Is The P-Bass Thing Altering Your Brain?

[Nev375]

If that's all you've got to offer, I guess so!

But if TB became that useless and boring to me I'd find another way to spend my time.

Yep. Thats pretty much all i got at this point.

Im open for suggestions for ways to spend my time. Corncob extraction perhaps? Might need a medical degree for that.... hmmmm.

 

[jp8848]

I do not have a P problem! No sir, not at all! That's my story and Im a stickin to it!!

 

[M.R. Ogle]

Talkbass has been around for quite a long time now.

Could it be we've already discussed everything worth discussing and our only option is to rehash, satire and parody ourselfes for our own amusement or else let the site die?

puppa puppa puppa p-bass!

Yeah, that's probably part of it, especially for us who have been TalkBassers for over ten years. We've seen a lot of wash/rinse/repeat cycles of the same old subjects.

I had a similar situation when I wrote how-to articles for a hobby magazine a few years ago. After while, I started running out of techniques and tricks to write about, and told the publisher that I was running out of new fresh subject material. He reminded me, "Don't worry about it, just recycle some of the older articles... there are hundreds more new readers all the time who have not seen those articles, and would appreciate the knowledge, more than the few longtime readers who may have seen that subject once or twice before." He was right.

So, that's part of it. New guys joining TalkBass who are just not AWARE thet the subject has been beaten to death already. And, no... they DON'T use the search function before posting, LOL!

 

[MrLenny1]

Not altering but it has me thinking. Every club I walk into there seems to be a P-Bass.
Should I get one? Hmm. Every time I pick one up I end up going back to my active 5 basses
and put up with the stares & comments from other players.

 

[SteveC]

Not altering but it has me thinking. Every club I walk into there seems to be a P-Bass.
Should I get one? Hmm. Every time I pick one up I end up going back to my active 5 basses
and put up with the stares & comments from other players.

This is me. And I know guys who have played the same basses as myself going to a P bass. I like them fine when I hear other guys play them - Pino, Jamareo (although I hear he tried a Roscoe and visited the shop recently), etc. - but they never seem to do it for me. Maybe I just suck and can only play active modern 5 strings.

 

[Nobody]

Yep. Thats pretty much all i got at this point.

Im open for suggestions for ways to spend my time. Corncob extraction perhaps? Might need a medical degree for that.... hmmmm.

Oh man, you think talkbass gets ugly? The inanimate object extraction forum gets really bad. The old timers clamoring on about corkscrews. If someone asks about one of the more modern extraction techniques they throw out old tired arguments like "Samuel Henshall got it right the first time!" or "Corkscrews don't need no active electronics like yer dang fancy vacuum device!" I think there are annoying people on all hobby forums. I'm just glad I'm not one of them.

 

[Muddslide]

I'll admit I'm a bass newb but I love my P-Bass because it sounds and feels like nothing else. My first and only other bass is an active Ibanez SR500. The SR500 is very tonally versatile and the neck is amazingly thin.

The P-bass just has this organic growl and thump that that Ibanez doesn't have. I literally can't get the Ibanez to sound like the P-Bass. Furthermore I'll admit I'm a sucker for looks. My MIM Fender P-Bass just looks balsy.

I'm going through this right now with my buddies old, messed up Affinity P. I showed it some love and now I seriously think it sounds better than my EMG equipped, 2-band eq Schecter C-4. It just has more balls and a surprisingly good tone. Schecter sounds sterile and fake by comparison.

Aaaand, this is my perennial problem with active basses. I love what some players can do with them, but they aren't for me. As sourgeofgod said, they tend to sound sterile, clinical to my ears. Somehow to my hearing, "passive vs. active" equates to "analog vs. digital" as far as what you might term "real vs. fake" sound.

