how bass parts affect your sound?

[Basshole]

....except physics

Yeah, well, I never claimed I was a physician

I can see what your trying to say and it's true, how the body resonates with the string and their interaction must play a part in creating tone. The question really is how much of an effect does it have?

Enough to have a greater effect than pre-amp, technique, string choice?

No, I don't believe so...and if you read my first post in this thread, you'll see that I listed it AFTER all of these things you just mentioned, as a factor in sound. In fact, I listed body composition just ahead of "weather" and "planet alignment".

 

[The Penguin]

Read for comprehension. Here's what I said:

"Not that I want to be involved in that tangent"

I've said nothing about the tangent that you're on, only that YOU started with the pretend science comment in this thread, something you still deny.

What is my position on the actual subject?

That's right, you don't know because I didn't get involved with it.


Yes, I'm "involved" because I made a simple observation.

Yes, that's irony. It's also hamster... another word that doesn't fit the situation.

And speaking of dishonest... You accuse someone of bringing up what you clearly brought up yourself:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3404692&postcount=71

That's dishonest... thanks for the proof.

You've convinced me, you're totally cool dude!

 

[Brad Johnson]

You've convinced me, you're totally cool dude!

And you seem like the prototypical dodger. Sweet.

 

[The Penguin]

Well you've never been wrong before... Your name calling skills are excellent too.

 

[Brad Johnson]

First, my experience is that, due to the variable nature of wood, alder and ash Jazzes don't *always* sound different. We've had this argument before, so we can agree to disagree.

Agreed... we disagree. More often than not they do sound different. Very different.

Second: I've never said or even implied that wood doesn't make a difference in tone... only that it's importance is far, far less than pickups and electronics. In your example above, you're comparing an apple to an apple: J-basses. Pickups and electronics remain the same, so you're comparing wood versus wood.

Agreed... we disagree.

To compare wood versus electronics, you need to compare apples and oranges, as I did. As I said, P-basses, J-basses, and Stingrays are essentially the same bass: solidbody bolt-on. The slight differences in shape and dimensions aren't a factor in tone. If we take a J-bass, remove the pickups and electronics, install a Stingray pickup in the correct location, and the Stingray preamp, then we now have a bass that looks like a J-bass but sounds like a Stingray. This is true regardless of whether the body is ash, alder, or poplar, or whether the fingerboard is maple, rosewood, morado.

So Stingrays sound like Stingrays regardless of wood? I emphatically agree to disagree on that one. If that were true, OLPs with an Ernie Ball pickup would sound just like a Stingray. They don't.

BTW I mentioned our previous conversation to someone today and you were wrong... he recorded an electric bass with a microphone and the bass was unplugged.

So: if someone says "I want to sound like Jaco", people say "buy a J-bass". They don't say "Jaco's round tone came from alder, so it's OK to buy an alder P-bass".

"People" say all sorts of things... does that make them correct? Of course not. People say buy a compressor if you want to slap

If someone told me they wanted to sound like Jaco, my main focus would be on technique, not the instrument. And a Jazz bass is hardly that important anymore in getting what's considered the Jaco sound. You can do it on a Roscoe, Ibanez, Cort, etc. None of them are Jazz basses, so how did boiling it down to a Jazz help?

It didn't. Especially if they get the typical Ash Jazz (the ones that are tonally different from the Alder ones that you haven't experienced)

Of course if someone merely wants to pay lip service to the issue and not really give a useful answer, "buy a Jazz" is as easy as anything. Might as well tell them to buy an Acoustic 360 while they're at it... or some fried chicken.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Well you've never been wrong before... Your name calling skills are excellent too.

What would you call someone who's doing what you're doing? I described what you did.

You are clearly dodging the fact that you said what you said and then accused someone else of doing it. There's a shorter name for that but I'm being polite. Then you call something ironic which clearly wasn't. No doubt who's wrong on both counts.

Forget I pointed out anything you did.

 

[Brad Johnson]

You've convinced me, you're totally cool dude!

Oh noess, you called me a name. First.


Just kidding. Unwad them at will.

 

[BassDudeSA]

If someone told me they wanted to sound like Jaco, my main focus would be on technique, not the instrument.

Few truer statements have ever been written than that.

 

[Showdown]

Pup's make a huge impact and I think the bridge does also. My son has a very similar bass to mine but with EMG JV pups/no active EQ and a BAII bridge. My bass (almost exactly like his) doesn't sound as good with a Hipshot B bridge and Bart's with Bart pre.

Of course what sounds better is a subjective thing. I'm pretty sure I would think your bass sounds better. I've always liked the sound of Barts and have never been crazy about the sound of EMGs. No one can say definatively that one pickup sounds better than another, only that they like the sound better.

