I sense a trend

[Peaveylover]

Is it my imagination or is there a recent trend of people preferring cleaner tones? From some posts I'm reading here and in the classifieds I'm seeing more of a resurgence of the "clean is better" approach. In my personal effect journey this is becoming truer and truer. I'm just finding over the top fuzz and distortion (and even overdrive) sounds gimmicky and dated. I love me my phaser, chorus and flanger still though.

 

[keatz]

I feel it.

 

[Swimming Bird]

I'm not sure clean per se, but dialing back the gain for sure. I wonder if dynamic range isn't coming back in vogue.

Also, guitars got lower, so for metal bass doesn't need to fill in for a low rhythm guitar as much anymore.

 

[Peaveylover]

I'm not sure clean per se, but dialing back the gain for sure. I wonder if dynamic range isn't coming back in vogue.

Also, guitars got lower, so for metal bass doesn't need to fill in for a low rhythm guitar as much anymore.

Agreed. My personal gain lowering story just happened two weeks ago. I am a relatively new bassist, influenced by Chancellor, Wimbish, but also players like Geddy Lee and Lemmy. So my default tone when starting this new instrument was dirty. This led me to starting down the rabbit hole of fuzz and dirt. But recently I've discovered Rocksmith as a tool to learn songs and as I play along with all the classics of the 70's and 80's I am hearing basically very clean and dry tones. And they all work so much better for me than the dirt tones. So I decided to take the plunge and start playing with no dirt at all and I'm personally finding it much more satisfying. I can actually feel the bass now and get dynamics and color from my hands. I'm still rocking a Rusty Box for when I need something a little crunchy, but I've turned it to the LO setting and am just trying to get a little crunch on the top end. I'm not saying this is a life changing event, or that I will never play dirt or fuzz again. What I am saying though is I am getting a lot more discerning in my taste and I am coming to the realization purity of tone is becoming more important to me.

Having said that, no one better try to take my modulation pedals away from me.

 

[One Way]

Perhaps this trend might be related to the modern amps we’re now using?
I once regularly played at a studio rehearsal room that supplied a “frig” type bass cabinet along with a vintage amp head. It was necessary to add some overdrive to my tone to hear defined notes when playing with the band. My personal amp and cabinet are able to deliver great tone and note definition without the need to activate an overdrive pedal.

 

[Peaveylover]

Perhaps this trend might be related to the modern amps we’re now using?
I once regularly played at a studio rehearsal room that supplied a “frig” type bass cabinet along with a vintage amp head. It was necessary to add some overdrive to my tone to hear defined notes when playing with the band. My personal amp and cabinet are able to deliver great tone and note definition without the need to activate an overdrive pedal.

Could be. I hadn't thought of this.

 

[King Weapon]

Is it my imagination or is there a recent trend of people preferring cleaner tones? From some posts I'm reading here and in the classifieds I'm seeing more of a resurgence of the "clean is better" approach. In my personal effect journey this is becoming truer and truer. I'm just finding over the top fuzz and distortion (and even overdrive) sounds gimmicky and dated. I love me my phaser, chorus and flanger still though.

Everyone’s taste is different and I think whether or not distortion/fuzz (or any effect for that matter) sounds “gimmicky” or dated is in the hands of the player and how he or she uses it. And to play devil’s advocate even further, some people are going for a “dated” sound (ie 80’s chorus associated with new wave, etc).

All in all, effects are just extra paintbrushes to use and explore sound with, and an individual’s tasteful and creative use of these awesome boxes stands above and will stand the test of time over what’s currently trendy

 

[Peaveylover]

Everyone’s taste is different and I think whether or not distortion/fuzz (or any effect for that matter) sounds “gimmicky” or dated is in the hands of the player and how he or she uses it. And to play devil’s advocate even further, some people are going for a “dated” sound (ie 80’s chorus associated with new wave, etc).

All in all, effects are just extra paintbrushes to use and explore sound with, and an individual’s tasteful and creative use of these awesome boxes stands above and will stand the test of time over what’s currently trendy

Thanks. I appreciate this response and the time you took to write it. However, it it IMO totally off topic. I did not mean this tread to talk about colors in our paint pallet (yes I get the analogy). I meant it to discuss if there is a trend of people using less dirt. Of course I totally understand and agree with your point. It is however, not really what I meant for this thread. I really hope it doesn't go down that rabbit hole.

