EQ Settings for Various Basses

[RitterSport]

Hi!

I recently bought my second ever bass, the Yamaha TRBX604. My first bass is a Peavey Foundation from around 1991.

The Yamaha has active pickups, which I went for because I assume I should be able to roughly emulate other basses. Everyone said just go with a Jazz or Precision bass, but I don't really like the look of a pick guard and I like to be able to rest my thumb on the pickups, and those tend to have lower pickups (from what I remember -- I can't actually go see one in person yet).

So, is there anyone out there with a couple of basses, one with active and one with passive pickups? I'm wondering if I could get that P-bass sound with particular EQ settings (or, that Rickenbacker sound, or that J-bass sound, etc.). I can make it sound pretty close to McCartney's violin bass by cutting some of the low end, for example.

So, is there a way to make my bass sound roughly like other famous basses using the active pickups? Thanks!

 

[RitterSport]

Hopefully it's OK to bump my own thread. If not, I apologize to the moderators!

One bump, and I'll stop. Anyway, still curious about ways to use my active pickups, especially to try and emulate other basses.

 

[HELLonWHEELS]

Short answer is yes, you can use the EQ to get closer to other sounds. Most commonly I find my self boosting mids, boosting bass or cutting treble depending on what sound i'm going for. There are more variables to tone then just type of pickups, strings and your physical play style will also have huge effects on tone. For example flatwounds vs stainless steel vs nickel strings all create very different tone as well as are you playing with a pick/fingerstyle and are you playing lightly towards the neck or aggressively towards the bridge.

If you're more specific with a particular sound, like, if you can give an example from a specific song, we can recommend specific settings to go with.

 

[RitterSport]

Well, everyone told me to just get a P- or J-bass, but I went against that recommendation. So, if I could emulate those, it would be cool. Rickenbackers are known to have a great sound.

I tend to play with my thumb on the neck pickup, using my fingers.

 

[Jv-d]

Well, everyone told me to just get a P- or J-bass, but I went against that recommendation. So, if I could emulate those, it would be cool. Rickenbackers are known to have a great sound.

I tend to play with my thumb on the neck pickup, using my fingers.

Ritter
I have a couple of Rics--'74 4001 & '92 4003-- looking at the trbx, 604 to get a different sound-- looking at going into active preamp territory... Only had 1 active instrument, 30 yrs ago, a Washburn-- it sucked, had a whammy neck... Worked at a smokey nightclub as a doorman to buy 1st Ric... Put a lot of miles on those Rice,but now looking for something different
Any thoughts on the trbx 604?

 

[RitterSport]

...
Any thoughts on the trbx 604?

I've had some quality issues with the TRBX 604, with the active/passive switch falling off and a loose jack causing the wires to get loose internally. I got it fixed under warranty and it seems to be OK now.

You can make a wide variety of sounds with it -- the three band equalizer can really boost or cut. The neck and bridge pickups really alter the sound, and it's great having a balance knob, rather than two volume knobs, to easily dial in the sound you want.

I only have one other bass, an old Peavey Foundation. I can make the TRBX sound like that, pretty much, and because it has humbuckers, I can move freely from one pickup to the other. On the Peavey, with single coil pickups, if the pickups aren't balanced you get some hum which drives me batty. I come from keyboard playing, and that noise used to mean I had a bad cable or grounding problem.

I like the TRBX because it's about a pound lighter than the Peavey. The matte neck is very smooth and easy to move around. The neck is thinner, like a Jazz bass, which I also like.

I mostly use it in passive mode, and use the amp to change the EQ. However, the preamp is nice when I'm going direct into a computer or something.

 

[Jv-d]

I've had some quality issues with the TRBX 604, with the active/passive switch falling off and a loose jack causing the wires to get loose internally. I got it fixed under warranty and it seems to be OK now.

You can make a wide variety of sounds with it -- the three band equalizer can really boost or cut. The neck and bridge pickups really alter the sound, and it's great having a balance knob, rather than two volume knobs, to easily dial in the sound you want.

I only have one other bass, an old Peavey Foundation. I can make the TRBX sound like that, pretty much, and because it has humbuckers, I can move freely from one pickup to the other. On the Peavey, with single coil pickups, if the pickups aren't balanced you get some hum which drives me batty. I come from keyboard playing, and that noise used to mean I had a bad cable or grounding problem.

I like the TRBX because it's about a pound lighter than the Peavey. The matte neck is very smooth and easy to move around. The neck is thinner, like a Jazz bass, which I also like.

I mostly use it in passive mode, and use the amp to change the EQ. However, the preamp is nice when I'm going direct into a computer or something.

Thanx for the response-- was very helpful!