What Makes Some P-Basses Sound Good?

[jnammy]

i also think old strings have a lot to do with it. all of the p basses that sounded great to me were old AND they also had old, gunky strings on them. with these kinds of strings, you can turn up the high mids and treble without getting a clicky/clanky sound, instead, you just get more aggressive/burpiness. they should sell new strings that are gunkified;not flatwounds, but roundwounds that don't have the new string trebliness.

 

[jamestown94west]

It's probably me and my poor hearing (getting older sort of thing) but... when I gig with my Precision, the tone I'm getting always sounds good to me but not knock-my-socks-off great. But... whenever I record with that very same Precision and hear the playback... wow!

Somehow... and this is totally not scientific... I've come to conclude that from my vantage point on stage, the sound I'm hearing is way, way different than what the audience is hearing. I may not be crazy about the tone I'm getting from where I'm standing but the audience is hearing a beautiful and solid bass tone that's sitting very well in the mix.

+100000000000000000000000000000000

 

[JimB52]

I have a 1982 AVS '57 RI and a 2008 Lakland Skyline Glaub that sound better than any of my other Precision basses. My theory is that the 1 3/4 "C" neck makes the difference.

 

[Timmy-Watts]

I have played dozens, from friends and in stores mostly. I owned a MIA 50th anniv. Model and traded it right back due to very poor QC and construction. Also a few cheap knockoffs. They were all mediocre, but I have always loved the sound I hear on recordings and live when someone else is playing them. P's generally sound great to my ears, and I finally hit gold with a recent trade-a 2010 '57 RI. Now I am in P-Bass heaven both in feel and sound. I have recorded with it and played at home and live, and it is Buttah. I wih they all did that.

 

[Doug Parent]

Maybe it's just me, but most p-basses I've played sound muddy and blah, but a few that I've heard on YouTube have quite a defined and aggressive low-mid growl. I really don't think it's a matter of technique either because I dig in and play close to the bridge and I can get a good growl from most J and humbucker basses, but not P basses.

Is it because the good sounding p-basses are being played through tube amps? Are there different types of P pickups, like how Js have single and dual coils? Is it pickup placement?

I think what you are describing really has nothing to do with technique, and everything to do with primarily the pickup itself.

Perhaps the neck and body wood add it's own "color" but the basic footprint, sonically is established by the pickup.

Recently I obtained a 2011 Fender American Standard P5 and installed a Bartolini 58CBP pickup.

The stock pickup had far too much upper midrange and lack of focus in the lows for my tastes.

This change alone brought me about 80% closer to the tone you described which is, punchy, focused in the lower body of the voice, with a natural extension of ugh frequencies. All the EQ'ing and attenuation of highs that I had to do with the stock pickup was no longer needed with the Bart.

My feeling about the Precision Bass pickup location, and overall design is that by it's nature, has a big sonic footprint.

To make it "punchy" the EQ changes are in the direction of less low end in the 30-60hz range, a slight increase at 120-150hz, and again around 800hz.

The tone I still have in my mind that I was chasing was a result of the equipment I had back in the 70's, Alder/Rosewood P-Bass, GK head, small reflex Sunn cabinet with a D-140. The speaker cabinet wasn't even capable of deep bass, and I always loved the punch and definition I got from it. No tweeter either, perfect.

Granted my present Fender P5 has a maple fretboard, so thats going to flavor the tone somewhat, but without question the Bart pickup gave me the essential tone "right out of the box" I was looking for.

 

[Doug Parent]

I resisted a P bass for 25 + years because I had the mindset that one single pickup in the middle of the body could not get the tone I wanted. Whenever I picked up a P bass and played it in a store, or a friends bass (not with a band) it sounded blah to me. Kind of woofy and without distinction and punch.

A few months ago, I picked up a MIM PJ bass that a friend had, and had upgraded the pickups to Basslines, put in a Badass bridge, tuners and pots. I bought the bass because I'm doing classic rock mostly and really wanted a more "traditional sound". I'll be damned! When I'm playing with a band, the PJ, even when just using the P pickup, has so much girth, fullness and tone, I'm pissed that I wasted the last 25 years looking at exotic basses for "the tone", it turns out that the sound was here all along. In thousands of P basses I've been ignoring, that cost a fraction of the price of a handmade bass from Europe.

Color me stupid.

Don't feel bad, I recently had the same experience. And I've been chasing the same thing longer than you have, so color me brain dead.

Granted, if I'm in a top 40 pop band doing a lot of slapping, or emulating really staccato synth bass part, I'll grab one of my modern hi-fi basses with two pickups. But last night I was doing some old school pop stuff, blues and some R&B and the P bass just nailed it.