Multiple Tones in One Bass?

[droo46]

Another vote for an ATK. Those things are awesomely versatile.

 

[bobm2112]

You dont need a new bass. A good Precision, the tone knob and your hands are all you need. Need a bright Geddy tone. Tone wide play hard close to the bridge. Sting requires a soft touch and the tone rolled off. Pearl jam, crank the tone and grind away finger style. Beatles, same thing roll off tone and depending on the song you might wanna palm mute.

Have fun playing the songs with what you have and save the cash

 

[Johnny Crab]

Line 6 Variax Bass I get twenty-four different sounds.

This and either the Line 6 BPXTLive or the HD500 but ONLY IF you want to be able to have invisible roadies change your bass and amps at the click of a switch or 2. Clank to mud or thud in a few seconds.

 

[the yeti]

You dont need a new bass. A good Precision, the tone knob and your hands are all you need. Need a bright Geddy tone. Tone wide play hard close to the bridge. Sting requires a soft touch and the tone rolled off. Pearl jam, crank the tone and grind away finger style. Beatles, same thing roll off tone and depending on the song you might wanna palm mute.

Have fun playing the songs with what you have and save the cash

well, there is that. but why would anybody want to ruin some good gear drooling with talk of technique?

 

[18reisd]

You dont need a new bass. A good Precision, the tone knob and your hands are all you need. Need a bright Geddy tone. Tone wide play hard close to the bridge. Sting requires a soft touch and the tone rolled off. Pearl jam, crank the tone and grind away finger style. Beatles, same thing roll off tone and depending on the song you might wanna palm mute.

Have fun playing the songs with what you have and save the cash

haha, i guess i may be just gassing. The thing is that my p has labella flats on now and while they are amazing for what they do, it's hard no matter what technique i use to get a geddy or entwistle sound from them. i may just switch to rounds.

 

[Stealth]

Try groundwounds or pressurewounds, they're in the middle of the road between the flats and the rounds, and can be nicely trebly without being too zingy.

As far as versatility goes, I'd say either the T-40 (sadly not common) or a P/J of some sort. Depends on the pickups and the wiring in the P/Js case, but it can be made to have a huge tonal palette - and it's already very versatile even at its simplest (Vol-Vol-Tone).

 

[hdracer]

I just bring 2 basses.
The guitar players change guitars, why can't I change basses?

 

[wmheilma]

Don't rule out two basses so quickly. Get a padded gig bag that holds two of them, put another stand in your road case, and there you go.

Only a P sounds like a P, but a P only sounds like a P. (Did that come out right???)

 

[bill reed]

Line 6 Variax Bass I get twenty-four different sounds.

i would say that this is the only bass to give you so many tones without having a big effects board.
they hard to find now but reallly do give you the sounds of so many diffrents basses.

 

[MoeTown1986]

I'm in a cover band that covers everything from Rihanna, to Dierks Bentley, to the Beatles, to Neon Trees. Pretty much everything but Bluegrass. I use a 5 string stingray which is fairly versatile, but I get all of my tones out of my Digitech BP355. Most people laugh at the sight... And then they hear it. It is a great pedal with a ton of amp models to get all kinda of different amp tones. Ampeg, SWR, Fender, Trace Elliot, Mesa, Sunn, ect... All at your toes.

 

[Basstardus]

I cop it all with my passive Lakland Jazz with roundwounds. I do have a Lakland P bass but I play it for fun, and carry it as a backup, but never had to use it as a backup, like I said, just for fun now and then.
Only thing you can't do with that two basses is fretless tone... So I orderd myself a P/J fretless
You really can do anything with a good bass and your fingers, it could be a P bass, or jazz, or musicman, doesn't matter as long as it's a good one and as long as your fingers work for you.

 

[Russell L]

My old '87 Jazz Bass Special (P/J) can do it all.

 

[gumbynotpokey]

My Carvin LB70 with the P-series electronics option makes all kinds of different sounds.
3-band EQ, pickup blend, coil tap, and a piezo pickup in each string saddle. The possibilities are kind of overwhelming

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

+1

My fretted version has a J-style pu at the neck, a MM style bucker at the bridge, and piezos in the bridge saddle. The thing is awesome and it's a Swiss Army Knife. That is, you can pan all 3 pu's independently by blending in as much/little of each as you like, plus you can play active or passive.

 

[xxx666]

G & L L2000.


Nuff said.

 

[nashman]

Your bass plus a Zoom B3 effects pedal - about $200. Go on vacation with the rest.

 

[bill reed]

Line 6 variax

Pair Name Green Bank Red Bank
VINJ 1961 Fender Jazz 1960 Fender Jazz (flat-wound strings)
MODJ 2004 Fender Deluxe Jazz 1961 Fender Jazz Fretless
PREBASS 1963 Precision Bass 1958 Precision Bass (flat-wound strings)
MANTA 1977 Musicman Stingray 2003 Modulus Flea
CLANG 1971 Rickenbacker 4001 1963 Rickenbacker 4001 (flat-wound strings)
HOLLOW 1966 Danelectro Longhorn 1963 Hofner 500/1 (flat-wound strings)
THUMP 1963 Gibson Thunderbird 1966 Gibson EB2D (flat-wound strings)
MODERN 2002 MTD 535 2003 Warwick Thumb
ALCHEMY 1978 Alembic Long Scale 1984 Steinberger XL2
8 & 12 1968 Hagström H8 1994 Hamer B12A
ACOUSTIC Tacoma Thunderchief Kay M1 Double Bass
SYNTH Mini Moog Modern Bass Synth

 

[chef wong]

The amount you have to spend will get you a very nice used boutique bass.

 

[39-Bassist]

+2 on the Carvin thought......Very diverse tones

 

[Tuned]

Actually my first suggestion is using different techniques:
The Who - needs fingernails, pick will work, but strum at neck pickup not bridge
Beatles - palm-mute right by the bridge and pluck with thumb, instant Hofner sound
Rush - nails help, but bright P bass works, a Ricky would be ideal but hey, no faking that
Radiohead - pretty standard P bass sound to me
Police - mostly fretless, fake it by killing treble, boosting midrange, a light chorus helps
Pearl Jam - also fretless, see Police
Zep - nobody disses Zep covers because the bass tone is wrong, just use no effects
Zappa - P bass works fine
Stevie Wonder - a lot of it is left hand keys, but P bass fits
Janis - P bass fits

I cover a wide spectrum both fretted and fretless and I only ever adjust my volume knob. I file my nails on a slant so I have open fingerpad to pluck Stanley Clarke style and can dig the nails in straight on.

 

[El-Bob]

Good suggestions.

Here's another vote for the Warwick $$'s. They can do just about anything. Series/Single coil/ Parallel switching for each pickup, and a 2-band active EQ with passive mode when you pull up the volume knob. Everything from a passive fender jazz or active super-jazz, to a musicman or a clean modern humbucker tone, and anything you could want in between.