Which bass better cut trough a mix?

Butter doesn't cut very well, but if a knife is warm it will cut through butter very easily.
The Ibanez SR eXtreme (SRX) is your huckleberry.

Here's Carol Kaye with hers:

 

USA EBMM Sterling (not a SBMM ).

Ceramic magnet humbucker in series = hot knife.

 

For fiddling you'll have to head over to TalkFiddle.

 

My smiley is all about the naming of the products and differentiating a USA Sterling from a Sterling by Music Man (could they make it a little more confusing?) I think SBMM are just fine.

 

Any G&L bass with one or more MFD pickups will cut right through a dense band mix. My M-2500 and SB-2 sound different, but both have a strong presence in the mix, with the SB-2 sounding like a monstrous P-bass and the M-2500 providing a modern edge with a huge range of tones.

 

I think it depends on a mix. When I have just one guitar player, and not the loud one - I can have a brighter tone, like cutting through the mix. In other cases I'll go deep enough where's nobody else, sitting or laying in the mix.
Anyway I like having some heights when playing live because I can hear my playing better.

 

To me a Fender P/J or even a P with fairly new flats (I like La Bellas) played with a pick really cuts through in a live band situation.

 

Anything with parametric mids and a decent bridge pickup can cut easily in my opinion. I just boost mids some, cut highs a bit, sweep the EQ center until it sounds right.

 

You don't need a particular bass to "cut through the mix". Any bass can do that if you let it. You need to EQ your sound right and play with good players who leave your sound alone.

The "cut through the mix" is only a thing if you are trying to use a "difficult" sound or play with bad or selfish players who trample all over your frequencies.

 

And there it is.

I plow through a mix even with a P bass. My tone knob is dimed (all the way up). And the mids on my amp are set to stun small animals withing 15 feet of my rig.

Mids cut through a mix. You can dial those in with any bass.

That being said, I played a friend's G&L L2000 as a guest during his show once. I play a little harder than he does. I nearly sliced the sound guy's head off with that bass. He had to reel me in a little both tone and volume wise.

 

With the right (smart) EQ , you should be able to cut trough the mix with pretty much any bass. Problem is when you're playing a club (or any venue really) where the sound guy doesn't care about the bass.
Don't be afraid to cut your bass frequency all the way down if you're all muddy and boomy in the mix.

 

Did u really need to correct the guy? Can't believe how often people do that here.

 

It's not the bass that cuts through the mix, it's the guy who runs the sound. Or how you set your amp if it's a smaller gig.

 

Depends on mix.

 

any competent instrument works...of course, the operator/player has to know a thing or two. "cutting through the mix" is not automatic because the variables change with each gig/application.

actually: a p-bass is well known for being a simple version of the instrument. it is a 'standard' for minimal. a p-bass has no inherent quality(s) which make it better at the task than any other (and may not be as good!) --- unless 'simple' is a requirement. many people read TB content and think it's useful, but a lot of folks believe it to be 'truth'! don't do it.

good luck with other people's untested, romantic assumptions!

 

The best basses to cut through are the Sadowsky basses. Period.
I've owned Fender deluxe, Lakland USA, MM Stingray 5, Sire V7..... None of these cut through like Sadowsky basses.
That doesn't mean you can't acheive your tone without a Sadowsky, it's just the best at that. It seats in the mix without any effort.

 

Most people seem to think about upper mids when talking about "cutting though the mix". But upper mids is easily controlled by selecting the right strings. I can honestly not understand how anyone could have problems hearing themselves in the upper mid area with ANY bass if they choose the right strings.

Lower mids is more tricky and requires a bass with inherently solid lower mids IMO. I always like to focus more on the lower mids rather than upper mid clank so for me the classic P-bass sound is perfect. A good P-bass will usually sit nicely in the mix for me with no eq whatsoever and it normally won't fight with the kick. Other basses will often need more work for the sound I need.

Of course any bass can be eq'ed but why bother if you can find a bass that works fine for you with no (or very little) fiddling about? For me that's a P-bass. For others it could be something else. It basically depends on what other instruments you need to fit the bass in between, how they sound and where exactly you want the bass to sit. In other words: Very genre dependent.

 

Hands down, the Ibanez ATK 300. Cuts like no other bass I've played. I have a mid 90's one though. But these basses were named after the word "attack" (ATK), so that should tell you something. They have a 3 band EQ that is very powerful. The mids on it are very pronounced. It's my main band bass. I've been using it for almost 18 years now I think. Every band I've ever used it in loves it because it's so pronounced and powerful. You can also dial it back too, there are a lot of tones available in these basses. But they def excel in cutting through a bands mix. Especially in a rock/hard rock/metal context.