My first bass teacher taught me that its a sin to even think about smacking your strings as hard as Geddy Lee. That rule got into my young head and kept me from truly achieving my sound for a long time. Now I smack away as much as I want
Got a session gig with a band that plays classic rock and pop, got asked how I manage to emulate all those different tones and sounds with just one bass? I just move my hand between the neck and bridge and alternate with fingers and pick. Guitarist with a pedalboard the size of a small town is amazed! 😂
One KEY thing is to have your bass set up properly. Frets, neck relief, action and pick-up height can all DRAMATICALLY change your tone. Ask local players where the great techs are that can help you.
Having sold (awesome) bass cabs and advised on amps etc to thousands of bassists my top tips are: 1. Set all your EQ to zero (noon, flat, whatever) to start. 2. Don’t dial in your tone solo, only adjust in the context of the mix. 3. Adjust your tone with your plucking hand. 4. Then with pickup pan. 5. Then EQ. Make sure you listen to how the knobs change the sound IN THE MIX. Feel it, just play and let your hands speak! Ugly solo sounds are usually better in the mix than pretty solo sounds. Don’t be scared to dig in and make percussive noises, if they’re in the pocket it’ll groove!
I always struggle to do that (adjust the tone to the mix) in a live situation where you dont hear what the audience hears. I guess in-ear monitoring would be a solution but other than that, just leave it to the sound guy?
@@bluesmanshoes I would aim to get the sound right on-stage (or in the rehearsal room) and then let the engineer deal with the FOH sound (and individual monitor mixes). There’s a lot to be said for longer leads so you can move about and hear how things are sounding all around the stage - or in smaller venues out in the venue (as stage bleed will make up a big part of the FOH sound).
If you have a little ditto looper or similar you can always run it up front and it'll let you do a little hands free fiddling or you can go for a wander around the venue 🎉
My predecessor in my big band used a jazz, with round steels and always on the bridge pickup. He was a great player but the tone just didn’t fit. Can you imagine that tone with “Shake a Tail Feather” or “Think”? I went P bass, La Bella Flats, and a mindset of “what would Duck Dunn do?” Job done.
Really interesting point in Tip 3 about how you lose the low end and high end with old strings. I also do film sound design, and if you want to make an element feel more distant in a scene, one of the first things you do is set both a high and low pass on that track, because those frequency ranges are the ones that drop off more quickly to our ears with distance. So when you're playing with dead strings, what you're almost doing psychologically is pushing the bass into the background. Not always a bad thing (context!), but something to think about.
My number one tip would be to adjust and build your tone in the context of a mix. A tone that sounds incredible in your bedroom will, more often than not, sound wretched in the context of the whole band. Bass TH-camrs who play solo have done a lot of damage in this regard, because all of that high-end information above 6k is entirely unwanted in the mix but sounds cool and hifi in a TH-cam video.
It's amazing when you hear some classic bass/guitar stems and they sound just horrible on their own, like you'd get laughed off YT for sounding like that but it totally works in the mix!
You can also change your tone in the middle of a song. If there’s a bass solo in a song I’m recording I’ll kick on my boost pedal to make my bass louder and have a bit more treble so you can hear the solo better. Or if there’s a guitar solo, since I do power trio stuff with no rhythm guitar, I kick on my boost and play chords and open strings to fill out the space. So it’s a good idea to change the tone for what the songs needs.
Absolutely love you guys, especially together. There’s an undeniable magic there. I’d love to hear more of a tone exploration for various basses, too…MUST include your Wal, Scott!
*TO ALL OF THE STINGRAY USERS OUT THERE:* Stop turning the treble all the way up every way/chance you can! Please, it's too much! I love the snappiness of stingrays, but it just isn't appropriate for everything under the sun!
Ive been playing bass for about 13 years now, and i wouldnt say im strong in theory or sight reading or playing new stuff on demand, but i discovered that my control over my tone is a lot better, than i give it credit for and its very interesting that that is what improved the most over those 13 years
One thing frequently glossed over that has a huge effect on tone: not just pick technique (where, how hard, plucking versus dragging through a string), but the type of pick. Different gauges can radically alter your tone from bright and springy to round and mellow. It's a small thing that can make your bass sound very, very different.
When I first started, I wanted a very bright in-your-face tone and always had a lot of treble in my EQ and played away from the neck. I also used to change my strings like crazy. As I got older, I started leaning towards a more warmer, subtle tone with less treble. I also stopped changing my strings that often. My bass tone is still noticeable in a mix, especially if I pause and drop out during a passage, but it's far from being aggressive. So for me, it's about what works for you at a certain point in your life.
So true. Tone is all about what kind of band someone is in, and that flows directly into what kind of music they're playing. Someone in a cover band playing bar gigs would probably need more versatile tone options than someone in a band playing originals in a particular genre of music.
Something that can also be missed easily is making sure you have a good battery in for active basses, a bad or low power battery can really muck up your tone!
