If somebody wants a P bass let em have a PBass
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G&L L2000 vs P-Bass
- Thread starter ChiaBass
- Start date
Play what inspires you. There's lots of great basses out there, but I only want my P and Ray, so I geddit man. Get that P.
I got a L2000 Tribby, and tried really hard to get a sound I liked...different amps, strings, setup....etc. I keep getting this mid-range, tubby, nasty, twangy edge to the sound..it kinda goes away in passive mode, but never completely.
Anybody have a tip on this? If not, I am selling it on....
Anybody have a tip on this? If not, I am selling it on....
G&L makes very P-like basses w/ slimmer bodies. Squire Affinity has the bodies the same size from front, but thinner.
IME, you need a P pickup at the correct position to sound like a P. A humbucker at the position comes close, but not identical.
OTOH, I tried a double PU Stingray w/ the 5-way switch, and at one position it did sound very much like a J bass.
IME, you need a P pickup at the correct position to sound like a P. A humbucker at the position comes close, but not identical.
OTOH, I tried a double PU Stingray w/ the 5-way switch, and at one position it did sound very much like a J bass.
Front pickup solo passive mode in parallel with gain rolled back to 80%, or if you’re in the return window and know what you’d rather have then do it to it.
Well I only have experience with a very early G&L L-1000 that I bought new in '82 (and still have), and I'll say that if you set the 3-way pickup switch to the center position it sounds pretty dead-on like the best P Bass ever.
Trade that bass for a Precision that feels good in your hands .
G&L basses are not for everyone , including me . My ears want to hear those organic Fender tones.
For me that’s found in a Jazz V, 70’s style Jazz and a 60’s style Precision.
I gave up on trying to find one bass to do it all. Just because something can get close to several different basses doesn’t make it the right bass for you. Get the right tools for you need and what your ears want to hear. If it sounds good and feels right go for it .
G&L basses are not for everyone , including me . My ears want to hear those organic Fender tones.
For me that’s found in a Jazz V, 70’s style Jazz and a 60’s style Precision.
I gave up on trying to find one bass to do it all. Just because something can get close to several different basses doesn’t make it the right bass for you. Get the right tools for you need and what your ears want to hear. If it sounds good and feels right go for it .
Not to jump in again, but below is a good video that, to me, shows the audible difference between the MFD pickup and a traditional P bass pickup. The basses are basically the same, but one has a traditional P pickup (an LB-100) and the other the MFD version (SB-1).
If you listen close, you can hear that the MFD is a better transducer. It gives a wider range of frequencies with less low frequency distortion. It sounds cleaner especially in the lows.
But notice that the traditional P pickup, has more of that kind of milk-chocolate P bass sound to it. Some of the mids are slightly more choked and there's more distortion on the bottom end. It's definitely a poorer transducer than the MFD, but the sound is actually really nice and chocolately. A little "dirtier".
I can envision in my mind about 50% of cases where I'd actually prefer the sound of the "poorer" pickup. But also the better MFD pickup I can hear a preference for in other situations.
So sometimes an improvement on a musical instrument isn't really an improvement. Sometimes you want the "poorer" equipment....
That's obviously not to take away from Leo Fender's development of the MFD. The MFD can do a lot that older pickups can't, such as give very aggressive tones for heavier styles of music and so forth.
But that's possibly why the MFD didn't achieve the popularity of Leo Fender's earlier designs in the P and J. He was just way ahead of his time in the early 80's, IMO. The MFD is like a tactical nuclear weapon - it sounds just way different, and it's just taking a while for music to kind of catch up, I guess you could say....
L
If you listen close, you can hear that the MFD is a better transducer. It gives a wider range of frequencies with less low frequency distortion. It sounds cleaner especially in the lows.
But notice that the traditional P pickup, has more of that kind of milk-chocolate P bass sound to it. Some of the mids are slightly more choked and there's more distortion on the bottom end. It's definitely a poorer transducer than the MFD, but the sound is actually really nice and chocolately. A little "dirtier".
