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Stolen from another forum - your tips for FREE tone!


Moos3h
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Hi all,

Another forum I'm on have this thread running and it's full of useful stuff so I figured I'd pilfer it for here.

What are your tips for better tone without spending a penny? Mine is to raise the action a little - I've recently done this on all my basses and whilst I don't like how it looks, my fingers have adjusted and it sounds better to my ear.

So what are your top tips for tonal improvements without getting the credit card out?

Cheers,
James

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Clean up you left and right hands so the notes you hear have a degree of expression rather than too much EQ.

For example, some bass players can't play a note without excessive bass and that will rob your sound of all character.
So learn to pay with a lot less bass and you will have more personality in your sound and then you can work it into
your playing.

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I`m with Moos3h on this one, I did the same, just a half-turn on the saddle screws on the bridge but it makes - or seems to - the notes more distinct. I still need to get some fret-buzz/rattle though, so I can`t raise them too high, so eq is the next bit. Less bass as per JTUK, I have mine flat, very seldom I boost the bass, if the amp isn`t bassy enough at a venue I`ll cut the highs rather than boost the lows.

Edited by Lozz196
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[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1424026369' post='2691727']
I`m with Moo3h on this one, I did the same, just a half-turn on the saddle screws on the bridge but it makes - or seems to - the notes more distinct. I still need to get some fret-buzz/rattle though, so I can`t raise them too high, so eq is the next bit. Less bass as per JTUK, I have mine flat, very seldom I boost the bass, if the amp isn`t bassy enough at a venue I`ll cut the highs rather than boost the lows.
[/quote]

Just come back from a gig where the bass player had a Warwick type bass with twin humbuckers and played with a pick..
Totally awful indestinct sound..!!!
Last night bass player had a Rickenbacker 4001 and ran that with too much bass.
Conclusion was that was the only way they could play the lines but it was toneless City...and also
made it very hard for them to fathom a bandmix as the bass on the bass came over as way too loud.
so the guys really needed to work on their dynamics...
but with +12bd or thereabouts running off the bass or thru the amp... tone is pretty much unachievable..
Its all bass and blubber :lol:

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[quote name='cytania' timestamp='1424040759' post='2691983']
If your amp has a Presence or similar upper treble control (my SWR is labelled 'Aural Enhancer') turn it up and concentrate on clean, expressive playing. By the same token if you always dial in compression ease it off.
[/quote]
I may stand corrected sir, but the way I have understood the "aural enhancer" is this: [url="http://www.experts123.com/q/what-is-the-aural-enhancer-and-what-does-it-do.html"]http://www.experts12...does-it-do.html[/url]
not simply a presence and upper treble control but more a mid cut and bass&treble boost.

Edited by krysh
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Definitely use your ears, also experiment with where you anchor if you're playing with fingers, naturally it helps if the sound you're aiming for is appropriate to the genre of music. My default position is more towards the bridge, and what I do is I set the blend on the pickups to bias slightly towards the bridge pickup.

My action is fairly low, not so low that it's clattery though, but it works well with playing lighter, I also make sure that with my fretting hand, I'm fairly light with my fingers there, and I try and actually land on the fret itself, not somewhere in between.

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Left hand (if you're right handed) strength.

I repeat patterns with my left hand without using my right hand, and then do the same amount of exercise on my right with the strings muted - saw Bill 'Buddah' Dickens do this years ago, and it keeps your playing clean.

And if I'm ever unsure, I ask myself 'what would Pino do?'

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a mantra that was posted on here at some point by someone, quoting someone else... :)

'Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong.'

as a blagging bodger of a copy and paste merchant, it is the only way I can get by.

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Thanks for that Krysh, never realised the Aural Enhancer control was so sophisticated. I always used to think of it as 'a 'finger noise' control for the slappin' crowd. However over the years I've come to appreciate that in the mix fretting sounds are a good, percussive thing not something to be compressed away.

Edited by cytania
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Not wishing to incur the wrath of others, but the first time I met a really good sound man the first thing he did was turn everyones volume down. Instead of the band fighting with each other that let us actually hear what was going on. Once, ond only once, you get the balance right PUT IT UP TO ELEVEN.

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