Please play along here - If I wanted to spec out a growl-monster..

Fender Standard Dimension with single p'up. Fender American Standard Jazz with stock Custom Shop p'ups. Toss on a set of GHS Big Core Bass and you're right there in downtown Growl City. Rosewood fretboards for the deep in the throat roar.

 

Fender Precision Bass with alder body and a Duncan Quarter Pounder w/old Fender clanky bridge, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard...

Maybe somebody could explain capacitors and pots.

 

Get an epi thunderbird, put thunderbuckers in, string roto 66s and call it a day

 

Exactly... a Fender AV'75RI Jazz Bass.

 

Jazz bass w true single coils

 

Everyone seems to have an opinion but no one has asked:

What type of music do you play?
What type of amp or set up do you play?
Live or recording?

Just but the American Standard Jazz and be done.

 

I would have to say one word. "Warwick"

 

Three band StingRay will have you in growl city in a hurry.

 

How about an EBMM USA Stingray. I have a MIA JAZZ and US Stringray and MIA P/J, All sound good.

 

Out of Hundreds of basses owned, Warwick Corvette 5'r had most growl hands down. You couldn't turn it off. I have a Stingray 5 Classic which I love but you need to coax the growl out of it. Warwicks just growl more especially the Bubinga/ovangcol/wenge ones.

 

I think he wants growl and not zing.

 

Growl? Yes, get you a Warwick. Just listen to the first 30 seconds. That's all you need.



I believe Nick's using a Warwick Dolphin here, but I've heard close tones to this out of a double buck $$

 

Seymour Duncan Dual JJ or HH close to bridge
Active electronics
Swamp ash body
Wenge Neck/Fretboard

or just get a Warwick

 

The Warwick Fortress Masterman was the growliest stock bass I ever played.
But to spec something from scratch:

All-maple body
Bridge pickup (or pickups) very close to the bridge, humbuckers preferred.
High mass bridge (Hipshot brass)
Wenge neck
Filter based preamp (ACG) to adjust the frequencies to find the growliest growl
Stainless strings

That's what I'd do for angry growl. Add a fretless ebony, ebanol, or epoxy finished board with those roundwounds and you may scare the neighbors.

 

IMO, dual pickups, good low action and solid/consistent technique seems to be a good formula for a consistent, well behaved growl. Growl is a pretty general term....when I think growl I think of a bass that can roar and/or bark but is being "held back" and tamed a bit. Pick-up interaction/cancellation and limited string movement are important, naturally occurring factors. Eq is going to be important as well.

 

Stock warwick corvette gets busy. the trick is hard woods (if unfinished) or hard surface area, especially on the top so you don't have the body eating vibration, the right kind of strings, ceramic pickups (preferably for more definition on the overtones that define a low growl) and the right attack to get a growl-y sound *edit as well as a bridge that doesn't move much so your string can do the heavy lifting and slam out it's tones instead of getting it's vibes lost in the wrong places.. my corvette has all this, ovangkol neck i think, swamp ash busy (hard and heavy, heavy doesn't really matter but the hardness does), light and elastic feeling EB strings, Stock MEC passive pickups and when i want to get the growl i can easily.

 

Carvin lb50, these pickups put a growl on everything unless you hit them coil taps, then they are clear and zingy