• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Simple basses

#42
Kerem Koseoglu said:
To me; having a complicated (especially active) bass means having additional components which make the bass heavier and which aren't easy to change.

So I lean towards having simple basses and make my pedalboard as complicated as necessary - behold EQ's, preamps, noise gates, etc... If my sound requirement changes, I can simply change a pedal or something.

I enjoy the raw woody sound of passive basses anyway.
Click to expand...
I'd say I agree with you for my back's sake, but my P is like a boat anchor :laugh: I should probably find a lighter instrument at some point...I have a bad back :\
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kerem Koseoglu
#44
A9X said:
If your wife ever wants to send you mad, let her buy you an Alembic Series bass, and lock you into a room until you've learnt all the tonal variations possible.

When I practice, mainly on my SR706 these days, I keep all the settings flat and pan between the pickups to hear the tonal variations, *I* can make and to hear technique errors clearly. My little Laney combo is similarly flat.

Stage tone is overrated, especially for non bass players in the audience. I played in a band with my girl for a decade using only my XL2, doing 60-90's covers and nobody told me it didn't sit into the mix well. Many here will tell you because it's active and carbon fibre it will be bright and twangy. Not if you learn how to set it and the (rack) preamp properly. It was always DI'd into the stack.

Maybe a couple of hundred grams unless you have many heavy metal knobs.
Click to expand...
Those Alembic things, while beautiful, just look like a panic attack waiting to happen...not to mention they cost so much you'd need a whole insurance plan for them! :laugh:
 
#45
Bassaga said:
I want so much to be onboard with this way of thinking. The idea of a simple, useful P bass with one pickup and two knobs that I can just play without a thought is so appealing to me. But having prioritized simplifying my bass collection, I can't bring myself to pass up anything that would maximize the versatility of whatever instruments are left, so I end up drooling over stacked knobs and rows of switches.
Click to expand...
Ah, it must be nice being able to understand all that! I'm not at all technologically inclined—just give me some strings and a piece of wood! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bassaga
#46
This is why I play a P bass. Much simpler and easier to dial in a sound in all kinds of rooms as there are fewer variables. Put another way, I have more than enough controls on my preamp alone (also on my amp and on the board) to fit into the mix in whatever space I'm playing in. As you may guess, I'm also not a big pedal board guy. Lastly, in most situations, the P bass tone is the tone that people have in their heads, so it also sounds right and fits, though this is admittedly more subjective.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EmuBass and mmmmmmmmm
#47
J Wilson said:
Simplicity is elegance.

I often wonder when I read these threads about 'I can't get the tone I'm after' and then the guy explains he's got active 3-band EQ on the bass, a box full of pedals, and an amp with who-knows-how-much-EQ. Duuhhh ? ? ? ?
Click to expand...
Right! I can find just what I need by moving around the bass. Don't need any newfangled EQ or anything...I have an amp for that. Batteries get kinda pricey, too!
 
#49
Ghook said:
I like the idea of one pup, one Volume and a low-mid-high toggle. I have two six stringers that are Volume knob only. One does have a pick up selector ( tele) . I think, with bass, simple is a serious consideration for buying. That said, I do love fiddling around with my SRF700. Serious toneage on that one :)
Click to expand...
My soundgear has so many knobs, sometimes I forget which is which! :laugh:
 
  • Like
Reactions: EmuBass
#51
rtslinger said:
The bulk of my bass collection are passive, the active ones I do have, I have found myself working to eq them so they sound like my passive basses when performing, because they need to fit the tone of the songs I am covering. So like the little girl on the Cascade dishwasher commercial who asks the question "so what is the dishwasher for anyway?" :)
Click to expand...
Nothing beats that passive warmth and growl! :laugh:
 
  • Like
Reactions: rtslinger
#52
Oddly said:
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.
Click to expand...

Simple man, simple basses... :laugh:
 
#53
I play a P-bass and only touch the volume knob when I have to put it down momentarily while the amp is still on. I don’t like using the tone knob either because it gets me fiddling around to see if a little tweak this way or that way might sound better. I prefer to leave both wide open and adjust my hands instead.

I use a modeler as my preamp and only use one sound in that too; I really only tweak the modeler’s output level for volume adjustment at this point. The one sound I use lets me access a little dirt by playing harder...back to the hands again. Now that I’ve got my settings figured out, I don’t seem to need EQ or gain tweaks to do what I do consistently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bpmben and mmmmmmmmm
#54
Gothic said:
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.
Click to expand...
I do have a soft spot for frankenstein basses...the jankier the better! I feel like I'd end up just leaving it on:) one setting though...:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gothic and EmuBass
#55
heb9_28 said:
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.
Click to expand...
You, sir, may have just given me a very dangerous idea...
 
  • Like
Reactions: heb9_28
#56
teh-slb said:
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.
Click to expand...
I love my upright...unfortunately when we moved the person we left it with transported it unbagged in his minivan and tossed it around so much it knocked the sound post loose :( I still havent gotten around to getting it fixed
 
  • Like
Reactions: teh-slb
#57
I've always preferred simple, almost to the point of snobbery. I'm sure it stems in no small part from my feelings of inadequacy.

I briefly owned an EBMM Bongo 4HH but it was just too much for me to deal with. The upside: Guy I bought it from (on CL) turned me on to TB, where I eventually sold it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mmmmmmmmm
#58
P basses for me but I have a few in the herd .
aqagnMa.jpg


j0gUVes.jpg


x2EGh91.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: mexicanyella, TDR1138, mellowgerman and 5 others

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back