the actual "reggae bass" sound from my experience doesent so much come from your bass. anything with a neck pickup is fine. you use a tube amp and turn it up REALLY loud. almost all the way. when you play, you touch the strings as lightly as you can. especially with a P bass, youll sound great..for reggae atleast.
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is a pbass better for reggae than a jazz?
- Thread starter jcphockey16
- Start date
bongomania
Commercial User
I'm so glad I've learned to recognize when I think buying something is somehow a shortcut to learning something or doing something. Happens all the time - "I want to ____ I should get a ____" - and when I get the thing in question, I don't *do* anything with it.
It's a perfectly human flaw (and probably a very American one), but the longer I live, the more I come to recognize it & counter it, and I'm becoming more disciplined about my purchases. My new rule is "does it actually lead to a happier, more fulfilling life, or does it lead to just having more *stuff* - will you actually use it in the pursuit of things you enjoy, or will it just sit there collecting dust and eventually maybe get sold off?"
My next purchase is an amp, which I desperately need, and a digital camera, which I've been planning on buying for over a year. I'm not too poor for either, I just haven't been in a particularly spendy mood.
... I did, however, recently acquire a decent collection of music theory books ... Having a Invalid Link Removed literally on my path from work to the subway doesn't help much... But I *am* working my way through them.
Family Man...THE Man. I'd be willing to bet he'd get his sound with anything he played. Seems that he just liked the Fender Jazz bass. My guess would be mainly for the fast neck and the good balance not to mention a fat bottom.
But he also used flatwounds and as you can see from the pic, played WAY up at the neck heel for maximum fundamental bottom tone. And no pick. )-(
But he also used flatwounds and as you can see from the pic, played WAY up at the neck heel for maximum fundamental bottom tone. And no pick. )-(
Im currently using a stingray 4 fretless with the piezo in a funk/jazz/ska/reggae outfit.
palm mute and thumb pluck with piezo dialed in gives a deep FAT woody tone (zero mwah). It is perfect for reggae.
But i do agree that all one really needs is a good bass with a decent fundamental to achieve a workable tone for reggae. Its more to do with the technique and attitude of the playa...
palm mute and thumb pluck with piezo dialed in gives a deep FAT woody tone (zero mwah). It is perfect for reggae.
But i do agree that all one really needs is a good bass with a decent fundamental to achieve a workable tone for reggae. Its more to do with the technique and attitude of the playa...
No, and frankly there's a lot of misconceptions out there being repeated.
A P has stronger mids than a passive J, and we hear those low mids as these huge deep lows, but the fact of the matter is the actual frequencies we're hearing are not the low lows. A J can actually put out stronger, lower fundamental lows than a P due to the placement of the neck pup.
For another thing, if your J seems bright then use the tone knob! That's what it's for. Also read up on reggae technique, because proper technique is what generates that deep throbbing boom on any kind of bass with any kind of strings. I have rounds on my J and can get a super wide deep boom just by playing with reggae technique.
A P is a good "shortcut"- roll back the tone, throw on some flats, and you don't need technique to get a big fat boom.
+1 to this. Jazz basses have TONS more lows than a P. The P just puts the sound where it counts in the frequency spectrum without the cancellation effect to the mids and mid lows from two pickups. Plus the humbucker just adds to that equation.
I have put flats on both my P and J (Chromes) and the J can out thump the P, but the P has more mid-bass cut. Nothing that bumping the mid lows on my EQ cant take care of with the jazz, and the jazz has more fundamental lows.
I think with Chromes on a Jazz with a 215 stack you should be all taken care of for reggae. However, the P is a fine choice as well, and it is the epitome of simplicity in design.
I disagree with needing or even wanting a P-bass for reggae. The two greatest reggae bassists of all time both used j-basses. A P bass will work fine, but I play reggae and prefer a Jazz. The driving tone of reggae is the deep, dark bottom end, but it doesn't sound as round and bouncy without the pickup in the rear for the treble. I used to cut the mids and the treble, but found my tone to be flabby and muddy sounding. Cutting only the hight mids, boosting the bass and leaving some treble in gives me that deep reggae tone without sacrificing punch or clarity. If you have a frequency knob for your mids turn it all the way UP. Then turn the control for the level of mids all the way DOWN.