 

[ThumbyAche]

This thread is getting pretty funny. I think that changing the pickups and bridge made a big difference on the jazz basses I am comparing. I have played many basses with Barts and EMG's and Badass II's and Hipshot bridges. Just my opinion that on this particular type of bass, I favored the EMG/Badass combo over the Bart/Bart/Hipshot combo. I am more Barty than I am an EMG'er. Subjective though for sure, although I thought the point of all this was to give opinion's.
Aw, what the heck...everybody needs to put EMG's and a Badass bridge on their jazz bass...starting with Showdown...ok fire away.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Few truer statements have ever been written than that.

Pssst... keep it between me and you... I don't want to screw up the market

 

[BassDudeSA]

Pssst... keep it between me and you... I don't want to screw up the market

You are right on that one. But many of us are here because we believe playing bass is fun. And to get more out of the hobby we like to blow things out of proportion and focus sometimes on insignificant detail. Hey, it sells basses and keeps luthiers in business. So I'll just sit back and watch people debate the issues, as if it all really even makes a difference anyway.

 

[The Penguin]

Forget I pointed out anything you did.

Your wish is my command master.

 

[Brad Johnson]

You are right on that one. But many of us are here because we believe playing bass is fun. And to get more out of the hobby we like to blow things out of proportion and focus sometimes on insignificant detail. Hey, it sells basses and keeps luthiers in business. So I'll just sit back and watch people debate the issues, as if it all really even makes a difference anyway.

Agreed. It's the sum of the instrument and even more fundamental, what you do with it that matters. Learn how to play, find a bass you like and play the damned thing.

Oops, did it again. Mums the word.

 

[SnakeAnthony]

I'm late to this. But I'll toss in my .02 anyway...

In Passive Electric Bass Guitars:

1.Technique
2.Technique
3.Technique
4. Pickups
5. Strings
6. Fingeboard Wood
7. Body Wood
8. Bridge

In active EBGs, just put the preamp behind the last Technique and before pickups, because thats where you adjusting the levels in your sound.

In ABG/URB its pretty much the same. But there Fingerboard and Body Wood are about equal, probably switching them and placing the Body Wood above Fingerboard wood but still behind strings.

 

[tradition_2kill]

pickups/ electronics give me the sound, the wood gives me the feel

 

[BassGreaser]

I think a good way to bust all this talk about woods, preamps, pickups is to look at the great Anthony Jackson. I heard him play, but never noticed that his bass has only one pickup that is hardwired to the output jack with no controls at all. He gets such a wide arrange of tones just from different plucking technique. I've heard him make that bass sound like an upright bass, and then in the very next song make is sound like the most modern sounding slab bass you've heard. SO my vote is your hands as the biggest affect of tone

 

[Showdown]

This thread is getting pretty funny. I think that changing the pickups and bridge made a big difference on the jazz basses I am comparing. I have played many basses with Barts and EMG's and Badass II's and Hipshot bridges. Just my opinion that on this particular type of bass, I favored the EMG/Badass combo over the Bart/Bart/Hipshot combo. I am more Barty than I am an EMG'er. Subjective though for sure, although I thought the point of all this was to give opinion's.
Aw, what the heck...everybody needs to put EMG's and a Badass bridge on their jazz bass...starting with Showdown...ok fire away.

Now, now. I wasn't attacking you, just trying to point out that what sounds better to you may not sound better to other people.

For example, I've had a Jazz with a Badass, but I prefer the standard Fender style stamped bridge. My Lakland JO4 with a bridge that is basically the same as a Fender just shaped differently sounds better to me than the Jazz with Badass did. The Jazz with Badass sounded better with the original bridge to my ears than with the Badass. That doesn't mean it sounds better, it means it sounds better to me. YMMV.

 

[SnakeAnthony]

I think a good way to bust all this talk about woods, preamps, pickups is to look at the great Anthony Jackson. I heard him play, but never noticed that his bass has only one pickup that is hardwired to the output jack with no controls at all. He gets such a wide arrange of tones just from different plucking technique. I've heard him make that bass sound like an upright bass, and then in the very next song make is sound like the most modern sounding slab bass you've heard. SO my vote is your hands as the biggest affect of tone

I agree that your technique is the BIGGEST factor in your sound, by far. But certain things will change, when you switch from a Gibson with Mudbuckers to a P Bass or a Jazz. Certain things are gonna change when you add/remove a preamp. You will definatly hear a difference between steel roundwounds and nickel flats. So give other things their due, but remember that you will ALWAYS sound like you.

 

[BassGreaser]

I agree that your technique is the BIGGEST factor in your sound, by far. But certain things will change, when you switch from a Gibson with Mudbuckers to a P Bass or a Jazz. Certain things are gonna change when you add/remove a preamp. You will definatly hear a difference between steel roundwounds and nickel flats. So give other things their due, but remember that you will ALWAYS sound like you.

I fully agree..but it seem people get caught up too much with all this affects that thing, when they should be working more on their technique to get the tone they want, THEN fine tune it with pickups, preamps, and such