Gig last night ruined me.

[MDBass]

We played last night and I brought my mesa 800+ and my markbass cl 108. Plugged my bongo 5HH into my vt bass and had volume that made me happy.
Next band goes on and bass player rolls out a small ampeg cab and sets a rack on it containing an aguilar 751. Plugs in his precision and has the best tone I have heard at this venue, I have done 100's of shows there.
Afterwords I go talk to him about it and he tells me it is the sansamp pedal he is running into the aggy. The 751 is set flat. I have used sansamp before at church gigs but I have never had a tone like that.
As soon as I woke up this morning and 4 hours later I am haunted by that tone. I don't know what to do.
It's got to be the 751, right?

As someone who used that exact rig for years, it's absolutely both.

The sound of the BDDI will vary dramatically depending on how it's set, and the DB751 set flat just makes the tone you're sending it sound massive; it's definitely warm and fat sounding, but the BDDI is a much more colored preamp.

If the gain on the DB751 was also set at noon, it was adding additional drive and harmonic color on top of the BDDI as well.

 

[Pat C.]

Was the bass being run through the PA?

 

[WardEarth]

Your quest for tone perfection continues. So few of us ever reach the magically elusive tone nirvana.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Have you ever heard your bass and rig being played while you are in the audience?. I bet it sounds different than what you hear onstage.

 

[aaronious]

I don't know what the magic is but the last time I heard a P bass going through a 751, it too was the sweetest, most powerful and beautiful tone I'd ever heard.

One time was George Porter Jr. And the other was Garret Sayers on a Sadowsky pj. Both at the same venue, amps set up on different sides of the stage. Same results. Tonal Nirvana.

Get a 751.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Just curious, was the sans amp going through the effects loop, or Bass>Sans amp>751 input ?

this...

 

[bumperbass]

this...

Well?

 

[mesaplayer83]

I think his lack of anything MarkBass is his biggest advantage.....

This...

 

[keith1r]

It’s the bass

 

[mesaplayer83]

Pbass

And more importantly, this...

 

[mesaplayer83]

maybe it was the player ...

And probably this

 

[McG]

Maybe it was the combination of his bass, the pre, the amp and the cabinet? That's a lot of variables... just sayin'

Exactly! When I was chasing my sound I quickly discovered that there was more than amp and cabinet involved. The end result of tone comes from a combination of bass, pickup, strings, amp and cabinet. It took much trial and error to piece the puzzle together and find my happy place. Effects pedals definitely are part of the equation too, however I found ditching my board and going straight into the amp worked best for my style.

Of course, let's not forget that technique has MUCH to do with your tone as well. And if you're going DI to FOH then many other variables come into play.

 

[chris_b]

I always sound different on stage when playing my gear to listening from off-stage to another bassist playing his gear.

Your comparison is not apples and apples.

 

[muddycreek]

I don't know what the magic is but the last time I heard a P bass going through a 751, it too was the sweetest, most powerful and beautiful tone I'd ever heard.

One time was George Porter Jr. And the other was Garret Sayers on a Sadowsky pj. Both at the same venue, amps set up on different sides of the stage. Same results. Tonal Nirvana.

Get a 751.

Or get to the woodshed.

My old band had two guitarists. One a good singer songwriter who plays hard all the time. The other is my third favorite guitarist, with fantastic tone, touch, and musicality. Totally different equipment, but all reasonable-to-good. At practice, guitarist A was trying to figure out what gear would help his tone. Both had been playing a similar moderately overdriven tone. I asked them to try an experiment, and without changing anything, just trade places.

I expected some of the tone to follow guitarist B. I was ASTONISHED at the change. I'd say fully 80% of the overall tone went with the players. Guitarist B maintained the same level of quality in his tone, for lack of a better word, and just had some relatively minor tonal changes. A little more midrange bite, a little less air on top. Guitarist A sounded even more similar after switching, really just more string noise from lower action.

It was an eye opener.

 

[Ewo]

Another quite funny experience that properly any piano player is pretty much familiar with.
You may play a couple of songs on an upright piano in a bar just for fun. Then another piano player might come up and plays a couple of another songs. The sound "perceived" as listener can be way different to the sound perceived while playing the piano.

Yeah, that's the line I was thinking along, too.

 

[todd0864]

With my limited experience gigging, I played some tunes, then I went in to the audience while one of the guitar players played my rig on a couple tunes, I heard little nuances of tone I could not hear while I played. It was pretty awesome, and ear opening. We were using a VTDI if that helps. I look forward to hearing that again one day.

 

[Engle]

What cab?

 

[bobba66]

Precision is the bass you hear in your head, when you want to hear the bass.

 

[moogieotter]

Did he get the 751 yet?

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Well?

...makes a huge difference. If the SansAmp is running into the input of the amp, you are getting both the tone of the SansAmp and the tone of the amplifier itself. If you run the SansAmp into the effects return, you are bypassing the preamp of the amplifier completely and only getting the tone of the sans amp. This is what I do. Big difference. Does OP know the answer to the question of how the guy was running the SansAmp?