But I definitely disagree with a few of the sentiments that have been expressed by others in here
Me too.
BLECH. I hate this mentality. And who decided who gets to wield the power of deciding what "great tone" is?
One of my favorite things to do after someone earnestly posts that "tone is in the hands" is to check their profile. Often you see MTDs, Sadowskys and thousands of dollars worth of amps. Why "waste" money if tone is all in the hands For that matter, what difference is there in using a VT Bass pedal vs any given preamp? It's a nonsensical argument but more on that in a minute.
Yes, there is a huge array of ways to use your hands to manipulate bass tone: playing lightly vs digging in, palm muting, pick playing, slap, adjusting right hand position. I think all bass players should work on all of those techniques. But your hands can't sound like a flanger, envelope filter, fuzz etc.
Again, I simply disagree. Who says that you can't base your entire playing style and riffs off of effects? Why is that not valid? Look at the quote in my sig.
For that matter, look at John Davis' work with Nerve or some of the stuff we've seen from guys like rnilson or fightthepower. John Davis has said himself that for rock and pop stuff he goes bass-->cable-->amp because that's what's appropriate. But with Jojo the effects really are part of the art.You should use whatever tools it takes to create the music you want to make.
Only if you like the sound of the "basics". I have been finding myself more and more unstimulated by clean, unaffected bass tone recently.
I love the sound of all of my basses clean. Each one sounds great to me for different applications and I never get tired of playing any of them. But I understand where you are coming from.
I just don't like it that people seem to cling to this idea that a clean bass -> amp (or maybe some tube overdrive) is some pure original holy grail of tone that we should all strive for. Maybe I don't want to sound like that.
An electric bass uses magnetic pickups to transform the vibrations of metal strings into electrical signals which are sent to an amplifier which changes those signals based on the EQ settings and the amps inherent voicing before sending them to speakers where magnets respond to the electric signals by moving a cone and causing air to vibrate in response.
There's nothing "natural" or "clean" about it. It's an electric instrument. A P-Bass through an Ampeg is a familiar and classic sound but there's nothing more "organic" about it than any other setup. If people love the tones on the records they grew up listening to and hold them up as the exemplars for what they want their bass to sound like, I totally get that and it's cool. But the idea that it gives license to look down your nose at people looking to do something different or experimental is just dumb and frankly anathema to the concept of being a musician and creating music.
To me, subtle differences are lost in a mix, or people listening just don't actually care that much. I think that what'll actually get noticed is clean, dirty, swirly, and louder.
This is an issue with me as well. There are diminishing returns to trying to create intricate or subtle sounds only to have them swallowed up in the mix at a gig, particularly in a boomy room. For me I think bass effects need to be either always on/on for a whole song or just hit you over the head. As much as I love phasers, I get frustrated that they don't come across as much as I want in the mix.
...
) at the moment. Im planning on replacing the SCP with a Submarine whenever the designer edition comes out. Realized that I wanted more tone shaping for my clean signal, especially for when I add the fuzz. I also realized recently that I really want 2 levels of dirt on it. One that will be there, but "disappear" when combined with the other stuff, and another that will add some "extra" clipping when also combined with the other stuff, but also give me some extra flavor when just playing thru the lunchbox stuff.
and metal comes from the earth 
