Hi all. I am new to bass playing after being a drummer for decades. I picked up a G&L L2000 Tribute from Sweetwater. I really like it, but the more that I play the more I realize that I really just love the P-Bass sound. I went to an open Mic last night and there were guys playing custom basses, Sting Rays, Lakland. But when I heard that P-Bass it just sounded the best. Obviously the G&L has it's own sound. Pretty far from a P-Bass I would say. That had me thinking to possibly exchange for an LB-100 or an L-1000. Does anyone out there have experience with those models? Is it worth t? Will there be a big difference in the sound? I mean the G&L still has that Humbucker so maybe it's the Fender pickups that my ears are responding to. Any feedback is appreciated. I also have 45 days with my Ibanez SR50 which is also pretty darn good. That actually has a more earthy, organic tone with those CND pups. And it is so light and the thin neck is so easy. Thanks.
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G&L L2000 vs P-Bass
- Thread starter ChiaBass
- Start date
The LB-100 will definitely have that milk-chocolate P bass tone, but the L2K can cop that tone reasonably close. Solo the front PU in parallel mode and pluck directly over the pickup face. Lowering the pickup will help too.
It'll always have that L2000 flamethrower humbucker pinch kind of lurking in the tone though, so you won't be able to get rid of it entirely.
But it might be close enough to extinguish the GAS for the LB-100 and save you some money so worth a try...
L
It'll always have that L2000 flamethrower humbucker pinch kind of lurking in the tone though, so you won't be able to get rid of it entirely.
But it might be close enough to extinguish the GAS for the LB-100 and save you some money so worth a try...
L
Welcome aboard. Comparing the L2000 and Fender P is like comparing a hammer and a saw. Two excellent tools but for 2 different jobs. Really depends what your musical styles will be. I have both and reserve the P for 60 and 70s music while the buckers in the L2000 handle the 80s and 90s very well, depending on how you use the active and series switches.
Good Luck in your journeys. Tjhanks for taking up a real instrument!
Good Luck in your journeys. Tjhanks for taking up a real instrument!
Yes. The L2K is a really great bass with a lot of range. But it doesn't sound like a P bass. There are many that come pretty close including from G&L. Just like you well know how many snare tones are available.
Good news is that if want a P they are not hard to find. Welcome to TB.
Good news is that if want a P they are not hard to find. Welcome to TB.
Generally I am of the mind that most basses can be tweaked and EQed to fit most kinds of music. (Especially something like the L2000.) I also don’t like to jump to “buy more gear.”
BUT I’ll tell ya, my life changed when I got my P bass. I like the simplicity, and it just sounds “right” to me.
If you think you want a bunch of sounds on tap, maybe search “P bass tone on a L2000” cause you can get pretty close. My buddy (also doubles as a drummer) has one, sounds great and he loves it. But if you can’t shake the feeling you made the wrong choice, it wouldn’t be crazy to trade it in. It’s one of the most played electric basses for a reason.
If you can afford to pick up a P bass and play them side-by-side for a while, that wouldn’t be crazy either. Cause you might want 2 different basses on hand eventually. Doesn’t have to be a Fender, Squier CV are great, the LB100 is nice as well.
Good luck!
BUT I’ll tell ya, my life changed when I got my P bass. I like the simplicity, and it just sounds “right” to me.
If you think you want a bunch of sounds on tap, maybe search “P bass tone on a L2000” cause you can get pretty close. My buddy (also doubles as a drummer) has one, sounds great and he loves it. But if you can’t shake the feeling you made the wrong choice, it wouldn’t be crazy to trade it in. It’s one of the most played electric basses for a reason.
If you can afford to pick up a P bass and play them side-by-side for a while, that wouldn’t be crazy either. Cause you might want 2 different basses on hand eventually. Doesn’t have to be a Fender, Squier CV are great, the LB100 is nice as well.
Good luck!
Take the time to read this missive from Ken Baker about trying to get a P bass sound out of an L2000 (or an L1000 as far as I'm concerned).
It's not a P!
It's not a P!
I’ve got an L-2000, L-1000, LB-100 and a Fender P bass.
Start with the L-2000 having all knobs backed off to about 70% (including the volume) and use just the neck pickup, leave it in passive. Adjust from there. That should get you in the ballpark of the P tone. Exact, no. Ballpark. If you want a classic tone from an L, restraint is key.
You mentioned the L-1000. The L-1000 will be much closer to a L-2000 than to the P. So if the L-2000 isn’t ticking your boxes, cross the L-1000 off too.
FWIW, my LB-100 is just a little thicker and more aggressive than the Fender P, but it’s subtle.
Start with the L-2000 having all knobs backed off to about 70% (including the volume) and use just the neck pickup, leave it in passive. Adjust from there. That should get you in the ballpark of the P tone. Exact, no. Ballpark. If you want a classic tone from an L, restraint is key.
You mentioned the L-1000. The L-1000 will be much closer to a L-2000 than to the P. So if the L-2000 isn’t ticking your boxes, cross the L-1000 off too.
FWIW, my LB-100 is just a little thicker and more aggressive than the Fender P, but it’s subtle.
Adding a gratuitous picture because, well...
You can add a good P bass for cheap enough that keeping the G&L makes sense.
Used Squire Classic Vibe 60's or 70's Precision basses for $275 turn up often enough.
Old USA made Peavey Fury (P Bass) Basses come up for sale for $150 to $300 all the time.