The corollary I always use (for those old enough to remember) is Dolby Noise Reduction (DNR.) This was a big deal in cassette tape technology back in the 80s. Supposed to reduce hiss and room noise and such. And in essence, it did. But it also (IMO) compressed the sound in an unpleasant way and tended to cut off high end so you'd lose things like hi hat and cymbals. It had less hiss but sounded more "dead" and muffled. I know a lot of people felt that way about Dolby.

I'm not saying active circuitry has that specific Dolby-like effect on sound of a bass; it just seems like a decent analogy.

I tried active basses fairly extensively in the early 90s, trying to move beyond the passive 4-bangers I had played for 20 years. Eventually, I ended up with four active basses--a 4-, 5-, and 6-string each (fretted) and a fretless 4 string. Along the way I also wound up with more and more amp gear, tone shapers, early modeling equipment, offboard EQ, effects pedal, etc., etc. until I had enough gear to start my own music store.

What I realized was that I was going the long (and very expensive) way around just to modify the sound of my actives to once again achieve the sound I used to get from a passive 4 string P-type bass.

I do not have a P problem! No sir, not at all! That's my story and Im a stickin to it!!View attachment 637790

Nice suite of Ps! All are classy and beautiful, but that one in the middle...mmm. I often think the white (especially creamy off-white) with red tort guard and rosewood fingerboard might be THE sexiest Fender finish/color combo to me.

 

[Icculus]

Some people just like to keep it simple. Having a 3 band EQ on my bass in addition to having one on my amp just sort of confuses things for me. I'm sure someone with a much better technical understanding could tell me I'm an idiot and don't know how to use it properly, but that's just how I think many of us feel.

 

[Nev375]

Some people just like to keep it simple. Having a 3 band EQ on my bass in addition to having one on my amp just sort of confuses things for me. I'm sure someone with a much better technical understanding could tell me I'm an idiot and don't know how to use it properly, but that's just how I think many of us feel.

Actually Albert Einstein was an advocate of simplicity in design. The concept is anything but idiotic.

 

[jp8848]

Nice suite of Ps! All are classy and beautiful, but that one in the middle...mmm. I often think the white (especially creamy off-white) with red tort guard and rosewood fingerboard might be THE sexiest Fender finish/color combo to me.

Thanks Muddslide!! The white one is my baby! 2002 FSR 70's series! Lightweight and has a unique tone to it! I've had several after me to buy it, but that one stays put up most of the time! But I agree, that white/tort combo just catches the eye! The picture does not do that fingerboard justice! The grain is beautiful!

 

[mouthmw]

I'm a happy P camper. Had a jazz for the longest time and ended up trying to cope the P tone by favoring the neck pup. Didn't do it for me. Then I settled for a PJ and a P. Both do everything I need. It's all good man, whatever works for you and whatever inspires you to play. All good.

 

[Muddslide]

Thanks Muddslide!! The white one is my baby! 2002 FSR 70's series! Lightweight and has a unique tone to it! I've had several after me to buy it, but that one stays put up most of the time! But I agree, that white/tort combo just catches the eye! The picture does not do that fingerboard justice! The grain is beautiful!

Oh man--in all my excitement over the white/tort/rosewood, I didn't even take much notice--is that a sandblasted over on the left? If not it has some of the most dramatic grain I've ever seen.

 

[scourgeofgod]

Aaaand, this is my perennial problem with active basses. I love what some players can do with them, but they aren't for me. As sourgeofgod said, they tend to sound sterile, clinical to my ears. Somehow to my hearing, "passive vs. active" equates to "analog vs. digital" as far as what you might term "real vs. fake" sound.

The corollary I always use (for those old enough to remember) is Dolby Noise Reduction (DNR.) This was a big deal in cassette tape technology back in the 80s. Supposed to reduce hiss and room noise and such. And in essence, it did. But it also (IMO) compressed the sound in an unpleasant way and tended to cut off high end so you'd lose things like hi hat and cymbals. It had less hiss but sounded more "dead" and muffled. I know a lot of people felt that way about Dolby.

I'm not saying active circuitry has that specific Dolby-like effect on sound of a bass; it just seems like a decent analogy.

