Tone down the P-Bass high end

[jon36992002]

I have a cheap squire precision fretless. While I love the feel of a fender, the punchy high end doesn't really work for what I am doing. Even with EQ correction, my solos always cut in over everything and sound really out of place. I am looking for a a set of pickups that will even out my frequency response and make my highs warmer and less punchy. Has anyone had experience with a set of pickup that mellowed out their fender?

 

[bobm2112]

Have you tried using flats? Turn down your treble knob on the bass till you get the warmth you are looking for

 

[Jack Butler]

Is your tone knob working? If you have the tone knob all the way down, and it still has too much high end maybe it isn't working right? Also like the other guy said, you could go to flats. If those 2 things still end up giving you too much high end, I'd say something is outta whack with the bass or amp.

 

[Not yet]

Roll the tone control way back

 

[dannylectro]

Have you tried using flats? Turn down your treble knob on the bass till you get the warmth you are looking for

+1
Long time Precision guy here. Flats are great strings on a P, last forever for me, and are really versatile. If you need a bright P sound for some songs, keep a Squier with roundwounds nearby. But, trust me, you'll stop using it...

 

[jon36992002]

I have played on some flatwounds, and I will likely give em another shot. The tone control is always all the way down. This definitely reduces my high end a bit, but it also cuts out any articulation in my playing.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I have played on some flatwounds, and I will likely give em another shot. The tone control is always all the way down. This definitely reduces my high end a bit, but it also cuts out any articulation in my playing.

You don't want your tone control all the way down all the time. No one will hear what you are playing.

But you can try replacing the cap with a .02µF or .03µF. This will remove the high end and leave the mids.

A nice set of flats are the LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass stainless steel flats. The light gauge set. They sound bright but not ringy. Kind of like an upright.

 

[boristhespider9]

An EQ, boost, or compression pedal may help for your solos.

 

[RCCollins]

You don't want you tone control all the way down. No one will hear what you are playing.

But you can try replacing the cap with a .02µF or .03µF. This will remove the high end and leave the mids.

A nice set of flats are the LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass stainless steel flats. The light gauge set. They sound bright but not ringy. Kind of like an upright.

Cap replacement is a great solution for this. You may even want to go down to .01µF, which was the rating on 50s and 60s P-basses.

Flatwound strings are another great suggestion. Stick ith LaBella, GHS and other "traditional" sounding flats, and avoid more "modrin" flats like TI or D'Addario Chromes if you want to emphasize lows and low mids.

 

[abemo]

You know its a bass forum when the question amounts to "how can I make people notice my solos less?"

 

[KJung]

I have played on some flatwounds, and I will likely give em another shot. The tone control is always all the way down. This definitely reduces my high end a bit, but it also cuts out any articulation in my playing.

You just need to find the 'magic spot' in the travel of that passive tone control. Depending on the pot design, somehwere between 20% and 30% 'one' (i.e., rolled off 70 ot 80%) should eliminate most of the clank that you don't like, but still keep enough mid midrange in the tone for you to get good attack and note definition.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Cap replacement is a great solution for this. You may even want to go down to .01µF, which was the rating on 50s and 60s P-basses.

They used .1µF, which really removes everything but the low end.

Flatwound strings are another great suggestion. Stick ith LaBella, GHS and other "traditional" sounding flats, and avoid more "modrin" flats like TI or D'Addario Chromes if you want to emphasize lows and low mids.

Traditional sounding flats are often thumpy and don't play in tune very well on the low E. It's a cool retro tone, but might not be what he's after. I used to like the original Fender flats for that. The new Fender strings are different though.

I like the LaBella 760FL set because they almost sound like round wounds, but don't have that piano type top end. But they aren't thumpy either. I don't like the TI string because the tension is too low, and the chromes are too stiff and the D string always sounds different. Plus they are kind of thumpy.