Your approach to tone

I hope I can use more or less the same tone on every song and work on my technique to make that possible. Especially right, plucking, hand discipline.

 

Growl, grind and girth, a big fat bottom end with cutting high mids. No thump or low mids. METAL \m/
Rock on.

 

Easy...Thump!

 

11 o'clock on bass, 1 o'clock on the low-mids, everything else at noon.

 

Order:

1. Define technique needed
2. Choose adequate gear
3. Play

 

I don't have a tone. I have always been able to find a sound I like from any amp, and that's what I care about.

So if I have a tone, it's described as "any sound I like."

Solid state? Class D? Tube? Hollowbody? Semi-hollow? Solid body? 30" scale? 32" scale? 34" scale? Electric upright?

I play all of those. The only constant is old flatwound strings, except where they aren't, which is on the electric upright and one of the others - I forget which.

And I suspect that there are a lot of others whose "tone" simply equals "whatever sound I like that day."

 

Flats are my tone. It’s the one constant.

 

Like I imagine a lot of folks, tone is somewhat of a moving target for me and will depend greatly on whatever my current project is. When I was doing jazz, I kept it real simple. After trying the half dozen pedal approach, I found that streamlining and just having the bass set up for one basic tone that gets modified by how and where I pluck. I used this approach for my last cover band as well (never needed any more adjustments than the tone knob on my P bass, my plucking position and a little EQ.

Moving to a little heavier cover band, I bringing back a few pedals to gain a little color (kind of enamored with that SVT / Mesa Boogie "thunky" tone right now) and have a couple pedals that approach that sound with my tone rolled up - when I roll the tone off, I get a warmer more "traditional sound so it's still pretty simple, just a little different. I did convert to flats on my Ps moving from rounds, so all my basses use flats now.

Ask me the question in a few months and you might get a completely different answer - it's just one of those things that is always under scrutiny for me.

 

I like full frequency response and some distortion

 

I like to start with a relatively clean pallet and then season to taste. Dial it up nasty for hard rock or clean and thumpy for country, etc.

 

Forgive me, I was in the wine business for a long time:

Pallet: A wooden device for moving goods from one place to another.
Palette: A small board on which painters put paint.
Palate: The roof of the mouth, also, the sense of taste.

 

My approach is pretty similar to yours. I wear ER15 ear plugs when I perform, which darken the sound a bit. I compensate by making my stage tone even brighter. The idea is for me to be able to hear myself as clearly as possible at the lowest possible volume. For most of my career I have used a small cab elevated and aimed at my ears.

Now the bright tone I use on stage has nothing to do with what I send FOH. Normally I plug my bass into a quality DI and run the tone controls flat. So the audio tech gets a neutral unprocessed sound from my bass so shape however is desired to fit in the FOH mix.

I generally I work with a full PA that has separate monitor mixes for each musician. If someone needs a little more bass on stage, the ask for more bass in their monitor.

 

I’m big on one fresh roundwounds and using my hands for tone. As far as the bass and amps I like quality stuff that sounds good with minimal tweaking and that’s articulate enough to translate what my hands are doing. Of course mainly playing heavier music a good overdrive pedal is always nice to have. For me with pedals. Overdrive is a big “tone” thing but other pedals are more so for fun, a little salt and pepper here and there.

 

I strive for accuracy... I'd rather have someone tell me, "Dude, you nailed those songs!" as opposed to, "Man, your tone is awesome, but...".

When they leave you hanging, it hurts down to the rounds.

 

The room defines the tone as much as the gear. But the gear comes with knobs & stuff to fix the room.

 

EQ set: bass 11-12 O'clock, lower mids 1:00, high mids 12-1:00,treble 11:00. Bass tone knob about 90% toward full highs. Finger style from near bridge to finger board depending on tune aesthetics.

 

LOL.... I knew that word was gonna bite in the arse but used it anyway. Thank you for the correction.

 

I go for a signature sound. I generally want the bass to be as important to the sound of a song as the guitar is. When people think the rhythm guitarist is sick I know I’m hitting the mark.

There’s obviously a time and a place for this mindset, and I have no issue with taking a backseat when appropriate. But, I’m going to try to make that backseat sound as cool as possible while I’m in it.