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I've tried almost everything ... whats next?

#41
I would give a Fender Roscoe Beck V a shot. Old school to modern in a flick of a switch. Standard string spacing, tight B string, and even output acorss every string.

Just make sure you find a light one. Some of those can be on the heavy side.
 
#42
Is their any way you could describe the tone your searching for a little better? Perhaps describe a CD or player who has a similar tone. From what you've described my first inclination is to recommend a Sadowsky 24 fret modern or a Celinder modern. Both are Very even across the entire fret-board, solid low B AND E, plenty of warm low end available and they can get aggressive. The Reverends (which are great values) do the vintage thing real well, but I don't know if I consider them very aggressive. As far as the Dingwall I played Tom B's at our last little hang, the B is MASSIVE, the fanned frets were hardly noticeable until you got up around the fourteenth fret, and the sound was very clear are articulate. I don't know if I noticed a "vintage vibe" in it, I'm a J bass guy so it wasn't my thing, but their very similar to some MTDS (they REALLY vary based on wood selection) and the Modulus. The B was most definitely the voice of God.

One of the things I found interesting in your original post was that you still wanted warmth up high with a punchy tone. THAT is the reason I fell in love with Sadowsky J Basses, I can dial in an aggressive (slap worthy) tone and still have considerable warmth up the fingerboard, in fact they never seem to loose that warm low end. Those basses filled my GAS after trying Tobias, Alembic, Factor Fender J's, Pedulla, Yamaha etc.

One other quick note, What rig are you using? If your going thru a Behringer combo, one twelve wedge we might be addressing the wrong GAS!:D
 
#43
burk48237 said:
Is their any way you could describe the tone your searching for a little better? Perhaps describe a CD or player who has a similar tone. From what you've described my first inclination is to recommend a Sadowsky 24 fret modern or a Celinder modern. Both are Very even across the entire fret-board, solid low B AND E, plenty of warm low end available and they can get aggressive. The Reverends (which are great values) do the vintage thing real well, but I don't know if I consider them very aggressive. As far as the Dingwall I played Tom B's at our last little hang, the B is MASSIVE, the fanned frets were hardly noticeable until you got up around the fourteenth fret, and the sound was very clear are articulate. I don't know if I noticed a "vintage vibe" in it, I'm a J bass guy so it wasn't my thing, but their very similar to some MTDS (they REALLY vary based on wood selection) and the Modulus. The B was most definitely the voice of God.

One of the things I found interesting in your original post was that you still wanted warmth up high with a punchy tone. THAT is the reason I fell in love with Sadowsky J Basses, I can dial in an aggressive (slap worthy) tone and still have considerable warmth up the fingerboard, in fact they never seem to loose that warm low end. Those basses filled my GAS after trying Tobias, Alembic, Factor Fender J's, Pedulla, Yamaha etc.

One other quick note, What rig are you using? If your going thru a Behringer combo, one twelve wedge we might be addressing the wrong GAS!:D
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Good questions burk. Tone is always a tough thing to describe, and to make matters worse I'm also very sensitive about feel and dynamics. The difference to me between what I call "modern" and "vintage" sounds is mostly in the midrange. A vintage bass has an "open" sounding midrange, meaning that it doesn't sound dense in the mids. Usually they are actually only strong in one or two frequency bands through the mids with the different takes on vintage basses occupying different sonic spaces.

My ideal "modern" bass would have a full, thoaty thickness in the mids that makes every note punch through and growl even as it sustains, while also having a strong and supportive, but controlled (not bloomy) bottom end (that is the Q5's forte). It would also have slightly compressed, wet, juicy, glassy highs (the MTD's specialty), would have very even response, and effortless playability (great tone with low action, both the MTD and Q5 did that well). Above all else, it would have great TONE ... just simply sound good.

The great thing about the Q5 is that even in a boomy room you could still hear the definition on EVERY note, you could still hear your finger interacting with the string. That is something that is very important to me ... I hate indistinct tones.

Maybe I need to try Joker's modern 24. :eek:

I think I found a dingwall to try out ... so I'm going to do that, but I'm still leery. I've listend to the clips of one on basstasters and it just doesn't sound like the tone I'm after. Seems a little empty in the mids.

