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Playing your bass unplugged

#21
This 'sounds good unplugged' thing never worked for me. As I look back, the one bass that stands out as being really loud unplugged just stank plugged in, short of stringing it with roundwounds and playing through a lumpy sounding amp, it never had any real deep end. And though I'm hardly a recording professional by any means, there are lots of basses that are great onstage that don't record as well, and vice versa.

For me this is another one of those 'bass things' that are like a UFO: I know I saw something, I just don't know what it was.

As far as playing one unplugged, it reminds me of sitting in a car that's not running and saying 'vroom, vroom . . . . . ', it's not a complete instrument without an amp.
 
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#22
There are so many ways to approach doing what we do, and that's a wonderful thing. I don't play unplugged. I will never do that on a stage or session, so it's irrelevant to do it at home. Anything I want to check or suss out in terms of sound, it's plugged in. That, to me, is the purpose of an electric instrument. Maybe, as some have said, I'll set in it my lap for a balance check if it's an unfamiliar instrument. I might feel the neck shape, etc. But, when I want to play it, I plug it.
 
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#23
As a rule I don’t play any of my basses unplugged. I have, and my best sounding basses were not the ones that sounded best unplugged. The amplifier is part of the instrument. Playing it unplugged is like removing the bell or the reed from a saxophone. I don’t care how good half of the instrument sounds.

Also, playing unplugged encourages playing with a heavy touch, and you won’t hear any subtlety of your technique.
 
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#25
Killed_by_Death said:
You don't want your solid-body bass to resonate:

myth-busting: Resonance is not synonymous with Vibration
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Yeah, I'm callingBS*T! only because My tin ears arent so sensitive to pick up all the F*ing nuances of a great sounding bass un amplified! Seems so Stupid to Me! as if Im not gonna buy a bass that Sounds great through an amp! Yeah I only play basses that sound good un amplified! I have a couple that are great amped!or to bad it didnt resonate unplugged! kinda Dumb! Lets stop being soo Pandantic! I f it plays well & sounds Good then.. Its probably good! It the anomoly that doesnt pass that simple test! lets be more hyper Picky!:bored::bored::drool::vomit::rage:
 
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#27
My newly acquired Warwick Starbass 5er is loud as $hit unplugged. Even the B is surprisingly loud. I went from the flats that came on it to SS rounds to wake it up and man does it zing! It could wake someone up in the next room. I found out by accident; I could hear it over my headphones right away one night after I first set it up, so now I play it like that sometimes.

Otoh my fretless Ric with Pressurewounds and very low action sounds total poopie unplugged, almost unplayable, but plugged in, its my best sounding bass.
 
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#28
Yellow Bang66 said:
Yeah, I'm callingBS*T! only because My tin ears arent so sensitive to pick up all the F*ing nuances of a great sounding bass un amplified! Seems so Stupid to Me! as if Im not gonna buy a bass that Sounds great through an amp! Yeah I only play basses that sound good un amplified! I have a couple that are great amped!or to bad it didnt resonate unplugged! kinda Dumb! Lets stop being soo Pandantic! I f it plays well & sounds Good then.. Its probably good! It the anomoly that doesnt pass that simple test! lets be more hyper Picky!:bored::bored::drool::vomit::rage:
Click to expand...

I'll have a Shot of whatever this Person is Drinking!
 
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#29
Every time this thread subject comes up, I just scratch my head in wonder about it. Electric basses are designed to be plugged in. That isn't a criticism or a judgement, and I don't really care what somebody else does. It doesn't matter to me what they sound like unplugged. I'm plugging mine in. It's... just more fun that way.
 
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#32
smeet said:
As a rule I don’t play any of my basses unplugged. I have, and my best sounding basses were not the ones that sounded best unplugged. The amplifier is part of the instrument. Playing it unplugged is like removing the bell or the reed from a saxophone. I don’t care how good half of the instrument sounds.

Also, playing unplugged encourages playing with a heavy touch, and you won’t hear any subtlety of your technique.
Click to expand...

This is TB and I'm not arguing here. This is about possibilities, not one way or another. Playing unplugged can encourage a light touch. I guess if you're covering Flea it wouldn't. :):):)
Your experience may vary with loud people around.

I so agree that the bass and amp are a pair!
That's why when people say, "Oh it doesn't matter just play any amp." I think okay you don't hear the distinctions or care enough. You don't know what good gear can do. You don't know what good gear that you choose for your expression can do.

The bass is not like a keybd controller just triggering events. I didn't buy it as a inert thing that all I had to do was choose a color. :)
 
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#34
I play unplugged at a store because I suck at playing, I don't want other people to hear how bad I play (embarrassingly bad), I can't play any songs without reading the sheet music or following on Rocksmith, so mostly I just run scales and finger exercises up and down the neck. Since I don't play in a band or in public, I'm not as worried about the "sound" as I am about comfort and feel. And my last two basses (Fender fretless and Rickenbacker 4003W) were bought online.
 
#35
To provide anything remotely close to reliable/ conclusive information, the ticket would be to have a few people play a few basses unplugged while blindfolded and rank them, then play 'em plugged in while blindfolded..............and rank 'em again. My guess is you'd see little to no correlation, but only "doing the work" would yield a reliable answer. Otherwise it's all a murky gumbo of circular discussion, anecdote and confirmation bias. Happy Monday :)
 
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#37
I don't buy into the 'if it doesn't sound good unplugged, it won't sound good plugged in' school.

I've known plenty of basses with heavy body woods like maple and ovangkol that don't really do much unplugged, almost like the body wood is so heavy and the construction so stiff that it just damps out the vibration of the string and you get none of that feedback coming through to your body. Those same basses, plugged in, are absolutely astounding, often producing a massively full and rich sound that rings like a Bosendorfer! Make no mistake, the pickups and electronics are there to make the bass sing.

I've also played plenty of basses that vibrated freely and felt quite resonant but sounded bad, the limiting factor again being the electronic circuit and pickups. Now, if we were talking acoustic guitars maybe I'd be willing to judge an instrument based on how it sounds unplugged.
 
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#40
playing unplugged causes you to use a heavier touch than you would otherwise causing fret buzz where it wouldn't exist otherwise. Most electric basses as a result sound like crap unplugged. Even slapping - all you hear is the percussion and hardly any of the note. This is probably the worst way to see how a bass sounds.
 
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