Yes, all 100%. An unanswered question for me is: What about the tone of the speakers? Which speakers do you use on stage, what confiiguration, which microphones (or DI from the amp)?
I think one thing that's super important - and which you cover well here with Geddy - is everything plays a factor in your tone and sound, but nothing more than how *you* play the instrument. I've played a bunch of Fenders/Gibsons/various active basses, but my main workhorse for years has been a Rickenbacker 4003 & the amount of snobbery and eyerolling it gets from fellow bassists in terms of playability and sound is astounding, nearly always before they hear me play or in a set. It's only afterwards they normally ask what pedals/EQ I use to make it sound "like that" and then they get hugely confused when they find out I don't really use any beyond a touch of overdrive on my amp. Dialing in a tone and playing more hard/softly or altering your playing position between neck/pickups/bridge, pick/fingers/slap and palm muting is vital. Sure, you'll get vastly different sounds by punching in pedals or using different basses and strings, but you're missing out on a world of what the instrument can do if you do that before altering your approach to playing. You can really easily set an instrument up to have some crunch if you play it hard but equally sound full and rounded with your hands and palm (and that's before you get into adjusting your tone settings). It'll also give you the biggest range in your playing with a group.
I've been playing since '97 and have played in bands that focused on every style except hip-hop. A few years ago I gave up on "new" strings and just went with flat wounds. It just simplifies everything and pre-amp settings (and playing style) get me close enough so that I never have to worry about replacing strings until one actually breaks. I also do no recording. I do have black tape wounds on my five string fretless and they sound great!
The right tone is a tricky thing. I play in my school orchestra, and I struggle with the EQ. I either am too loud and kind of "twangy" or I'm bately audible and too "boomy". This video may have helped. Thanks guys
There are so many variables to getting a great bass 'tone' . The stage, the room, the sound person, the frequencies of the other instruments in the band the experience of the player to know the difference between sitting in your room tone and a tone that will work in a band context. Your mood, your strings , your bass---your rig. There still is no substitute for experience .
You two are amazing together and I am thankful for your humor and great content. I love playing my bass (not a pro and definitely not ‘good’ at it) but getting to figure out a song bit by bit is such a sense of accomplishment. Thank you both for the help along the way in your many tutorials and other videos.
my cheat is an EQ pedal. i can mimic the sounds of different pickups and strings; and the Boss one i use has a signal boost and cut which is awesome so i can increase my volume without bringing more cabs. (all my basses are active with D'Addario nickels.).
Just started to play in a band again, after 5 years of not playing and I really like it and getting better olso. There is a old samick PJ bass and Ampeg B110 and I got a great tone out it. Precision pick up on full with a bit of the Jazz pickup and tone. I do it just on feeling and I want to have a good mid and treble and enough Bass. I do not like muddy bass, you can not hear yourself and it is boring. Have to tune my own Yamaha BB 604 Bass but I really like the Samick Precision sound.
If a beginner/slightly advanced player is commited it's an unavoidable step. I've been playing for 2 years and owned many basses. 2 P Basses, loved them both but i only needed one. 3 Jazz Basses, never quite liked them so I sold them all.
Great video lads! Perhaps a video diving into reggae and dub bass would be good. It's a whole different kettle of fish to rock and jazz, and it would be interesting to see Scott and/or Ian's takes on that style of bass playing.
It's an interesting cultural difference to me, vis a vis the proliferation of Fender. Outside of metal bassists, Fender is pretty ubiquitous. Almost everyone has one. But in the metal bass community, they are really not common. There are a few players, and a couple of really high profile ones like Steve Harris. But for the most part, the metal guys I know who even have a Fender at all use it as a backup, and it's usually a J. Much, much more common are Spector, Warwick, Dingwall, and Ibanez. Part of it is the look, of course, but the sound is a major component as well. They are a lot more versatile, I think. The couple of producers I know strongly prefer when someone brings an active 5 string of a more modern design in for a metal session, because "you can do just about anything with them."
regarding EQ: I use an '82 passive Jazz with a maple neck and the 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). It's a bit brighter and has better sustain than my 1965 Jazz had. I use LaBella White Tape Wound strings on it (brighter than the black tapes). I run DNA (David Nordschow Amplification) and Eden amps. Both have great clarity and articulation. That's not surprising because David founded both companies. With my Eden gear, which has semi-parametric EQ's besides the standard bass and treble shelving EQ's, I set everything up at noon and then bump the low mids up to about 1:30 anywhere between 250Hz (my preferred setting) and 500Hz. Sometimes I will cut the treble down to 11 o'clock, but usually leave it flat. The DNA-800 amp I use has the bass EQ set to 35Hz and I found I need to bump it up to about 1 o'clock to get the same sound I get out of my Eden amps with the Bass EQ (30Hz) set flat. The low mids on the DNA are set at 500Hz and I boost those usually to 1:30. I also have an Eden WTDI, which is a stompbox DI with a built-in Eden WT preamp. The mids will toggle between 500Hz and 2KHz. I always run it at 500Hz and it has the BEST sound when recording at a professional recording studio. Had a recording session in Seattle where I had to use my WTDI to avoid the too much crosstalk when having the drums in the same room. The raw recordings came out so good without them touching EQ or Compression that both the owner of the studio and his sound engineer came out to see what the heck I was using. I was surprised that you didn't mention plucking hand placement besides directly over the pickups. Really need to remove the cover from over the neck pickup, but you can get all kinds of nuances in your tone in the fly just by moving your hand a little towards the neck for a darker sound or towards the bridge pickup for a brighter sound. It's not an either/or it's an anywhere in between or beyond the pickups.