I can envision in my mind about 50% of cases where I'd actually prefer the sound of the "poorer" pickup. But also the better MFD pickup I can hear a preference for in other situations.
So sometimes an improvement on a musical instrument isn't really an improvement. Sometimes you want the "poorer" equipment....
That's obviously not to take away from Leo Fender's development of the MFD. The MFD can do a lot that older pickups can't, such as give very aggressive tones for heavier styles of music and so forth.
But that's possibly why the MFD didn't achieve the popularity of Leo Fender's earlier designs in the P and J. He was just way ahead of his time in the early 80's, IMO. The MFD is like a tactical nuclear weapon - it sounds just way different, and it's just taking a while for music to kind of catch up, I guess you could say....
L
Try different heights of the pickups. On my L2K, lowering them made the tone a little "rounder" - In fact, on the neck PU, I took the support springs out from under the PU and screwed it down firm all the way into the body. That gave a really close approximation of a P bass tone out of it.
Or, try raising the PU
. Or raising the pole pieces. That will do the opposite and increase the distortion. That might add a different type of chocolate to the sound. I did this for a while with the bridge PU on mine and it gave a very unique hard tone with it like that.Basically, yeah it'll be hard to make it sound exactly like a Fender. You can get close but not all the way there...
L
There are too many stories here of people regretting giving up their L2000, and you like it, just not for that one sound you're looking for. Don't become one of those stories.
So keep the G&L and go find a Silvertone LB11. $200 new, $100-150 used. A really solid P-clone that you can easily upgrade as desired. Then later on, if you want to upgrade to another P you can, and you'll get most of the cost back out of the Silvertone.
So keep the G&L and go find a Silvertone LB11. $200 new, $100-150 used. A really solid P-clone that you can easily upgrade as desired. Then later on, if you want to upgrade to another P you can, and you'll get most of the cost back out of the Silvertone.
I’m a diehard P bass guy. I owned a L2000 but it didn’t do it for me. Great bass, but too much to fuss with for my tastes. Lb100 is an excellent choice.
Good advice. Roll the volume back to about 70% to take some of the MFD bite out of the tone and you'll be pretty much there.
The P Bass does one tone really well, and if that's the only tone you want, keep the P. An L2k is good at a lot of different tones, nothing wrong with owning both. In general the fit and finish and overall bang/buck is far superior on G&L.
We play a big range of genres. I go ready for all of 'em with Pearl and Lightning. A Swiss army knife and a hammer. Lightning has no frets; close enough, just don't slide.
I'll jump in to echo this advice. It's easy to think of volume controls as on/off switches, but due to the nature of passive circuits, volume controls can be used as a tone control too, especially with MFDs, which appear to be designed to take advantage of this.
That's a really good point. Newer designs are not inherently better from a musical perspective. One example is Baroque and Classical music, where some musicians are using old ("antiquated") instruments in order to present the music more as it would have been heard when it was written. Contrast that with some recordings of Bach from the 1950s, with 80 or 100 players in a symphony orchestra using "improved" modern instruments--the music certainly doesn't sound "improved!" On the flip side, playing 20th century atonal (chromatic) music on an 18th century just-temperament instrument would be somewhere between ridiculous and impossible. All of which to say, the design and sound of an instrument is very much in conversation with the music being played on it.
Hope you get exactly what you want!
I had a very close experience. After a couple decades playing a vintage jazz bass I wanted something different. I got a '95 L2000 and dug it so custom ordered another from G&L. When I got it it looked and felt amazing but something just wasn't right, I just didn't gel with it and struggled to get the sound I wanted. I had also been missing the P looks, feel, and sound which is what I had started with back in my teens. I sold the L2Ks and found a '17 G&L SB-1 in near mint condition for $800 locally and jumped on it. Love this bass, feels and sounds right, simple no bs. There a lot of options for instruments out there but it comes down to what speaks to you and feels right.
Seems to me that P-basses and pretty much everything else are almost different instruments.
P-basses are designed to fit into music in a sonic area that provides great support and fundamental but doesn't assert itself in any particular way. If that is your goal, there's just no better choice.
