unhappy with my tone

[micguy]

Curris Novak will wind you a lower impedance pickup to take the mud out of your bass. Leaves a bit more cash to throw at a good amp. I'd upgrade the bass and take it to stores to find an amp that gives you what you want.

 

[mbell75]

While the Epiphone EB0 is a decent enough bass. You are going to need something long scale with the pickup in the sweet spot. A good P bass Fender or Squier with rounds will get you there.

Not entirely true. I can get Dirnts tone and then some with my 28.65" scale Fender P junior. Scale length is not the problem.

 

[P. Aaron]

really? ah I bought these on a local website as I wanted to start up quickly to see if I liked it but now it looks like I need to upgrade, I get where you are coming from I just didn't have anything to compare my sound to at the moment that I own!

Since you're just starting out, experiment with the bass you have. Explore the tonal changes when you move your plucking hand towards the neck & back towards the bridge. Use a pick, then don't. Crank the knobs all about, play soft, play hard & mean. Don't worry about rules so much.

Play along with songs. Pop songs of the 2-3 minute variety and get good at learning the chord changes and copping arrangements. You don't have to cop songs note for note but so you can enjoy the play along.

Even more than the bass, a decent amp & cabinet would widen the tonal range. Many on this forum love the EB basses and work 'em night after night. You just have to stick with it and keep learning songs. Add some lessons after a while and stay curious. Just throwing that out there for you.

 

[mbell75]

Since you're just starting out, experiment with the bass you have. Explore the tonal changes when you move your plucking hand towards the neck & back towards the bridge. Use a pick, then don't. Crank the knobs all about, play soft, play hard & mean. Don't worry about rules so much.

It's an EB-0, there are no tonal changes haha. I have one. You can crank the tone knob all the way in either direction and it basically sounds the same.

 

[P. Aaron]

It's an EB-0, there are no tonal changes haha. I have one. You can crank the tone knob all the way in either direction and it basically sounds the same.

There's a lot of EB fans here that rock 'em just fine. A better amp will do wonders. The OP's just starting out. Let's keep him playing.

 

[Beavisplaysbass]

I have been playing the bass for a few months now and I have an epiphone eb-0 but I am unhappy with the overall sound, I have a crate BT100 amp and am struggling to get a good tone. I am looking for a deep tone good for rock music, such as Mike Dirnt's from green day, are there any suggestions on what I could adjust/buy to give me a better overall sound? cheers.

A 1x15 is small enough to practice at home but large enough to gig with.. Bear that in mind..Whether combo or cabinet is up to you..
Then think about going to GC or another store and trying out basses that feel right to you.

 

[Flaked Beans]

Get a fender bass! Or a Musicman stingray bass! if you need a small but good amp get a phil jones bass cub. That 100W combo amp is ridiculously small and weighs only 13.2 pounds!

Here is my '78 fender jazz bass and my 2 band EBMM Stingray bass with my Phil Jones Bass Cub and Fender Bassman 200 combo amps

 

[Jonithen]

I don't know the EB-0 really at all, but I can tell you Curtis Novak makes really good pickups. Installing some of his took me from liking the idea of a Fender VI to actually liking the thing. If you are happy with the feel of your current bass and are just finding the tone lacking, then I'd point you to looking in to new pickup(s) and/or amp. The amplifier will probably get you the biggest bang for your buck. It's said a lot here and elsewhere that a good guitar through a lousy amp will sound awful, but a good amplifier can give you mileage out of even mediocre instruments.

Before doing that, maybe new strings and having someone give you a sanity check on your setup and pickup height? Maybe you can tweak what you've got to get you closer to where you want to be.

Personally, I've been having some fun playing around with something like amplitube that gives me the option of getting virtualized amplifiers that I can screw around with on my own. It's worth it to me to pay $25 or $30 (after buying the initial program of course) to have a chance to sample several thousand dollars worth of gear. It might not be super accurate to the last nuance, but it gets me awfully close and I don't have to try to hear myself over whatever else is going on in the store.

 

[pie_man_25]

I don't know if you could get mike dirnt-y with an EB-0, they sound good in their own right - just different flavours. I'd get a new amp first, but don't worry about tone too much right now, even with a better amp and bass half of the process is learning how to get good tone with the gear you have. It honestly took me a good few years, even though I became a pretty darn good player in that time.

It's an EB-0, there are no tonal changes haha. I have one. You can crank the tone knob all the way in either direction and it basically sounds the same.

hey, some of us LIKE slinging mud at each other

 

[pbassjbass]

I had an eb0 back in the late 60's, it's fine for rumbling a room but subtle it is not. Now that you've played a bit. it is time to go to the music store and try some things out. I'd advise a squire pbass variation, but that's just my prejudices. The pbass is a standard sound, and most others are measured against it (not saying better or worse, just "different from". So get to know it.)

