How do I get the Thumb Bass sound using a Non Thumb?

My thumb nt 6 has a ton of low mid growl lol especially the fretless. Just saying. Mind you I have a 3 band preamp by bartolini with low mid and high and individual pick up volume control. This in response to those saying the 6 doesn't have as much low mid growl

 

thanks man

got another one in the works. pretty excited

 

cosmetic man. I don't subscribe to the idea that wood has an affect on tone.

so long as it looks good, feels good and is structurally sound, im happy

price was um.......high. lets put it that way lol.

 

I will answer your question in its corresponding order:

1. My observation has been that the Thumb 5 is more aggressive due absolutely to the pickup placement. Even the Thumb 5 2-band bolt-on is more aggressive than the 4 and 6 Thumbs because of the pickup placement. In my opinion the reasons are as follows:
a) The Thumb 5 uses two jazz-shaped pickups. Because they are naturally slim-shaped pickups, they are placed closer together and are also both placed closer to the bridge because they fit there. Not only that, but those are split-coil pickups with the two coils placed in-line within the pickup, thus saving space and allowing both pickups to be placed closer together and closer to the bridge. This placement allows the pickups to capture that low-mid nasally attack naturally present close to the bridge due to the higher tension around the bridge. (This is how Jaco got his tone when panning to the bridge pickup only). Also, notice that the slant of the pickups is parallel to the bridge saddles, allowing for even distances from the bridge saddles across the strings. Thus, providing consistent attack across the strings. This is why some builders, such as Dingwall, will slant their pickups parallel to the slanted placement of the bridge saddles.
b) The Thumb 4, however, uses the exact same pickups but places the neck pickup further away from the bridge and closer to the neck. This reduces some of the low-mid and nasally attack because the neck pickup is capturing a "floppier" vibration, which is more present the closer to the neck you go. Not only that, but the neck pickup is placed perpendicular to the strings and not slanted parallel to the bridge saddles.
c) The Thumb 6 uses two soapbar-shaped pickups which are also split-coil. However, the coils in those pickups are placed just as you would find in a P pickup, and the treble coil is closer to the neck with the bass coil closer to the bridge. Now, the soapbars are not thin like the jazz pickups. Therefore, they are not placed as close together, and together are not placed as close to the bridge, although they are both slanted parallel to the slant of the bridge saddles. Combine all of that with the P placement of the coils, and this is why the Thumb 6 also has slightly less attack than the 5.

2) With regards to sustain, I could not tell you because I've never really paid attention to that other than I know that my notes have always rung fine.

3) Yes, the bolt-ons have 2-band pre-amps. And yes, mids is an integral part of the equation. But this is easily remedied by installing a 3-band pre-amp.

I hope this helps.

 

The bolt on is supposedly more naturally mid-range-y from what I've heard; so the mids are already there and kinda makes up for not having a mid knob. I never touch the onboard eq, but you could always do the 'poor man's mid bump' by cutting the bass and treble slightly. I'm also going by my BO 5 string so IDK if the 6 would be any different. On a side note, I gotta say that my Warwick sounds the same unplugged (growly as hell) as it does plugged in, so it's more about the construction of the bass itself than the onboard pre.

 

Yeah. The red one. Second generation.

 

Just FYI. Guitar center.com has a few thumb basses under there used basses section. All under $1600.

 

It is my magical practice tool. Whenever I join a new band or project and need to bone up on stuff, I use a site that strips audio from youtube videos as an mp3 and then connect my computer to the input and my awesome headphones (in my avatar) in the output, fire up Winamp, and I'm good to go. That's actually what I was doing when the avatar picture was taken.

 

Guitar center has this one for $1249. Bolt on 5. The neck through are super nice but the price is at least $2500. They do sound awesome. I installed a bartolini preamp in one with the original pickups and it sounded even better.

 

This is perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever seen...drool