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The basic flaw in the p-bass

#143
dmusic148 said:
This is probably the thing right here. When a P bass Tone control is rolled back a certain amount, (a bit more than half way back usually) a relatively large resonant hump appears somewhere in the low midrange response. Depending on the particular pickup/cap/pot this may fatten up the tone considerably. This will often be interpreted/felt/heard as increased 'low end.' This additional 'low end' of course goes away as you roll the Tone pot back toward open, and Bob's your uncle.
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This ^
 
#144
Ric5 said:
Hell no ... Playing a 4 string p-bass with flats for me is like having to clean the bathroom floor in the bar with my tongue and then eating chards of broken glass ...

My band was playing a gig and at the end of the gig I got out someone elses 4 string p-bass with flats and I played it. It was worse than I expected.
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Hey, if you don't like it, you don't like it. I would have settled for "It's just really not my thing, man, at ALL." You know, like how I could say that a Ric with rounds is "like fingernails on a chalkboard," but I wouldn't ever say that, because that would be insulting to someone who likes that sound/feel.
Yes, you used to play flats when that's all there was. You hated it. We get it.
 
#147
Ric5 said:
Hell no ... Playing a 4 string p-bass with flats for me is like having to clean the bathroom floor in the bar with my tongue and then eating chards of broken glass ...

My band was playing a gig and at the end of the gig I got out someone elses 4 string p-bass with flats and I played it. It was worse than I expected.

I used to play flats back when all basses came with flats and alll music stores sold flats. I had a Hofner with flats and then an EB0 with flats. Those basses had low end. Then I discovered rounds.

And yes I know that I could eq my amp to get loe end out of the p-bass ... but the same eq setting that gave me plenty of low end on my passive jazz bass and my passive Ric did not give me plenty of low end on my friends p-bass with flats.
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So let me summarize: By you're own admission you don't gig with a p bass, and yet you're bagging the instrument in its entirety, regardless of its numerous iterations, on the strength of having played a friend's P bass once at a gig and not liking it?

Hmmm...
 
#149
brad houser said:
exactly. the tone knob takes away treble/ mids. it cannot add anything. low end content stays the same.
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Er, no, there can in fact be changes in the resonant peak of the pickup that cause bigger effects than that. That's what a lot of people mean when they talk about the tone knob causing a "bass boost" in some basses. For me it only happens when the knob is fully "off" (full treble bleed) but I guess for some basses it happens before that. It's a matter of re-tuning the circuit by getting rid of the resistance in front of that tone cap.

Personally I don't think P Basses lack bottom end but I respect Ric5's opinion.
 
#151
dmusic148 said:
This is probably the thing right here. When a P bass Tone control is rolled back a certain amount, (a bit more than half way back usually) a relatively large resonant hump appears somewhere in the low midrange response. Depending on the particular pickup/cap/pot this may fatten up the tone considerably. This will often be interpreted/felt/heard as increased 'low end.' This additional 'low end' of course goes away as you roll the Tone pot back toward open, and Bob's your uncle.
Click to expand...

Thanks -- this is what I was trying to say.
 
#152
I'm probably way out in left field on this but to me all my passive basses seem to have this characteristic whether it's perception or not. I think it's just a quirk of how the tone control works in a passive system. Since the p-bass has only one pickup and you can't blend multiple pickups, it probably magnifies this effect. Does anybody who has a p-bass with an active system experience this quirk? I would guess probably not.
 
#154
Wookieonbass said:
I'm probably way out in left field on this but to me all my passive basses seem to have this characteristic whether it's perception or not. I think it's just a quirk of how the tone control works in a passive system. Since the p-bass has only one pickup and you can't blend multiple pickups, it probably magnifies this effect. Does anybody who has a p-bass with an active system experience this quirk? I would guess probably not.
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A passive tone control doesn't work after an active preamp, so it's impossible to compare.

That said, I have a P-bass with a defeatable active preamp. In passive mode, no noticeable bass drop out. Live or in the studio.
 
#155
Oh sorry. I didn't mean an active system with a passive tone control. I was trying to compare the same kind of bass with an active tone circuit to one with a passive one. I guess what I was trying to say was I don't think it's the style of bass but a quirk of passive tone controls in general as designed.
 
#156
Robdrone said:
If it sounds bad with the treble knob turned up all the way, don't turn it up all the way. I never understood why people expect completely different basses to react the same to your amp settings and the same tone knob settings.

I mean the tone knobs are for shaping, not just cranking them up. You don't walk up to a graphic equalizer and immediately slide all the faders straight to the top do you?
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only the first and last faders.

all others are all the way down.

heh heh heh
 
#158
Wookieonbass said:
Oh sorry. I didn't mean an active system with a passive tone control. I was trying to compare the same kind of bass with an active tone circuit to one with a passive one. I guess what I was trying to say was I don't think it's the style of bass but a quirk of passive tone controls in general as designed.
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Gotcha. Well, in my example - it's the exact same bass! With an active preamp or with the preamp bypassed into a passive tone control. Either way - the only way to make the active mode have more bottom is to boost the bass eq.
 
#159
wow,this is a ******** thread...if p basses are so junky why do all the other brands try to clone it or make their own version of it,i would like to know also why you see so many other basses on craigslist or on here for sale other than P basses,there are even more jazz basses for sale than P basses...:hmm:
 
#160
og61pbass said:
wow,this is a ******** thread...if p basses are so junky why do all the other brands try to clone it or make their own version of it,i would like to know also why you see so many other basses on craigslist or on here for sale other than P basses,there are even more jazz basses for sale than P basses...:hmm:
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Because everybody is stupid? ;)
 

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