I tried active basses fairly extensively in the early 90s, trying to move beyond the passive 4-bangers I had played for 20 years. Eventually, I ended up with four active basses--a 4-, 5-, and 6-string each (fretted) and a fretless 4 string. Along the way I also wound up with more and more amp gear, tone shapers, early modeling equipment, offboard EQ, effects pedal, etc., etc. until I had enough gear to start my own music store.

What I realized was that I was going the long (and very expensive) way around just to modify the sound of my actives to once again achieve the sound I used to get from a passive 4 string P-type bass.

I really want to swap out the EMGs for some Nordy Big Singles and the 2band for a 3band with an active/passive switch, I think that would breathe some more life into the sound..

 

[jim nolte]

Aaaand, this is my perennial problem with active basses. I love what some players can do with them, but they aren't for me. As sourgeofgod said, they tend to sound sterile, clinical to my ears. Somehow to my hearing, "passive vs. active" equates to "analog vs. digital" as far as what you might term "real vs. fake" sound.

The corollary I always use (for those old enough to remember) is Dolby Noise Reduction (DNR.) This was a big deal in cassette tape technology back in the 80s. Supposed to reduce hiss and room noise and such. And in essence, it did. But it also (IMO) compressed the sound in an unpleasant way and tended to cut off high end so you'd lose things like hi hat and cymbals. It had less hiss but sounded more "dead" and muffled. I know a lot of people felt that way about Dolby.

I'm not saying active circuitry has that specific Dolby-like effect on sound of a bass; it just seems like a decent analogy.

I tried active basses fairly extensively in the early 90s, trying to move beyond the passive 4-bangers I had played for 20 years. Eventually, I ended up with four active basses--a 4-, 5-, and 6-string each (fretted) and a fretless 4 string. Along the way I also wound up with more and more amp gear, tone shapers, early modeling equipment, offboard EQ, effects pedal, etc., etc. until I had enough gear to start my own music store.

What I realized was that I was going the long (and very expensive) way around just to modify the sound of my actives to once again achieve the sound I used to get from a passive 4 string P-type bass

Nice suite of Ps! All are classy and beautiful, but that one in the middle...mmm. I often think the white (especially creamy off-white) with red tort guard and rosewood fingerboard might be THE sexiest Fender finish/color combo to me.

More so with Dolby B than Dolby C. I never used Dolby B because of that loss of the top end. When Dolby C came out the hiss was gone but the top end wasn't effected nearly as much, used it all the time back in the day. Jim

 

[jp8848]

Oh man--in all my excitement over the white/tort/rosewood, I didn't even take much notice--is that a sandblasted over on the left? If not it has some of the most dramatic grain I've ever seen.

Oh yes! That one had a little bit of an upgrade, put EMG Geezers in it and the black pearl pick guard. But it is so lightweight and the neck perfect! The EMG's made a huge difference in the tone!

 

[FlatwoundFunk]

Interesting tidbit, every RHCP's song ever recorded was recorded on a P bass. Sound Engineers won't record anything but P basses because that is what they know. I read it on talkbass. P bass. P bass. P bass.

Wow. Are you serious? Cause if you are, I'm shocked.
FF

 

[Nev375]

Wow. Are you serious? Cause if you are, I'm shocked.
FF

Of course He's serious. Look at his avatar!

Nobody is very serious in this thread.

 

[FlatwoundFunk]

I do not have a P problem! No sir, not at all! That's my story and Im a stickin to it!!View attachment 637790

No doubt about it, I'm proud of you and jealous at the same time

I do not have a P problem! No sir, not at all! That's my story and Im a stickin to it!!View attachment 637790

No doubt about it, I'm jealous!
FF

 

[svtb15]

i dig P Basses

 

[Nobody]

Wow. Are you serious? Cause if you are, I'm shocked.
FF

Oh yeah. I've been on talkbass for 11 years and have been reading it longer. Over the years I've read that all music was recorded with a P bass.