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Make hollow body sound like solid body?
- Thread starter Bodeanly
- Start date
I've had a few semi and full hollow, long and med scale, (my first bass actually, no brand maybe sears full hollowbody I defretted and had a Lawrence pu put in) my first thought for Your bass is Parametric EQ because the signal is not hot and it needs to be simplified (prob upper mids taken out somewhere and maybe even low lows) so it has a voice, less clack and no boominess.
The only semihollow I have now that needs NO eq ever is the (of course) Jack Casady which I have in black w/ DR Blues (nickle), p.u. mid position.
The only semihollow I have now that needs NO eq ever is the (of course) Jack Casady which I have in black w/ DR Blues (nickle), p.u. mid position.
Its a different animal. My first bass was an ABG, followed by the Gretsch 5442 and then a solid body Warwick Rock Bass Corvette, all of which where different scales, 34", 30", 32", respectively. I never wanted my 5442 to sound like a slab O'Wood bass, because I didn't have that preconceived idea of what it 'should' sound like.
No offense, but put flats on your 5442 and play it for what it is and not what you want to try to make it to be. You'll enjoy it much more that way.
No offense, but put flats on your 5442 and play it for what it is and not what you want to try to make it to be. You'll enjoy it much more that way.
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I have a Hagstrom Viking that is absolutely fantastic. It is a semi-hollow body bass. I actually have played the bass that the OP has posted about and the difference between the Viking and the Gretsch is huge.
I use the Viking in a pretty loud rock cover band. We play a lot Stones and other 1970's rock. The Viking sounds awesome in that context. I can get a rock "growl" if I want pretty easily.
The thing about these semi hollow basses, is that you EQ them with the pickup volumes. If I want more bottom, I turn up the neck pick up. If I want growl, I'll turn down the neck.
The Viking has humbuckers that can be placed in a single coil mode. I use the buckers for the rock band.... and the single coils when I'm backing up an acoustic guitar/singer-songwriter stuff. Great for blues jams too.
The only thing I don't use it for is my Sabbath cover band.
I use the Viking in a pretty loud rock cover band. We play a lot Stones and other 1970's rock. The Viking sounds awesome in that context. I can get a rock "growl" if I want pretty easily.
The thing about these semi hollow basses, is that you EQ them with the pickup volumes. If I want more bottom, I turn up the neck pick up. If I want growl, I'll turn down the neck.
The Viking has humbuckers that can be placed in a single coil mode. I use the buckers for the rock band.... and the single coils when I'm backing up an acoustic guitar/singer-songwriter stuff. Great for blues jams too.
The only thing I don't use it for is my Sabbath cover band.
I played one of these and it’s somewhere on the gas list. The Gretsch fell in my lap at a very, very reasonable price and we bonded immediately.
Great Stuff is very powerful stuff. Spray a hollow body full of it, and I’ll be willing to bet the pressure will literally tear it apart. The stuff they make for windows and doors expands less, but even that I’d be afraid of using in an instrument.
I've decided to just raise the pickups and have a separate eq pedal for it. I will use it for the first set, then switch if it drives me crazy, if I can get a decent tone at home first.
When I want the solid body sound I use one of my solid bodies. Hollow bodies do not have the same sound anymore than a 1 piece neck thru body sounds the same as a bolt on neck.
The hollow bodies I have ( 1963, 1967 & 1968 Country Gentleman's, and a 67 Tenessean) at any rate have a more rapid rate of decay due to the floating bridge. Most of my basses have the same style pickups but the different bodies create different sounds.
The 67 is fretless with rounds so it growls.
Hollow bodies are great for quieter playing - playing without drums - definitely a first choice. It seems to me if the band is too loud in a tight area (ie can't get a space away from monitors, guitar amps etc,) it tends to become problematic. On new years I brought the 67 to the gig, but the space was small with walls on 3 sides and the drummer, whom I had never played with before, was very heavy handed. Fortunately I brought a short scale solid body back up which made my life much easier.
Notably I was told by persons in the crowd and the other band members they heard the hollow body just fine. The problem was I couldn't which means where I was standing was the problem.
Hollow bodies are to my eye more beautiful, and have a unique tone, but they are not as versatile to every situation.
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Many of the popular choices today are semi-hollow/chambered basses and have sustain that can rival a solid body. My Epi Jack Casady is what is known as semi-hollow, and has the three point bridge. Even with string silks lapping over the saddles (a common complaint of that bridge), it has no issue with too quick of decay. I bought the mod bar, installed on the bridge, but I took it off as I couldn’t really hear a difference in sustain, and it was always a pain to change strings with it on.
Good enough reason to get it IMO.
And yeah, a Hagstrom Viking -or Super Swede... I’ve had those on my radar for awhile too.
Sometimes you can get a little more of a “solid” sound by stuffing a towel or small pillow under the tailpiece. The floating bridge and the pickups are what make these basses sound as they do. I have a completely hollow bass with emgs and a fixed bridge, it doesn’t sound much different than a solid bass with a fixed bridge and emgs. You can’t do much about the bridge design, but you could replace the pickups...
I should say - wants the retro, hollow-bodied sound somewhere in his/her stable, even if not as an actual hollow-bodied bass. I was surprised, in some ways, a simple ABG worked so well but I was in an Association-era heaven with it. I should probably called the fretless Mary as that came along next.
I watched a guy wheel in a 12 space rack case full of signal massaging components, a couple of what looked like custom built 115 cabinets, and a URB. When he played it sounded so much like a P bass it was scary. I asked him later about his rig and he rattled off the names of all the stuff in the rack and said it took him a couple years of work to get his sound. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he could get the same sound from a P bass and Peavey TNT.
