Looking for that Pino sound

Try flatwounds first. LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats would be my suggestion. Break 'em in a bit.

 

TI Jazz flats, solo the neck pickup, adjust tone to taste. Changing to flatwounds will drastically change your sound.

 

Yes.

String changes have a big effect on overall tone IMO. Going from rounds to flats is huge.

 

You want to sound like Pino/Jamerson and Miller. Thats not an easy task. You will never ever be able to sound like Miller with La Bella flats. I would suggest rounds and something under your strings to dampen for that 60s sound.

 

Those sounds are miles apart! Jamerson's is very much a product of very settled muted flats. Miller's is bright rounds. Pino's varies so much- the sound of very light and twangy stainless rounds with his classic Paul Young- era fretless, the detuned very heavy flats from his D'Angelo work, the rounds with The Who, and TI flats with John Mayer.

Getting that range out of a single type of strings may be impossible.

John

 

what about his fretless stingray days with jeff beck...

 

His fretless Stingray used to be his sound. You heard him on all kinds of tracks, with the Boss octave box.

I saw him before the Stingray with Jooles Holland the and Millionaires and he played a sunburst fretted P bass.

 

Yes the OP really needs to specify what Pino sound he wants. My guess is the D'Angelo one, i.e. P-bass, flatwounds and classic Ampeg amp or amp simulator.

 

P-bass plus flat wound is not exactly versatility. You need two basses, another MM or J-style bass with roundwounds, most likely a J-one as you are aiming for a stock fusion sound. Get a Vintate Modified Squier and save money. With some initial setup they sound really good and this way you could afford two bass guitars.

 

You can use foam

 

You need a push pull passive circuit with a tone knob or a very dynamic treble control.
I have an f bass that is an active jazz but when you pull it to passive mode, one knob doubles as a tone control thus making the bass able to basically do what you are asking about. Lakland 5502 s also have that sort of preamp versatility. also markbass heads have the vlf and vle controls. Those do exactly what youre talking about (allow a modern tone to be instantly dulled out, fat and trebleless.)Oh, and you would need roundwounds if you are trying to get some Marcus tone. Just be caeful about using very modern sounding steel strings (ie DR High Beams) because the duller preamp settings will sound contrived. On another note, Marcus Miller who uses hi beams gets a good jamerson vibe with his palm muting...

 

You can even use rounds with some foam, and then crank back on your tone control. I do that al the time.