Taming the SPB-3?

[AndyPanda]

Thanks for that info. I have Roto 77 and 88 on other basses - I'll swap them over and try on this SPB-3 and see how they work. I'll have to order some Chromes to try too.

have you tried TI jazz flats with the SPB-3? I haven't tried them because I actually like the stiff tension of the Roto 77 that most people complain about.... I worried that the TI floppy feel would throw me off.

 

[AndyPanda]

I've been playing the bass for awhile with the roto 77 flats and it was really interesting. But now I have some broken in (several weeks of playing) Dean Markley Blue Steels on both basses and did a little comparison recording both basses over the same background track. Tried to play them both exactly the same (my timing isn't great - but I keep practicing, hoping to be a real bassist someday) - volume and tone max on both basses but I had to drop the input gain on the preamp slightly for the SPB-3 to get the same recording levels. The SPB-1 is a little closer to the strings (two pennies fit between E string and poles when fretting 20th) and the SPB-3 is down a little from the strings (three pennies).

To my ears - they sound very close and I'm not hearing the "muddy, lost in the mix". Please listen to these two clips and tell me what you think.

 

[honeyiscool]

"Lost in the mix" isn't really talking about literally being lost in a mix. Sometimes it's about how much you can hear that thing in a rehearsal space when a bunch of other things are going on at once. Almost any bass sound can work in a recording.

 

[AndyPanda]

"Lost in the mix" isn't really talking about literally being lost in a mix. Sometimes it's about how much you can hear that thing in a rehearsal space when a bunch of other things are going on at once. Almost any bass sound can work in a recording.

I know what you mean ... and it's hard to capture in a recording what you experience when you are playing live and trying to hear yourself through all the other instruments.

I deliberately had the bass really high compared to the backing track - so you could hear the differences (or similarity) to the two basses. I didn't change anything about the signal chain or how I played - other than to turn the gain down a little on the DAW input because the SPB-3 is still hotter even being lowered away from the strings.

Did one of the two recordings sound boomy or muddy or like it might not cut through a loud rehearsal as well as the other one?

My curiosity was raised when I saw so many posts describing it as muddy ... and then other posts where people love it and say it is the only pickup they've found with the bass definition they require. I ended up with one in a bass I bought used - and I thought it was a bit too boomy/muddy compared to the SPB-1 - I wanted to see how it compared if I lowered it away from the strings ... and, to my ear, it made it sound much less muddy.