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.
Fender Squier P Bass for Metal?
- Thread starter Occulta19
- Start date
The strings, bridge, controls and tuners are all metal so I'd say yeah, it's pretty good for metal.
If it makes low sounds, it is good for metal.
'Metal' is pretty broad. Are we talking Iron Maiden or Periphery?
'Metal' is pretty broad. Are we talking Iron Maiden or Periphery?
A P-bass can work for Metal. It won't growl like a jazz, but it can do pick tone like nothing else. Grab some steel strings, Rotos or DR Lo Riders, they will help with the growl. If you want to, grab a pick. It's not strictly necessary, as many Metal bassists use fingers as a pick.
The best advice I can give is find your own tone. A P-bass is a great bass. Also, play near the bridge, it does add some aggressiveness.
What kind of Metal do you listen to? Who are you trying to sound like?
The best advice I can give is find your own tone. A P-bass is a great bass. Also, play near the bridge, it does add some aggressiveness.
What kind of Metal do you listen to? Who are you trying to sound like?
Why not ?
Im using 2 P basses right now. 1 Fender and 1 Squier. Ive been using the Squier more then the Fender
Put some Rotosounds on and add a set of Duncan Quarter pounders, maybe add a Leo Quan Badass Bridge. You can get some great metal sounds with that setup. I get some killer sounds with my Squier VM Jaguar Special with the aforementioned bridge and Quarter Pounder pickups in the P slot and a Dimarzio JAzz Pickup. Do it right and you may have an extra $150 in parts. I paid $20 for the Quarter Pounder, $28 for the Dimarzio and $45 for the bridge. All on ebay.
Oh look its this thread again. No, OP. A P-Bass is not good for metal. You need one of those Alusonic aluminum basses to be metal. Like the one in the link.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
A P pickup is the loudest at the frequency range where guitars punch in metal, making it a poor choice for metal. Obviously you can make it work, but then again, you can also use strats for metal, it's just an inferior tool for that job.
Well, there are those of us who think a P bass isn't good for much of anything.
There are also those of us who have played a lot of metal, and know that in a great many bands you won't be audible over the guitar wankery anyway, so it doesn't matter much.
But really, if you like the bass and the sound, it's good for whatever you want to do with it. If not...try something else.
There are also those of us who have played a lot of metal, and know that in a great many bands you won't be audible over the guitar wankery anyway, so it doesn't matter much.
But really, if you like the bass and the sound, it's good for whatever you want to do with it. If not...try something else.
If you can't be heard over guitars, it's a serious problem because you should have much more headroom live.
Iron Maiden wants a word with you.
To the OP, P-bass can work fine. Geezer Butler and Steve Harris both used P-basses.
+1
Luckily, they both had enough control in the studio to make sure their bass cut through the mix. Do you have that control? If so, get a P bass, if not, you may want to look at something with a bit more oomph.
If someone comes and asks if something is good for metal, chances are great they will want to play modern metal, where strats and P basses are mostly out. In cases you want to play vintage metal, anything works, you can play a mudbucker equipped guitar for all you know. However, if you play fingerstyle at 240bpm and want your notes to be heard over crushing guitars, you will need a bridge pickup.
It would help if people said which kinda Metal genres they want to play. But even when they do say the genre and ask if a P Bass is good, people always mention Steve Harris & Geezer Butler. I love Iron Maiden, but they aren't very heavy. Never were. I also love Black Sabbath. They're very heavy but in a different way than modern Metal. Geezer & Harris are great, but I don't think they're the best examples to give when it comes to the use of P Basses in modern Metal.
