Tone. Really that important?

[senorblues]

In a live situation you either sound clean or distorted, trebley or bassy, too loud or too quiet. You are absolutely right in thinking the obsession with gear is nuts. When the US economy falls apart, perhaps people will get their priorities straight and just start playing music instead of collecting all this crap.

 

[checkeverything]

Tone is about familiarity with a certain sound and being moved by it. Playing live, tone is not just coming from your bass and amp, its the sound of the building/room your playing in. How the sound is causing the roof top to viibrate, the snare to rattle. How the bodies are absorbing the frequencies affects your playing. So you either learn how to use these elements and be inspired or you can be really uptight about it and the music suffers.Yes, when it comes to music, tone from everything is important, not just the bass guitar.

 

[Mystic Michael]

A lot of people here and elsewhere in the music scene are completely obsessed with that elusive quality that is "tone".

Yeah, musicians can be so darned picky...

Or am I missing out on something?

Naw, it's only music. Shouldn't matter if it actually sounds good or not. Save your money and just get a big, long stick with four rubber bands on it. As long as you play with complete conviction and amazing energy and showmanship, that's all that really matters...

MM

 

[Hans Gruber]

In a live situation you either sound clean or distorted, trebley or bassy, too loud or too quiet. You are absolutely right in thinking the obsession with gear is nuts. When the US economy falls apart, perhaps people will get their priorities straight and just start playing music instead of collecting all this crap.

The thing is, people often equate the pursuit of tone as the same thing as the pursuit of gear. Although they're not mutually exclusive things, they certainly aren't one in the same.

I had a lesson with Michael Manring and as much as my Modulus sounded great when I played it, when he was messing around on it, it just had a whole other new life to it. Sure, it was his amazing skill that obviously set him apart, but also a huge part of the musicality is the tone you impart. He played AND sounded better through my rig than I did.

Classical musicians are known for their impressive discipline, but you'll never hear any one of them say tone isn't important.

I don't think tone is the ultimate end, but yes it is important.

And with all the references to punk, I don't think it's fair for a punk musician to be "punk-centric" and impose that everyone has to subscribe to that lifestyle or mentality. And vice versa, of course.

It's all context. As much as "tone doesn't matter" to a punk musician, if I bring a super nice exotic Fodera and refuse to dirty it up and only slap on it for a punk gig, I assume the general consensus would shun me. It would sound not or feel right.

There really are general rules of context, even to a genre that tries to defy rules.

 

[Revvv]

This weekend I was at the Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach. Heard a bass player with a Musicman, (2) ampeg 4x10 and a rack of ampeg gear. Also heard a bassplayer with a Soundgear 5, Hartke 5000 and Hartke 8x10 cab. The hartke guy had better sound. Probably because his playing was superior to the other bassist. I keep seeing bass players with gear that sometimes get bad knocks on this site and they have killer tone but they are also great players. So I also wonder about the elusive tone question.

Hartke stuff will surprise you. It has great tone. I played both the Ampeg 8X10 and the Hartke before I made my decision to go with the Harke stuff. I like Hartke. Every bass amp and cab I own has their name on it.

 

[()smoke()]

I don't know.... seems to me tone is just about everything. Personally, I would rather hear someone play one note with killer tone, then a child prodigy that is playing his heart out until his fingers bleed with crappy tone.

Just my opinion though.

+1

it's music, it's supposed to sound good--both as a whole and individual parts right down to each note or sound

...and $ doesn't necessarily buy good tone, so i wouldn't obsess about that

 

[Revvv]

In a live situation you either sound clean or distorted, trebley or bassy, too loud or too quiet. You are absolutely right in thinking the obsession with gear is nuts. When the US economy falls apart, perhaps people will get their priorities straight and just start playing music instead of collecting all this crap.

Then we can get lots of stuff really cheap. Think positive.

 

[maconbass]

I was using a high end bass in a cover band that sound people always complained about. As soon as I switched basses, not only did the soundman love it but the rest of the band took immediate notice. Same player, same venues, same songs, same everything with a completely different sound and result. Tone makes a HUGE difference.

 

[fretlessman71]

As much as I hate to admit it, I think the OP makes a lot of sense.

I'm not going to read through 2 pages of posts to see if this has been posted before... it's the lazy in me. Sorry.

It's like someone you're attracted to. We've all known hot girls or guys who looked fantastic, but didn't have anything going for them besides that. And I bet we've all known someone that we weren't immediately attracted to that really grew on us, or somehow connected with us on a level we could never quantify or identify.

I humbly submit that "bass tone", for all the glory we bestow upon it, can be looked upon the same way.

