How do you like your sound?

[OutToPlayJazz]

As a classical player, I came to popular music and electric bass late in my teens. I got into bass with John Rhino Edwards from Quo, Mark King & a host of other eighties players who all had a bright & zingy sound.

Even though I love the Jamerson sound on record, I can never play with that sound myself. I can't get along with flatwound strings, as they make me feel as if I've lost the top end of my hearing, so I tend to play with very clean and bright roundwounds & always have some treble and bass boost, leaving the mids flat. (I'll sometimes flick my mid boost switch for a solo, but that's as far as it goes with me and mids.) I suppose I grew up with the scooped sound & I've gone on loving it.

All in all, I like to hear every frequency of my playing very clearly. Simple as that. It aids my playing & helps those around me pitch more easily. And obviously I don't play with guitarists very often, so I don't have that battle of getting my sound through the wall of utter noise our six stringed friends tend to produce.

So what sound do you prefer? Do you leave your amp & onboard preamp flat (presuming you're not playing a passive bass!), do you prefer flats or rounds? And where did your ideas on your sound and eq-ing originally come from?

Discuss at your leisure, ladies & gentlemen

[Musicman20]

I like everything from the thumpy P Bass with flats, to the growling J Bass/Stingray with rounds.

I used to like a lot of treble, but Ive grown to prefer the highs at more 'normal' levels now.

Im not one for the 80s high treble tones if im honest. A little zing is great, especially on a Jazz/Stingray, but too much just cuts through the mix far too much and blends with the guitar.

Thats all IMO.

[6stringbassist]

Yeah I hate flats too, I can never understand why people use them on jazz basses.

My sound is bright rounds, I like nickels so they're not too bright, but it really depends on the gig.
I'm doing a lot of gigs with a country band at the moment. My main bass is my US deluxe 5 string jazz. So I tend to have the tone control turned right off, and use both pickups on full, I leave the active preamp set flat. They do a mix of traditional and more modern country. For the more modern stuff I have more bridge pickup dialed in.

I played at a country music festival in north Yorkshire last night, and had compliments on my sound from the great engineer.

My jazz gigs I use a fretless jazz bass strung with Rotosounds for the 'Jaco' sound .

[Josh]

Smooth and warm as possible, treble is fully cut, I'll have maybe a little bit if I have some slap parts coming up but other than that even the slightest bit of treble ruins my tone. My Thumb is naturally warm and prominent in the lower mids so I have little need to muck around with my eq on either my bass or amp.

[Conan]

Am I allowed to go for "thick and zingy"?! Round-wound strings, plenty of mid-boost, very hard and aggressive finger-style....

Sounds like a right mess, doesn't it?!

[xilddx]

[quote name='Josh' post='852055' date='May 30 2010, 07:55 PM']Smooth and warm as possible, treble is fully cut, I'll have maybe a little bit if I have some slap parts coming up but other than that even the slightest bit of treble ruins my tone. My Thumb is naturally warm and prominent in the lower mids so I have little need to muck around with my eq on either my bass or amp.[/quote]
I'm with you on this, Josh. I like that sound the best, I usually have some big old dub bottom end on it too. Depends on the band though, I use more zingy tones with Kit quite often, suits the music better.

[wateroftyne]

There's usually too much going on in the upper mids from other instruments, and I'd just get in the way. So... Horn & passive tone knob treble rolled off, amp's treble flat or a slight boost, flats.

Fat and punchy... I don't need a lot of top end to hear what note I'm playing or the naunces of my playing.

[waynepunkdude]

It's taken me an age to get it but I like deep and clear with a little top end, I get exactly what I want with my SVT and Jazz.

[essexbasscat]

Hmmm, thought about this one a bit.

When at home, I imagine a certain sound for a given number. The ideal sound can vary between numbers, depending on style. However, on the day I like my sound to work in context to my situation. i.e.

- Two guitars. Add bottom end so the bass can be 'felt' more, as some guitarists tend to turn up their amps lower frequencies, which of course, can interfere with the bass' mids.

-Three peice. More mids, but not excessively so.

- More dance n' disco. Bottom end, but with some highs.

Perhaps the biggest influence is the sound of the instruments I'm playing with and the acoustics of the room.

Having said all that, if a new bass has materialised in my hands, my sound miraculously changes to reveal the best aspects of that bass.

Is this why I seem to keep on collecting basses ? If you have found your sound, do you stop buying other stuff ?

T

[Mog]

Bright and metallic, lots of low mids. I dont like to be in your face volume wise. Anywhere just under the guitar mix suits me just fine.

[Linus27]

Great thread Rich.

Like you, I grew up with 80's bass players and despite them being a big influence on me, tonally, they have never really played a part on my sound apart from always wanting to have that Precision tone that U2 and Inxs had in the mid 80's. I actually only achieved this tone once I got a 77 Precision about 10 years ago. Saying that, when it comes to EQ and tone, I like everything flat and if it sounds crap then I am screwed. Those 11 band Eq's that all amps had back in the day were a nightmare. Even 6 EQ's were a nightmare. So simple is best for me. I would go as far as saying that thanks to Old Horse Murphy, I actually have an amazing amp and cab. He got me into Aguilar cabs and I also bought his GB Shuttle 6 from him. Paired they are the best sounding rig I have had. He did all the work and thankfully I benifited from his experience.

