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Good All Around Bass

#26
I'd say it depends on what kind of metal you want to play. And again, what feels right to you. I'd say a P is a good choice one way or the other if you can't decide. However, I'd also recommend against spending all your money now ESPECIALLY since you've been playing for six months. You may spend 900 bucks or something and get a really fabulous bass, but is still really might not be what you're looking for. I also say you should play anyhting you can get your hands on before you buy.
 
#27
MarkTAW said:
Weird, I always grew up thinking a J was more versatile because you can dial in how much you want of each pickup for something close to a P style with just the neck pickup, a classic J, and the bridge pickup for more of a stingray sound.

Anything with two pickups should give you more tonal versatility than something with 1 pickup. If you really want versatility and you get a P you're going to wonder why you got something with just 1 pickup down the line...

The laklands mentioned are probably great, they have an excellent reputation.

FWIW, the most versatile bass I've ever played was one of the Ibanezes with the "Vari-Mid" EQ system. The sweepable mid EQ gives them a ton of tonal variety. The only reason I didn't get it was that I hated the neck profile, but if I could get the electronics separately for a frankenfender project I'd pick them up in a minute.
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Very true about those Ibby's, I recently bout a 95 SR1305pm. Killer sound and now that I've gotten used to it I love the neck profile. It's got a wenge/bubinga neck and defretted wenge board, which is just a blast!

BillMason said:
Depends on how you define versatile - a J bass has many tonal options, but how many tonal options do you need? The one (or many, depending on the versatility of your right hand technique) that a P bass does is itself very versatile, and applicable to many styles of music, which makes it a very versatile bass.
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+ 1,000
 
#29
I've got to respectfully disagree with the people who are saying a P is the most versatile. I've played a P since the 70's and several of my favorite players are noted for playing Precisions (Jamerson and Duck Dunn, of course), but I think the golden age of P is behind us. With all the new instruments and electronics a P may have a hard time cutting through, not for all styles or instrumentations, but for many. I'm playing a Sadowsky M5-24 now for just that reason, and my next bass will be a boutique J 5er. I don't care about having a *lot* of sounds, but I have had trouble with getting sufficient clarity out of a P in a modern ensemble setting, as much as I love them. Maybe you've got a brighter touch so you don't have this problem, but Larry Graham, Marcus, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, and a million other great bassists play J's and I, in my far humbler way, am going to join them. I've got two Precisions, they're wonderful basses, and I never touch them any more.

-Steve
 
#30
steve9000gi said:
I've got to respectfully disagree with the people who are saying a P is the most versatile. I've played a P since the 70's and several of my favorite players are noted for playing Precisions (Jamerson and Duck Dunn, of course), but I think the golden age of P is behind us. With all the new instruments and electronics a P may have a hard time cutting through, not for all styles or instrumentations, but for many. I'm playing a Sadowsky M5-24 now for just that reason, and my next bass will be a boutique J 5er. I don't care about having a *lot* of sounds, but I have had trouble with getting sufficient clarity out of a P in a modern ensemble setting, as much as I love them. Maybe you've got a brighter touch so you don't have this problem, but Larry Graham, Marcus, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, and a million other great bassists play J's and I, in my far humbler way, am going to join them. I've got two Precisions, they're wonderful basses, and I never touch them any more.

-Steve
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Respectful disagreement noted. Hmmm... what do you mean by a modern ensemble? I'm playing modern rock, country, blues and traditional maritime music with two guitar players and a drummer, and the P is perfect. Are there new instruments being used these days that I am not aware of?
 
#34
nortonrider said:
What is traditional maritime music???
The only song I can think of that fits that title is: row, row, row your boat.
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That's because you're from Colorado. :)

Lukie's Boat
Mary Mac
Drunken Sailor
Last Shanty
Rattlin' Bog
Sonny's Dream
Barret's Privateers (almost anything from Stan Rogers, great but dead songwriter)

Typically root-five stuff on the bass, sometimes with four or more chords, but quite commonly with only two or three chords, but the fewer the chords, the faster the tempo. :)

Bar-goers in the Canadian Maritime provinces really get into this stuff, especially any song that mentions Halifax or St. John's in the lyrics. Easy to dance to when drunk. Arrrrrrr matey...
 
#35
Yeah, I'm one of those against the P-bass for your styles.

If you can find one, try to find a nice bass with P/J pickups. The P alone is good for SOME things (which it does nicely, don't hate me!), but if you add a J at the bridge, you just added about 15000% more tonal options.

Plus, if you're a fingerstyle player, a lot of us like to have a place to anchor your thumb, and the P bass pickup doesn't work to well for that in my opinion.

In conclusion, I would see if you can find a nice used Ibanez Prestige Soundgear with a P/J pickup, A nice Jazz bass, Schecters, Spectors, used Musicman (I like the Sterlings the best!) or a bass that I recently started using, the G&L Tribute L-2000!
 
#36
BillMason said:
Respectful disagreement noted. Hmmm... what do you mean by a modern ensemble? I'm playing modern rock, country, blues and traditional maritime music with two guitar players and a drummer, and the P is perfect. Are there new instruments being used these days that I am not aware of?
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Yeah, I'm with you that a P works well with guitars and drums (if the guitarists are cool about rolling off their own potentially boomy low ends, but that's always been the case anyway, and not just with P's: good examples of that kind of mix thoughtfulness notably include Motown (Jamerson) and Stax (Duck Dunn)). I'm talking about the guys I work with most Saturday nights with a stack of synths, plus electronic drums and percussion, all with a bunch of hi-fi amplification and enhancements (you know, compression, delay and other fx).

And as far as getting a PJ, that's a good idea -- I did add a Lindy Fralin J pickup at the bridge on one of my P's and I like it -- but it just made me want to go further: a 5 string (although those are available in PJ configurations, too, of course), but, aw hell, I figured let's just roll with the AC single coil J's in both positions (inspired by the sound Paul Turner gets with Jamiroquoi). Besides, it's not like the Wailers' bass player couldn't get enough bottom with his traditional stock Jazz.

Nonetheless, I don't think I'll ever get rid of my '60 P.

-Steve
 
#39
For $1,000.00 you can have a NICE Carvin built to your specs.(I like Carvin,because there is NO MIDDLE-MAN,and it's made in the USA.): Look them up and see what you think. I have a nice 4-string and a fretless 5-string....both are "Killer" basses.
Kent:bassist:
 

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