Simple basses

[Oddly]

Always preferred as uncomplicated a system as I could get.
Partly because I'm way too lazy to bother working out all the possible sounds I could get, and partly because I firmly believe that it's very rarely worth the bother.
I'd be perfectly happy with one volume, one tone...and even then most of the adjustment I need I can get with how I play.

 

[Blackie Jr]

I have 3 one pickup electric basses and a no pickup acoustic so yeah, I get it...

My origins / roots are on guitar, and between palm muting, playing with and without various picks, playing at bridge versus over soundhole, how hard you strike the strings --- there is a lot there to effect tone

By the time I evolved / ascended to bass I was already predisposed to do the one pickup thing....buy I do vary my bare fingered attack and sometimes use various picks, and have effects....and my 3 one pickup basses have different string types and very different tones and vibes

Perhaps "I am schizoid" would have been a better answer

 

[JRA]

Have you guys had similar experiences?

yes, in general...just like your own.
- youth = lots of cool knobs/switches
- now = k.i.s.s.

that said: i'm thinking the P-bass is a dumbed-down version of something which should have greater potential. i have a new p-bass: it's fun, i like it, it's limited.

"it may be a one-trick pony, but it does that one trick really well" = BS. it's a one-trick pony.

 

[4sight]

I could live with a P bass with the pickups wired straight to the output jack easily. Both controls are always dimed anyway (with Fender flats).

 

[dbsfgyd1]

So, when I started playing bass, having tons of pickups and controls and things seemed like the best thing in the world. Tons of tonal variety, active preamps or pickups, what-have-you...but now, as I've become a performing musician and done more semi-pro work, even a simple J-bass setup stresses me out! Having more than one pickup and knob (well, maybe two if you include tone but that isn't like necessary) seems superfluous and too busy now. I guess I'm becoming an old geezer...ha ha. Maybe eventually I'll ditch electronics entirely and go back to upright Have you guys had similar experiences? Or am I just weird?

 

[Matty Koff]

Getting my Sire P7, as well as a band member's Sterling my eyes have kind of opened to the whole passive/active debacle and here's how I personally view it.

Active/Passive pickups really just determine where in your signal chain you end up setting EQ. Active pickups or an active pre-amp on the bass? You end up setting your EQ on the bass for quick adjustments should you need them. With my Sire I tend to leave the EQ on my amps flat because I almost always use the active pre on the bass.

My Fender P-bass with a passive split pickup I EQ at the amp, although I'm likely going to buy a pre-amp pedal, because My gigging rig's EQ's just don't seem to give much beef to the lows where my sire's pre-amp sounds awesome.. the P's tone is still usable with my amp.. I'd just like a little more beef sometimes.

I love both basses. With one I have to check my eq's every now and then because knobs on a bass can easily get moved. With a passive bass unless someone messes with the knobs on your amp or EQ pedal when you're not around it's more set and forget.

In the long run - there are active basses I like and don't like, and there are passive basses I like and don't like. The mere fact that they're passive or active wouldn't be the determining factor of whether I'd own it.

 

[Gothic]

I don't much care for active electronics. I do like passive wiring mods, though, albeit I wouldn't use a varitone or something similar too much. It's more the fun in tinkering and experimenting for me rather than actually using it. I can understand the want/need for tonal variability if you're in a cover band or something but I tend to find a tone I like and works and just stick with it.

That said... my current fretless has a guitar humbucker at the neck J position and two J's jammed together to form an odd humbucker in the bridge. I got two separate volumes for those and a series/parallel switch as well. I tend to use just the neck humbucker and dial in some J whenever needed, although I do find running just the J's in some form or other quite good, in certain situations.

Eh well, whatever works.

 

[two fingers]

So, when I started playing bass, having tons of pickups and controls and things seemed like the best thing in the world. Tons of tonal variety, active preamps or pickups, what-have-you...but now, as I've become a performing musician and done more semi-pro work, even a simple J-bass setup stresses me out! Having more than one pickup and knob (well, maybe two if you include tone but that isn't like necessary) seems superfluous and too busy now. I guess I'm becoming an old geezer...ha ha. Maybe eventually I'll ditch electronics entirely and go back to upright Have you guys had similar experiences? Or am I just weird?

I took a very similar path to where I am now. These days I own a few P basses, a couple of passive PJs, and one P bass with a JJ at the bridge. But all of them have a volume and tone knob with either a switch or fader.

Even my basses with more than one pickup end up being P basses 80% of the time.

 

[CallMeAl]

Back when I had active, multi pickup basses, I would find the “one” tone I liked and keep it there. Now I play a P bass and it fits me much better. Plug in and play, baby!

 

[timendous]

I may have recently taken this idea a little too far. One of the pots on my jazz bass crapped out and rather than replacing it, I just wired the pickups in series with one volume control and tone. I realized that 100% of the time I'm playing my jazz, I have both pickups on full anyway. So I got a 3 hole jazz plate and just have vol/tone. Works for me. I'm loving it.

