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Is too much too much?

avvie

avvie

Oct 12, 2010
2,371
1,073
Maui, HI
#1
I'm always chasing tone nowadays but I'm not in the ideal climate for expensive boutique basses and amps. I have a Sterling SUB and an Ibanez SR200, both modified...the Sterling with a replacement pup and the Ibby with all new electronics and pups. Both instruments have active preamps.

I have a Tech 21 VT bass pedal on its way to me. Hopefully it arrives today.

I'm disturbed that my Sterlng preamp is only two bands and not three. Contemplating adding a John East midsweeper. Or maybe I should just put a Bass Mid Control on my board?

Is all of this overkill? Is having activenpreamps both on- and off-board just complicating things? Too much GAS?
 
#5
Yeah, sometimes the mids can be brought forward by backing off on the bass and treble a bit and raising the vol or gain.
Picking/plucking position and string choice can make huge differences also.
(I'd part with some stuff to be back on the Big Island...)- good for you...
Dunno about Maui, and where you're at on it, but the Big Island is mostly damp/humid on the East side and less or dry on the West.
Even so, the moisture from the breezes have a lot less salt than those in Florida, either coast,
and the humidity inland...??
 
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#6
Most gigs are in Kihei with the occasional Hana/Hookipa gig. I live upcountry so my instruments warp, twist and detune on the way down the mountain. Strings are an issue in my tone; I have to use stainless steels and they're a dull tone.
I plugged up and jammed a bit after I posted this and it's not a bad tone, actually...the VT pedal will probably do what I need done.
 
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#7
avvie said:
I'm always chasing tone...

I'm disturbed that my Sterling preamp is only two bands and not three.
Click to expand...
there's a pretty good argument that the 2-band might have better tone because it's simpler, less "stuff" for the signal to go through.
avvie said:
Strings are an issue in my tone; I have to use stainless steels and they're a dull tone.
Click to expand...
odd, stainless strings are known for being brighter, not duller.
 
#8
walterw said:
odd, stainless strings are known for being brighter, not duller.
Click to expand...

I can't agree with that. I've been using bulk SS from juststrings.com for a while now. I was gifted some others-don't remember which- and they were all SOOO much brighter and zingier than these. These always soun d like they're over a week or two old when I put them on. For the most part that's okay because taming the highs of a new set in a live band is kindof a PITA, but sometimes I wish I could just sit around a slap away on a bright set like back on the mainland.
One thing I've learned about stainless steel is that it's a very soft metal...which is to be expected with all the iron removed from it. Screws strip easily or heat up and warp when driving them.
 
#9
avvie said:
One thing I've learned about stainless steel is that it's a very soft metal...which is to be expected with all the iron removed from it.
Click to expand...

Stainless steel is much harder than most other metals used for either strings or frets. That's why stainless frets last almost forever and destroy fret files while they're being installed.
Stainless strings are among the brightest strings, if not the brightest. They also cause more wear on traditional frets than nickel or other kinds of strings.

If I was in your shoes I'd sell both those basses and get a bass with a carbon fiber neck so it doesn't move when you change locations. Then I'd stop worrying about gear and start worrying about my ears.
 
#11
avvie said:
Well these are NOT brighter. After 30 years of this I know what a bright string sounds like. And nobody on this island is getting a carbon fiber neck. That's just silly and not a little smarmy.
Click to expand...

Nobody? Not a single person? What's silly about it?
I know several bass players in Hawai'i who use instruments with carbon fiber necks. They swear by them because otherwise their instruments "warp, twist and detune on the way down the mountain".
Or, in their cases, when they fly between islands for gigs.
What sounds brighter to you than stainless steel strings?
 
#12
Its silly because I'm not an inter-island touring professional bass player and I've never met or heard of anyone that did that unless they inherited a Steinberger from their family.
Plenty other strings I've played were brighter than these...nearly EVERY set. I do not remember all the brands...one was HiBeams, one was BlueSteel, one was Alchemy. They were ALL brighter than these stainless steels I play now. Maybe the others were SS, maybe not, but they sure didnt look or sound like them and they rusted and these sound duller, period. End of story. Arguing will not make tbem brighter.
 
#13
avvie said:
Its silly because I'm not an inter-island touring professional bass player and I've never met or heard of anyone that did that unless they inherited a Steinberger from their family.
Plenty other strings I've played were brighter than these...nearly EVERY set. I do not remember all the brands...one was HiBeams, one was BlueSteel, one was Alchemy. They were ALL brighter than these stainless steels I play now. Maybe the others were SS, maybe not, but they sure didnt look or sound like them and they rusted and these sound duller, period. End of story. Arguing will not make tbem brighter.
Click to expand...

Two of the three of those are stainless steel strings. The other is a coated/plated steel. Whatever sounds "dull" about your strings it isn't because they're made of stainless.

So, because you've never met a professional player who bought their own bass with a graphite neck it doesn't happen? Wow.
 

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