What's your "go-to" pup and tone settings??

[Cadillac_Mike]

Hey guys,

Obviously it varies for different basses but on my PJ Guild Pilot, for at least 75% of what I play my 'go-to' is...

P pup = 100%

J pup = ~15%

Tone = ~25%

That's my ideal "meat and potatoes" settings for blues, pop, hard rock, etc.

 

[2saddleslab]

TV Jones ThunderBlade or Seymour Duncan Stinger Stack, both with volume & tone on full.

 

[Jeff Scott]

The neck toaster on my 4004L SPC sounds massive with the classic Chris Squire tone (meaty, grinding, growly). As there is no tone control on that bass, it is full on all the time, but rolling back the volume control does mellow it out somewhat to a darker, deeper, fuller tone if needed.

 

[Jeff Scott]

PS: you might want to have this moved to Basses.

 

[bigtone23]

If the bass has two pickups, I spend over 3/4ths the time with both up full and full up tone (passive) or "flat" EQ (active)
I then spend less than 1/4 the time on just the neck pickup (or both pickups) with slightly rolled back tone control (passive) or with some tweak to the EQ on the active basses.

 

[darren1970]

Whatever 2 pickup bass I have I usually use the same setup.
Neck p'up 100%
Bridge p'up 75%
Tone 75%

 

[ctmullins]

• Neck & middle for thick tones
• Bridge & middle for snarly tones
• Neck solo for vintage tones
• Middle solo for focused mids

Tone knob always wide open.

 

[J-Mags]

Fernandes P-J: neck 100%, bridge 75%, tone 80%.
Parts P: volume 100%, tone 80
Squier Mustang: everything 100%

It's all about tuning the resonant frequency of pick attack. Sometimes I dime everything, but if I dime the bridge pickup of the PJ, I gotta commit, because it's got a lot less low end than any setting where the bridge pickup is backed off and the neck is open. I can still get a full sound but I gotta twist some amp knobs.

 

[P. Aaron]

My stock 2010 Precision V with a smidge of tone, DR Low-Rider Nickel strings, pretty much flat through a Hartke LH1000 and an LDS 2x 10 cab.

Sounds lovely to me for almost any gig.

 

[luciens]

All of em.

my Jaco is the only one I fiddle with more than normal. It has the least range of tones compared to the Tony Franklin and my L2K, so,it’s often hard to decide how much of each pickup to use…

lee.

 

[mongo2]

Passive only.

On my basses with with a volume and tone control: neck pickup full on, tone full up, volume and EQ at the amp set for the room.

On my basses with no controls or bypassed controls: volume and EQ at the amp set for the room.

 

[PrairieThunder13]

My starting point for most stuff is neck pickup tone all the way on a rickenbacker with thomastik jazz flatwounds, but just like the thread about favourite hand positions, i cant say i have one fixed point of preference.

 

[JTE]

P Basses default to both pots wide open.

Laklands (with Volume, blend, 3-bandvEQ, and coil selector for the bridge PUP): EQ flat, volume wide open, blend at middle, neck coil of the MM PUP.

Guild Pilot (active EMG P/J, VV passive tone). P Pickup wide open, J PUP off, tone wide open. Same settings for just about any P/J.

 

[pickaxe]

Depends on the room/PA etc,
Whatever works,P/J bass though W bins biased toward J to get the "tightest" sound I can
Small venue 200 people playing off amp biased to P to fill room with big fluffy sound, whatever it takes.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Precision:

P - 10
Tone - 10

PJ:
P - 10
J - 0
Tone - 10

I've just ordered a custom bass with a P-MM setup, a balance knob, and a series/parallel/singlecoil switch for the humbucker. I'm intending to spend a lot more time finding a setting I like with that; unfortunately with a PJ, I just don't find I get enough out of the Jazz pickup to make it worthwhile. I don't think that'll be a problem with a Musicman humbucker in series mode.

 

[ctmullins]

... with a PJ, I just don't find I get enough out of the Jazz pickup to make it worthwhile.

PJs always remind me of

 

[Moving Pictures]

Precision
Vol: 100%
Tone: 75%

Fender Boxer
P Vol: 100%
J Vol: 20%
TBX Tone: 70%

Jazz
Neck Vol: 100%
Bridge Vol: 80%
Tone: 50-70%

Ultra Jazz
Neck and Bridge pickups full on
Tone: 60%
Never use active settings though they sound good at centre.

 

[TrustRod]

With 2 pickups I generally have both on full maybe a little less on the bridge.

Neck 100% is the next most common. I rarely use the tone controls.

 

[two fingers]

My tone is usually dimed on all of my passive basses (all but one are passive). My main bass has a P at the neck and a dual coil at the bridge. I would say it's the P pickup solo about 60% of the time. So a P pickup with the tone dimed.

 

[ThomasTronics]

Jazz :
Neck - 80%
Bridge - 90%
Tone - 75%

Lakland :
I play with the settings all the time based on the sound. So versatile.