Just about every other bass design exists to, in comparison to a P-bass, draw attention to itself. If drawing attention to yourself is your goal, anything other than a P-bass is the right choice. Which I mean sincerely; John Patitucci would sound silly playing a P-bass on one of his bandleader records; it's not the right tool.
For this reason, if you're like many bass players, you might want a P-bass and also something else.
P-basses are designed to fit into music in a sonic area that provides great support and fundamental but doesn't assert itself in any particular way. If that is your goal, there's just no better choice.
Just about every other bass design exists to, in comparison to a P-bass, draw attention to itself. If drawing attention to yourself is your goal, anything other than a P-bass is the right choice. Which I mean sincerely; John Patitucci would sound silly playing a P-bass on one of his bandleader records; it's not the right tool.
For this reason, if you're like many bass players, you might want a P-bass and also something else.
There are so many thousands of recordings that we are all familiar with, in many genres of music, that render that statement untrue.
Different playing styles/techniques/positions/pick/fingers/foam mute
Types/brands of strings
Brands/models of P pickups
Different amps and amp settings
Pre-amps and effects boxes
Different recording equipment and studio magic
A P-Bass produces a greater number of commonly recorded bass tones and the L2000 produces a greater number of tones unique to G&L basses.
My advise to Chia would be to buy a good used P Bass for less than $300 and trade his G&L for a Sterling by Musicman - StingRay Classic Ray24CA.
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@ChiaBass
You won't have to browse my post history long before you find some type of G&L advocacy. I love their basses and own 4 G&Ls myself. The LB100 is a great bass, and IMO, is what I want a P bass to sound like. Long story short, 9 times out of 10, a G&L is going to feel and sound better than any Fender. I've A/B tested dozens of G&L to it's Fender equivalent and G&L wins pretty much every time. I linked Ed Friedlands review of the LB100, great bass review.
The G&L LB100s do tend to have more mids present in the tone over Fenders, but not to an extreme. I have flatwounds on mine and it is butter. Also, G&L tone controls when rolled off tend to get very mid present and can sometimes have the 'underwater' sound. For me it's not a problem because the most I ever roll off the tone is to 7 or 8; then take care of the rest on the pre-amp.
Like others have mentioned, if you can afford to keep the L2k tribute, keep it. It will voce the aggressive humbucker sound when you need it. If you need to have that classic P tone, nothing will ever satisfy that craving. I suggest going with a Tribute or Fender MIM (Player Precision $700) while you're new to bass. Don't drop a ton of money until you get more experience and have a deeper understand of what you need for a specific band/project/look.
If you need to go cheaper, the Squire CV P basses aren't bad.
Or if you just want to say screw it, there's plenty of used LB100s or Fender Ps the post in the classifieds. Typically in that $900-1200 range.
You won't have to browse my post history long before you find some type of G&L advocacy. I love their basses and own 4 G&Ls myself. The LB100 is a great bass, and IMO, is what I want a P bass to sound like. Long story short, 9 times out of 10, a G&L is going to feel and sound better than any Fender. I've A/B tested dozens of G&L to it's Fender equivalent and G&L wins pretty much every time. I linked Ed Friedlands review of the LB100, great bass review.
The G&L LB100s do tend to have more mids present in the tone over Fenders, but not to an extreme. I have flatwounds on mine and it is butter. Also, G&L tone controls when rolled off tend to get very mid present and can sometimes have the 'underwater' sound. For me it's not a problem because the most I ever roll off the tone is to 7 or 8; then take care of the rest on the pre-amp.
Like others have mentioned, if you can afford to keep the L2k tribute, keep it. It will voce the aggressive humbucker sound when you need it. If you need to have that classic P tone, nothing will ever satisfy that craving. I suggest going with a Tribute or Fender MIM (Player Precision $700) while you're new to bass. Don't drop a ton of money until you get more experience and have a deeper understand of what you need for a specific band/project/look.
If you need to go cheaper, the Squire CV P basses aren't bad.
Or if you just want to say screw it, there's plenty of used LB100s or Fender Ps the post in the classifieds. Typically in that $900-1200 range.
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