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Multiple Tones in One Bass?

#65
two fingers said:
Used Fender Roscoe Beck Signature. All passive. Two buckers. You can split the coils in series, parallel, or single. I haven't found a tone I can't cop yet. And it will have a familiar Fender feel. It's a J neck but you get what I mean. Seriously, you can't go wrong with one.
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+1

A Roscoe Beck 5 string has been my main bass for over a decade now. I can get lots of different tones from that instrument thanks to the pickup switching options.

-Jazz bass? Both pickups in single coil mode
-Precision bass? Front pickup in parallel mode
-G&L? Both pickups in humbucking mode, crank the tone

Vary your technique and you've got even more options. I see RB5's turn up in the classifieds every few weeks. Just keep an eye out and you may be able to score one.
 
#66
Joe Nerve said:
When I had one it was only briefly, and I was still kinda new to bass, so I can't and won't argue. If what you say it true, then there may be one of those things in my future. I liked it a lot at the time, but just for old school stuff. Remeber not being able to get a slap tone out of it fer nuthin, and I can get a slap tone out of ubass. Again, that might be attributed to the amount of experience at the time I had the one I did. I'm a peavey fan, and that bass is a tank.
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max out everything, roll the bridge volume down to 6, and throw it out of phase. That phase switch is a lot more important than a lot of people realize.

The t40's electronics are the most versatile passive electronics I can name.
 
#67
I would say a Double MM bass would do. My first experience with a bass with numerous bass tone and eq options was the Ibanez SR700 i played around with at GC. Then I discovered Musicman 4HH and with those you can select between the coils in each pickup so in a sense you have 4 pickups to chose from (back of bridge PU, front of bridge PU, back of neck PU, front of neck PU) and can combined them to create some great tones
 
#69
I like MusicMan basses -- I have one -- and I was interested in the Big Al for the versatility factor. But I found it didn't really have several tones -- it had several versions of the same tone.

Any bass can play any music. But if you want a specific characteristic, it will only comes from the instrument to which that characteristic is inherent. You might get CLOSE to Ric, or CLOSE to a P, or CLOSE to a J. But nothing sounds quite like the real thing.
 
#72
There's some wonderful technical knowledge in this thread, and enthusiastic information about some very smart basses. But the thing you can't account for is the acoustic quality of the room.

Sounds as if you are in a gigging band. We'd all love to be able to sound-check with plenty of time, and have someone on the sound board able to re-set as the room fills and the temperature rises. My experience, and I bet yours too, includes bar-men who can't hear orders with the room empty so get the sound-check turned down, guitarists who shred endlessly while I want to listen to my tone, and rooms which might fill up at the start of the gig and might fill in the final hour.

So by all means buy the fanciest bass you can afford and enjoy its practice-tones, but playing a good gig will be about cutting-through when necessary and grooving all the time. Any bass that makes you confident will do this, if you can.
 
#73
Tuned said:
The sound tech in me advises against this. With PA reinforcement the low end changes enough from bass to bass regardless of how even it sounds at the bass amp. I switch between fretted and fretless, but the change is drastic enough that I wouldn't want them balancing the exact same anyway. But if the PA is set up for a Rush Rickenbacker, it'll be night-and-day heavier when you pull the P bass out. Sure you'll make adjustments at the bass rig, but for example if the sound tech insists on pre-EQ DI and is having a smoke when you switch...
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Rediculous, and typical soundman BS - there is no reason why a bassist shouldn't be able to use more than one bass, just like you wouldn't insist that a guitarist only used one guitar...

The last sentence really takes the cake - a bassist is supposed to bend over and take it because some sound monkey "insists" on a pre-EQ DI, but wants to be able to leave the board while the band is playing "for a smoke"(or whatever)???

I would do everything in my power to prevent such an unprofessional excuse for a "soundman" from ever working another gig that my band played...


- georgestrings
 

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