My rigs are Eden, Aguilar, etc ... nice stuff. I've tried bergantinos, found them a bit cold, and am going to try an Acme soon. I'm always open to new amps, but my Edens work really well for me.

Thanks for all the feedback so far!
 
#45
I checked out that reverend on Ebay ... I'm just not so sure on the cosmetics, and its a bit of risk since I've never played one, and it might be hard to resell. But if you really think it sounds like what I'm looking for maybe I should check it out. :confused: Seems strange to me that a hollowbody with J pickups would be the thing ...
 
#46
sincity said:
I would give a Fender Roscoe Beck V a shot. Old school to modern in a flick of a switch. Standard string spacing, tight B string, and even output acorss every string.

Just make sure you find a light one. Some of those can be on the heavy side.
Click to expand...

I've actually got one of these showing up any day now ... though I figured it would be more on the vintage tip. It was so cheap I decided to give it a go ...
 
#48
BartmanPDX said:
Another thing which might help with getting the tone you're looking for is slanted pickups. Maybe try a Dingwall or a Roscoe???
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Fanned frets may be the way for you to go. I'm thinking that you may have liked the Q5 B and E because of the extended scale. If I remember right you mentioned that the A and D strings were to bright or harsh? A shorter string length would help solve that.

I would say try a Dingwall.
 
#52
malicous said:
Since you are sure about the particular sound you want, maybe you should talk to Chris Stambaugh or Karey Nordstrand. They will craft a bass that is exactly what you want.
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Well, they'll try. And thats not a knock against them, its just my philosophy when it comes to custom anything. Its a distinct possibility that you won't like the results, which will end up costing you a lot of money. I've tried all of the basses listed above essentially for the cost of shipping them around, through the power of TB :bassist: And while that hasn't lead me to my ultimate bass (yet), its been a tremendous amount of fun, and I wouldn't know what I wanted as well as I do if I hadn't played every one of them for weeks or months, and done gigs. I thought the MTD was my ultimate bass until I played a live gig on it.
 
#53
Planet Boulder said:
You mentioned that you liked the Warwick you tried, save for the tone. How about switching out the MECs for Barts? I'm getting ready to do that myself with my Fortress One.
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Actually I think the warwick has great tone, just not MY tone. My bigger complaint is actually the way the notes attack ... which may just indicate that I'm no longer interested in neck-throughs.
 
#54
The Fender Roscoe Beck V is a nice suggestion. Easy on the wallet (compared to the others you've tried) and versatile.


I would also encourage you to try more MTD 535 basses. Most Moduli are alder with maple cap, and with the graphite neck they have a trademark tone. However the tone of MTD USA basses can vary tremendously due to the wide varieties of woods used in the body... and the neck can be ash, maple, or wenge!

I'm surprised that you had to boost lows with your MTD 535. Mine was tulipwood body (myrtle cap) and all wenge neck. I never needed to boost lows, not even through my little practice amp.
 
#55
Thats a good suggestion. The MTD I had was all articulation and complex woody tone ... it was not fat. Even with different woods though, I think the ergonomics would still bother me. The body is just too small and too light for that long of a neck -- for ME.
 
#56
pickles said:
I checked out that reverend on Ebay ... I'm just not so sure on the cosmetics, and its a bit of risk since I've never played one, and it might be hard to resell. But if you really think it sounds like what I'm looking for maybe I should check it out. :confused: Seems strange to me that a hollowbody with J pickups would be the thing ...
Click to expand...

Reverend resale shouldn't be an issue. Looks...dig them or don't;) They are what they are. They have *great* necks. They slanted J pups pickup a wider string arc, and their J pups are big and beefy. The have a solid toneblock down the middle, with steel in there as well, so they do not soudn like a traditional hollowbody. Lots of Rev info in "search"...
 
#59
G said:
I can't believe I am the first to say this, but:

Modulus Flea 5 with a J in the neck.

Everything you love about Modulus and Musicman and more.
Click to expand...

Actually that thought had crossed my mind. I also love modulus VJ basses. I'm not in love with the look of the Flea, but it might be the tonal ticket for me. Hmmmmmmm.

Do they make those with an MM+J config?
 

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