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Getting bottom end out of P bass

R

reptocarl

Guest
Nov 3, 2017
19
14
#1
Hello all, I read an interesting interview with the late great John Entwistle. He stated and I quote "with a Fender you get a lot of treble but no bass and with a Gibson you get a lot of bass but no treble" which is why he went to Alembic at the time. He felt the Alembic gave him both. I love his sound and was wondering which pickup in a P bass would get semi close to that? Thank you
 
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#2
I have never had trouble getting low end out of any P bass. I believe Entwistle's comment wasn't entirely on the mark. I never thought of Entwistle's tone as having much low end anyway. It did seem to appear that he went to great expense anyway with his bass and rig to produce low end content that no one really heard. Too much low end gets lost in the mix or piles up in corners creating issues.
 
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#3
No low end out of a P bass?
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reptocarl said:
Hello all, I read an interesting interview with the late great John Entwistle. He stated and I quote "with a Fender you get a lot of treble but no bass and with a Gibson you get a lot of bass but no treble" which is why he went to Alembic at the time. He felt the Alembic gave him both. I love his sound and was wondering which pickup in a P bass would get semi close to that? Thank you
Click to expand...
 
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#4
Coolhandjjl said:
I have never had trouble getting low end out of any P bass. I believe Entwistle's comment wasn't entirely on the mark. I never thought of Entwistle's tone as having much low end anyway. It did seem to appear that he went to great expense anyway with his bass and rig to produce low end content that no one really heard. Too much low end gets lost in the mix or piles up in corners creating issues.
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Interesting thank you
 
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#5
Entwistle also played in such a way that too much low end would be highly dangerous, actually. His dynamics were crazy, so if he cranked the fundamentals really hard, at some point he'd be blasting people's ears off as well as PA speakers. Solved by a limiter, though. But if he used aggressive limiting, that would easily be set off by tremendous low end. A multiband limiter solves that, tho.

As much as I respect him as a bass player I think he didn't really understand gear whatsoever. Not that he had to, anyhow, he's iconic for reasons other than his gear, which I hope more people would be.
 
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#6
Entwistle had an addictive personality defect that manifested itself in collecting an absurd number of basses, spending an inordinate of money on his rig chasing a mythical tone that couldn't exist, and snorting copious amounts of cocaine. Compare that to some of his contemporaries like Roger Glover or John Paul Jones who just plugged in and played excellent bass lines.
 
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#7
reptocarl said:
Hello all, I read an interesting interview with the late great John Entwistle. He stated and I quote "with a Fender you get a lot of treble but no bass and with a Gibson you get a lot of bass but no treble" which is why he went to Alembic at the time. He felt the Alembic gave him both. I love his sound and was wondering which pickup in a P bass would get semi close to that? Thank you
Click to expand...
What amp are you using?
 
#9
Coolhandjjl said:
Entwistle had an addictive personality defect that manifested itself in collecting an absurd number of basses, spending an inordinate of money on his rig chasing a mythical tone that couldn't exist, and snorting copious amounts of cocaine. Compare that to some of his contemporaries like Roger Glover or John Paul Jones who just plugged in and played excellent bass lines.
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Good point
 
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#14
Coolhandjjl said:
Entwistle had an addictive personality defect that manifested itself in collecting an absurd number of basses, spending an inordinate of money on his rig chasing a mythical tone that couldn't exist, and snorting copious amounts of cocaine. Compare that to some of his contemporaries like Roger Glover or John Paul Jones who just plugged in and played excellent bass lines.
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And still he was one of the best Bass players to date
 
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#15
Based on my opinion as someone that currently owns several P basses, a Gibson, and an Alembic...

Fact. A P bass is midrangey (not trebley) and a Gibson is bassy. An Alembic doesn't have either problem.

But, John's opinion was based on facts from a long time ago. A P bass isn't lacking in low end potential, and a Gibson doesn't have to have muddy low end. Any of the three can work in pretty much any situation.

Amps and PA's are a lot better than they used to be.
 
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#18
reptocarl said:
Hello all, I read an interesting interview with the late great John Entwistle. He stated and I quote "with a Fender you get a lot of treble but no bass and with a Gibson you get a lot of bass but no treble" which is why he went to Alembic at the time. He felt the Alembic gave him both. I love his sound and was wondering which pickup in a P bass would get semi close to that? Thank you
Click to expand...

you might find this interesting

The basic flaw in the p-bass
 
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#19
bolophonic said:
Has the OP ever heard a Precision bass, or just read about them?
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Whenever someone points out that the p-bass is not 100% perfection some people here get threatened

The truth is if you want to get a lot of treble and a lot of bass out of a p-bass it doesn't really co-operate

Also the truth is the p-bass is a low mid focused instrument.
 
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