Hey guys love the channel do you think you guys could do another episode on this. I mostly play guitar and picked up the bass recently and loving it more actually. I’ve found the key secret to the guitar tone which is the speaker and microphone placement which really changes the tone of the guitar. Do you think you guys could make a episode like that for bass it would cool to see.
In my type of music I boost the mids and treble a bit and some bass for taste. Also use a sans amp for a bit more out of the amp. For all the svt users out there a pro tip is put the master volume all the way up and use the gain knob as a volume. It brings it to life. You can make a svt classic sound like a svt vr. I own a vr and tried this with a cl and they do sound exactly the same.
@@IanMartinAllison wow love it! My dad gave me his 1973 sunburst jazz original a few years back. It’s the bass I learned to play on back in the early 90s
I confess I haven't watched in a while, but I wish you guys talked about PJ pickups. I still have to struggle with odd, over-the-shoulder looks, but the love of my life is my Squier Affinity P-Bass with PJ's. Playing covers, it gives me the chance to approach the tone I NEED, depending on the song.
I'm facing a completely new musical direction at this point of my life: the new band I'm playing with has a really particular sound, and that helped me to shape my tone over than what I was used to think about. I've discovered a new side of myself and I found the peace of senses with dual humbucker 5 strings active basses, especially the neck-thru ones. That's the tone I'm playing with right now, and that's something I never ever tried before so seriously (in the past I used to dislike that pickup configuration, and my mind always suggested me something like "C'mon, it's just for Metal"). I love to play all kind of basses, my favourite are always the lovely passive single-pickup beasts like P-Bass and the Sting Ray, but it has been funny to see, after years and years of playing, how the sound that really fits my playing needs was something that goes over the bass tones that I usually liked until just a few months ago. It's like discovering a new part of the World, your mind.
WHAT ABOUT A VIDEO TO HELP US DETERMINE IF I HAVE A GREAT TONE COMING OUT OF MY SPEAKERS FROM THE START? I’ve TH-camd this to the end of “How to spectrum analysis the EQ for a bass guitar EQ” to find out my eq situation?” Great video btw.
I like the 70s J bass sound.Marcus Miller, Active, fresh roundwounds Sire V7 vintage. I totally got it. But I get more compliments when I bring my active Moon JB5 w Bart pre and Nordies in the 60s position. That's annoying, LOL I like the fingerstyle sound of the Moon even though it is pretty bright and I don't like the 60s voicing for slapping. Paul Turner who prefers the 60s style says his strings are old and dead. Is that better string choice for a 60s J bass? How about Half rounds? Maybe I'm just using the wrong strings on the Moon Bass
How do you know what is CW and CCW for the planets spin. Is that looking down or looking up, and how do you know which is the bottom and top of the universe? Hmmm, I'll just stick to playing bass, that's too much to ponder.
I generally don't have an issue with getting the tone that I want no matter what amp I'm using, except when I have to play through some of those green Trace Elliot amps that were popular in the 90s and 00s. I don't know what it is with these things, but they always sound either too honky or too boomy to my ears, no matter how I set it up.
They taught me to scoop the mids when I started when I discovered that mids are bass heaven I actually sometimes boost mids depending on the tone of the amp...
It depends on what you’re doing. In rock and Metal, in order to avoid guitars, bassists will often scoop the mids to keep the sound from competing but rather work around the guitars
You probably won't see this comment because it was a long time ago.. but on this channel I've heard both Scott and Ian use the word and on occasion wonder about the pronunciation of it. Piezo. I'm old and as a teen spent lot of time messing around with speakers and acoustic audio and learned the word is produced "Pee-Ay-Zoe". Just figured I'd see if I could give back a tiny bit of what you've taught me.
Hey dudes, I’ve got a ‘71 Jazz with thomastik flats and will be playing a big gig tomorrow afternoon: four one hour plus sets, 🤣. I know myself (😄), my bass and my amp and.... my bandmates..., 😆. It’ll work. 😉
With EQ I always get a better tone with the low-mid rolled off (nine o’clock or less), or the drivers have a ‘cardboard boxy’ sound. Hi-mids I always use a bit cut or boosted depending on flavour, ie: its the useful mid. (My only bass where the low-mids do add quality tone is a ‘74 Ric4001). Any tips on this??
