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My bass sounds dead, all the time.
- Thread starter Dave Kulik
- Start date
Bypassing the tone control can give huge unbridled treble.
Something was off in the wiring and/or components way early or happened during all those changes. Now he could have someone who is good at this, trace and find the culprit.
The furnace filter was clogged. We took it out and threw it away.
Did you put another one in?
What? Why and have it clog again?
No snark just humor! In these days Covid has dented our funny bones so I'm saying this. It's in jest!
Something was off in the wiring and/or components way early or happened during all those changes. Now he could have someone who is good at this, trace and find the culprit.
The furnace filter was clogged. We took it out and threw it away. Did you put another one in?
What? Why and have it clog again?
No snark just humor! In these days Covid has dented our funny bones so I'm saying this. It's in jest!
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Musicians gonna musician...
OP... didn't you know that the tone is all in your fingers?
Glad you got'er fixed up.
Actualy i like no treable sound of bass. Here is example of my bass tone: Warwick Vampyre Dark Lord BO old version made in Germany
This very old video. Basically nowdays my sound is even more dull and has not treable and almost no mids at all.
It sounds very good only in live performance and on high quality speakers with subwoofer or high quality headphones. However unfortionaly on cell phones, laptops and other crap most likly it will sound like crap or you will even hear nothing
I have had a cable (my favorite one at the time) be my worst enemy. With guitar, it was great. But when I plugged in into my bass rig it sounded terrible. I thought my particular bass was a dud or my amp was having issues. I went to a friends house to jam. I brought my rig. For one song, i plugged into their bass rig and my bass came alive. I pulled plug out of his amp and plugged into mine and my tone was there. I gave that cable to a guitar player friend and told him to only use as backup. No issues since.
Way to go, Dave! Your sharing has brought out a lot of good advice here and your perseverance will help a lot of others with similar issues. Thanks.
Try adjusting your truss rod a tiny bit to see if it is the cause of vibration which would negate the resonance of the wood. You may also want to look at the fingerboard to see if it in not glued correctly to the neck. Voids in the glue can create dead spots all over the neck. Try a set of D'Addario Pro Steel strings. When you put them on, tune the bass up and then once it is holding tune, crush the string down over the bridge saddle and nut to create a slight kink in the core. It will wake up the string and it will become much more resonant. Sounds crazy, but it works. I have been a luthier for 40 years. Your pickup may be over magnetized. That can stop the strings from vibrating correctly. It can be corrected by smacking the pole pieces with a high powered magnet. You also may want to see what the resistance is on your pickup. If it is super high, you will be losing clarity. That is why early Fenders sound so much better. They have fewer pickup windings and thus more clarity. On a '59 Precision pickup, they are usually 6-7 ohms. Many modern pickups can be overwound to 11-12 ohms which makes them sound dark.
Make sure you're doing all that you can, you're amp sounds very capable...the above suggestions are very well thought out by the players!
Quick thought - how high are your pickups set?
on the other hand, if it resonates ok unplugged, I would have a look at your tone pot - it's not reversed is it? Is it still dull when you turn the tone to zero? Is the wiring of it screwed so that the tone 'off' is always in circuit?
Just use your fingers to crimp the string over the saddle or nut. Use some force, but be careful at the nut. You want to make sure the crimp is at the edge of the nut where it hits the fingerboard. If you have a bone nut, be careful not to push too hard as you may crack the bone...especially on the E side. The metal bridge saddles will be fine, so crimp hard there. You may also find you will have to raise your bridge saddles a bit since the string will sit slightly lower than before. If you have an extremely low nut, do not crimp at the nut.
Another term for what TJL describes is "setting the witness points." Search "witness point" here on TB and you'll find more info.
Hi Dave, congratulations with solving the problem at post #57 already ;-)
I have had the same problem when I shortcircuited things at the tone pot with a quick soldering job. See picture below (blue circle). Fixing that fixed the 'tone full open always' problem.
I have had the same problem when I shortcircuited things at the tone pot with a quick soldering job. See picture below (blue circle). Fixing that fixed the 'tone full open always' problem.
Perception is just that, it's not truth.
In 1996 bought a '66'Fender P bass from Dan Lakin. It sounded "Dead" no matter what. I did a few gigs and recorded a project with it then traded it back with cash to him for 55-94. A month later the mixes came back from the project and HOLY SMOKES the bass sounded fantastic on the recordings! Live and learn.
In 1996 bought a '66'Fender P bass from Dan Lakin. It sounded "Dead" no matter what. I did a few gigs and recorded a project with it then traded it back with cash to him for 55-94. A month later the mixes came back from the project and HOLY SMOKES the bass sounded fantastic on the recordings! Live and learn.
Same happened to me. I had a bad pot and when I got it back it sounded like....... it had no bite and punch. Sounded ok I guess but not my bass I took in. Easy fix in my case. Good luck or as somewhere above , find it a new home.
After years of hearing P Basses do heroic things in the hands of the masters and not being able to come close to anything like that with the P basses that were available to me, I quit worrying about it and used other basses instead, which I am fine with.
I have an old L-2000 strung with flatwounds and when I solo the neck pickup in parallel mode with the preamp off, I get the chocolate burp of my dreams. Or close to it.
I know that there are magical P basses out there. I've just never come across one. If I ever get a chance to play one, I'll enjoy it. But in the meantime, I'm happier using a substitute than struggling with an uninspiring example of the real thing.
I have an old L-2000 strung with flatwounds and when I solo the neck pickup in parallel mode with the preamp off, I get the chocolate burp of my dreams. Or close to it.
I know that there are magical P basses out there. I've just never come across one. If I ever get a chance to play one, I'll enjoy it. But in the meantime, I'm happier using a substitute than struggling with an uninspiring example of the real thing.
