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Physics behind "growl"
- Thread starter JanBerisha
- Start date
My definition of growl is not exactly fret buzz.
Contrarian voice here. I don't think growl has anything at all to do with pickup location, or the angle of the pickups. I don't think it has anything to do with fret buzz (I would call that more "grit" than "growl" -- but then we start getting into subjective descriptive vocabulary, which can get messy to pin down). In my experience, it has to do with how hard the strings are being manipulated. I don't know why that is, which is why the thread title attracted my attention. But to demonstrate my point, I'll link a couple of audio clips from a recording from a few years ago. In both clips, the bass being played is my passive 3-pickup jazz currently in my avatar (not the P bass in the SoundCloud photo). I used no effects, and plugged straight into the board. In the first clip, I played normally, although the bass sound gets a little weird in this clip because the strings were getting grippy in the middle of that song.
The day this second song was recorded, I noticed that my strings were more worn than I like. I would have changed them, but I didn't want to deal with strings stretching and going out of tune in the middle of the song. So I didn't change them. To compensate, I pounded the ever-loving snot out of the strings as I was playing (fingers). That's the difference between the two clips. Same bass, probably the same strings, same board, same player, different day.
The day this second song was recorded, I noticed that my strings were more worn than I like. I would have changed them, but I didn't want to deal with strings stretching and going out of tune in the middle of the song. So I didn't change them. To compensate, I pounded the ever-loving snot out of the strings as I was playing (fingers). That's the difference between the two clips. Same bass, probably the same strings, same board, same player, different day.
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It looks like many of you have a completely different defintion of growl than me. This "controlled fret fret buzz" others have mentioned is what I would personally refer to as "grind". Fret buzz has nothing to do with "growl" in MY mind...
To me growl is the nasal tone you get from boosting around 800 Hz and maybe cut some lows. Jazz Bass with bridge pickup soloed into an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10 is pretty much my definition of growl. It's far too nasal sounding for MY taste but a classic tone nonetheless. Jaco is probably the first bass player I think of when someone mentions "growl". Not a lot of fret buzz going on there (for VERY obvious reasons
). Have I gotten it completely wrong all these years? Do most of you REALLY refer to fret buzz as "growl"? It would certainly explain a couple of the endless discussions I've had around here...
To me growl is the nasal tone you get from boosting around 800 Hz and maybe cut some lows. Jazz Bass with bridge pickup soloed into an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10 is pretty much my definition of growl. It's far too nasal sounding for MY taste but a classic tone nonetheless. Jaco is probably the first bass player I think of when someone mentions "growl". Not a lot of fret buzz going on there (for VERY obvious reasons
). Have I gotten it completely wrong all these years? Do most of you REALLY refer to fret buzz as "growl"? It would certainly explain a couple of the endless discussions I've had around here...
There seem to be different ideas about what growl is. To me it is when the lower notes have lots of overtones in them, as opposed to just the fundamentals. This is a factor of pickups, their placement, and electronics. I got my Gary Willis bass because of how it sounds. The pickup is close to the bridge and the electronics accentuate the mids which makes the low B and E sound very rich in harmonics.
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Yeah, this has always been more or less my idea of "growl" but the majority here on talkbass seems to disagree. Most people in this thread thinks "growl" = fret buzz. I've NEVER heard anyone in the real world refer to fret buzz as "growl"...??? I totally get the idea of "controlled fret buzz" btw, I use it myself all the time. But that's not "growl" to me.
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Yeah, the overtones are definitely a huge part of "growl". The ovetones will certainly be more prominent when cutting lows and boosting around 800 Hz like I suggested above but your definition is much better. Less fundamental, more overtones. That's definitely a "growly" tone to my ears.
What about Dusty Hill on Just Got Paid Today? I love that tone... How would you go about dialing that in?
My Am. Ultra PJ growls well, I believe because of the rather substantial bridge pickup.
It depends on what you call Growl. There are 2 types.. A Warwick will give you low down growl but thats its natural tone. Or the growl that comes from a certain height of the strings from your frets. Its a physical attack nuance from your fingers. A seen in this Marcus Miller vid. His is my favorite type because it takes alot more actual physical musical expression to achieve it. Added pressure on certain parts of his playing.
This is part of the issue - there are as many definitions of what growl is as there are people using the term.
As to the Physics of such things, assuming your definition of what we're taking about exists at some point in the midrange, the most powerful influence on the sound of your bass in that range is the position of the pickups - that positioning imparts a series of comb filters on the sound (each string has it's own filter for each pickup position or combination) that's far stronger than any other factor in that region. Those filters (given that each sting has its own), can not be eq'd out - the comb filter is a very complex thing, and even if you applied enough eq to fix it on one string, every other string would be worse. So, that comb filter just is, and it determines a huge part of the bass's sound - a Ric will sound like a Ric, regardless of what else you do to the signal, likewise a P, a J, and a 'Ray will have their own voices in the midrange.
Yes, a bit of fret buzz (on the note attack) will send some harmonics into that filter - that is part of getting some "growl" going (for most folks' definition of it) - how you play the thing (accentuating or diminishing that bit of fret buzz) helps unlock growl.
Anyway, given all that, the things that form most of the growl exist on the physical platform that you're playing - if you put a fresh set of rounds on a well set up bass, crank up the tone controls, and it doesn't growl, you should move on to another bass if that's what you want.
Thanks for posting this!
While I agree that there is fret noise, I hear OD as the bigger component of growl is this example.
ding ding ding
you gotta agree on a concise definition before opinions become useful
