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your favorite slap tone

#42
I prefer a passive Jazz bass for slapping. Both volumes and tone all the way on. Depending on the room I may need to add a little bit of lows to fill things out and that is done on my head, usually more for my own monitoring then anything else. Since the OP asked about going direct I'd go VVT all the way on and let the FOH add any EQ most of the time the FOH has massive subs and a bass boost I would normally add to my amp isn't neccesary.

Interesting stuff. If I was doing a funk type slap only gig an active Sadowsky would probably work out nicely but because most situations I am in are pretty diverse I find a passive J is very effective for my needs.
 
#46
KJung said:
Regarding bass tone, I think you hit the nail on the head. Victor, Stanley, whoever always sound like themselves in technique, phrasing, attitude, and of course, in a very general way, tone. However, the instrument IMO does have an impact, and Victor sounds a bit different on every bass I've heard him play. Even his various similarly spec'd Fodera's sound a touch different to me.

I feel that while my basic tone comes through everything I play, the Celinder sounds SO different from the Alleva that there's no way any player would sound identical across those two instruments. Also, the voicing of each bass IMO and IME makes me play just a smidge differently (i.e., the huge low end and Marcus sizzle of the Celinder versus the very warm, growly vintage mid voicing of the Alleva).
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+10000

That's why tone can't just come from fingers or just from gear. It's a mixture of both. I also feel that my technique changes from instrument to instrument. My old Tobias was a great slapper but the narrow string spacing kept me from really digging in and plucking harder but my Valenti allows me to get under there and pluck up pretty hard, however, I find that I don't need to pluck or thump as hard since the EMG's are hotter than the Bartolinis that were in the Tobias, thus allowing me to hit a little lighter so I can get a little faster.
 
#47
KJung said:
This is pretty much 'it' for me at this point. I've gone from the 'active soapbar uber modern thing' all the way back to a passive J type slap tone. While I still use active J's, I pretty much set the preamps flat (maybe just a touch of bass boost) and my relatively even, full range rig virtually flat, with a touch of upper mids (1K or so) dialed out to reduce the gank (I hear a lot of that harsh 'gank' in the Graham clip posted above, but I still dig it).

I still love Marcus's slap tone, but it's almost impossible to drive that huge, wide, active tone into the audience with just backline IMO.

Funny with the Music Man slap tone. I used to live for that, and played one all through the late 70's and 80's. At this point, the old classic J tone sounds, well, 'classic' to me, while the MM slap tone (ala Louis J) sounds wonderful, but somehow 'dated'. Of course, pure IMO there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rek3g8znpOg
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ah the buddy hankerson clip! my fender looks to be the same era (white pickguard) 78 serial number but 79 pots. my fender still wins out for slap tone. im headed out to jimmy's shop tomorrow to see if he can re-create it in a 5 string. im hoping he can pull it off:bassist:

heres a clip of mine straight into an mbox
 
#48
I stand corrected, sort of...in that Marcus Miller's first preamp was a Bartolini installed by Roger Sadowsky, however Roger then designed his preamp to sound very much like the one he installed in Marcus' bass with according to Marcus "some subtle differences which he (Roger) thinks makes the pre-amp more useful".

I do feel that the parts of an instrument and electronics contribute to tone, but not as much as the tone generated from the player. I started on an acoustic instrumt (trumpet) and even today many players will refer to the sound of a particular beand or style of an axe but always speak of the tone of an individual as something more personal. I've heard great jazz players descvribe the tones of acoustic piano players such as Bud Powell, Art Tatum, or Herbie Hancock even. Even though they all played different brands of instruments, one never said one brand contributed to that person's "tone". Ok we understand that to be true for acoustic instruments and that electronic instruments have more influence over the character of a person's tone, be it electric bass, guitar, synth (especially), or other electronic instruments. However, electric bass' electronics, to my ear, do effect the tone but not overall. Therefore I agree that I can too detect the differences in different brands of basses, but I always listen for a person's tone to shine through. For instance, I heard Louis Johnson recently warming up for a gig and was using some cheap bass, but he still sounded and reminded me of the Louis with the MM stingray he helped make popular. The tone was similar, not a MM tone, but a Louis Johson-in-yo-face kind of tone. Even when he used Alembics, his tone was similar, but with an Alembic color. So by my standards I tend to think of tone as the inherent sound a person puts out and then that is filtered thru his particular type or brand of instrument. So we agree that Victor Wooten's basses all sound different and that any player may sound the same on different instruments, however I firmly believe that tone is in the way a person projects that sound, thus meaning that I think that a Stradivarius is just a Stradivarius and a fender jazz is just a jazz.

KJung said:
Hey guys! Fun discussion.

