pretty much, could be more to it. all kinds of subjective ideas what it would be.
Most tone comes from the player and hands.
its mainly technique to get the tone.
what Wilbur Bascomb has used over the years could run you around on a wild goose chase. maybe p maybe j maybe custom, passive ,active blah blah. Over a course of 5 or 10 or 20 years he could have used all kinds of basses. But you would have to guess he learned on a straight forward Jazz or P and at anytime could probably pick up just about any bass and sound like Wilbur Bascomb
You can get Wilbur Bascomb's tone with a P bass or a Jazz bass,
heck you could get it out of a cheapo starter bass.
But if you could play bass like Bascomb technique wise. actually playing through exactly what equipment he used. Would just make it more "authentic", otherwise unnecessary really to get "that tone"
Really it just sounds to me like a passive Fender Bass plugged straight into a amp. Alot of the tone on the hair recording
has alot to do with the plucking fingers and your playing position being closer to the neck or closer to the bridge.
And a combination of very firm consistent plucks, but still be able to control the string with muting or not muting. Your muting or plucking technique can vary depending on the tension
of the strings which is lose towards the neck and gets tighter towards the bridge. So you find a sweet spot where you can give a firm attack but not get sloppy notes. And use the extra tension towards the bridge to give a muted sound without having to use your fingers to control it. Or if you want to change the tone by playing towards the neck you have to apply a different technique if you want to keep that controlled muted sound or really let them ring since there is less tension.
Basic stuff, and as always I cant make a quick point, but tone is really in the hands. Forget about notes for awhile. Just work on getting consistent notes with the same attack. fast attack slow attack firm attack loose attack. I dont know how to describe it, sounds so basic. But just work on one level of attack and keep playing the same scale over and over again. then vary the attack and then vary the position towards the neck or bridge. Probably more than 20 different tones you can get by just how you vary position and attack. Really just work on your "tone" hand playing the same boring scale over and over again. Also players dont really use their thumbs to pluck notes, using the thumb changes the angle of the pluck side to side instead of straight down. Even if you dont use your thumb you can still vary the plucking angle with your fingers to get smoother notes, but still apply alot of force if needed for heavy attack and not get annoying fret clanking. Anybody who falls in love with flatwounds, could love rounds just as much, again if they learned better technique, instead of just wacking straight down on the strings to get a heavy attack and getting alot of extra noise round wounds can give with poor technique.
It seems a lot of guitar players never work on variable and consistent pick techniques and cover it up with distortion and delay . And bass players never work on variable and consistent plucking/picking technique and cover it up with a compressor
to get consistency.