 

[Right_Butterscotch64]

An EB-0 is going to sound about as far away from Mike's tone as you can get. I'd recommend a nice Fender/Squier P or PJ bass. A better amp would help too, but I'd get the bass swapped out first IMO.

Here's what I'd be looking at:
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

The EB 0 has a deep baked in sound.
It does what it does well, but that's about all it does.
Stainless round wound strings will help, but they will
only get you just so far.
I am not a fan of Crates, but I don't think that is the main issue, here.

If you can afford it, get a P bass.
Don't be afraid of Squiers, they can get you where you want to go, sonicly.
Also, since you have the EB, listen to Jacl Bruce in his Cream years.
See what that bass CAN do.

An EB and a P, with rounds can cover a lot of ground between them.
This could be the beginning of a great bass collection.

Not that I would encourage GAS or anything...

 

[Jrussblues]

Not a Ripper but Gibson G3.

I stand corrected...my initial point still stands though.

 

[Ric5]

I have been playing the bass for a few months now and I have an epiphone eb-0 but I am unhappy with the overall sound, I have a crate BT100 amp and am struggling to get a good tone. I am looking for a deep tone good for rock music, such as Mike Dirnt's from green day, are there any suggestions on what I could adjust/buy to give me a better overall sound? cheers.

There is no way to get Green Day bass tone with an EB0

 

[Matthew Fisher]

An EB-0 can sound very good for rock (see video below). A better amp always helps, but experimenting with your technique may add enough crispness to get you by until then.

Here are a couple of ideas. Please disregard if I'm stating the obvious! (Edit: I see that others beat me to the punch on most of this.)

Try plucking in different spots on the strings, and notice how the tone changes. The closer you go towards the neck, the deeper and woollier the sound will get. You may find that there's a sweet spot somewhere between the pickup and the bridge.

Playing with a pick rather than your fingers can also give you a more distinct attack and clearer tone. It all depends what sounds good to you. If you do use a pick, try a few different weights.

I don't want to discourage you from trying other basses. A P-bass would definitely be capable of giving you a sound similar to Green Day and Blink 182. The P-bass is a punk classic.

 

[Matthew Fisher]

He'd sound Spanish?

Nope, Mexican. Literally from the state of Mexico, in Mexico.

Son con Sabor

 

[jeffreylee]

I use a sansamp bass driver DI and an EBS compressor and can get a good tone out of any amp, including direct into the PA. But I mainly use Precisions. An EB-0 is always going to have that dull and muddy tone. It's what they're known for.

 

[golower]

Find good used equipment on TB,ebay , Craigslist . Ibanez makes good basses for the money . If you buy a Fender put DR HI beam stainless Steel strings on it . Crisp killer strings . Ten inch speakers usually are not muddy.

 

[pudgychef]

So give a few minutes to this video - they exercise the bass thru a number of settings and if you sound like this, then it's not the amp.


The bass you have has a naturally deep, muddy, dirty sound. So step one is turn the tone know to full treble (which on a passive bass like this is actually a "treble roll off" knob). So setting that knob all the way to the treble side is actually the natural sound of your bass, at least with the current strings. If you have any pedals, remove them from teh signal chain for the moment. On the amp side, set all the EQ knobs to "noon" and use the clean channel. Now how far off from the sound you want are you getting? It may be you can get to your sound by REDUCING the bass tone from your EQ stack, because the bass is so muddy to start with.

Try that. If you want to try some canned settings, the owners manual for your amp comes with a number of suggestions, but they are all probably basing those on you starting with a P or J type bass. Link Removed

Open your tone wide open

Take those setting and reduce bass a little and bump mids and treble...when it feels just a tad to bright or 'nosey' you are getting to a band tone and out of bedroom tone area....try that...

Did you change strings and have your bass set up after buying it? If not...start there...no need to replace everything...I promise most folks on here could make that rig work if the bass is set up and all is functional...start small

 

[chaak]

I am a firm believer that most of the tone comes out from your fingers attack and the techniques of both hands. Do spend some time exploring the pressure of your fingers against the strings when fretting , look at how you pluck the strings with your right hand and where. Position of playing between the bridge and the neck generate a plethora of tones and sounds and expressions. Which fingers you are using plays a big role as well whether you are only utilizing your thumb or your index only or your index and middle finger in alternation or all three together. Try a pick too with different gauges. Since you are just starting on the bass, and having acquired the gear that you do currently have, having an unsatisfying tone can be discouraging and non motivational. True the Crate amp is a bad choice but you can make do with what you have for now at least. I started playing using borrowed gear from friends of mine and had a very bad cheap first bass. But I worked a lot on technique and over the years came my control of tone and knowing exactly what gear will help me achieve and get that sound i am after by enhancing my playing skills and hand techniques.

I'd suggest you try different strings as well and maybe adjust pick up heights.