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The basic flaw in the p-bass

#841
CutGuard.jpg


I fixed that on my Precision.
 
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#848
I had a similar experience with an MIM P bass I bought years ago. I simply couldn't get enough low end out of it with out my amp making up for it. Lowering the tone knob seemed to help, but then it lost definition.

I can see why people love the tone and all, but I just don't enjoy them. I much prefer a Jazz or Stingray. I can get plenty of low end and definition from them.
 
#849
Thats the thing, the Pbass with rounds can really suit a player that wants a forward and aggressive tone that still can sit in a mix and not sound harsh. The lack of low end is perceived because the bass has so much bark in the mids. But when you run it through a spectrum analyzer (which I have done), you will see that there is a very nice bump around 40-60hz as well.

The Jazz bass is really good for big time lows, scooped mids and sizzle. It's a perfect fit many times for a modern R&B mix, for example. The lack of boost in the lower mids gives the perception that the J is putting out more lows than it actually is. The reality (if you look at it in an analyzer) is that both the P and the J put out a similar amount in the 40-60hz range, but the P's more audible bump is the low mids and the J's is the high mids. That can change the perception of the low end.
 
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#851
Ric5 said:
The basic flaw in the p-bass

Quote from John Entwistle ... "Once you turn up the treble on a Precision, the bottom drops out In big arenas, I wasn't getting enough bottom end from the P-Basses when I had the treble all the way up."

I re-discovered this last weekend ... I went to an outdoor party and our band played and some others as well. In my band one of the guitar players is also a bass player. I brought 3 basses and he brought a guitar and a bass. So at the end I plug in his p-bass with flats. He has always bragged about the low end from this bass. So I plug it into my Rig. An Ampeg with 2 2x10 cabs and a line out into the PA, and I turn up both knobs and to my surprise the was very little low end, just a lot of midrange plunky noise and clicks and fret buzz.

The basses that I had were a 5 string Rickenbacker a 5 string jazz with a stingray pickup in the bridge and a frankensteined 2 pickup SG bass also with 5 strings. All 3 of these basses had more bottom than the Fender p-bass with flats.


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EDIT

I started this thread to discuss the p-bass and the nature of the tone control on this bass. At first a lot people seemed threatened and seemed to think that I hate p-basses. I like the p-bass and the jazz bass, and many other basses. The thread has developed into a good discussion of what happens to the frequency responses of the p-bass as you change settings on the tone control. The p-bass is more of a mid ranged intstrument. As you roll off the tione control it produces a lot of low mids which people percieve as low end, when the tone control is opened up it produces a lot of high mids which is percieved as high end. That is why Entwistle made the statement quoted above. I like to have treble, bass, and mids in my bass tone when playing. Also my rig and my pedal board are set up to add a lot of mids to my bass tone as I play.
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I can't think of one time I had an issue with my low end when I played a Pbass in a big arena......;)
 
#856
megafiddle said:
"A picture is worth ten thousand posts" - old bass forum saying

Green trace: tone pot at '10'
Red trace: tone pot at '0'


View attachment 1174211
Click to expand...

But that is not a representation of a p-bass played through an amp at higher volumes and an outdoor event or big indoor arena ... that is a p-bass hooked up to a machine
 
#857
Ric5 said:
But that is not a representation of a p-bass played through an amp at higher volumes and an outdoor event or big indoor arena ... that is a p-bass hooked up to a machine
Click to expand...

If you mean that the overall response is different in small room vs large room vs outdoor, etc., then that is true.

But that's not the subject. It's about low end supposedly changing with tone pot at '10 vs tone pot at '0'.

And it doesn't change. It doesn't change at the bass output jack, it doesn't change at the amp output, and it doesn't change at the speaker output.

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#859
megafiddle said:
Not sure what "cut" is?

It's the output from my own program, VTsim, which simulates passive instrument response.

I only have a P bass model so far. J bass is next.

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Click to expand...
Oops, that post was for @M.R. Ogle in regards to his P bass pickguard that was cut or separated to give easier access to the control cavity.
 
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