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What is your studio bass?

K

Kjarkas

Feb 14, 2010
12
0
#1
I was wondering, with all the references to P-basses and Fenders when it came down to recording a clean and defined tone, what basses do you use when recording. For starters, I read online that Jason Newsted has a slew of Alembic's and Sadowsky's, and a few ESP's, but when it came to recording a clean tone, especially the bass line you hear on Metallica's "King Nothing", he used a Fender 1958 P-Bass.

I own a Fender Squier P-bass, and once I put flatwound strings on it, I'm thinking of using it for my studio bass. I don't know exactly the model or year, I got it for my birthday back in '97, and I'm also thinking of running it through my Line6 Lowdown Studio110 amp.

So what basses do you guys use for recording?
 
#4
+1 to the P-Bass. I've only recorded once, and it was with a 2002 Squier Affinity Precision with four-month-old Ernie Ball Slinky rounds. Sounded awesome. I recommend that if you're doing serious recording, take your P-Bass to a tech and have it set-up with the strings you want, intonation and action set (ESPECIALLY the intonation; should be dead-on) and avoid taking it through many temperature changes (don't take it out on the road if you don't have to, no drastic temp changes i.e. from a January day into a warm home and then back outside then to the studio etc...)

Rock on man :bassist:
 
#7
Most of my recordings were done with a Stingray with EB strings. I've also recorded with an Ibanez SR800 with GHS boomers- the sound guy couldn't believe the tone I was getting from that thing. Next time I go in, I'm bringing my pbass though, now that I actually have one.
 
#11
Everything... from my Godin Acoustibass with TI flats to a P with Deep Talkin' flats to a J with rounds, a fretless J and a fretted 55-01 ... It all works fine. In general I record through a tube mic pre with no EQ or compression. Later on, I can monkey with the EQ & comp & effects in the context of an overall mix. Either with plug ins or re-amping or just routing the tracks to outboard gear and back in... works for me, but there are many, many ways to get it done. I think finding and settling in on your preferred workflow is real important. The menial tasks of running the rest of the gear tend to get in the way less.
 
#16
Thanks, everyone. Keep it coming.

I'm actually thinking of getting Ernie Ball Rounds instead. Originally, the flats were for playing at my church, I'd like to get that string bass sound, but that subject can be for another forum.

Has anyone recorded through a Studio110 before? Curious.
 
#17
Dependent on what the tune is calling for I typically pick up either my Fender CS Pino Pbass with TI flats or my 96 CS relic Jazz with rounds... But most recently, I can't turn down a 2000 gibson thunderbird that's just sounds amazing. I'll typically run direct into a U5 into a UA1176... And sometimes my vintech 473 to add some more character...
 
#18
Either one of my customs (P-body, J-neck, hand wired pickups), a Warwick Thumb w/Bartolinis (for a more aggressive tone), a '63 reissue Hofner 500/1 (for THAT specific tone), or a Hamer 12 string (to really fatten up the sound).

Run through a U5, then split to any combination of two heads, either a pair of Ashdown ABM 500 RC EVO II Heads, An Ampeg SVT VR, and an Ampeg SVT 2Pro. I then mic up 2 8x10's. The clean one with a D112 and a 421, and the effected one with a 421 and an SM57.

Overkill? Possibly.
Best bass tone I'VE* ever heard? Definitely!

(*MY opinion. No flaming please.)
 

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