Hey, my name is Dean really enjoy your videos and would like to know if you have any suggestions where I can purchase a base like the one you having some of your videos. The VF4-PJ.
I have six different basis they all sound different ones of fretless 12 jazz bass one is a p bass what is a 5-string and one is a p jazz bass I'm glad you guys did this and they all evoke a different style of playing from me😅
Bass sound is mostly in the fingers, those guys could make a broom stick in a bucket with bailer twine sound good. I used to struggle till I got an EDEN 800 and a US Jazz. It always sounds good.
@@glibivashchenko6483 same, same.. I did research but could not find it. Also thought there was already a video by Ian about PAUL Turner's best basslines OF ALL TIME , but I couldn't find it either. Maybe it's about time? :-)
Going thru it now! Just played a gig in a pub didn’t make any mistakes but one (that’s good for me😂)thought it sounded fine….someone just sent me the recordings from a phone…omg awful, it’s just the sound… (I hope😂😂)
On a Jazz my favourite tone is bridge on full, neck on 50-70%. It doesn't scoop the mids but has more depth than Bridge soloed. I think it's what Tim Commerford did on Evil Empire.
Lol, I do pretty much the opposite. Neck on full and bridge at 50-75%, tone to taste. I'll bump up the bridge if I want more clarity or to achieve more of a cut-thru treble tone.
I have owned many bass amps over 40 years of playing.That "flat thing " has never made sense to me. Each Amp I had sounded completely different when set flat. My Eden Amps were dark, My EBS amps sounded brighter. My Mark Bass amps somewhere in between My old Ampeg V4B completely different. I had a bi amp rack system with a Trace Elliot pre and a massive QSC stereo poweramp back in the 90s. What a hassle that was to drag around!....all of them sounded different when set flat. I do agree that extreme EQ curves don't work that well but just setting any amp flat does not give you the best possible results even with a great full range cab.
Good point. Although. I have found in my limited time on bass, and more so with may years of playing and gigging guitar, that a mostly flat amp eq and using my guitar/bass tone controls and pickup selection gives me the best and most predictable sound. I might do a bit of fine tuning tone with my amp eq, but 90% of it is pickup balance and guitar tone knob(s) adjustment.
My first bass teacher taught me that its a sin to even think about smacking your strings as hard as Geddy Lee. That rule got into my young head and kept me from truly achieving my sound for a long time. Now I smack away as much as I want
I always heard a lot of stuff about how you shouldn’t play with a pick. But I don’t listen to that, I play how I want.
Got a session gig with a band that plays classic rock and pop, got asked how I manage to emulate all those different tones and sounds with just one bass? I just move my hand between the neck and bridge and alternate with fingers and pick. Guitarist with a pedalboard the size of a small town is amazed! 😂
I can't be the only one who LOVED flatwond-P slap tone, can I?
I loved it too!
You most definitely are not!
Me too!!
One KEY thing is to have your bass set up properly. Frets, neck relief, action and pick-up height can all DRAMATICALLY change your tone. Ask local players where the great techs are that can help you.
Good shout
Having sold (awesome) bass cabs and advised on amps etc to thousands of bassists my top tips are: 1. Set all your EQ to zero (noon, flat, whatever) to start. 2. Don’t dial in your tone solo, only adjust in the context of the mix. 3. Adjust your tone with your plucking hand. 4. Then with pickup pan. 5. Then EQ. Make sure you listen to how the knobs change the sound IN THE MIX. Feel it, just play and let your hands speak! Ugly solo sounds are usually better in the mix than pretty solo sounds. Don’t be scared to dig in and make percussive noises, if they’re in the pocket it’ll groove!
I always struggle to do that (adjust the tone to the mix) in a live situation where you dont hear what the audience hears. I guess in-ear monitoring would be a solution but other than that, just leave it to the sound guy?
@@bluesmanshoes I would aim to get the sound right on-stage (or in the rehearsal room) and then let the engineer deal with the FOH sound (and individual monitor mixes). There’s a lot to be said for longer leads so you can move about and hear how things are sounding all around the stage - or in smaller venues out in the venue (as stage bleed will make up a big part of the FOH sound).
If you have a little ditto looper or similar you can always run it up front and it'll let you do a little hands free fiddling or you can go for a wander around the venue 🎉
Thanks, Alex. I really enjoy playing through your cabinets.
Great point about good mix tones sounding ugly alone
My predecessor in my big band used a jazz, with round steels and always on the bridge pickup. He was a great player but the tone just didn’t fit. Can you imagine that tone with “Shake a Tail Feather” or “Think”?
I went P bass, La Bella Flats, and a mindset of “what would Duck Dunn do?”
Job done.
