LOL

Probably the most enduring truth out there.

 

[Phaidrus]

Is this a Pbass bashing thread?

 

[mongo2]

if your intention is to play electric bass professionally, you better have a Precision bass (or two) in your arsenal... have several others too. Always bring two or three basses to the session as well.

In my previous post I didn't feel the need to mention that along with the Hofner Ignition Club bass I had my trusty DIY Warmoth SCPB and Warmoth Split P that I left in the car. After all...I ain't stupid...

 

[dougfr67]

Is this a Pbass bashing thread?

If you care to read the post or learn to read, you'd clearly see it isn't.

 

[dougfr67]

Crap, you're right. Somebody come get these moldy old P basses out of my house. Or I might just put them under the bed and wait for fashion to come back around.

Who said they're crap? He said this whole P-bass is the only way to record is a myth.