SteveXFR

Scheduled Diarrhea - Clown Core

Up The Bracket - The Libertines

Unfortunately the don't do a Stingray style humbucker but Tonerider pickups are pretty good and decent value. I've used their classic P style pickup before and it sounded great. A good upgrade on my old Squier, at least as good as Mexican Fender pickups.

Some ceramic pickups are more powerful than some alnico pickups although that doesn't really effect tone. My old Sterling Ray35 sounded really close to a MM Stingray and that had alnico pickups with a Darkglass tone capsule preamp.

The stock Roswell pickups are really pretty decent. You'll be spending good money to beat them. You won't get it to sound like a Stingray because the pickup position is wrong and most Stingrays are active.

I find the same with picks. Different thickness, material, shape, picking positions, the angle I hold the pick all makes a difference.

Madagascan, hand caught, wild, organic tort obviously.

I'm working my way through the lineup for a festival I'm going to this summer (ArcTanGent) and this morning it's Lowen. This is really good. Not sure how to describe it so here's a video

Let's be honest, if you bass isn't made from the heart wood of the rarest tree in the western central region of the upper amazon, crafted by 800 year old artisans from a lost village on a remote island and painted using a 400 year old secret recipe for a colour known as slugs nipple and then strung with flat wound, hand forged uranium strings then your tone will always sound like s**t

It's good to know what sounds you get from picking in different positions. I used to have a really clanky, nasty, distorted metal tone but found that for solo parts if I picked at the base of the fretboard, it was much more acceptable and then move back to picking over the bridge pickup when the guitars came back in.

Amnesia - Swans

Boredom - The Buzzcocks

Have you heard Steve Harris and Cliffs bass tone in isolation? They're not pleasant. They both created a tone which cut through fantastically well to sound good with the band.

You can't cut or boost frequencies that aren't there.

In my experience of playing in heavy bands, that absolutely would not work. You've got two heavily distorted guitars and a hard hitting drummer. There's no compromise going to fix that, as a bassist you have to find a tone that fits with the band and it certainly exists but I can guarantee it will sound bloody awful in isolation.

I found overdrive made a huge difference in creating a sound that could cut through heavy guitars. EQ is definitely a big part of it though.

If you want to play in bands forget about YOUR tone, it doesn't matter. It's no good having great solo tone if you disappear behind guitars and drums.

Would you help them lose their talent or good looks?

It should be illegal to be talented and good looking. One or the other please. If you can play bass like Mike Watt then you should have the decency to look like, well Mike Watt (I didn't think this example though)

Dead Skin Mask - Slayer

A66 - Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

F*** off money - Mogwai

Silver Machine - Hawkwind

My old Ibanez SRMS805. Partly due to it being awesome to play, partly due to it sounding great, partly due to using it in a great band. It was a proper metal machine. It worked so well with heavy distortion and the clarity on the B string was spot on.

Sorry I wore a Dying Fetus T Shirt to your baby gender reveal party - Raised By Owls