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This Tone stuff is like Crack.

Slaphound

Slaphound

Jun 16, 2003
2,988
1,235
59
Staten Island, NY
#1
OK. Now I'm gassing for a Fender Jazz bass. MIM, Special, Highway or American Standard. It all stems from tone search.

I get a real nice tone from my Aerodyne but that has a PJ set up and I'd like to get a JJ set up. I played a MIM Jazz in GC a couple of weeks ago and..... You know when you hear the "Tone" that you are jonesing for? Its a deep feeling. Like finding something and feeling like, "I have to have this". I played through a fender 210 Rumble combo amp. Whew. Sounded sooooo good.

The part thats hurting me is that I just dropped a nice amount on one of the G&L Anniversary L2K's. Great bass but right now its not what I want. Ugh.

Like Crack I tell ya'. Never satisfied. Never.
 
#2
Youngspanion said:
It all stems from tone search.


Like Crack I tell ya'. Never satisfied. Never.
Click to expand...

One time I sold an Ampeg SVT 1000 S/S amp for a Classic SVT because I wanted that "tone". Biggest mistake I ever made. Should of never listened to the "tube sound" guys. The 1000 kicked the crap out of the SVT for the type of tone I wanted. Tight, clean and clear low end......
 
#8
Tone gas is probably the worse case of GAS ever... right next to having bad gas and an empty tank of gas - but I digress.

Really though, I was driven insanely mad by tone gas and traded/sold/bought a whole new set of stuff a few times over. Not cool. Who would have thought my cure would be flatwounds, a P-bass, and changing my amp's EQ? Oh well, I hope your GAS is cured by those Jazz basses (when you get one). I'd personally recommend the MIM standard, but that's only because Lake Placid Blue + Maple Fretboard + Chrome + a Pearloid pickguard is just Oozie...
 
#9
PBnJBassist said:
Who would have thought my cure would be flatwounds, a P-bass, and changing my amp's EQ?
Click to expand...

GAS is Cured?

PBnJBassist said:
Oh well, I hope your GAS is cured by those Jazz basses (when you get one). I'd personally recommend the MIM standard, but that's only because Lake Placid Blue + Maple Fretboard + Chrome + a Pearloid pickguard is just Oozie...
Click to expand...

Thats the puppy that has me panting. I'll look at this so much and by the time I get it, GAS for something else will be evolving and I won't even know it. Until I get the LPB/maple.
 
#11
Youngspanion said:
OK. Now I'm gassing for a Fender Jazz bass. MIM, Special, Highway or American Standard. It all stems from tone search.

I get a real nice tone from my Aerodyne but that has a PJ set up and I'd like to get a JJ set up. I played a MIM Jazz in GC a couple of weeks ago and..... You know when you hear the "Tone" that you are jonesing for? Its a deep feeling. Like finding something and feeling like, "I have to have this". I played through a fender 210 Rumble combo amp. Whew. Sounded sooooo good.

The part thats hurting me is that I just dropped a nice amount on one of the G&L Anniversary L2K's. Great bass but right now its not what I want. Ugh.

Like Crack I tell ya'. Never satisfied. Never.
Click to expand...

A little time with that G&L and you will discover that tone and much much more. Now you may not arrive at it with the same adjustments but it's in there. I own an L1000. Leo was evolving his earlier designs. Yet all those basses are hidden in there:).
Are the strings different between Jazz and the G&L? Are the acoustics at home different than at GC? Are you playing a 210 Rumble at home? Get in touch with what attracted you to the G&L. That was real too.
Then stay out of GC. LOL:):)
 
#14
#15
I've been playing since 1978 and I've been through so much gear = it's silly. Had to have the RIC when I was 14 because of Geddy and Squire, then had to have the MusicMan Stingray, Fender Jazz, Fender P....and by 1986, discovered Tobias - got a Basic 5, then a Killer B5 by 1992 (still have that bass and it's my main axe) - and since then have owned a Sadowsky NYC, several Carvins, G&Ls, LeCompte more recently. I like the Jazz, but recently built a Warmoth PJ passive that I really like (P body, rosewood board, J nut width, Seymore Duncan QPs) - it's great because it can sound like a P or a J - did the vol, vol, tone setup. I had a G&L L2000 for a few years, but it didn't work for me. As far as rigs go, I've been happy with a Walter Woods Ultra and a pair of SWR style 210 cabs stacked vertically since 1995 or so. I did try a bunch of different micro heads over the last few years, but didn't like any of them - the Woods is the best one out there IMO. Get one while he's still making them!
 
#18
BigOldHarry said:
The obsession with tone seems to be impractical; In the mix, at a gig, things sound very different than they do in your bedroom or at a store.
Click to expand...

Absolutely true Harry. Things sound very different from cab to cab and home to gig.But you can still hear a difference from bass to bass in the mix.

I play in a blues band and I never have a hard time hearing myself so I can still hear, like and dislike certain tones. SB-2 two weeks ago and Aerodyne last week. Actually, towards the end of last weeks rehearsal, I found a really nice tone from the Aerodyne.
 
#19
stflbn said:
What sucks is two weeks after you get the Jazz you'll wake up thinking Whooooo if I only had a G&L Anniversary L2K... that's the perfect tone for me.

Finding a "Good Enough" tone area has been my goal this past year. And... I... Think... I've... Done... It...
Click to expand...

Yep. Had a perfectly good L2k a few years back. Flipped it for the SB2. Now I have another L2k. This one was looks more then any thing though. And man. That Anniversary Jazz is smokin'. Lotta coin too.
 

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