Really interesting point in Tip 3 about how you lose the low end and high end with old strings. I also do film sound design, and if you want to make an element feel more distant in a scene, one of the first things you do is set both a high and low pass on that track, because those frequency ranges are the ones that drop off more quickly to our ears with distance. So when you're playing with dead strings, what you're almost doing psychologically is pushing the bass into the background. Not always a bad thing (context!), but something to think about.
I'm a new bass player and I just wanna say I'm so glad I found this channel. I've been watching all your videos. So helpful!
My number one tip would be to adjust and build your tone in the context of a mix. A tone that sounds incredible in your bedroom will, more often than not, sound wretched in the context of the whole band. Bass TH-camrs who play solo have done a lot of damage in this regard, because all of that high-end information above 6k is entirely unwanted in the mix but sounds cool and hifi in a TH-cam video.
It's amazing when you hear some classic bass/guitar stems and they sound just horrible on their own, like you'd get laughed off YT for sounding like that but it totally works in the mix!
💯
You can also change your tone in the middle of a song. If there’s a bass solo in a song I’m recording I’ll kick on my boost pedal to make my bass louder and have a bit more treble so you can hear the solo better. Or if there’s a guitar solo, since I do power trio stuff with no rhythm guitar, I kick on my boost and play chords and open strings to fill out the space. So it’s a good idea to change the tone for what the songs needs.
Absolutely love you guys, especially together. There’s an undeniable magic there. I’d love to hear more of a tone exploration for various basses, too…MUST include your Wal, Scott!
*TO ALL OF THE STINGRAY USERS OUT THERE:* Stop turning the treble all the way up every way/chance you can! Please, it's too much! I love the snappiness of stingrays, but it just isn't appropriate for everything under the sun!
I have been playing a stingray for 20 years and I could not agree more. Especially the rays with the 3 band eqs. That treble knob has a ton of range
Owner of 12 Stingrays and you speak the truth! I almost always have the treble rolled off considerably.
I play too aggressive for any treble. Sound man’s nightmare😂😂😂
It is NEVER appropriate to turn up the treble on a StingRay.
But what’s the point of having a stingray if your not going to destroy the tweeter in the p.a.
Really dig the vibe between you two. Total pros.
Ive been playing bass for about 13 years now, and i wouldnt say im strong in theory or sight reading or playing new stuff on demand, but i discovered that my control over my tone is a lot better, than i give it credit for and its very interesting that that is what improved the most over those 13 years
One thing frequently glossed over that has a huge effect on tone: not just pick technique (where, how hard, plucking versus dragging through a string), but the type of pick. Different gauges can radically alter your tone from bright and springy to round and mellow. It's a small thing that can make your bass sound very, very different.
I never use thinner picks than 2mm for bass. With guitar thinner can be good.
When I first started, I wanted a very bright in-your-face tone and always had a lot of treble in my EQ and played away from the neck. I also used to change my strings like crazy. As I got older, I started leaning towards a more warmer, subtle tone with less treble. I also stopped changing my strings that often. My bass tone is still noticeable in a mix, especially if I pause and drop out during a passage, but it's far from being aggressive. So for me, it's about what works for you at a certain point in your life.
So true. Tone is all about what kind of band someone is in, and that flows directly into what kind of music they're playing. Someone in a cover band playing bar gigs would probably need more versatile tone options than someone in a band playing originals in a particular genre of music.
Oh definitely. If you're playing a cover, you really have to give an audience what they expected to hear, or at least something close to it.
Same story, I was obsessed with Flea in my youth.
Something that can also be missed easily is making sure you have a good battery in for active basses, a bad or low power battery can really muck up your tone!
So true dude!
Yes, all 100%. An unanswered question for me is: What about the tone of the speakers? Which speakers do you use on stage, what confiiguration, which microphones (or DI from the amp)?
Oh man,,,😊 YOU GUYS ARE SO GREAT TO WATCH TOGETHER,,thank you 🎸🤠
I think one thing that's super important - and which you cover well here with Geddy - is everything plays a factor in your tone and sound, but nothing more than how *you* play the instrument. I've played a bunch of Fenders/Gibsons/various active basses, but my main workhorse for years has been a Rickenbacker 4003 & the amount of snobbery and eyerolling it gets from fellow bassists in terms of playability and sound is astounding, nearly always before they hear me play or in a set. It's only afterwards they normally ask what pedals/EQ I use to make it sound "like that" and then they get hugely confused when they find out I don't really use any beyond a touch of overdrive on my amp.
Dialing in a tone and playing more hard/softly or altering your playing position between neck/pickups/bridge, pick/fingers/slap and palm muting is vital. Sure, you'll get vastly different sounds by punching in pedals or using different basses and strings, but you're missing out on a world of what the instrument can do if you do that before altering your approach to playing. You can really easily set an instrument up to have some crunch if you play it hard but equally sound full and rounded with your hands and palm (and that's before you get into adjusting your tone settings). It'll also give you the biggest range in your playing with a group.
