My bass sounds dead, all the time.

[MDBass]

IMO, part of good tone and good sound is dynamics- perhaps lighten up a bit?
Many metal/hard rock players actually play fairly lightly, and let the amp/effects do the work.


edit- example

Nolly plays the opposite of “fairly lightly”.

Specifically, he uses light picks so that he can attack the strings very aggressively without having them go sharp.

He goes into that in detail on Scott’s channel.

 

[MDBass]

I achieved what I needed to. I took advice and wired the pickup straight to the output jack and PERFECT!!! It had the punch and treble I was missing. I soldered in a 250k volume pot and left the tone out of the circuit altogether. Problem solved. Thank you for all the help!! This thing is a beast now.

Excellent!

 

[2F/2F]

Poor judgement of tone and/or poor control of tone and/or a really terrible sounding amp. No bass “just sounds dead” in my experience. It’s a matter of making the electronics choices that suit the desired outcome, and of sound human judgment analyzing the results.

 

[wraub]

Then, my apologies... I had only noted that he appeared to have a less aggressive attack then many I have played with and seen... very controlled and focused on specific approaches at specific times, with varying methods.

It looks a far difference from the usual "all down strokes with the thickest "pick" available, blood likely" I remember from my bass playing youth.

Nolly plays the opposite of “fairly lightly”.

Specifically, he uses light picks so that he can attack the strings very aggressively without having them go sharp.

He goes into that in detail on Scott’s channel.

 

[dan1952]

I had a mid 70's P-bass that the only sound that came out of it was a THUD. No combination of parts/strings would make a difference. Some trees just don't want to be guitars.

Paula, you win!!!

 

[Jim Carr]

...Some trees just don't want to be guitars.

Do actual growing leafy trees want to be anything except thriving trees, LOL?

 

[Paulabass]

Do actual growing leafy trees want to be anything except thriving trees, LOL?

Now we are getting into tree psychiatry, and psychology. Understanding a trees wishes, living or for after their demise, is mostly conjecture. Speaking out of respect for trees, I think they all grow up hoping to be great guitars and basses one day. I hope they see it not as their lot in life, but a lofty goal.

 

[Cut the middle]

Poor judgement of tone and/or poor control of tone and/or a really terrible sounding amp. No bass “just sounds dead” in my experience. It’s a matter of making the electronics choices that suit the desired outcome, and of sound human judgment analyzing the results.

Here's maybe an exception:
When I was a whippersnapper I bought my first "real" (4 string) bass. It had through-body strings. The "a" and "d" strings were dead no matter which note I played. "E" and "g" were fine, nice and zippy.

It turns out that the stamped plate on the back side of the body did not seat well into the routed section where the ball ends seated.

I "fixed" it in my own amateurish way and was zippin' all over the place on all four strings!

 

[Coke Kane]

Adjust the truss rod to straighten the neck as much as you can, then adjust the string action according to Fender's spec recommendation. I find that a little bit of the strings hitting the frets give the sound some personality.

 

[Aidenn7]

Thank you everyone for all the comments! I’m going to try 4 things
1, wire the pickup straight to the jack and see if it makes a difference.
2, go back to active and put the emg BTC in the tone position (I did this before and sounded great) but this time route out a battery box in the back cuz taking the pick guard off to change a battery sucks.
3, strip all the paint off, stain it and seal it with tung oil.
4, maybe get a new neck.

Check neck bolts.. Check the tuners.. Add weight to the neck.. I got a feeling it's the neck.. Check the jack ground.. Aldo check your cable.. and if that don't work.. Then do this list

 

[brother21]

Try pickups that are underwound the SP3's your using is overkill.

 

[panzerfaust]

are you jokin' or serious ? P pickup always sounds duller/warmer than J,..and you change it to another P,..off course you got no significant change of tone

 

[SactoBass]

I achieved what I needed to. I took advice and wired the pickup straight to the output jack and PERFECT!!! It had the punch and treble I was missing. I soldered in a 250k volume pot and left the tone out of the circuit altogether. Problem solved. Thank you for all the help!! This thing is a beast now.

Glad to hear that you fixed it!

 

[MDBass]

Then, my apologies... I had only noted that he appeared to have a less aggressive attack then many I have played with and seen... very controlled and focused on specific approaches at specific times, with varying methods.

It looks a far difference from the usual "all down strokes with the thickest "pick" available, blood likely" I remember from my bass playing youth.

All good!

He’s definitely controlled, no excess tension in his strokes, but is hitting the strings very hard: using a thicker pick like some players do, Ian Martin Allison comes to mind, works really well if you use a light attack.

Check out Nolly’s course on Scott’s channel if you get the chance, lots of good insights there.

 

[MDBass]

Ya’ll, the OP posted that he’d fixed the issue pages ago.

Something about the tone control was wired wrong and bleeding too much top end, so removing it fixed the problem entirely.

The bass didn’t need new pickups, or a new neck, or a new setup, or a different playing technique, and the tree it was made from is totally fine with being a bass

 

[alaskaleftybass]

 

[4stringfarley]

it sounds like a jamerson bass with flats and foam under the bridge.

But you just said it dosen't sound good.

 

[Paz Valentine]

Some basses just suck and theres no changing that.
I had a bass that had top of the line pickups and everything in it, and i just hated how it sounded, and after years of fighting, i got another one and man, it felt better.

Seems to me like you went through an insane amount of pickups and tried real hard to make it work, but its just not getting the sauce that you need on that 'bass sammich'.

Get another one.
90's P bases arent exactly like an incredible year in p-bass sounds.

 

[ctmullins]

Well, @Dave Kulik , looks like you may want to edit your thread title to include the word “Solved”, or perhaps update your opening post with that info. Apparently half of TalkBass is too lazy to actually read.....

 

[Mr Cheese]

Quick question, I have a 90’s P bass. No matter what strings, pickups and pots I put in this thing it just sounds “dull”. For pickups I have put in Duncan SPB 3 (current), spb4, dimarzio model p, emg p, emg px, geezer p. And they all sound like poop. I put all those pickups in other basses and sound amazing. I have also used 250k and 500k pots in any combination. 25k for the active. I have also tried nickel, SS, coated, cobalt and kryptonite lol. It has a maple jazz neck, hipshot tuners and a gotoh bridge. Can a bass body just create a constant dead, no treble bass tone?

Have you considered an effects pedal?