By all accounts they're pretty good - especially for the outlay.
Upgrading the pickups is easy, and inexpensive (given how cheap their instruments are, it would be easy for a good set of pickups to out-value the bass itself).
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Which Bass guitar would you record with
- Thread starter PleyswethSqwerl
- Start date
By all accounts they're pretty good - especially for the outlay.
Upgrading the pickups is easy, and inexpensive (given how cheap their instruments are, it would be easy for a good set of pickups to out-value the bass itself).
Bass guitars often have an annoying phenomenon:
Basses that sound great live may not record well. Some will, but by no means all of them. It's a question of horses for courses.
Some studio situations may have the budget to test several of them. Or it may be the engineer or producer want you to use a particular one of yours, and I've seen a few situations where after a few tries with yours, they have a house bass they'd prefer you to use.
If you're working with a good, experienced engineer, I'd follow his lead.
Basses that sound great live may not record well. Some will, but by no means all of them. It's a question of horses for courses.
Some studio situations may have the budget to test several of them. Or it may be the engineer or producer want you to use a particular one of yours, and I've seen a few situations where after a few tries with yours, they have a house bass they'd prefer you to use.
If you're working with a good, experienced engineer, I'd follow his lead.
I’d have to make the choices with more information than that. What’s the material, and how does each bass sound.
MY bass is MY sound and it's MY soul, so whatever bass it is, i've only got 2 basses at best at the same time during my 30+ of playing. Not more. Less is more, when you choose the bass wisely, you don't need another one, I've had MIJ Tune 5 strings, PBasses, JBasses 4 and 5ers, P/Js, when you get the sound you love from 1 and 1 only bass, you can do whatever you want with it, it will always sound good. When you play with your heart and soul, your recording will always sound sincere. People tend to hide themselves behind a tons of instruments, but I prefer guys who've always played only 1 instrument at a time on their recordings. The type of bass does not matter: the Stanley Clark's Alembic sounds completely different from Victor Wooten's Ying Yang or Marcus Miller's trusty Jazz Bass, yet they do the same genre of music with the same sincerity.
Why ask? We don’t know your music. Frankly it’s your album. Play whatever one you want on whatever tune you want.
3. Remember, any pedal can any bass sound like any other bass. What ever you are most comfortable playing.
Stingrays are home base for me at this point. Easy choice.
Pretty much this. I've parted ways with basses that were ok live but had no magic in the studio. I always say the studio will reveal whether a bass truly works for me or not.
I have one bass that rules in a studio and nearly every engineer has pretty much just asked me to play it: my fretted '78 P. It's got the mojo. But it also is not right for every song.
I can't agree enough. Listen to your engineer. Don't fight them.
That said, basses are personal in feel. No studio bass would generally work for me because I can't stand basses with low action and thinner strings. I would arguably play worse on a bass I was unfamiliar with.
Also, know what you're trying to achieve. Is the band going for live takes? Are you hoping for keepers but able to overdub/redo later? Are you just going for scratch tracks and then have a dedicated block of time later to do final bass takes? All of that factors in here. For example, if you're going for live takes, having one (or two) basses that work is important and there may not be time for trying different things. If you have time to stretch out, it's a whole different ballgame but don't waste anyone's time - engineer, yours, the band - time *is* money.
I could happily record with any of those options, no matter what I play, I still sound like me. 
But, I have put a LOT of studio miles on a P-Bass, there is just something in it's simplicity, you can usually get it to sit in any mix without much trouble.
But, I have put a LOT of studio miles on a P-Bass, there is just something in it's simplicity, you can usually get it to sit in any mix without much trouble.
You can get all of them to sound good when recording, there are example of all of them (and more) sounding great on records but when in doubt use a Fender Precision or a Fender P/J, it's very hard to make either one sound bad.
This is probably the most ridiculous answer on this post. I asked, what bass would you play on “Your” album if “you” had to choose one {emphasis added} this means whatever type of music that you play whether that’s rock country Pop folk let us know what that is and what bass you prefer. I thought the post was written, quite clear however, obviously it’s not. Thus I reiteratedWhy ask? We don’t know your music. Frankly it’s your album. Play whatever one you want on whatever tune you want.
The material is whatever “your” music is that you are writing for your album as written in the post and, the bass that “you” would choose.
It’s subjective.
At the moment, I record with other brands.
Interesting how some have said (in other threads at least) that they can’t hear any differences between any recorded bass. Whether that’s in the mix and not solo’d or blindfold tested I’m not sure. So for those, I guess it doesn’t matter what you play.
I had three different basses recently recorded all using the same levels and same song…all of them present variations that are distinct to my ears. I do agree they all sound like basses as they should…but I prefer one over the other for different reasons.
At the moment, I record with other brands.
Interesting how some have said (in other threads at least) that they can’t hear any differences between any recorded bass. Whether that’s in the mix and not solo’d or blindfold tested I’m not sure. So for those, I guess it doesn’t matter what you play.
I had three different basses recently recorded all using the same levels and same song…all of them present variations that are distinct to my ears. I do agree they all sound like basses as they should…but I prefer one over the other for different reasons.
I own 7 basses. Of those, 5 are Fender. My #1 is an American Performer Precision P/J with no grease bucket tone circuit, and Aguilar's hum canceling PJ pup set. It's what I would normally record with, but... I recently re strung one of my Jazz basses with half rounds. I used it this past Sunday in a full band setting, working on an original that we want to record. If I were to record that song tomorrow, it would be with that Jazz and not my PJ.
