The Ultimate Tone Shaping Tool!

[mambo4]

Simplifying my signal chain so I can focus on music has been extremely liberating.

Agreed. cost effective too.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I wasn’t sure where to put this. It could really go anywhere, depending on the answers we get… so miscellaneous it is!

I was curious to know what YOUR ultimate tone shaping tool is. Is it a bass, special pickups, or a preamp? It is your amp that gives you “your sound”? How about pedals… is there one that is always on? Maybe there’s two… or even three?

I have two pedal boards, one is for at-home fun when I’m playing solo. It’s got everything I have ever wanted on a pedal board to tinker with including a looper and a loop switcher for quick changes… but I’m not sure I would ever take it to a gig (unless it was a solo bass gig.) The other board is more of a utility board and hasn’t met its final form yet.

I’ve also got several amps that I enjoy using. Some of them are fantastic on their own… others take a little extra to make them shine. I’ve got a stable full of different basses that give me an array of different sounds, and I have preferences on which bass goes with what amp and the pedals that will be in the signal chain.

In thinking about the final stage of my utility board, I think it should have all the pedals I use to make each amp/bass configuration work. And that got me wondering… what do you guys use for your “secret sauce”? Do you have an ultimate tone shaping tool that you always use?

Just my PB, fresh round wound strings, an amp with a 3 band parametric midrange EQ, and some great speaker cabs.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

For years I used a rack mount 31 band graphic EQ.
Helped me learn a lot about what bands do what.
Lots of flavoring there.

 

[Wfrance3]

Ampeg SCR-DI+BECOS Mini Comp Tweaked as needed…

 

[MCF]

I wasn’t sure where to put this. It could really go anywhere, depending on the answers we get… so miscellaneous it is!

I was curious to know what YOUR ultimate tone shaping tool is. Is it a bass, special pickups, or a preamp? It is your amp that gives you “your sound”? How about pedals… is there one that is always on? Maybe there’s two… or even three?

I have two pedal boards, one is for at-home fun when I’m playing solo. It’s got everything I have ever wanted on a pedal board to tinker with including a looper and a loop switcher for quick changes… but I’m not sure I would ever take it to a gig (unless it was a solo bass gig.) The other board is more of a utility board and hasn’t met its final form yet.

I’ve also got several amps that I enjoy using. Some of them are fantastic on their own… others take a little extra to make them shine. I’ve got a stable full of different basses that give me an array of different sounds, and I have preferences on which bass goes with what amp and the pedals that will be in the signal chain.

In thinking about the final stage of my utility board, I think it should have all the pedals I use to make each amp/bass configuration work. And that got me wondering… what do you guys use for your “secret sauce”? Do you have an ultimate tone shaping tool that you always use?

Gibson Thunderbird with Jim DeCola’s tapped pickups. Only available in 2015. THE TONE MONSTER.

Coupled with a Mesa TT800 and Mesa Subway 410, there isn’t a tone this duo can’t deliver. No peddles needed for this setup. I go direct with the ‘15. And the ‘21NR for that matter.

But the ‘15 is similarly awesome played through an old, cheap Hartke B600 combo (60 watts, 1x12).

 

[MCF]

I don’t know how ‘ultimate’ is defined in the context of the original question. But I firmly believe form follows (or at least should follow) function. So to me, “ultimate”
means something that gets the desired job done with elegance, precision and simplicity. And from where I sit that means a Dry Bell Unit 67.

To save typing I’ll just copy and paste from an old post of mine since my opinion about it hasn’t changed in the interim:

View attachment 5027978

The single most useful device I own is the Dry Bell Unit 67. A little pricey at just under $300. But it incorporates a Rangemaster type boost, a two band EQ, and a deceptively simple but great sounding 1176 inspired compressor, all in a small package that makes it very easy to dial in a great sound. Which makes it an ideal candidate for an “always on” effect box.

I found it versatile enough that I could (and often do) use it as my entire pedalboard.

You can read more about it here.

I was not aware of it. Thanks for posting.

 

[alex1fly]

I have to get the pickups right... and the strings. When those two things are right, tone shaping isn't really needed beyond basic EQ & gain staging.