You can also find good older P basses like a Yamaha BB300 for $150 to $300.
80's Ibanez RoadStar P Basses for $350.
Used Squire Classic Vibe 60's or 70's Precision basses for $275 turn up often enough.
Old USA made Peavey Fury (P Bass) Basses come up for sale for $150 to $300 all the time.
You can also find good older P basses like a Yamaha BB300 for $150 to $300.
80's Ibanez RoadStar P Basses for $350.
I had G&L L2000. Very too agressive sounding. Not my thing. Sold it. I play the P.
I have both. I would give up the P before the L2K.
Maybe if I was recording regularly, that preference would flip but in a live mix, the L2K can get close enough that nobody but you will be able to tell the difference. Then you have endless other tonal options to explore as well.
Maybe if I was recording regularly, that preference would flip but in a live mix, the L2K can get close enough that nobody but you will be able to tell the difference. Then you have endless other tonal options to explore as well.
Same.
P == plug and play, if that's the only sound you want, you don't need anything else. Rock on!
L2K == a million different sounds, can be a beast to get dialed in and switch on the fly, but it can do just about anything. Swiss Army Knife, as they say. (No, not an exact P sound as others have pointed out, but "close enough" for most purposes.)
I play my L2K a lot more than my P, for what it's worth, but I almost never play rock. YMMV.
Hmmm...ive had several G&Ls L series and I could get a pretty good P sound out of the neck pickups. Didnt take alot of tweaking either, but this is just my experience.
One thing to keep in mind is, for a lot of things, it's not so much that the P bass sounds necessarily better, but more because it just sounds familiar.I think that's the reason a lot of folks keep gravitating towards it and even insisting it sound better than anything, even modern basses.
Like my Tony Franklin, sure it sounds great in a funk, blues, soul type context. But that doesn't mean anything else won't sound good too. I can take out the jazz bass and play the same thing and it won't sound familiar, like the P bass if I run both PUs, but it still sounds good.
It's like Ken Baker's comments cited earlier, the L2K is a modern Fender, developed by Leo Fender, what 30 years after the P bass. So it sounds like Leo Fender designed it to sound in the 80's, not like his design from the 50's.
On my L2K, once I kind of let go of that and stopped trying to make it sound like a P bass for everything, I began to realize it really sounded great in a lot of the same contexts. It was just different but I found it to still work great for lots of things I was playing at the time.
Course now I'm all Fender, but that's incidental to other reasons why I got them. Another L2K is on the To-Get GAS list eventually...
L
Like my Tony Franklin, sure it sounds great in a funk, blues, soul type context. But that doesn't mean anything else won't sound good too. I can take out the jazz bass and play the same thing and it won't sound familiar, like the P bass if I run both PUs, but it still sounds good.
It's like Ken Baker's comments cited earlier, the L2K is a modern Fender, developed by Leo Fender, what 30 years after the P bass. So it sounds like Leo Fender designed it to sound in the 80's, not like his design from the 50's.
On my L2K, once I kind of let go of that and stopped trying to make it sound like a P bass for everything, I began to realize it really sounded great in a lot of the same contexts. It was just different but I found it to still work great for lots of things I was playing at the time.
Course now I'm all Fender, but that's incidental to other reasons why I got them. Another L2K is on the To-Get GAS list eventually...
L
Thanks for all of the incredible feedback guys. I forgot to mention that I can trade with Sweetwater for anything they have in stock, no charge. I went to Sam Ash and Guitar Center today and played everything and what stood out to me was the Fender Player Series P and the Sterling Indonesian HH. I do feel that the G&L is clearly higher quality than either of those however so maybe I'll swap for an LB-100. The Sterling was the Swiss Army knife I'm looking for but with the fullness and depth that is lacking to my ears with the L2000. Played side by side with the other options in the stores today, there is just no way I would select the L2000 even though it is wonderful to play and very well made. The signature tone of it is polarizing and my ears are not feeling it. I'll let ya'll know what happens. And drums are a real instrument 
I played a P for about 10 years and I thought it sounded okay. Then I started playing other basses like Rics, Ibanez, Warwick, EBMM and learned what I was missing. In comparison, a P just sounds boring. It’s probably unfair to say that a P only has one sound, but it certainly doesn’t have the tonal variety that a G&L has.
Interesting that so many here think they need "endless other tonal options" when a P Bass makes at least four or five of the most important sounds to reproduce the vast majority of electric bass recordings that have ever been made.
The other two things needed to make the rest of the sounds to reproduce the vast majority of recorded bass sounds ever made come from the Fender Jazz Bass and the MusicMan StingRay.
If the G&L L2000 could indeed reproduce the Precision, Jazz and StingRay sounds then it could do it all....except that it does not.
IMO a P-Bass and a StingRay will get about 95% and the Jazz bass addresses the remaining 5%.
Chia, it sounds like you are on the right track.
The other two things needed to make the rest of the sounds to reproduce the vast majority of recorded bass sounds ever made come from the Fender Jazz Bass and the MusicMan StingRay.
If the G&L L2000 could indeed reproduce the Precision, Jazz and StingRay sounds then it could do it all....except that it does not.
IMO a P-Bass and a StingRay will get about 95% and the Jazz bass addresses the remaining 5%.
Chia, it sounds like you are on the right track.
I'd say keep the L-2000, do the SCM mod (or get it done by a tech), and you'll have a very close P bass sound as well as a slew of other tone capabilities.
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