As for my tone, I guess the best way to descibe it is balanced. Enough bottom end so its full but not boomy and enough top end for it to add clarity and have a bit of attack. I don't really do mids What this normally means is everything on the amp is flat. Then on my Jazz, both pickups are on full and the tone is dialled on full. A Precision is the same, everything is on full. If playing with a pick and its a bit too twangy, then I turn the tone down a bit to balance the bass and treble. The bottom line is, run everything flat and maybe with a bit of tone fiddling, get a nice even balanced sound and lets the natural sound of the bass come through rather than boost certain frequencies. My ideal amp would have an on/off button, 1 x input, 1 x mute, 1 x line in for tuner, 1 x volume and 1 x tone. Then a whole array of blue LED's. I love blue LED's

As for flats, yeah, not a big fane of them. I miss the top end. The sound is too bass heavy. I have just taken flats off my fretless and put rounds on and it sounds 1000 x better.

[Faithless]

I use rounds (Elixirs), and I prefer more like a 'thick and dulled' sound.. I mean, I use quite some mids, but kill treble.. Most of the time I'll leave amp flat, only make adjustments on my bass. Not to forget that, what makes most of my sound, is how I pick - and my touch is [i]very [/i]light.

In other words, I prefer that sound, which modern jazz bassists use today, first of all - Janek Gwizdala, then Hadrien Feraud, and other cats..

Edited May 30, 2010 by Faithless

[Adrenochrome]

I like a full range sound, so yes I prefer a reasonable amount of zing. I use worn-in nickel rounds with no tone cut and flatish EQ on my amp. For the sort of gigs I do, boosting the bass just adds mud/boominess to the FOH sound.

[Conan]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='852071' date='May 30 2010, 08:08 PM']I don't need a lot of top end to hear what note I'm playing or the naunces of my playing.[/quote]

Ooooh! Get you with ya fancy "nuances"!!

[velvetkevorkian]

[quote name='Faithless' post='852165' date='May 30 2010, 09:55 PM']I use rounds (Elixirs), and I prefer more like a 'thick and dulled' sound.. I mean, I use quite some mids, but kill treble.. Most of the time I'll leave amp flat, only make adjustments on my bass. Not to forget that, what makes most of my sound, is how I pick - and my touch is [i]very [/i]light.

In other words, I prefer that sound, which modern jazz bassists use today, first of all - Janek Gwizdala, then Hadrien Feraud, and other cats..[/quote]
This is pretty much the same for me. When using my 5 strings, which have passive tone and volume for each pickup, I'll roll the treble right off of one pickup (usually the neck) which gives a nice mix of the thumpy bass and the brightness and articulacy of the bridge pickup and Elixirs. "Growl" is the general term I would use but everyone seems to think Jaco's sound is "growly" and to me its anything but that, so who knows really...

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Conan' post='852182' date='May 30 2010, 10:21 PM']Ooooh! Get you with ya fancy "nuances"!! [/quote]
It's a good word... even better when it's spelled right.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='852187' date='May 30 2010, 10:26 PM']It's a good word... even better when it's spelled right. [/quote]


Burn

[Protium]

Low mids and loud.

[pantherairsoft]

I run roundwound Nickels on both fretted and fretless 6'ers. The combine the right combination of bright and zingy, while not being as harsh as the steel alternatives.

I tend to favor a brighter tone, ala my Fafner and GB combo, but tend to roll off a little brightness and replace with a little Bass and Low-Mid for my rock band.

With the funkier stuff I do on the side it's nice and bright.

And I always use a Gramma Pad to tighten the lows when you push the amp to high volume.

[nick]

I like the best of both worlds, depends who I'm playing with.

Always have my EQ fairly flat @ 12 o'clock. With one outfit I use flats strung P-Basses, tone rolled off a tad, with occaisional bit of compression.
However with another set-up, I go for a Quarter Pounder loaded Franken-Jazz bass, fresh roundwounds, through a load of effects & quite often playing with a pick.

Guess I've got the bass playing equivalent of dual personality disorder.

[Doddy]

I seem to naturally get a fairly bright sound when I play-even on pretty dead strings,but ideall
I try to get a full range tone with a slight mid boost to cut through. On a passive Jazz Bass I
always solo the bridge pickup,whereas on an active instrument I pan slightly towards the bridge
and boost the mids very slightly. The amp is nearly always flat.
Basically,'my' sound is a mixture of trying to sound like Jaco and Marcus and realising that I
couldn't. The slight mid boost came from hearing and reading about Will Lee. But really,no matter
what I play,I sound like me anyway.

[leonshelley01]

I tend to have the amps eq flat with a slight bottom end and upper mids boost, and the Jazz has both pickups and tone on full to get a "growly" rock tone that will cut through two guitars.

[witterth]

I'm Really with OTPJ on this.
one gig and strings are virtually "dead" to me .....boil and re-string lots here
it may be an "era" thing
(or just good taste)

[HMX]

Depends on the setting really. High mid boost with a bit of growl on my jazz bass - both pickups up full.

[tony_m]

Bearing in mind I'm only playing for my own enjoyment and not anybody else's (so far... ), I favour a bassy sound with a wee bit of bite, i.e. nowt too woolly or "hi-fi" if you know what I mean.

In my own private universe that means a passive Jazz (CIJ Fender, Squier CV or Squier VMJ) or a '51 Precision RI, all with flats, played fingerstyle through my newly-acquired Ashdown combo, with the EQ flat. If I want a bit more bite / clank, I open up the tone on the bass accordingly, otherwise it's completely off.

That said, I'm always fascinated to read what you experienced players have to say on the subject of tone and eq'ing, especially when it comes to playing in a live band situation. Please carry on educating me, it's much appreciated!