Has your taste in tone changed over the years?

[Lozz196]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

My tone changes depending on the band I'm in.

 

Unless you always play the same kind of music it's arrogant to assume you can use a "one size fits all" attitude to your bass sound.

Yep I always pick the sound for the band. The sounds I had for my previous two bands, although both achieved using a Precision, were a fair bit different. And the sound for my current band, again with a Precision is a tad different, though probably more in-keeping with the two bands ago sound than the last.

[4000]

My taste in other people’s tone hasn’t changed at all. But I alter my tone and style to fit the music. I have a fairly consistent approach to tone in my current band because I made a conscious choice to use that approach and sound at the start, but it’s certainly not the sound or style I would use in every musical scenario. In fact I remember a friend who first saw me playing in a power pop band being a bit taken aback when I turned up at a Moffat Bass Bash playing completely differently. Tbh, I thought that was the norm. 😂

[oldslapper]

2 hours ago, ped said:

Someone will be along shortly to say we all sound the same whatever we play 😂

Sorry I’m a bit late, but ….

we all sound the same and no one cares anyway. 

[tony_m]

Mine certainly has over the years. Back when I started playing in the early- to mid-90s, I simply believed the bass should be bassy and thumpy, and honestly sometimes wondered what the point of the tone control on my bass was, never mind most of the EQ on the amp (and of course, I didn't have the internet / Basschat to inform me in those days!).

 

Since then, I've meandered between bassy and thumpy to raw and twangy, but now seem to have found a happy medium of warm and full, but with enough presence to not get lost, which really seems to suit the band I'm in now (single-coil P bass, TI flats, volume not quite 100%, tone about 60%). Oddly, I do still struggle on a couple of numbers, when the combination of the vocalist's tone + one of his guitars in particular seems to mask the bass somewhat, but that's summat I / we just need to work on.  

Edited January 28, 2022 by tony_m

[DaytonaRik]

Not with regards to live playing, but when it comes to recording then I've found that a combination of clean DI, amp (real or simulated) and a gnarly Tech21 style driven tone really works for rock stuff - isolated it's horrible but in a mix it's lovely!

[Steve Browning]

15 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

Not with regards to live playing, but when it comes to recording then I've found that a combination of clean DI, amp (real or simulated) and a gnarly Tech21 style driven tone really works for rock stuff - isolated it's horrible but in a mix it's lovely!

I think that's probably true in most cases. An isolated bass track sounds nothing like the final, mixed, product.

[NancyJohnson]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

An isolated bass track sounds nothing like the final, mixed, product.

 

This, in a nutshell.

[Nail Soup]

I still have the same preferred tone in bass as when I started out, influenced by punk and post-punk. 

But now I have much wider taste in music so there's more chance I could play something which needed a different tone which I would do. Well try anyway.

[iconic]

As with my tone and playing, I'm built more for comfort than speed nowadays. 

[iconic]

15 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

This, in a nutshell.

Absolutely, why don't reviews do more playing in the mix, a little pointless otherwise. 

[Dan Dare]

8 hours ago, iconic said:

As with my tone and playing, I'm built more for comfort than speed nowadays. 

 

Me too. In my 20s, I used rounds, played with a pick or fingers. I preferred a bright, clean stringy tone and a pick. Nearly 50 years later, I'm playing flats with my fingers and only use a pick occasionally. I think that is due in good part to the fact that modern bass amplification is so much cleaner, with a more extended high frequency range. I'm simply hearing things that my old gear wouldn't reproduce (which is probably why I don't like tweeters for bass these days), meaning I no longer have to compensate. It also has to be due to my changed taste in music. I don't play prog any longer.

 

I do find it a little surprising that I like it less bright now, given that we lose the ability to hear high frequencies as we age. I can no longer hear bats, although my partner could still hear them when she was nearly 70. But then, she didn't play in loud bands for years.

[WAYNESWORLD]

I’ve found when it comes to tone regardless of the bass  I am unique as I must be the only bloke who can make any fat wire machine sound bad. On the upside and after 40 odd yrs of playing I am consistent at doing this.

[Marvin]

I've never had any taste...

[bubinga5]

surely it depends on the music you're playing. you change your tone for that. reason.?

Edited January 29, 2022 by bubinga5

[CameronJ]

For the first few years I played bass, I gravitated toward a thick, round, bass-heavy tone, basically the closer it sounded to a synth sine wave the better. I actively avoided Fender style basses and turned my nose up at them. As time went on (and I realised I could get pedals to achieve the synthy thing) I started enjoying the “classic” bass sounds more and more, culminating in the purchase of a Yamaha BB1025X PJ bass. And the Precision pickup rabbit hole began. To date I’ve now owned 5 basses with P pickups and 2 with Jazz configs. I like the idea of owning a stingray but somehow I can’t quite develop a love for the tone of them the way I love the tone of Js and Ps. Maybe one day…

[chris_b]

My preferences for the sound of my bass haven't changed over the years. I'm still after the same thing, but with the advent of modern bass gear, I can sound the same as I did, only much, much better.

[chris_b]

On 28/01/2022 at 14:37, Steve Browning said:

I think that's probably true in most cases. An isolated bass track sounds nothing like the final, mixed, product.

 

Yep. All those guys raving over James Jamerson's sound, also have to thank the Motown engineers.