 

[DwaynieAD]

I was hoping I would open this and just see a pic of some hands

 

[FilterFunk]

After going on a bit of a tone shaper binge a few years ago, I settled on a Stewart Electronics UDP-1a for whenever a little "secret sauce" is needed. The Aphex Bass Xciter works well, too.

 

[tlc1976]

Lots of things to shape tone. As many said, where and how I pluck the strings makes a big difference. That tone shaping tool is free.

My DIY 16 position rotary cap selector gives me lots of further tone options beyond just fingers. I can get a much wider variety of tones, thumpy, honky, zingy, grindy. Kinda like changing between different P basses with the turn of a knob. I’ve got the parts, but haven’t done it on my other basses yet. At $22 in parts, that’s the next biggest bang for my buck.

And after that, a custom patch I made for my Zoom 506 II pedal gives me a tone shape that I’ve never been able to get before with fingers or amp settings. A combination of compression, edge, and other things. Since I made that on my own and it’s probably unlikely that someone else uses that exact same patch, I would consider that my secret sauce. My 5 string sounds great with it too, even without the cap selector in place yet. Both basses with my practice amp set flat.

 

[micguy]

My tone shaping secret comes from the education I have on the Physics of musical instruments and 4 decades of designing audio gear. I apply that knowledge, I characterize pickups, and do Physics and electronic simulations of the circuits, pickups, and pickup positions in my basses that I build and tweak. None of my basses are something you could buy anywhere - they all have things about them (usually circuit twists) that are unique - things I have learned putting my education, my musical experience, and my simulations together. Along the way, I’ve also learned a lot about tweaking and maintaining the physical platform of my (and a select few other’s) instruments.

 

[MVE]

I didn’t start really “loving” the sound of my bass until I got a Bergantino cab.

 

[Jazzdogg]

Same as above. The notes I play and how I play them (articulation) say it all musically. If there's an issue being heard in the mix, I'll think about what knobs I need to turn to clean it up in a given situation. Simplifying my signal chain so I can focus on music has been extremely liberating.

Amen!

 

[MtManiac]

I like a set of good strings, that makes the right difference for me - currently, it’s DR Nickel Lo-Riders. Also a good amp with a good cab or set of cabs, and an hood comp. That is currently a Darkglass M500 v2 with a HyperLuminal comp and two Aguilar DB210s. All of this is subject to change.

I enjoy all kinds of overdrives, but I don’t consider them sweeteners.

 

[JohnGurrola]

I use a Aguilar tone hammer preamp into a crown power base 2 that then goes to a 212 Aguilar cabinet and it delivers nothing but raw clean bass that cuts through the mix superbly when I put the MTD Kingston 6 to it.

 

[Darrell Vachon]

Fingers to strings then pickup to amp

 

[Discount Bassy]

I was gonna say finger…. Nail clippers lol

You beat me to it, but for the sake of argument:

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I wasn’t sure where to put this. It could really go anywhere, depending on the answers we get… so miscellaneous it is!

I was curious to know what YOUR ultimate tone shaping tool is. Is it a bass, special pickups, or a preamp? It is your amp that gives you “your sound”? How about pedals… is there one that is always on? Maybe there’s two… or even three?

I have two pedal boards, one is for at-home fun when I’m playing solo. It’s got everything I have ever wanted on a pedal board to tinker with including a looper and a loop switcher for quick changes… but I’m not sure I would ever take it to a gig (unless it was a solo bass gig.) The other board is more of a utility board and hasn’t met its final form yet.

I’ve also got several amps that I enjoy using. Some of them are fantastic on their own… others take a little extra to make them shine. I’ve got a stable full of different basses that give me an array of different sounds, and I have preferences on which bass goes with what amp and the pedals that will be in the signal chain.

In thinking about the final stage of my utility board, I think it should have all the pedals I use to make each amp/bass configuration work. And that got me wondering… what do you guys use for your “secret sauce”? Do you have an ultimate tone shaping tool that you always use?

Tone knob

 

[JimmyM]

Everything in my chain is a tone shaping tool. But none of it means diddley if I don’t play well.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Empress ParaEQ MKII Deluxe.