Well foam mute da P.And not play my expensive and boutique (well, for me at least) MIA Fender P!?
Try a foam mute under the strings for a always in palm mute!
I do this when I use my P for reggae with my flats on dere.
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lack of fatness
- Thread starter Phaidrus
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Try a foam mute under the strings for a always in palm mute!
I do this when I use my P for reggae with my flats on dere.
Also important: string action not too low, so the string can vibrate freely. Well-used strings sound thicker. On this video the strings on my bass are at least 5 years old, soft cloth-mute on the bridge, neck pickup 100%, bridge pickup 90%, tone 20-30% open. Low boost around 40-60Hz, mid cut around 400-500Hz and highs cut almost completely.
Not sure if this thread is still followed by the author but I was surprised when I read the 5 pages, that only the last two posts mentioned a foam mute.
Flabba seems to use it very often on his bass. It takes a bit to find the sweet spot for the mute and also for the right material and dimensions of it. But once you figured the sweet spot out, you will notice a much fatter and warmer tone especially on the G and D strings. I don't think his tone is much EQ. I think it is indeed a combination of his fingers and the mute. The right mute makes even rounds faaaat, with the right flats and plucking technique you gonna be very close.
I also read here somewhere he uses a very old ebs octaver pedal as only effect on live stage.
Bass all the way up might sound nice in the living room but will not give you that sound on a recording or live. It will only make the sound muddy. I think that's what a lot of people get wrong about a good reggae sound for the bass. The old cats had the EQ mostly flat as far as I read. And on the dub versions you can actually very often here that there are indeed quite some overtones in the bass and not just <300-400hz
Flabba seems to use it very often on his bass. It takes a bit to find the sweet spot for the mute and also for the right material and dimensions of it. But once you figured the sweet spot out, you will notice a much fatter and warmer tone especially on the G and D strings. I don't think his tone is much EQ. I think it is indeed a combination of his fingers and the mute. The right mute makes even rounds faaaat, with the right flats and plucking technique you gonna be very close.
I also read here somewhere he uses a very old ebs octaver pedal as only effect on live stage.
Bass all the way up might sound nice in the living room but will not give you that sound on a recording or live. It will only make the sound muddy. I think that's what a lot of people get wrong about a good reggae sound for the bass. The old cats had the EQ mostly flat as far as I read. And on the dub versions you can actually very often here that there are indeed quite some overtones in the bass and not just <300-400hz
Still here. I've tried using the foam but it didn't really work for me. It dampens the overtones for sure but then the tone sounds somehow hollow, or perhaps "flat" is a better description. It appears to me that most of the "reggae bass tone" is in the fingers, namely in the technique combined with - or as a result of - a certain state of mind. Given who I am and having to deal with stuff in life it is for me not easy to get in the zone. Gear matters less though it can certainly help. That said, Flabba gets a super fat tone out of a Steinberger, which is the least likely bass I would have though of for the job. It's a mental thing to get the laid back yet assertive heaviness of a proper reggae bassline. Have strung my reggae Pbass with a Fender 9050M set and like the results although the strings are only a couple months old.
Fingers (or thumb) placement and touch have a lot to do with it (turning up and playing with a lighter touch seems to be a very common approach in reggae) but EQ definitely plays a role. In a past post you mentioned dub tones and that kind of says it right there: dub (as opposed to a live approximation of dub) is studio manipulation, not a different approach to playing. As for graphite basses: they can be great for reggae, as can any number of other “hi-fi” basses (I played a lot of my reggae gigs with an MTD 535).
That may have been - probably because the great majority of the “older” players (Robbie Basspeare rip, Jackie Jackson, Val Douglas, Familyman, Flabba Holt, Lloyd Parks etc) were undoubtedly all using flat wounds back then. There were exceptions…
Flats are (to me) like instant EQ - a lot of the work is already done for you. If you have a good bass to start with. And a good bass to me is … if it sounds pretty good with the EQ flat.
Rounds work (with more radical EQ adjustments and also maybe using something to dampen them until they get worn in enough) because the main thing is to get a warm round tone so you can hear yourself onstage - the FOH is going to give the crowd plenty of bottom…
I think people also switched to them because they are generally easier to play, whereas with flats playing the same music, you have to work a little harder because they are a little slower to respond. Not a problem if you’re playing a tune at “spliff” tempo… but with the exception of Robbie (rip) and Fams (not active), I would wager that most or even all the older players switched to rounds a long time ago. Before he developed back problems that necessitated him playing a Steinberger with reg gauge rounds and playing sitting down, Val Douglas told me he used the heaviest gauge round wounds he could find with his modified Telecaster bass, and sometimes used foam under the E and A only. Again, I think the main motivator to change came from the feeling that flats were “too slow” after the music got faster in the 80s and we bass players had to play bass lines that were created with a keyboard and at tempos created by a drum machine.
Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE flat wounds and I still use them in the studio most every time - if the music calls for it. But for live, it’s going to be well broken in rounds - again, no need to turn the bass knob all the way up: the FOH is going to give them what they all want: BASS. That’s what subwoofers are for!
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The bass sound we’re hearing and striving for on the records was (mostly) gotten by the engineer who mixed the record.
Great post! The only thing I would add is that the sound onstage (as opposed to what the mains are putting out) will affect how you (the bassist) plays and what the other musicians onstage feel. So you definitely want some thick bass coming out of your speakers onstage - but I agree about letting the subs do their job.
Some bassists seem to think that a whole lot of muddy subs on stage is a good idea - but if you can’t make out the notes in the bass line then there’s a problem. 
