Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
P-Bass too bassy. Strings or pickups?
- Thread starter HolyGrowl
- Start date
Didn't read all 4 or so pages of responses but here's mine:
I would not be trying a new bass for the first time in a live context as a judge of it's sound. There really are too many variables in that environment to make solid judgements about the sound of the instrument.
I would take that bass home, and set it next to your amp and the bass that you normally use. Once you have things sounding like you like to hear it (via knobs on both the bass AND the amp), with the bass and amp you are used to using, and in a non-live environment in which you are used to hearing it, then put that bass down. Pick up the new bass, and see how it sounds through that amp. Don't touch the knobs on the amp. Leave that as a constant. Noodle with the knobs on the bass. Then, and only then, do you have a best reference to hear how that bass is going to sound through your rig. Adjust accordingly.
Personally, I would err on finding ways of adjusting the bass, via tone knob or perhaps volume knob, or perhaps pickup height to see if the tone you want can be found, instead of through amp adjustments. If so, then great. If not, THEN I would start looking to the amp to change the settings on the knobs. The point being, in a gig situation, if you can dial in a good sound via knobs on the bass, that is generally easier to do than fiddling with the knobs and/or eq sliders on a bass amp eq. Plus, you don't have to turn your back to the audience while dialing in tones on a bass (usually they usually can be set in the place you want them more or less), nearly as much as you would to dial in tones on the amp behind you. (Amp "fiddling" rightly or wrongly seems to me to be a gig momentum-killer, and probably frustrates a soundperson too, if not the rest of your band). Aka- I use AMP knob adjustments if any are needed in consideration of THE ROOM, and NOT to "fix" the tone of the bass.
If a sound you like is not able to be found easily by dialing it in on the bass while the amp would be otherwise set the way you like it, I would wonder if drastic tone adjustments on the amp is hinting that you may not like the inherent sound of the bass, itself, or whether BOTH the reference bass and rig which was your mental/sonic model that helped you decide to spring for this custom P-bass was quite different than what you currently have.
Hope this helps.
An earlier post suggested the split P bass pickup should be adjusted height-wise so it loosely follows the string radius (a shallow inverted V, so to speak). Does this really make a difference?
Riis
Riis
The cheapest thing to do will be to replace the volume pot with a 500k instead of the "stock" 250k. This makes a huge difference and will make your instrument much brighter. The pot is like 5 bucks and you can have they guy who built it put it in if you're not comfortable with a soldering iron. It should take an experinced guy like 15-30 minutes to change the pot out, so be sure not to pay too much in labor.
Steel wound strings are also brighter, but it sounds like you like flats and i don't think you can get flat wounds in steel. "half rounds" might be a good compromise if you are playing the flat wounds becuase they feel smoother on your fingers. They are round wounds that are ground down and kind of "semi flat."
Steel wound strings are also brighter, but it sounds like you like flats and i don't think you can get flat wounds in steel. "half rounds" might be a good compromise if you are playing the flat wounds becuase they feel smoother on your fingers. They are round wounds that are ground down and kind of "semi flat."
I play P through an SVT and it is all thump with your everyday eq. To get around that I cut the bass on the amp (with the bass cut switch, dont know if the micro has one) and boost the living crap out of the mids and it cuts very well. I dont think that changing pickup height is going to make a "day and night" difference, but maybe try it with the "bass cut" on (if the micro does that) and the bass knob barely turned up (or turned off). The eq on svts (when knobs are turned off except volume, Im not sure if the micro follows suit) looks like this "\"... A **** load of lows, not a bunch of mids, and little to no highs- so you really gotta boost the mid and treble and cut the bass to get a good punchy tone that isnt full of inaudible (and useless) "boominess", especially since most Ps will be boomy anyways when partnered with any svt...
Oh, and +1 on the steel strings. maybe try some round wounds??.. Those transparent finger sounds wear off in the first few hours of playing with the Fender steel roundwounds... I cant get enough of em
Oh, and +1 on the steel strings. maybe try some round wounds??.. Those transparent finger sounds wear off in the first few hours of playing with the Fender steel roundwounds... I cant get enough of em
Oh my god!!!! dude thank you so much, i have this 1980 peavey T40 that for the longest time has always sounded so muddy and boomy, and i was asking myself why, i searched this up and this is the best thing ever, MY GOD they feel like totally new pickups!! (theyre the original pickups from factory) but how could this be? all i did was lower them maybe like 0.8 cm and suddendly they have added a bit more brightness to my tone and they even got a bit louder as well, i thought, it was the opposite, i thought that when you raise the pickups up, your volume raises up as well as any nuances, THIS IS A MYSTERY TO ME!!! but whatever man i owe this guy a beer
