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Some Tone Help, Please: Don't Flame Me, Bro!

OneMoreRobot

OneMoreRobot

Jan 23, 2009
1,054
7
#1
Hey guys,

I've been playing my Warmoth Jazz Bass for a while and I've been waiting to hear the tone I intended to get out of it. I've played it in multiple settings on 2 different amps and still haven't heard what I want to hear.

What I want to hear is Juan Aldrete from the Mars Volta or Tim Bob from Rage Against the Machine or the guy from No Doubt.

Here are the specs of my setup:

Swamp Ash Body
Stainless Steel Frets
Maple/Maple Neck
Dimarzio Model J Pickups
Semi-old D'addario ProSteels 105-50
Fender Gold Bass Cable

Gallien-Krueger 2x10 Combo Amp or a Fender BXR Combo Amp.

And I play with my fingers, the way bass was meant to be played :smug:

I know to get more of a Rage sound I need to dig in harder, but my preferred action is lower than his. I don't know anything about Juan Aldrete, except that he used a Geddy Lee for a while and now he uses a PJ Lakland. The guy from No Doubt uses a Yamaha PJ, but my pickups are split coil, so the sound shouldn't be do much different, right?

I got the Dimarzios because I had heard they were ridiculous in their tone output, but what I'm hearing is pretty mellow. Is there anything fairly easy to do that will get more grind out of my Jazz? Thanks.
 
#3
The gear is all there, bro. You've got a good enough setup to sound like any of these guys.

Unfortunately, the tone comes from the player.

The thing you'll realize is, these guys you have listed would probably still sound like themselves no matter what brand/model bass you put in their hands.

Sounds like you know what style you're looking for, so that's a start. Just practice your @$$ off and you'll get there soon.

Good luck!
 
#8
Everyone pretty much nailed it, I think I play too soft to get the tone I'm looking for. I tend to play soft and fast like John Taylor.

Quadzilla reinforced what I was thinking. I was afraid of that.

And not really, Demonator. I like to keep my bass clean of any effects or anything (mainly b/c I haven't found any effects pedals I like), but that song would sound sweet with some distorted wah.
 
#9
I can't believe you think the Model J's are low output!! Those puppies scream! (IME....) They should be able to give you that burpy midrange that Timmy C and Juan use, but the highs are a bit buried, maybe that's what you miss? Then again I dunno, I don't hear a whole lot of sparkle from either of those players - don't remember what Tony dude from No Doubt's bass tone is.
 
#12
OneMoreRobot said:
Hey guys,

I've been playing my Warmoth Jazz Bass for a while and I've been waiting to hear the tone I intended to get out of it. I've played it in multiple settings on 2 different amps and still haven't heard what I want to hear.

What I want to hear is Juan Aldrete from the Mars Volta or Tim Bob from Rage Against the Machine or the guy from No Doubt.

Here are the specs of my setup:

Swamp Ash Body
Stainless Steel Frets
Maple/Maple Neck
Dimarzio Model J Pickups
Semi-old D'addario ProSteels 105-50
Fender Gold Bass Cable

Gallien-Krueger 2x10 Combo Amp or a Fender BXR Combo Amp.

And I play with my fingers, the way bass was meant to be played :smug:

I know to get more of a Rage sound I need to dig in harder, but my preferred action is lower than his. I don't know anything about Juan Aldrete, except that he used a Geddy Lee for a while and now he uses a PJ Lakland. The guy from No Doubt uses a Yamaha PJ, but my pickups are split coil, so the sound shouldn't be do much different, right?

I got the Dimarzios because I had heard they were ridiculous in their tone output, but what I'm hearing is pretty mellow. Is there anything fairly easy to do that will get more grind out of my Jazz? Thanks.
Click to expand...



Well, if you want Juan, what songs do you like? He uses 2 ampeg rigs, so the GK wont get that IMO. He uses a pick on a lot of songs, so that would help.
 
#13
You mentioned that your action was quite low. If you are looking for a more aggressive tone you might try raising it just a tad. Trying different strings also changes a lot. Maybe you haven't found your "right" strings yet. It's sort of expensive but you could always try them on a spare bass first.
 
#14
Alrighty,

I raised my action, and went to town on Bombtrack since that's an easy one for tone testing.

Not good. Not good at all. Even digging in and wailing on those strings is still producing poop tone.

It has to be the amp, dead strings, and the acoustics of my small room. There are no high-mids popping out at all.

I was thinking Ilyena as far as Mars Volta was concerned tonewise.
 
#15
Ilyena tone? Get new strings, boost the high mids with a bit of treble, add some gain/distortion, and play with a pick... Tweak that around a bit and you might get close...

I mean, Juan plays a custom Lakland with Darkstar pickups through a guitar half stack - that's gonna produce a fairly unique tone.
 
#17
Welll....

My amp must be ridiculously tempermental, because when I turned back on after the last post, it sounded exponentially better. Nothing some new strings won't fix.

I'm getting really annoyed with this OLD GK 210. But I'm broke, so I'll just have to deal with it.
 
#18
To jump in here on a semi-related topic, I was talking to Michael Manring the other day and he said that he thinks the tone isn't in ALL people's hands as much as other people seem to say and think. He didn't want to quantify a percentage, though, and I can see why.
 
#20
OneMoreRobot said:
I agree with that totally.

On a side-er subject, my bass does get ungodly dub tone.
Click to expand...

Are you sure your pickups are at the correct height? If they're too far away from the strings, your tone is going to be... well, all the things you described, with low output.

How's your neck relief? Straight, some relief, or lots of relief? Seems weird, but sometimes having just enough relief so that you can get some slight string rattle against the frets when you dig in is what players need to feel they get that "edge" to their tone.

Where you attack the string, of course, has a ton to do with your tone, as I am sure you know, and for what you are after, it sounds like you should be playing closer to the bridge than to the neck, but YMMV.

Just some thoughts!
 

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