We hear lots about basses that sound great on their own, but don't cut in the mix live.

We hear lots about bassists who would have had a great tone save for the FOH idiot who didn't know any better.

We hear lots about bass sounds that really sound odd by themselves but match the band, and the room, and the volume level so as to blend perfectly.... wait.... what? We don't hear about this stuff? Oh yeah, that's RIGHT... we DON'T. Not often enough, anyway.

I think the OP makes a wonderful point in that the overall blend of the band, and your place in it, gets overlooked by many players who are more interested in "their sound" than finding something that fits within the parameters of the situation.

So maybe the thread isn't titled quite right... it's not that tone isn't important; it's that having "your tone" to the detriment of everything else that's going on around you ISN'T IMPORTANT. And the best tone played with zero conviction will sound like an audio clip.

 

[Deacon_Blues]

Your technique have the biggest impact on how you sound. Everything else is less secondary.

I use to say that a good bassist will sound good on even the cheapest bass you can find as long as it is playable and tuneable, but a good bass will definitely make him/her sound better.

 

[()smoke()]

So maybe the thread isn't titled quite right... it's not that tone isn't important; it's that having "your tone" to the detriment of everything else that's going on around you ISN'T IMPORTANT.

i didn't get this out of the original post, i'd agree that having a sound that was detrimental to the band's sound just to please oneself isn't a good thing--but i don't interpret the thread this way

 

[fretlessman71]

You're right - that's where the thread led, to a degree, though. And my next comment definitely spoke to the OP's post.

 

[KayCee]

I consider time and tone to be top priorities.

 

[quasiz_bassist]

Tone absolutely matters! The sounds you are making are the music, and if they are poor quality - either from a cheap bass or poor playing skills, then its going to sound bad.

I'm sorry but most of the time (not all of the time) you are going to sound bad playing an 80$ bass as opposed to a more expensive one.

Oh and it's not all "in the fingers" and everything else isn't secondary, all the elements, the room, strings, bass, amp, cabs, etc. etc. determine tone!

 

[KayCee]

Oh and it's not all "in the fingers" and everything else isn't secondary, all the elements, the room, strings, bass, amp, cabs, etc. etc. determine tone!

+1

Your tone is only as good as it's weakest link.

 

[fretlessman71]

Tone absolutely matters! The sounds you are making are the music, and if they are poor quality - either from a cheap bass or poor playing skills, then its going to sound bad.

I'm sorry but most of the time (not all of the time) you are going to sound bad playing an 80$ bass as opposed to a more expensive one.

Oh and it's not all "in the fingers" and everything else isn't secondary, all the elements, the room, strings, bass, amp, cabs, etc. etc. determine tone!

Maybe not, but fingers are FIRST in line. A good bassist can make a $120 bass sound like it's $500; oftentimes a bad bassist can't make a $3000 bass sound like it's worth $0.02.

 

[KayCee]

Maybe not, but fingers are FIRST in line. A good bassist can make a $120 bass sound like it's $500; oftentimes a bad bassist can't make a $3000 bass sound like it's worth $0.02.

True, but the players that have refined their tone "in the fingers" also tend to be the ones most unhappy when their tone is screwed up somewhere down the signal chain.

 

[quasiz_bassist]

i didn't get this out of the original post, i'd agree that having a sound that was detrimental to the band's sound just to please oneself isn't a good thing--but i don't interpret the thread this way

Yeah OP doesn't say anything about focusing more on your tone to please yourself and worrying about the collective band sound second.

But I do agree that you should have a tone for the context of the music your playing...but also you can personalize it to an extent to make it your own it just has to fit.

 

[fretlessman71]

True, but the players that have refined their tone "in the fingers" also tend to be the ones most unhappy when their tone is screwed up somewhere down the signal chain.

This is also true. That's why I posted this:

We hear lots about basses that sound great on their own, but don't cut in the mix live.

We hear lots about bassists who would have had a great tone save for the FOH idiot who didn't know any better.

We hear lots about bass sounds that really sound odd by themselves but match the band, and the room, and the volume level so as to blend perfectly.... wait.... what? We don't hear about this stuff? Oh yeah, that's RIGHT... we DON'T. Not often enough, anyway.

When you're doing a live show, it's the end result that is important. More than anything else.

 

[EricF]

Maybe not, but fingers are FIRST in line. A good bassist can make a $120 bass sound like it's $500; oftentimes a bad bassist can't make a $3000 bass sound like it's worth $0.02.

I certianly agree on both pioints. This also means that a good bass in the hands of a good player sounds that much better. If you can make a cheap bass sound good, why would you settle for a cheap bass?