Do you have a signature sound?

[dmccombe7]

Now that i'm playing a bit less hard with my right hand plucking its changed "my tone" from a hard edgy Ric type rock sound to a more mid focused mellower punch with more depth. Think what i'm saying is that simple little changes in style do affect how i sound out front. 

Please note i'm on the JD Honey tonight as tomorrows gig in Dundee was cancelled as their boiler / heating system has failed and can't get parts till Monday. 

Dave

[ezbass]

3 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Please note i'm on the JD Honey tonight as tomorrows gig in Dundee was cancelled as their boiler / heating system has failed and can't get parts till Monday. 

Probably just as well as the journey might have been, let’s say interesting.

[dmccombe7]

19 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Probably just as well as the journey might have been, let’s say interesting.

Is it bad up your way ?

I'm not too bad as have 4x4 Subaru but its never an easy drive in snowy conditions no matter what you drive.

I see on news Amber warning out now and not drive unless you need to.

 

Dave

[Downunderwonder]

On 29/12/2025 at 01:33, TimR said:

I played at our local jam on Boxing Night. As the 'only bass player in the village' I get the dubious honor of playing for 4 hours without a 'break'.

 

Anyway - the pub now has a DJ with a 16 Track PA, subs and tops. So I left my amp and cab at home and dug out my StudioSpares DI (last used before Y2K).

 

5 minutes fiddling with the PA (bass, parametric mid, and treble) and bingo. I sounded just like me. I still don't know how to describe what that sound is though. 

 

 

 

 

That's the sound of victory.

[WalMan]

Currently loving the FrankenJazz -> Darkglass Anagram -> Darkglass Microtubes -> Barefaced BB2

 

Nice bright, slightly gritty sounds with thump   

[Stub Mandrel]

I try to get a balanced, full tone riding on the edge of overdrive so I can did in for a bit of grit.

 

Ideally new Roto 66s but for longevity Fender nickelscthat aren't as bright.

[Russ]

It started off as me trying to find a sound something between Tony Levin (circa Thrak-era King Crimson) and Justin Chancellor, which gradually morphed into its own thing to accommodate my tastes and playing technique. 

 

I used to be a fairly heavy-handed player, but I'm playing with a far lighter touch these days but I still want things to sound big, so I'm using two compressors in series, Levin-style, to control the dynamics, then, in terms of EQ, notching out that boxy-sounding 800Hz frequency range  and gently boosting low and high mids. I also mostly play a 6-string these days, so I've had to adjust the EQ and compression to accommodate the high C so it doesn't sound brittle compared to the others. I also have an alternate version of this sound for fretless where I don't dial out the 800Hz range, since that's where a lot of the "mwah" lives in the frequency spectrum. 

 

I'm currently using a Headrush Flex Prime for effects - not a popular choice for bass (it doesn't have many bass-specific effects, amps or IRs), but it's small, powerful, easy to use and does everything I need it to do. It also came with the ReValver amp modelling software, which I used to model my previous Zoom B3n-based tone, directly from the pedal, so I had a good starting point to go from there. 

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Is it bad up your way ?

I'm not too bad as have 4x4 Subaru but its never an easy drive in snowy conditions no matter what you drive.

I see on news Amber warning out now and not drive unless you need to.

 

Dave

Not terrible, but a couple of centimetres at least, coupled with high winds, with more to come. It’s not necessarily the conditions, rather other road users, with a lack of respect for the conditions. Stay home, keep warm, have another JD.

[dmccombe7]

12 hours ago, ezbass said:

Not terrible, but a couple of centimetres at least, coupled with high winds, with more to come. It’s not necessarily the conditions, rather other road users, with a lack of respect for the conditions. Stay home, keep warm, have another JD.

Gig cancelled as their boiler has failed and can't get parts till next week. 2 yrs in a row our gig has been cancelled in Dundee. Last year health issue and now this. Not meant to be. 

Edited 8 hours ago by dmccombe7

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Russ said:

It started off as me trying to find a sound something between Tony Levin (circa Thrak-era King Crimson) and Justin Chancellor, which gradually morphed into its own thing to accommodate my tastes and playing technique. 

 

I used to be a fairly heavy-handed player, but I'm playing with a far lighter touch these days but I still want things to sound big, so I'm using two compressors in series, Levin-style, to control the dynamics, then, in terms of EQ, notching out that boxy-sounding 800Hz frequency range  and gently boosting low and high mids. I also mostly play a 6-string these days, so I've had to adjust the EQ and compression to accommodate the high C so it doesn't sound brittle compared to the others. I also have an alternate version of this sound for fretless where I don't dial out the 800Hz range, since that's where a lot of the "mwah" lives in the frequency spectrum. 

 

I'm currently using a Headrush Flex Prime for effects - not a popular choice for bass (it doesn't have many bass-specific effects, amps or IRs), but it's small, powerful, easy to use and does everything I need it to do. It also came with the ReValver amp modelling software, which I used to model my previous Zoom B3n-based tone, directly from the pedal, so I had a good starting point to go from there. 

That's a good point about high c string on fretless and eq'ing to account for it. If I plug in my 6er fretless with my normal settings the high c string is exactly as you described and I need to tweak my EQ 

Dave 

[jazzyvee]

On 29/12/2025 at 09:14, jazzyvee said:

I have played covers for most of my bass playing life, so mainly tried to capture the bass sound on those records. When I have gigged in originals bands I have found tones to suit their music.  I don’t have a sound that i think is distinctive such that i could recognise it in a blindfold hearing test, however i think I would recognise myself more by note choices and articulation more than tone. Others may hear if i have a signature sound more than I would. 

Well strange how things work. Yesterday evening a band i used to play in uploaded a video of facebook described as their current band. So i decided to watch it to hear what they now sound like. As the video started and the musicians were hidden by generous stage fog, i thought .... hmm that sounds just like my alembic bass and how I played that song and wondered who the new bass player was as it sounded like me. When the cloud cleared and I could see all the members I realised it was me with my alembic. So maybe I do have a recognisable sound to some extent.

So made me wonder why it wasn't a video of the current band.

[dmccombe7]

2 minutes ago, jazzyvee said:

Well strange how things work. Yesterday evening a band i used to play in uploaded a video of facebook described as their current band. So i decided to watch it to hear what they now sound like. As the video started and the musicians were hidden by generous stage fog, i thought .... hmm that sounds just like my alembic bass and how I played that song and wondered who the new bass player was as it sounded like me. When the cloud cleared and I could see all the members I realised it was me with my alembic. So maybe I do have a recognisable sound to some extent.

So made me wonder why it wasn't a video of the current band.

Now that must have made you laugh a bit. 😂

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

23 minutes ago, jazzyvee said:

Well strange how things work. Yesterday evening a band i used to play in uploaded a video of facebook described as their current band. So i decided to watch it to hear what they now sound like. As the video started and the musicians were hidden by generous stage fog, i thought .... hmm that sounds just like my alembic bass and how I played that song and wondered who the new bass player was as it sounded like me. When the cloud cleared and I could see all the members I realised it was me with my alembic. So maybe I do have a recognisable sound to some extent.

So made me wonder why it wasn't a video of the current band.

 

Tomorrow you get the message saying "where are you?"

[Mickeyboro]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Tomorrow you get the message saying "where are you?"

I would be royally fogged off!😤

[dmccombe7]

Would've been funnier if you had criticised the bassist before you realised it was you @jazzyvee. 😂

Dave