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List Your FAVORITE Bass System

Corbusier

Corbusier

Feb 21, 2018
447
949
72
Mississippi
#1
I believe it will be helpful to list our favorite bass system and our music genre(s) instead of just individual elements. Photos optional.
Your favorite strings may be Super Slinky’s. But, if you’re playing heavy metal on an active Dingwall 5 string and I’m playing country rock on a passive 4 string Fender Jazz , your string advice may not help me move toward the perfect sound.

A request: please don’t list 5 pedals. If possible, keep it to one or two essentials. Thank you.
Okay, here I go:



Labella Flats Deep Talkin Bass strings on a
4 string 2019 Fender USA Professional Lightweight Ash Jazz played through a
Trickfish Bullhead.5K and Trickfish 210 cabinet.
Also, I recently bought a Fender cable which made an amazing difference to an already great sound.
Pedal: Sources Audio After Shock Bass Distortion (rarely used)

These flats through this setup allow the Jazz to sound like an on top of the mix Jazz or it can easily sound like Motown.

Genres: Classic Rock
Contemporary Christian
 

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#5
I think I can appreciate what you're trying to put together here however, end of the day everyone's "system" is going to be different. We all have a different playing style and we all have a different idea of the sound we're trying to get to. Some people plug into the first Fender Rumble they come across and call it a day. Others, like myself, spend an insane amount of time and money swapping every piece of the system out for the next thing convinced it will be the final piece of the puzzle they'll never actually solve.
 
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#11
Ok… my fave ‘system’ is for my upright. The bass itself is Mathias Thoma from 1974. Laminate, but with the right strings and a new bridge it sounds great. Those strings are D’addario Helicore Pizzicato.

Then there’s mic and signal chain. I use an Audix F90 mic positioned under the post-bridge string area, pointed at the wood right below the bridge. That mic gets phantom power from a Behringer Eurorack mini mixer, the one with two XLR inputs. This gives me preliminary tone-shaping capability.

That feeds into a Halls of Fame reverb pedal, which is set so subtly that you don’t notice it’s on until you turn it off. All it does is add back in an approximation of the room reverb I get if the instrument is not amplified. I actually use that reverb in the fx loop of the amp.

Last piece: a Crate BX100 combo amp. It’s a decent electric bass amp for lower volume stuff. But it’s a nice jazz guitar amp… and it’s perfect for a mic’ed upright bass. The controls are well matched to the instrument, particularly the frequencies of the 8 band graphic EQ, and the 15” speaker seems custom-made for this application. The amp has XLR out in case I need to send it to a larger system. This hasn’t happened yet with the upright.

So it “sounds like the bass, only louder”. It’s loud enough without distortion for a typical two horns + piano + drums scenario.
 
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#14
Corbusier said:
I believe it will be helpful to list our favorite bass system and our music genre(s) instead of just individual elements. Photos optional.
Your favorite strings may be Super Slinky’s. But, if you’re playing heavy metal on an active Dingwall 5 string and I’m playing country rock on a passive 4 string Fender Jazz , your string advice may not help me move toward the perfect sound.

A request: please don’t list 5 pedals. If possible, keep it to one or two essentials. Thank you.
Okay, here I go:



Labella Flats Deep Talkin Bass strings on a
4 string 2019 Fender USA Professional Lightweight Ash Jazz played through a
Trickfish Bullhead.5K and Trickfish 210 cabinet.
Also, I recently bought a Fender cable which made an amazing difference to an already great sound.
Pedal: Sources Audio After Shock Bass Distortion (rarely used)

These flats through this setup allow the Jazz to sound like an on top of the mix Jazz or it can easily sound like Motown.

Genres: Classic Rock
Contemporary Christian
Click to expand...
Good suggestion.

Basses: AM Fender PBJ 4 string. Fender AM Pro JB 5 string
Strings: DR Lo Riders
Amps: Eden Rack system WT-100 Navigator preamp WT-1250 Stereo Power Amp powering 2 Eden D-210-XSTs for very large venues or outdoor gigs. For 99% of inside gigs with FOH support I have a Mesa WD-800 powering one Eden D-112-XST.
Genres: Motown ( yes, you can use round wound strings for genre. I've been using rounds since the 70's and I've had zero complaints about my tone.), Muscle Shoals, R&B, Blues, Classic Rock, Yacht Rock.
.
 
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#20
Two gigs with a two different feels/sounds

Bring me to life - Australia's Tribute to Evanescence

Bass: Schecter Hellraiser Extreme
Strings: DR DDT's
Main Pedals: Boss BC-1X, Boss EQ200, Ampeg SGT-DI

Bass: Belman Custom 5
Strings: D'addario NYXL

I need portability for this gig and it's IEM only so no amp, just those pedals alongside some others on a Rockboard 4.1.

Pub rock Covers in whatever band

Bass: Charvel San Dimas Pro Mod JJ with dark glass tone capsule
Strings: D'addario NYXL

Bass: Fender Precision Deluxe with Seymour Duncan QP's
Strings: Rotosound RS66

Pedals: as above for the tribute gig with a TC Electronic corona chorus and Dod Boss grunge

Amp: Fender Rumble Stage 800 - portable and enough for some stage monitoring

The EQ200 has been awesome for having everything but the BC-1X at the same level and then giving post comp EQ for each bass
 
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