I've found my sound!

[pie_man_25]

oh yeah, I've just recently joined a ska band, and we had our first practice yesterday. I brought along my fender jazz, and my warwick pro fet stack (410 cab). I've sort of been noodling around, and haven't been able to find any sound that excited me, but I managed to pull something off I've been looking for for months, I used both pickups, and boosted both high and low on the EQ, and I got a sound (even with my worn out d'addario medium guage nickel plated strings) that was very clanky, perfect for slapping, but sounded very impressive when picking as well (this was after all the ska stuff was practiced, and we were just noodling around, and got some heavier, funkier, and mellower stuff too), it sounded absolutely tremendous when playing with fingers as well, with plenty of twang, attack, and girth the sound kept everybody in the groove, and the guitarist and I, there are no horns, were jumping, it was terrific . The midrange scoop seems to sound a million times better than I thought, and I think that's the sound I'll use live. just to ask, do you think that sound would go with ska?

 

[Amitio]

you tried the tone in a band situation?

 

[mad_hungarian]

Amitio is right... that is where midrange scoop makes your bass suddenly disappear.
Had this experience using a Warwick rig myself some 15-16 years ago, when I was starting out with better gear. Got new rig, fiddled around, found the midscoop alone in the practice room. Same day, went to play live, same settings... I did not hear a thing of the bass Just some clanking highs and muddy lows.

 

[Steve!]

seems like the tone works for the ska band because there aren't any horns.

 

[Kyon`]

It depends for me, I've found with more horns I tend to go for flatwounds and a very thumpy low mid boosted sound while actually cutting some bass on the amp. If it's a smaller piece group, without horns I go for a more bridge open aggressive clank with just slightly boosted treble, a lot of high mids and just some bass.

 

[pie_man_25]

you tried the tone in a band situation?

yeah, again, there are no horns, and everything turned out sounding great, I actually had to turn the amp down because I was drowning out the guitar. I think for the live situation I'd want to go for something bassier with the added definition of midrange, and perhaps slightly less highs, but the clanky tone with little midrange electrified me. I was just sounding great, perhaps just because I was playing with the same sound for so long I needed a change, but It might work with the ska stuff as well, I'll repost when I get back from the next practice.

edit: first I was playing with a bassier sound with the ska stuff, but when we were just jamming, I went for the midrange scoop, which was what I'm discussing, I've yet to try it with ska stuff.