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Please critique this slap tone

A

allexcosta

Apr 7, 2004
4,721
119
#1
I'm ordering a custom bass from a friend and have been testing different wood and electronics combos for a few months now.

The bass on this video has pretty much the combination we came up with. Please tell me what you think about this tone. I want it to be a mean slap machine. Strings are new and there's a passive tone control...

I appreciate any opinions, good or bad...

YouTube - Teste captador split coil M.Laghus

EDIT: I have recorded it again, here's the link:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/please-critique-slap-tone-763642/#post10853027
 
#4
1x12 said:
The sound suits your playing style. I wanted to hear more bass, more body to the sound, although maybe listening on headphones through a computer is not a fair way to judge your tone.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Youtube compression does bad things to your tone. Preamp was flat and Passive tone at 50%. Strings were 1 hour old. Speakers were Hartke Aluminum and get bright fairly easily...
 
#6
To my ears the slap tone sounds great! Are you digging the tone?

In my experience, the tone you get from slapping has a lot to do with the player's style and experience.

That's not to say that a bass with really high action, passive pickups and a 36" scale length won't have a different slap tone than a 32" with active pickups and low action; but it does seem like a certain character to the slap tone that comes from the player's style still comes through on both basses.

...maybe I'm just rambling...

It might not be a bad idea to put in a good preamp with a 3-band EQ, blend knob/switch and active/passive switch. Also space the pickups far apart. The preamp and widely spaced pickups will give you a pretty wide tonal range, which may come in handy years down the road if your tastes in tone ever change.
 
#9
Is a nice bass voice though lacking a bit in low end solidness and articulation. Would wiork great for stuff that favors a brighter bass voice without sounding weak. I used Sennheiser HD380 pro headphones for listen. The bass responce could possibly be impoved by converting the basses signal to lowZ imo. To what extent you might use a preamps bass or treble control is up to you. Id be slightly boosting the bass and slightly cutting the treble if it was me or perhaps useing less treble oriented strings. Perhaps rotosound swing66 for strings or Dr neons. The latter has slightly more solid low bass responce. Though slightly brighter tone then the rotosounds. Alternatetively perhaps the amp/processor was causing the bit of farting for low bass that I heard? The B string sound was awful to me. I wouldnt concider a bass with B string that sounded like that thru my processors or mixers headphone output. Rest of the strings sounded fine for more treble oriented voice with decent bass content. Just needs more low end or little less top and better B string imo.

Ahh. I see later it does have active preamp. Reason I mentioned the idea was in my experience a very good sounding passive bass sounds even better low end wise with nice preamp converting signal to lowz So I'll eliminate that source of problem from list of possibles
 
#16
allexcosta said:
I'm ordering a custom bass from a friend and have been testing different wood and electronics combos for a few months now.

The bass on this video has pretty much the combination we came up with. Please tell me what you think about this tone. I want it to be a mean slap machine. Strings are new and there's a passive tone control...

I appreciate any opinions, good or bad...

YouTube - Teste captador split coil M.Laghus
Click to expand...

It sounds great. Strong, woody and thick - that's how I would describe your slap tone with that bass. The strong 70s j vibe only further demonstrates just how versatile that tone really is. Even without an ensemble in the mix that particular tone holds it's own. Having said that though, I would love to hear that bass in a band mix.

If a very organic sounding custom 70s 5 string j-bass tone is what you are after, I would say you hit the target with that bass. I love the Fodera-like appointments, it looks as good as is sounds. How's the playability?

Great chops by the way.

Cheers,
Paul
Link Removed
 
#17
choad42 said:
It sounds great. Strong, woody and thick - that's how I would describe your slap tone with that bass. The strong 70s j vibe only further demonstrates just how versatile that tone really is. Even without an ensemble in the mix that particular tone holds it's own. Having said that though, I would love to hear that bass in a band mix.

If a very organic sounding custom 70s 5 string j-bass tone is what you are after, I would say you hit the target with that bass. I love the Fodera-like appointments, it looks as good as is sounds. How's the playability?

Great chops by the way.

Cheers,
Paul
Link Removed
Click to expand...

Yes, 70's 5 string jazz on steroids is my thing...
Playability is actually better than looks on this particular bass. I'm bugging him to build mine just like that.

The pickup is a custom split-coil made in-house...

I also tried one with different woods and his other preamp that doesn't have a passive tone. Same pickups. Strings a few months old. Here:

YouTube - MLaghus Luthieria - Parte 5
 

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