Growl - Where does it come from?

[Mr Antt]

Hi guys, so as the title clearly states - Where does it come from?

I've had my Pilot for little over a year now and it provides a nice growl, but what makes it like that?

Is the the neck trough design, or the scale, or the electronics, strings, what?

I hear a lot about Warwick growl, but what makes then better at it than a precision for example?

Can anyone explain this to me, and I apologise if there's already an answer out there, I just couldn't find it.

Thanks, Anthony.

 

[Rocky McDougall]

I think if you ask 20 players what Growl actually sounds like you will get 20 different opinions. Therefore since we do not have a definition of Growl, it's hard to say where it comes from. I usually associate the term Growl with the sound coming from an angry Dog, Lion or Alligator.
Rocky

 

[chadhargis]

I typically associate it with a more mid present sound, such as a P bass. It seems that boosting mids around 1khz will give you some "growl", at least by my definition.

 

[Barca_bass]

Some people may attribute it to certain strings. Rotosound 66's get mentioned a lot when the topic comes up along with HI Beams among many others. However, as Rocky stated, you could get many different opinions from different players.

 

[musicman666]

I have never heard an alligator growl.....

 

[DanHB18]

+1 to the midrange. Also, a bridge pup.

 

[conqr]

See - a lot of what's been said already I'd call 'bark' not 'growl'.

To me the essential character of growl is a granular 'rrrrrr' sound COMBINED with clear mids/lowmids. Crucial to that is roundwound strings. Broken in rounds can produce a great smooth grrrrrrrrrrrrowl.

 

[Jay2U]

I think (but don't know for sure) growl comes from a combination of harmonics. If enough frequencies are combined an oscillating pattern may be present on the resulting signal. It'll produce an odd wave shape wich keeps returning with a certain frequency.
I once analyzed a very low C#. The bassist thought to hear 17 Hz, but in reality it's more like 68 Hz with a repeating pattern at 17 Hz.

One second, captured and analyzed with Audacity.

 

[portlandguy]

It comes from a Jazz bass and thats about it,

 

[Aussie Player]

It comes from a Jazz bass and thats about it,

And a Squier Affinity 5, and an Alembic Essence 5, and a Warwick Thumb 4 and just about any other J pickup with rounds or half rounds, especially when plugged into Hartke amps.

 

[Tractorr]

I have never heard an alligator growl.....

They most certainly do.



Though I doubt I would want a bass that sounds like that.

 

[Solarmist]

Basses made from Dogwood of course.

 

[Duckwater]

All of my basses growl in a different way, some of them have a deep GRRRRR sound and some of them have a nasty snarl. It definitely comes from the midrange, and playing closer to the bridge helps but isn't required.

 

[RED J]

Is the the neck trough design, or the scale, or the electronics, strings, what?

Yes.

 

[nurnay]

It comes from a Jazz bass and thats about it,

Right. My Stingray growls like crazy. So does my Big Al.

 

[CrewsControl]

It comes from the wound wire turns rattling against each other as the string vibrates.

 

[sharpbass]

They most certainly do.



Though I doubt I would want a bass that sounds like that.

wow...they do growl

 

[sharpbass]

It comes from a Jazz bass and thats about it,

MM type pickups give off some nice growl too.

 

[grendle]

I have never heard an alligator growl.....

Sounds like a big bullfrog actually.

 

[RitchS]

They most certainly do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_nChjR23qA

Though I doubt I would want a bass that sounds like that.

Sounds more like alligator burping.