First, lot's of threads on this. Marcus Miller never used a Sadowsky pre. I believe his original pre was some sort of 'Star preamp' or something that Roger installed in his J bass (hence the Sadowsky confusion). I believe his current bass has a pretty standard Bartolini pre in it, but not sure. I have read that the Sadowsky pre was at least voiced to mimic Marcus's original preamp.

Regarding bass tone, I think you hit the nail on the head. Victor, Stanley, whoever always sound like themselves in technique, phrasing, attitude, and of course, in a very general way, tone. However, the instrument IMO does have an impact, and Victor sounds a bit different on every bass I've heard him play. Even his various similarly spec'd Fodera's sound a touch different to me.
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#49
some awesome clips here, keep em comin

i think this is just an incredible tone...and the funny part is that it is a seriously nice bass (american deluxe with SCN pickups)...recorded with the BUILT-IN LAPTOP MIC...heh



tell me it doesn't sound fantastic, i love that kinda hollow jazz tone with the sweetness on top...but then i also love the P tone, and the P/J tone, and the humbucky tone, and peavey toaster and super ferrite tone, and blah blah blah...i think i'm a slap-slut!
 
#52
BassSlave said:
I stand corrected, sort of...in that Marcus Miller's first preamp was a Bartolini installed by Roger Sadowsky, however Roger then designed his preamp to sound very much like the one he installed in Marcus' bass with according to Marcus "some subtle differences which he (Roger) thinks makes the pre-amp more useful".

I do feel that the parts of an instrument and electronics contribute to tone, but not as much as the tone generated from the player. I started on an acoustic instrumt (trumpet) and even today many players will refer to the sound of a particular beand or style of an axe but always speak of the tone of an individual as something more personal. I've heard great jazz players descvribe the tones of acoustic piano players such as Bud Powell, Art Tatum, or Herbie Hancock even. Even though they all played different brands of instruments, one never said one brand contributed to that person's "tone". Ok we understand that to be true for acoustic instruments and that electronic instruments have more influence over the character of a person's tone, be it electric bass, guitar, synth (especially), or other electronic instruments. However, electric bass' electronics, to my ear, do effect the tone but not overall. Therefore I agree that I can too detect the differences in different brands of basses, but I always listen for a person's tone to shine through. For instance, I heard Louis Johnson recently warming up for a gig and was using some cheap bass, but he still sounded and reminded me of the Louis with the MM stingray he helped make popular. The tone was similar, not a MM tone, but a Louis Johson-in-yo-face kind of tone. Even when he used Alembics, his tone was similar, but with an Alembic color. So by my standards I tend to think of tone as the inherent sound a person puts out and then that is filtered thru his particular type or brand of instrument. So we agree that Victor Wooten's basses all sound different and that any player may sound the same on different instruments, however I firmly believe that tone is in the way a person projects that sound, thus meaning that I think that a Stradivarius is just a Stradivarius and a fender jazz is just a jazz.
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+1.. he's been using that stock Bart TCT or whatever it is for a long time. Very early on, he used a 'stars guitars' preamp, which supposedly crapped out in the early 80's or something like that.

I think we are all saying the same thing. Everything works together to make an individual's tone. Of course, if you suck, you suck, and if you have an amazing, individual voice, that voice is going to come through, no matter what you are playing!
 
#53
KJung said:
Doesn't that just put a smile on your face all the way around:D... feel, tone, groove, intensity, joy, time, etc. I'm not even in the same universe, but on the rare occasions that I do use the slap technique on a gig now (music is changing VERY quickly at this point), that's the inspiration I draw on anyway.

There are some guys here in Detroit (I've lived here about 4 years now) that I have the honor of knowing who are at this level, and I can't believe I get to hang with them (including our own TBers Mikebass and Shelly).
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He's awesome...just perfect!!!!! that tone is superb.

A lot like the wonderful Marlowedk (posted by J5Eugene in the clips above). The tone he gets out of this p bass is excellent (of course it helps that he's a world class player)
 
#57
Thoughout my years of playing, I've always been able to create great slap tones with numerous basses. The basses I've been able to get nice slap tones on were '75' Ric, '82' Steinberger L2, '90' Fender JP-90, '01 Ibanez BTB405Q, '08' MIA Fender Jazz V, the '08' Jazz being the best. As far as basses that I've struggled to get good slap tones with were Yamaha (don't remember the brand, but was mid 80's), '07' Carvin LB75AP Anniversary, '79' Music Man Sabre. The Carvin and Music Man were just thin on tone, and Yamaha was difficult to slap on, period; Yamaha being the worst of the batch.
 
#60
Stingray 5 20 ann HH on outer coils only mode.
Ed Friedland has a review on in on youtube.
according to him, "a jazz bass with its own unique personality"

but I also like a squashed slap and pop sound. like picture a P with tone turned down but not that extreme. I can coax a nice squashed growly slap tone from my Cort.
 

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