Have you found the bass bits that just 'work'?

[Jamesemt]

I've been trading basses on here for the past few years and I have finally found the magic ingredients for me:

J neck (get hand cramps with larger necks)
P pickup
2 band active electronics (with boost and cut)

Anyone else find that they just cant get a good sound/comfortable without a certain piece of gearcombination of gear?

Also how would you describe your sound? I like loads of thump (more of a Motown sound) but with the top end to cut through in a rock band setting.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Jamesemt

[lee4]

Status Groove,full bass boost,full treble cut,elixir strings,Markbass LMII(flat eq,12 o/c on vle),Zoot 2x12 cab.
Clear sound,growl,punch and depth.

[The Burpster]

PRS EBIV.

D'add. Chromes

Neck pup on full
Bridge pup on 3/4
Slightly + Bass - treble.

Mesa Wlkbt Scout.

Graphic flat gain as high without clipping or o/d ing.

= creamy lovelyness.

Nothin' else has got anywhere near.

[Lfalex v1.1]

Not [i]exactly[/i]. I chop and change because I like a bit of variety.
That said, two of my favourites are;

MIA S1 Jazz (Ash body/Rosewood board and completely standard) with 40-100 DR Sunbeams. Works a treat. More output. Greater sensitivity to playing style and an all-round "Bigger" sound, whilst still sounding like a good Jazz should.

Warwick Infinity SN4 with Elixir 45,65,80,100. Again, wholly unmodified. Running a slightly high action, so I can really attack the strings (if I want to) without the dreaded buzz.
A tricky bass to get sounding good. Too low an action seems to choke the tone. Wearing it too tight against my body robbed the sound of vibrancy and life.
It came wearing Warwick Yellow label strings, which were okay. I swapped for Warwick EMPs at the next change, and they were simply awful. I tried a fairly dead Elixir "E on it as an experiment, and liked what I heard. Replaced them with a full set, and that was it.

I try out instruments fairly carefully, but for me, the secret's in the strings. I wish I could just stick DR FatBeams on everything and that'd be it, but I think different strings sound better on different basses. The trouble is, finding out which go best with which!

That apart, I'm still looking for the perfect Overdrive and/or pre-amp. After 18 years, I still haven't found it!

[lojo]

i'll always chop and change just for the sake of it

But just playing pubs and clubs, there is nothing not found on a passive P bass that I really need

Amps is a different question

[Jerry_B]

Peavey T-40 - does everything I could ever want from a bass, apart from make tea.

[Narcissism]

I found an Ibanez SR series bass with oval inlays, natural finish and Bartolini pickups. I normally dislike bartolini just because of the name on the pickup in giant letters, but I got over that with this bass... It sounded perfect no matter which amp I plugged it into and it played perfect. If I find a 5 string version of it, my next paycheck might disappear rather quickly!

[tom1946]

As Lojo says, P bass does it for me, I just love the depth and thud you get from a USA pickup. I also won't have anything without a Maple board apart from my John Rostill Burns but then that's a collectable anyway, it's too heavy to hold for long periods.

That said I took my trans orange USA Jazz out on a gig last night for a change, forgot how good that one is.

[JTUK]

I like Barts and coupled with a John East deluxe...that is a very good mix, IME

Jazz bass and SWR does indeed just work

[henry norton]

I played Fenders & Musicman since the mid 80s, most of the time using a Precision with an added J pickup and stainless rounds (usually Elites). I've recently discovered both short scales and flat wounds, so I've gone from thinking I had the perfect bass for me to hankering after a whole bunch of them. Now I need a long scale with rounds, one with flats and maybe a pair of fretless' to give me the choice of strings there too. Then I'll need the same but in short scale, oh, and I mustn't forget the double basses that I thought I could get on without but in reality I could do with a nice vintage carved European DB for arco and a good tough laminated for gigging and general pizz playing.

So, I've gone from being happy with one bass to 'needing' about 10, all in the space of a year.

[velvetkevorkian]

Elixir strings- at least five of them.

Bonus points for a super stable neck.

[alanbass1]

[quote name='lojo' post='845295' date='May 22 2010, 07:21 PM']i'll always chop and change just for the sake of it

But just playing pubs and clubs, there is nothing not found on a passive P bass that I really need

Amps is a different question [/quote]

Same here - my P Bass gets most outings although the Yamaha BB2024X I got recently is getting more and more action. But I love having lots of different basses and it's great to go out on occassion with something different.

[Narcissism]

Rotosound solos are pretty sweet

[hillbilly deluxe]

Rotosound strings
EMG Select Pickups.