I've been playing since '97 and have played in bands that focused on every style except hip-hop. A few years ago I gave up on "new" strings and just went with flat wounds. It just simplifies everything and pre-amp settings (and playing style) get me close enough so that I never have to worry about replacing strings until one actually breaks. I also do no recording. I do have black tape wounds on my five string fretless and they sound great!
That jazz bass sounds dreamy in any setting 😮
this kind of comparison is REALLY useful. please do more content like this! just love it
The right tone is a tricky thing. I play in my school orchestra, and I struggle with the EQ. I either am too loud and kind of "twangy" or I'm bately audible and too "boomy". This video may have helped. Thanks guys
There are so many variables to getting a great bass 'tone' . The stage, the room, the sound person, the frequencies of the other instruments in the band the experience of the player to know the difference between sitting in your room tone and a tone that will work in a band context. Your mood, your strings , your bass---your rig. There still is no substitute for experience .
You two are amazing together and I am thankful for your humor and great content. I love playing my bass (not a pro and definitely not ‘good’ at it) but getting to figure out a song bit by bit is such a sense of accomplishment. Thank you both for the help along the way in your many tutorials and other videos.
Yes Steve! Big up for supporting SBL!
my cheat is an EQ pedal. i can mimic the sounds of different pickups and strings; and the Boss one i use has a signal boost and cut which is awesome so i can increase my volume without bringing more cabs. (all my basses are active with D'Addario nickels.).
I love playing Longview on jazz + flats ❤
Just started to play in a band again, after 5 years of not playing and I really like it and getting better olso.
There is a old samick PJ bass and Ampeg B110 and I got a great tone out it. Precision pick up on full with a bit of the Jazz pickup and tone. I do it just on feeling and I want to have a good mid and treble and enough Bass. I do not like muddy bass, you can not hear yourself and it is boring.
Have to tune my own Yamaha BB 604 Bass but I really like the Samick Precision sound.
Wow! So cool to have these two heavy weights in the same video!
1. Buy a Squier P
2. Buy a Squier J
3. Buy a Sterling Sub
4. Buy an Ibanez SR300
5. Play until you see what's best for you
Or Just Go to a damn Music Store instead of buying random Instruments
@@aaaaa111aaaaa You didn't get it lol 😂
Just get one good bass and write to the style that bass excels at. All those 2nd rate guitars is pointless.
@@ushnicyuvnikof2748 The only thing second rate about those basses is electronics
If a beginner/slightly advanced player is commited it's an unavoidable step. I've been playing for 2 years and owned many basses. 2 P Basses, loved them both but i only needed one. 3 Jazz Basses, never quite liked them so I sold them all.
Great video lads! Perhaps a video diving into reggae and dub bass would be good. It's a whole different kettle of fish to rock and jazz, and it would be interesting to see Scott and/or Ian's takes on that style of bass playing.
Thanks for the suggestion dude! Will fire this over to our content team!
It's an interesting cultural difference to me, vis a vis the proliferation of Fender. Outside of metal bassists, Fender is pretty ubiquitous. Almost everyone has one. But in the metal bass community, they are really not common. There are a few players, and a couple of really high profile ones like Steve Harris. But for the most part, the metal guys I know who even have a Fender at all use it as a backup, and it's usually a J. Much, much more common are Spector, Warwick, Dingwall, and Ibanez. Part of it is the look, of course, but the sound is a major component as well. They are a lot more versatile, I think. The couple of producers I know strongly prefer when someone brings an active 5 string of a more modern design in for a metal session, because "you can do just about anything with them."
The bass tone on Cryptopsy's album "none so vile" is one of the sickest tones I've ever heard.
Awesome video,James Jamerson,Steve Harris,Precision’s with flats,both play with fingers,COMPLETELY different sound.
PRO tips? This is how the pickups work... :D Thanks guys...
That outro was the most relatable think I’ve seen in a while.
regarding EQ: I use an '82 passive Jazz with a maple neck and the 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). It's a bit brighter and has better sustain than my 1965 Jazz had. I use LaBella White Tape Wound strings on it (brighter than the black tapes). I run DNA (David Nordschow Amplification) and Eden amps. Both have great clarity and articulation. That's not surprising because David founded both companies.
With my Eden gear, which has semi-parametric EQ's besides the standard bass and treble shelving EQ's, I set everything up at noon and then bump the low mids up to about 1:30 anywhere between 250Hz (my preferred setting) and 500Hz. Sometimes I will cut the treble down to 11 o'clock, but usually leave it flat. The DNA-800 amp I use has the bass EQ set to 35Hz and I found I need to bump it up to about 1 o'clock to get the same sound I get out of my Eden amps with the Bass EQ (30Hz) set flat. The low mids on the DNA are set at 500Hz and I boost those usually to 1:30. I also have an Eden WTDI, which is a stompbox DI with a built-in Eden WT preamp. The mids will toggle between 500Hz and 2KHz. I always run it at 500Hz and it has the BEST sound when recording at a professional recording studio. Had a recording session in Seattle where I had to use my WTDI to avoid the too much crosstalk when having the drums in the same room. The raw recordings came out so good without them touching EQ or Compression that both the owner of the studio and his sound engineer came out to see what the heck I was using.