 

[jj.833]

Maybe eventually I'll ditch electronics entirely and go back to upright

I differ.

I have no knob on my upright. But to set my upright for a 'common acoustic tone', I need to set about 15 knobs and push-pulls on my preamp and amp. It's impossible to do right unless you understand a bit the acoustic physics behind it.
Knowing that, I doubt the 'one knob rules them all' rule is very much true. I have one knob P and 6 knob active J, both can do what I want them to do because I know what knob to turn.

It was fun to learn

 

[lomo]

Simple is always better for me. I hate having batteries and a preamp in my bass… .....they add unnecessary weight, expense and complication, considering how much EQ power I have on my amp. Every battery not used is a gift of omission to the next generation. My number one is a 98 USA Fender deluxe jazz that I had modified to remove the preamp, permanently wire the pick ups in series........ a single volume knob. I call him one eyed Jack :

 

[Rib 13]

So, when I started playing bass, having tons of pickups and controls and things seemed like the best thing in the world. Tons of tonal variety, active preamps or pickups, what-have-you...but now, as I've become a performing musician and done more semi-pro work, even a simple J-bass setup stresses me out! Having more than one pickup and knob (well, maybe two if you include tone but that isn't like necessary) seems superfluous and too busy now. I guess I'm becoming an old geezer...ha ha. Maybe eventually I'll ditch electronics entirely and go back to upright Have you guys had similar experiences? Or am I just weird?

your experience seems to sum up the past decade+ …. Haven't ya heard? Retro is in...….many bass players are going simple in bass selection and tone chasing - some are even purposely going for low-fidelity.....I cant tell you how many threads that have been posted "Listen to this amazing bass sound!" and it sounds like something off a Curtis Mayfield record from 1971 that makes me cringe.....Nothing wrong with any of that if that's your thing ...so I guess Im the 'stuck in my ways' geezer still running from that as far away as possible and favoring my actives and fresh rounds

 

[superdick2112]

I played active basses for decades.
The older I get, the more I appreciate simple gear & pure tone.
These days I find a good Fender P-Bass or J-Bass covers 99% of my needs.
The fewer knobs a bass has, the quicker I settle into a gig and focus on playing rather than fiddling with knobs.

 

[deernaes]

This whole thread reminds of a bass that I had picked up some time back.
It was a Jackson John Campbell (Lamb of God) signature model.
Beautiful bass!
But the electronics on it were so complicated that I ended up trading it for a Geddy Lee Jazz.
His next signature model came out through Dean. It was one P-pickup with a volume knob.
I guess even he didn't dig the elaborate set-up on the Jackson.
For the record, I have the Dean version and love it!

 

[PWRL]

I can go either way. There's something fun about lots of knobs and switches, seeing what makes what sound. However, it's really nice to just have a P bass right next to me (presently to my left) with broken-in flats and the tone set halfway. I pick it up, there it is, there's the sound, go.
It reminds me of something I read about Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls talking about how he and Johnny Thunders referred to Les Paul Juniors as "automatic guitars". You just picked them up and played them, and that was that. I like that, too. Those are usually my go-to instruments, automatic ones.

 

[teh-slb]

Have you guys had similar experiences? Or am I just weird?

When I started, I thought I needed a six string with at least two active pickups and tons of knobs to fiddle with. Over the years, I realized that that's not really me, so I "regressed" (or "progressed") to four string passive Ps which I plug straight into the amp. When I want to get wild, I whip out a four string passive J.

I'm also kinda saving up for/looking at double basses now. In his kindness, my teacher let me try his earlier this year. The five minutes I spent with it (my left wrist couldn't take more) were magical.

So yeah - if you're weird, there's at least two of us.

 

[neddyrow]

i call my bass simple simon for that reason

my warmoth build is a quatersawn maple neck with an ash body. nordstrand-hum free split coil pickup. TI jazz flats. volume and tone knob.

 

[JohnArnson]

Yeah, I had it the same way when I first started out, the more features the better, now I got a 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro with the 2 stock J pickups permanently wired in series directly to the output jack socket of the bass:

Never though I'd be playing a 5 string though, and just got this, my first one, recently, but love it.

Though I tune it in F# standard tuning, F#1 to D3, 2 half steps above standard E tuning.

Got a 4 string Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass with it's EMG Geezer Butler P/J pickup set also wired directly to the output jack socket of the bass, though in parallel, tuned in regular E standard tuning, for more traditional bass play.

 

[mmmmmmmmm]

I’m similar in theory, in that I don't like fiddling with my controls a lot.

I have an active PJ bass, and just bypassed the preamp and keep the blend at full P. I also have an Ibanez Portamento with three pickup knobs and three tone knobs, but I just found one setting I like and keep it there.

Once I start fiddling with stuff, I can never seem to be satisfied and it distracts me from the music. However, I can be fully content with just changing my technique/playing location and accepting it for what it is.

No one pays as much attention to our tone as we do anyway.

Yeah that's more or less how I am w/ my active 5...and unfortunately yeah you're right about the tone thing