 

[JimmyM]

Music goes in cycles. When something gets played out, something else comes along to replace it. But I don't know if I'd call it a trend rather than just doing what they think is right for the music.

 

[bassdude51]

"What comes around goes around and then comes back around and goes around again."

Today clean, tomorrow something else, then clean again.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I think music is heading back toward "traditional" tones - more guitar (even acoustics). That means cleaner tones.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Seems to me that there is still a mix of those who like clean and those who don't. Personally, I do like a little amp growl, sometimes, but I've never been a fan of fuzz or distortion on bass.

 

[marchone]

It may well be a trend but maybe it has to do with what is available now too.

I began playing bass in the mid-60s. After a long hiatus attending to my career, I finally got back to playing everyday. I had my 1969 Telecaster Bass but I needed a practice amp. I went with a Phil Jones Double Four. Great little box but not the tone I knew from my youth. Enter pedals. Sadowsky SBP-1 was pretty darn good. Then I got a Broughton Fliptop for the B-15N sound. Clean, clean, clean. I added a Menatone King of the Britains for a Marshall Plexi sound. That's all the dirt I want with Rotosounds on the Tele. Think Ron Wood in The Jeff Beck Group.

The bulk of digital amps and pedals I've seen before mostly produce modern grindy effects. Now there's a choice I am certainly happy with.

 

[Pings Bass]

Is it my imagination or is there a recent trend of people preferring cleaner tones? From some posts I'm reading here and in the classifieds I'm seeing more of a resurgence of the "clean is better" approach. In my personal effect journey this is becoming truer and truer. I'm just finding over the top fuzz and distortion (and even overdrive) sounds gimmicky and dated. I love me my phaser, chorus and flanger still though.

I think bass with overdrive is a trend (in rock) that's (maybe) waning a little. I think rock players are always going to want a little drive though. When tube amps were prevalent, it just came naturally when you turned up and dug in, no pedals necessary.

For some kinds of music, overdrive has never been desirable. I've been playing clean/HiFi since i started in the 80s. I used to do pro sound; it's a lot easier to mix and hear clean bass in any kind of music, but especially with crunched out guitars.

If you want to be part of a wall of fuzz, cool, I don't judge, some people like that. Personally, even when I played rock, I always wanted to stand out from the guitars, and found a clean tone the best way to do that.

YMMV, always play the style that serves the song!

 

[el murdoque]

At the height of things, my pedalboard had three pedals that did overdrive, one distortion and a fuzz.
Currently, I have one channel of my Sansamp PBDDI set to a mild overdriven tone.
I use dirt pedals mostly when playing in a trio and the guitar is doing lead or solo parts.
The harder the guitar's distortion gets (metal), the cleaner my own tone becomes. Most of the dirt in a full arrangement gets lost in the guitars distortion and the cymbals.

 

[filwitheneff]

I guess I never saw overdriven bass as a trend at all. I just saw it as something used in specific genres...namely metal (and even then, it's not always the case). Personally, back in my younger days (80's), my perception of great bass tone for metal was Steve Harris' tone (P with bright flats, and clean). I never saw bass OD as a necessity, and I doubt I ever will.

 

[Killing Floor]

I see it.
Bass and guitar too. Very clean tones in recordings I’m hearing.

 

[SunnBass]

... I'm seeing more of a resurgence of the "clean is better" approach...

So, you say it's a "trend"...what genres?
Are we just talking "radio rock", are you listening to EVERY current band/album as they come out?
I'm not attacking you at all, I just like to think more analytically about this sort of thing.
Without a huge sample size we really can't make this generalization.

Also this:
Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it has a high frequency (a form of selection bias). It occurs when increased awareness of something creates the illusion that it is appearing more often.Put plainly, the frequency illusion is when "a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere."

 

[SunnBass]

I see it.
Bass and guitar too. Very clean tones in recordings I’m hearing.

It's all based on personal exposure also to a point.
It's genre based also.
Plus, are we just talking "radio rock"?
Because there's plenty of dirty bass all across the music spectrum, especially in more "underground" genres.

 

[Koog]

Clean sound always been my preference. Probably comes from playing through really crummy guitar amps in the '60s. Of course, many of those amps are now collectable classics....to some degree anyway.

Koog