I was surprised that you didn't mention plucking hand placement besides directly over the pickups. Really need to remove the cover from over the neck pickup, but you can get all kinds of nuances in your tone in the fly just by moving your hand a little towards the neck for a darker sound or towards the bridge pickup for a brighter sound. It's not an either/or it's an anywhere in between or beyond the pickups.
I love these outros so much!! “Anti clockwise “ 😂😂 you guys are the best duo!!
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I just want to say that higher ground with the flat wounds and the deeper bassier tone sounds funky as shit and i love it
Thanks guys !
The bass grannies (at the outro) rock !
🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Hey Ian on that Tom Sawyer bridge riff the last note of the 6 notes is a B on the E string. 🙏
I’m getting a 5 string bass, I’ll make sure it has a nice tone. ✌️☺️
Awsome channel on bass, the best ever
Thanks for checking out the video dude! 🙌🏻
Hey guys love the channel do you think you guys could do another episode on this. I mostly play guitar and picked up the bass recently and loving it more actually. I’ve found the key secret to the guitar tone which is the speaker and microphone placement which really changes the tone of the guitar. Do you think you guys could make a episode like that for bass it would cool to see.
The Bass Face is REAL in this video! Great job guys!
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Super insightful video!
You guys are too funny, thnx for the tone clarification..👍🏾😎🙏🏽
In my type of music I boost the mids and treble a bit and some bass for taste. Also use a sans amp for a bit more out of the amp. For all the svt users out there a pro tip is put the master volume all the way up and use the gain knob as a volume. It brings it to life. You can make a svt classic sound like a svt vr. I own a vr and tried this with a cl and they do sound exactly the same.
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What, no mention of the PJ bass.
It is a Precision bass, with an added Jazz bass pickup
at the bridge for added versatility.
What's not to like?
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My God, that white Jazz Bass sounds like HEAVEN!!.. what year and model is it?
Cheers! It’s a 78
@@IanMartinAllison Thanks for the speedy reply.. excellent playing aswell!.. but is it an original, re-issue, or custom shop? I'd like to buy one !
It’s an original 1978.
@@IanMartinAllison wow love it! My dad gave me his 1973 sunburst jazz original a few years back. It’s the bass I learned to play on back in the early 90s
Also,, 70’s Jazz basses have the bridge pickup closer to the bridge,, so you get that bite.
I confess I haven't watched in a while, but I wish you guys talked about PJ pickups. I still have to struggle with odd, over-the-shoulder looks, but the love of my life is my Squier Affinity P-Bass with PJ's. Playing covers, it gives me the chance to approach the tone I NEED, depending on the song.
Awesome video!
Scott,what flats do you have on YOUR pass?
I loved the “music horse” you guys played. I’ll have to learn all those licks:)
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I am curious.... Do you guys recommend using a compression pedal... All the time? Or never? Or sometimes?
Y'all made this so informational and fun! The chemistry between y'all is infectious!
Great to hear! 🙌🏻🧡🔥
I'm facing a completely new musical direction at this point of my life: the new band I'm playing with has a really particular sound, and that helped me to shape my tone over than what I was used to think about. I've discovered a new side of myself and I found the peace of senses with dual humbucker 5 strings active basses, especially the neck-thru ones. That's the tone I'm playing with right now, and that's something I never ever tried before so seriously (in the past I used to dislike that pickup configuration, and my mind always suggested me something like "C'mon, it's just for Metal").
I love to play all kind of basses, my favourite are always the lovely passive single-pickup beasts like P-Bass and the Sting Ray, but it has been funny to see, after years and years of playing, how the sound that really fits my playing needs was something that goes over the bass tones that I usually liked until just a few months ago. It's like discovering a new part of the World, your mind.
I love rock style bass. Growly 😊
Every damn slap lick Ian plays I try to learn lol it always sounds great.
WHAT ABOUT A VIDEO TO HELP US DETERMINE IF I HAVE A GREAT TONE COMING OUT OF MY SPEAKERS FROM THE START? I’ve TH-camd this to the end of “How to spectrum analysis the EQ for a bass guitar EQ” to find out my eq situation?” Great video btw.
Great video, but can’t believe you guys didn’t talked about scoop sound cutting mids and boosting bass/treble a tiny bit for the iconic slap sound 😮😮😮
I like the 70s J bass sound.Marcus Miller, Active, fresh roundwounds Sire V7 vintage. I totally got it. But I get more compliments when I bring my active Moon JB5 w Bart pre and Nordies in the 60s position. That's annoying, LOL I like the fingerstyle sound of the Moon even though it is pretty bright and I don't like the 60s voicing for slapping. Paul Turner who prefers the 60s style says his strings are old and dead. Is that better string choice for a 60s J bass? How about Half rounds? Maybe I'm just using the wrong strings on the Moon Bass
Thoughts on cab horns.
