AidanB

One of the best sounding amps I had was a Fender Super Champ XD. I think it has a 12" speaker and is very light. I think it's 15W. It's been superseded now but I loved the sound of it. It would need PA support in a band, it's not hugely loud. I haven't played electric for a while but recently picked up a s/h Mustang III. Wasn't sure to begin with but have grown to like the sound quite a lot and it is plenty loud enough for live playing.

Orage Micro Dark. Lovely tone, can do really nice clean to slightly overdriven right up to insane distortion all at low volume OR you can crank it up and it is seriously loud. It has a proper effects loop so you can add reverb/delay etc. I think the matching cab is probably too small and boxy but I don't know cos I've never tried it. I had an old 2x12 and it sounded amazing.

Hi there, I've had several acoustic amps in my time, here are my thoughts. Marshall AS50R (older analogue reverb) and AS50D (digital reverb) I prefer the newer AS50D as I felt it was a cleaner sound and reverb. Very nice amps, very reasonable price and often come up for sale second hand. Marshall AS100: More inputs, very loud but I found it much too bright and couldn't tone it down. It's also very heavy and cumbersome: Ashdown Acoustic Radiator 1: Quite small and light, quite a nice sound. You might find one used... Laney A1: Didn't like the sound of it and didn't keep it. I've tried the AER amps and thought they were way overpriced but they sound good. I've tried the Roland ones too and found them quiet and too polite sounding. The best of the bunch for me is the AS50D. It's an excellent price compared with most other acoustic amps. It's not super light but has a very good sound. If you're playing in an acoustic group, the other option is to invest your money in a nice portable PA such as the HK Audio Nano 300 or 600 series. I haven't used acoustic amps for a while, there may be better options available these days.

Just added The Boho Dance from The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell. The bass is played by Max Bennett. I've loved the bass line on this track for years before I even played the bass guitar. I must try to learn it!

Woke up early this morning and have been listening for a couple of hours. What a fantastic playlist! has opened up some new avenues for listening. Im going to add a couple of tracks ... Cheers

Thanks everyone for your posts, I’ve learned such a lot today, what a brilliant (and friendly) forum! I’m thinking new strings 1st, probably Fender 7250M and then maybe look at alternative pickups with more low end. Any suggestions on pickups? Cheers, Aidan

Thanks for all your responses, it's making it all a bit clearer. I've attached a quick recording of both guitars playing snippets of different styles. In each case the J bass is first then the P bass. The recording shows the character of the two different guitars (especially as the P has flat wound strings) but I don't know that it captures exactly what my ears hear in the low bass spectrum. Recorded with an SM57 Beta in front of amp into Logic with no added processing. Jazz vs Precision.mp3

Thanks for your post. The EMG pickups on the Jazz bass have some sort of preamp with a battery but use the original volume and tone controls as I understand it so I think active though the guy who sold it to me said that the battery/preamp was just to boost the signal a bit because the EMG pickups had a low number of windings, so I'm not totally sure. On the Jazz I mostly play with just the neck on full and the tone down a fair bit but no bridge unless I'm attempting something more funky lol. My only amp at the moment is an Eden EC10 and I add a bit of the enhance control which scoops the sound a bit but I would expect a similar effect on both guitars, it seems to have more effect on the Jazz than the Precision. Would it help if I did a quick recording of each bass? I think you're right about it being the tonal differences between j and P but I was expecting the P to be a much more solid bass sound by which I think I mean with a lot more low end bass.

Ok, first of all, I should say that I've only recently got the bass bug after decades of acoustic and electric guitar playing so my experience of all things bass is not massive. The first decent bass I bought a few months ago is a 1996 MIM Fender Jazz with EMG pickups. It's quite heavy but I love the tone of it and really get a lot out of playing it. I recently picked up a lovely white 2012 MIM P Bass because I thought I needed a P Bass sound as well as. The thing is that it doesn't give me the same enjoyment/feedback as the J. It feels somewhat lifeless. I wondered if it was the strings so swapped out the (newish) round wound strings for a set of D'Addario Chromes that had come off another bass. That was an improvement though I'm still not sure about flat wound strings. With either set of strings the bass seems to lack punch or balls, to put it another way. It's quite a bit louder than my Jazz bass but doesn't sound as deep (bassy). I'm wondering what could be the issue here? Can anyone help me out?