The advice about flatwounds is also right on! Put some flats on (and NEVER change them.) Also turn off the tweeter if your cab has one. And put your cabinet directly on the floor. The first thing i did when i got my cab was take the casters off. This enhances the tones you are looking for.
Like others advised, play finger style close to the neck. Family man anchors his thumb on the top edge of the neck and barely ever deviates from that spot.
The advice about flatwounds is also right on! Put some flats on (and NEVER change them.) Also turn off the tweeter if your cab has one. And put your cabinet directly on the floor. The first thing i did when i got my cab was take the casters off. This enhances the tones you are looking for.
Like others advised, play finger style close to the neck. Family man anchors his thumb on the top edge of the neck and barely ever deviates from that spot.
Unless he's playin with that thumb. Not sure about Robbie, but I see Flabba playing with his thumb too.
-m
-m
Just to throw a wrench into this thread, this is what I use for dub/reggae tones, and it sounds fantastic with flats and the tone rolled off. It has more booming bass than my ATK and my SX P. It was also considered a cheap beginner bass when it was made back in the 60's.
I love this photo. Aston stylin' in the 70's with that maple neck j and an acoustic 301 behind him.
It's true though, he'll carry his tone on whatever bass he plays. These days, he plays a bass with j pickups, but it's not a fender. you can see it vaguely in this photo:
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I think its p-bass for a "rootsy" sound and J if you want to be able to get a "newer reggae" sound.
a big part is the sound and eqing WITH the band playing, cause what sounds good when you play bass alone could sound really ****** in the band situation
check this one ! http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvjNcMC5W8
just my 0.02 €
a big part is the sound and eqing WITH the band playing, cause what sounds good when you play bass alone could sound really ****** in the band situation
check this one ! http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvjNcMC5W8
just my 0.02 €
Fretless, right? What was the rig?
Wait, you've caught me in the gear trap! It's clear from this thread that "Reggae" Earth Tone is an "intention" and "feel" achieved with a light touch, played up near the neck. Usually with flatwounds, but again, as this thread has made clear, it's not the gear. (How did I fall for that?)
p.s. - cool hollowbody up there!
Eric Wilson from Sublime achieved a pretty righteous reggae tone from his SR. Technique, technique, technique...
go see a bunch major live reggae acts. then come back and say everyone plays flatwounds up on the neck pickup. you might not even see a fender.
Eric Wilson never played a Stingray with Sublime, he played a Sabre for a while using the neck p/u for all that fat reggae you heard. He also had a custom looking Gibson Ripper, only with a EB-0 p/u smashed up against the neck. I hear what everybodys saying, but I think a neck p/u will do you the best for Reggae no matter what bass it is. Just my .02 though, everyone is different.
+1...I can understand that...my Carvin AC40 with Nylon Tapes gets GREAT dub when I palm mute it.
The Sabres are wildly variable. I've never played the equal to my Sabre - I may have played better basses, but none that sound similar, and I've played a lot of Sabres in my day. Mine has this crunchy aggressive tone. Very mid-rangy and honky when either pup is solod, and scooped when they're both on, but still very aggressive, and the highs are very important in its tone, almost crystalline somehow. One of my drummers described it as "angy" sounding. Anyway, NOT appropriate for reggae, but a different Sabre will sound wildly different.
It actually makes me sad to think that unless I get someone to analyze the pre, I'll never have a bass that sounds like this, so there is no backup for this bass (why do you think I played all those Sabres - I was looking for a backup).
Why am I telling this story? Well, I don't think you can always dial in the appropriate tone with ANY bass. If I was going to a gig and had to sound like Jamerson or was playing James Brown or Desmond Dekker covers, I'd *never* bring this bass. I'd bring my J, and I'd definitely bring my P, but not *this* bass.
The simple fact is, you can't just "dial in" the right tone (as some people in this thread recommend) by rolling off the treble and pushing the fundamental. For dub maybe, but not for a classic reggae tone (unless your definition of classic reggae is different from mine). You can't boost frequencies that simply aren't there.
