I have very little technical knowledge about how to get a particular tone from amps and I’ve just twiddled about with whatever amp and bass I’ve had and never really got a tone I was really happy with, until now.
i never plug in any instrument I’m going to buy, electric or acoustic, I always judge it by how the instrument sounds unaided by amplification, it’s half stupidity, half Luddite tendencies, but this approach has led me down a road of dissatisfaction until I reached an AER amp with a Rob Allen Mouse 30 plugged into it. This combination has everything I want from a bass sound. I have all the tone controls on the AER at 12 O’clock and the RA Mouse only has a volume pot (it has a ‘passive high trim’ control in the back plate but I haven’t adjusted it since I got it as it sounds just right) so all the tone control really comes from my fingers. I always rolled my eyes at the ‘tone is in the fingertips’ camp but I have to say, suddenly, having discovered my perfect bass and amp I now understand and completely agree with the statement. What I assumed was the search for the perfect bass sound for me turned out to actually be the search for the perfect bass, the sound i was lookin for is a blend of this instrument and my way of playing it.