Reggae bass

[Raslee]

Irie, i used to use a Fender Jazz for my reggae bands and it was a great bass...though doing sessions 3-4 times a week my back was taking some pun! So i checked out ebay and got a Hohner headless 5 strings for its lightness, moving to the 5 string was easy enough and great having that extra low...but what seriously irie to i was the big tone...for a little bass it is "Phat"...perhaps too phat lol, i play through an Ampeg head (cheap one) Ampeg 4x10 & Fender pro 15". To mention Hohner also reminds me, i recently saw Family Man and he was playing a 4 string Hohner B-bass...think its the same electronics as mine...but anyhooo one of these basses went for lesss than £100 (200$) on ebay the other night...cha

Reggae bass though is about listening to reggae 26hrs a day and 8 days (try and listen to other genres too maybe) a week, jah guidance, love in i&i's heart, Jamaican Collie and no ego.
One love

 

[BassAgent]

I use both my Yamaha TRB and my Blade B2 for reggae (I don't own a decent passive fretted bass) with the bass IN and all treble OUT, mid neutral.

It's all about the technique, the feel and the rhythm.

At one of the best reggae bands today I know, Groundation, the bass player uses a Musicman Stingray, and is tone is GOOD

 

[ibanezcollector]

Any bass can be a reggae bass

even a de-preamped Ibanez 6



Brett

 

[foal30]

I use an L2 Steinberger with old strings or a '76 Precision with Chromes...

softly with thumb, in front of neck pick up.
works a treat for me.

 

[glwanabe]

I've been listening to lots of Reggae lately. I really like the solid big grooving bottom. Really dig sly and Robbie here:



I really love the big growly tone of a good upright. In an electric the growliest tone with a nice upright sound I've found is by using my Geddy strung with Fender flats. My standard sounds good as well, but the Geddy has a little more dirt to it. My standard has nothing to be ashamed of, it is a great bass, and gets played equally with the Geddy.

I'm running through a SABBDI into an Ampeg BA-115T. I'm using the DI for the dirt, and the amp for everything else.

Try a set of Fender 9050's on a jazz bass. Give them time to break in and really develop their voice. Just be sure and do a good setup, as these are a pretty high tension string. My Geddy neck handles them just fine though. Your hands will need to develop some as well. If you played upright your hands would get more of a workout than these strings will give ya. Family man uses 9050's on the jazz bass in the vids.