A lot of players sound phenomenal with them. Me? Not what I'm looking for. I certainly respect the history, but for the foreseeable future I'll never own or gig one.
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P-Bass - Good or Bad???
- Thread starter phillipkregg
- Start date
Yeah, several folks here have mentioned having a P with a J pickup in the bridge. I actually own a Warwick with this same configuration and I think it sounds great.
Coincidentally, last night I went to a local Sam Ash music store and they had just received an American Deluxe P-Bass so I gave it a spin.
With the active circuit and the J pickup in the bridge, the bass sounded MASSIVE. Great big, fat tone pouring out of the instrument. Sounded very different from a jazz with both pickups on full. It even had a very good - and unique - slap sound.
I don't think I would enjoy a regular P as much as one of these. The tonal options are pretty great with that added J and the electronics.
It would be nice to be able to get a 5 string version of this, but alas, I heard that Fender discontinued them.
getting old blows - my knee decided to swell up like a watermelon for no apparent reason a few weeks ago. After draining it the ortho said, "stuff happens...get used to it." I'm totally sensitive to the heavy bass thing, and have sold some great instruments in part because they were just too heavy. That is one reason I'm playing my Rob Allen more - easily 2 pounds lighter than my Zons (which aren't particularly heavy).
This a passable live "p tone"?
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Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a troll taken so seriously.
Honestly, I'm calling BS on this whole story. First you say it's a classic single pup p-bass and then you say it's an American deluxe, which, as far as I've seen, has a massive humbucker and active electronics.
Besides that obvious hole, the story is just too perfect to make your case. On top of that, the idea that sound guys would have a problem with a single pup passive p-bass either shows a complete failing on either the soundguy's or your friend's part.
Honestly, I'm calling BS on this whole story. First you say it's a classic single pup p-bass and then you say it's an American deluxe, which, as far as I've seen, has a massive humbucker and active electronics.
Besides that obvious hole, the story is just too perfect to make your case. On top of that, the idea that sound guys would have a problem with a single pup passive p-bass either shows a complete failing on either the soundguy's or your friend's part.
Every single sound guy and studio/recording guy I've ever talked to say a P bass is the easiest bass to work with/around.
That largely depends on the player and instrument setup too. The first time I went into the studio with a P-bass, I was kind of new to it, and new to recording. I had roundwound strings on it, and was playing some aggressive music. The clanks from the strings hitting the fretboard were hard to tame, and the engineer had some complaints about it. I ended up playing the song with a pick. My jazz has relatively tame string smack clank relative to the P bass, which was why my technique on the P sucked. Now that I've had the Precision for many years, and have some nice flats on there, I don't suffer that problem anymore.
I've never heard of playing more than 4 songs for a sound check...never actually had to play more than 2, tops...
Did these guys really rehearse half of their set for sound check?
Passable? This is the Rob Allen? If you hadn't told us, I'd have put money on it being a Precision. Funky tune btw, and I like your solo at the end too!
Thanks - was a fun show and only the second live gig with that lineup.
Thanks, and yes, that is a Rob Allen Deep 5 fretless. Part of the key is I just got an FEA Labs dual band comp and that tightens up the low end and helps it punch. And at about 7lbs, all nite comfy. I have a Mouse fretted (30" scale) coming and I'm hoping that will be my "p-bass" proxy.
I think the bottom line is that almost any bass can work in almost any situation with the right tools and approach. So yeah, a p-bass is good
If you've read any of my posts you'll realize I'm not trolling at all - just asking if anyone has run into some of the same situations that I have with the p-bass live. If I was trolling, I'm pretty sure the admins would have shut this down before it ever got 6 pages long.
Speaking of troll, you seem to have quite a few inflammatory posts on here yourself. I've seen some of the rude, unfounded comments you've made to people like Roy Vogt.
For that reason alone, I have no reason to take anything you say seriously any further.
I've never heard of playing more than 4 songs for a sound check...never actually had to play more than 2, tops...
Did these guys really rehearse half of their set for sound check?
The specific gig I was talking about was a church gig. It was a combination sound check / warm-up / rehearsal before church started.
I don't think that they were aware of a set formula for how many songs they may or may not play while setting up.
I love Pino - he's a fantastic musician. I've never seen him live before, but this comment is kind of what I'm talking about.
This is the same thing I've seen with a lot of p-bass players live - muffled tone, lack of definition.
Who knows - we may be the only 2 members of talkbass that have ever witnessed this.
I'm just asking.
Ok, I'll qualify this upfront as strictly IMHO, AFAIK, IME, etc, etc...
Don't shoot me, but... I've never really liked the sound of a live P-bass.
Now, don't get me wrong. I sincerely want to love the P-Bass, and I've played them several times. It's a classic instrument that looks cool and has been used by great players on many legendary recordings. But, to me, they just seem really boomy and have this "clanky grind" sound that doesn't sound good live.
For instance, I have a good friend who plays precisions and jazz basses. I was listening to him one time during a sound check and the engineers were setting up the mix. He was playing a Fender Precision during the first 4 songs and everything just sounded - well, wrong. After this, he picked up his jazz and started playing, and presto - he sounded great, and the whole band sounded far more tight and grooving. Plus the sound guys were thrilled and didn't need to do any more adjusting.
This isn't the first time I've seen this. I guess my question is, has anyone here ever experienced something similar? Have you ever been disappointed by the tone of a P-Bass?
With all due respect, maybe your friend is a total noob when it comes to EQ on his amp. Does he scoop mids? Very common with J bass players. Some guys can't resist the knob, thinking that just because it's on their amp, there must be a use for it...
He's no noob, but I have no idea how he sets up his EQ. Didn't have an opportunity to look at it.
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