My whole rig sucks! And so do I!

My suggestion is you just get over it. The bass isn't crap, the amp isn't crap, the leads aren't crap, and most importantly YOU are not crap.

You're just a bit self-critical. I plug my bass directly into the amp with no effects at all, using a $20.00 cable, and then I play. What I'm playing isn't always right, and then I practice more. But I'm OK with the sound, because I know whatever it sounds like, it's going to sound different in the mix anyway.

Relax, and have fun. You are NOT crap.

 

I think you've highlighted a good reason for, every now-and-then, starting over fresh with flat EQ, bare-bones signal chain, etc. & rebuilding it all from there.

 

Adding more things to the chain is adding more variables. You should be trying to remove them.

Put in a fresh battery if it's an active bass, make sure your strings aren't dead, check that you don't need a truss rod adjustment, then plug directly in.

 

I agree, but to answer your question no this never happens to me. What happens to me is, I buy a different bass and like it for a short time, then I pick up one of my 2 G&L 2500 and BOOM the new bass is instantly bad. Why did I spend the money?
Good luck
Rock on

 

I always blame the equipment.

 

Some days you just don't have your fastball.

 

you are probably only one or two beers short of sounding fantastic, imo.

 

There are days nothing works. The rig sounds awful, I can't play two notes without screwing up three of 'em, and the bass looks weird. It's just having an off day or off night.

 

Really, start out by plugging the bass right into the amp. If you can't make that sound good no FX is gonna fix it.

 

Exactly all of this. In stead of putting MORE "crap" in your signal chain, take everything out of it and build from there. Just because you used to set things a certain way, that doesn't mean you have to keep doing it that way.

 

This is rarely the right approach. (Sometimes, but rarely.)
Plug directly into the Passive side with flat EQ on the amp and the bass; adjust from there.

 

Well, in addition to what everyone has already said, it sounds like whatever bass you were using for that two weeks reset your ears and the Schecter isn't cutting it for you anymore. What bass was that? Sometimes you fall out of love with gear you have had forever and it's time to move on. They aren't wives you know.

 

That sort of thing happens. My #1 is a P Select. I had been playing my MIA J for a while and it wasn't sounding right, mostly just thin. So I put it away and got out the P and it sounded like it should. A couple of days ago, I decided to get the J out again and it sounds just fine.

 

Although to be honest, and I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I would keep the bass and get rid of the Behringer amp your profile says is your amp. I bet putting a nice Eden WT 550 in the signal chain would do wonders for your tone. Then you probably won't need the FX or the sansamp which are just compensating for a sub-par amp.

 

As others have suggested, put LESS in line and see what you NEED to make your ears happy from there.
Incidentally - you mention you changed pickups - was that recently? With rested ears you may have suddenly "heard" what the new pickups sound like and either a. they're not the right pus for you, or b. you need to adjust everything else to accommodate the new pus.

Just plug the bass into the amp with flat settings (or more accurately all eqs set at 12 o'clock).
Then play for a few songs.
Once you have that sound in your head, what is missing EQ-wise - make 1-2 notch adjustments on one knob and play at least a full verse and chorus, then adjust again one knob - one to two notches and repeat till you have it as good as it gets.

Then - add your Sansamp if and ONLY if you need more distortion or your actual amp is so bad it needs the help after performing step 1.

THEN add your effects, again one at a time and see how each sounds and how each needs to be adjusted - for a patch you should treat each effect in the patch individually and then together.

THEN and ONLY THEN - add or change things.

 

I've had many MANY times where an rig that sounded fantastic 24hrs prior....but now....sounds like crap. I don't believe in ANY of those scenarios that it actually sounded bad. I think it's just perception.

One thing you might want to try is taking a picture of your amp settings. I've had an interesting time getting exactly the tone I want from my Dimension bass. When I found it, I took a picture of the amp settings so I know where I had everything. I've done this a few times.

Example:
The yellow lines on the mids is the frequency that Markbass uses for the low-mid (360hz) and high-mid (800hz) frequencies on the LMII.

 

You lost me there...