Unnecessary.
If it's a active bass everything flat at noon, passive bass give it a little smiley (little scoop of the mids and comfort boost to low and top end)
What song is the Paul Turner bassline Ian played on the pickup demostration?
Runaway by Jamiroquai
@@IanMartinAllison thanks! Now i remember 🤟🏼
I actually preferred the flats in every example...
Flats are rad
What is that charcoal/tortoise P bass Ian's playing? It's a beaut!
How do you know what is CW and CCW for the planets spin. Is that looking down or looking up, and how do you know which is the bottom and top of the universe? Hmmm, I'll just stick to playing bass, that's too much to ponder.
I generally don't have an issue with getting the tone that I want no matter what amp I'm using, except when I have to play through some of those green Trace Elliot amps that were popular in the 90s and 00s. I don't know what it is with these things, but they always sound either too honky or too boomy to my ears, no matter how I set it up.
They taught me to scoop the mids when I started when I discovered that mids are bass heaven I actually sometimes boost mids depending on the tone of the amp...
It depends on what you’re doing. In rock and Metal, in order to avoid guitars, bassists will often scoop the mids to keep the sound from competing but rather work around the guitars
Let's go bass!
You probably won't see this comment because it was a long time ago.. but on this channel I've heard both Scott and Ian use the word and on occasion wonder about the pronunciation of it. Piezo. I'm old and as a teen spent lot of time messing around with speakers and acoustic audio and learned the word is produced "Pee-Ay-Zoe". Just figured I'd see if I could give back a tiny bit of what you've taught me.
@ 7:20
Awesome Quadruple Thumbumpn' Homies
👍👍👍👍
Came for the bass talk camaraderie…stay for the movies at the end every time. 😂
Hey dudes,
I’ve got a ‘71 Jazz with thomastik flats and will be playing a big gig tomorrow afternoon: four one hour plus sets, 🤣.
I know myself (😄), my bass and my amp and.... my bandmates..., 😆.
It’ll work. 😉
Holy shit....it does spin anticlockwise!😮
Point of contact, kind of contact,articulation… the flavor is in the fingers!
You guys are awesome
Fantastic!!!!!!!
If you have an EQ pedal, is it all knobs at noon too?
is there any more bass player interviews lined up ? The Guy Pratt one was amazing.
We're trying to make some more happen dude! Keep locked in, should have something else for you soon! 🙌🏻
all at 12 o'clock.....mind blown :) thx!
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With EQ I always get a better tone with the low-mid rolled off (nine o’clock or less), or the drivers have a ‘cardboard boxy’ sound. Hi-mids I always use a bit cut or boosted depending on flavour, ie: its the useful mid. (My only bass where the low-mids do add quality tone is a ‘74 Ric4001). Any tips on this??
Hey, my name is Dean really enjoy your videos and would like to know if you have any suggestions where I can purchase a base like the one you having some of your videos.
The VF4-PJ.
Can you do videos about working hearing and transposing ?
Thats why i changed everything about ny bass just do what lemmy did its way better than sounding like everybody else
I have six different basis they all sound different ones of fretless 12 jazz bass one is a p bass what is a 5-string and one is a p jazz bass I'm glad you guys did this and they all evoke a different style of playing from me😅
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Ian: do you have pics of your DNA rig from 2005ish? Or remember the setup? Attempting to dial up something similar in the Helix.
Bass sound is mostly in the fingers, those guys could make a broom stick in a bucket with bailer twine sound good. I used to struggle till I got an EDEN 800 and a US Jazz. It always sounds good.
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Which Black Nylon Tapewounds is Ian playing on that p bass?
D’Addario I believe
what is that jamiroquai (Peter Turner) tune Ian is playing?
Runaway! (Paul Turner)
@@IanMartinAllison THANKS!!
OMG thank you so much for asking this! I could not remember the name of the song off te top of my head and it was killing me!
@@IanMartinAllison thanks Ian :)
@@glibivashchenko6483 same, same.. I did research but could not find it. Also thought there was already a video by Ian about PAUL Turner's best basslines OF ALL TIME , but I couldn't find it either. Maybe it's about time? :-)
Going thru it now! Just played a gig in a pub didn’t make any mistakes but one (that’s good for me😂)thought it sounded fine….someone just sent me the recordings from a phone…omg awful, it’s just the sound… (I hope😂😂)
The Jazz all day!!
How can you get a jazz bass sound on a P bass?
Great video, gents! Finding the right amp tone has always been a hassle for me. Gotta always remember to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
There's a tone control on my bass. It goes from treble to bass. I turn it to "bass" because it's a BASS.
Never had any complaints from bandmates.
I guess it spins in perception of a fixed point in space. We loose earthbound point of reference if we were in space looking at it , to see which way
On a Jazz my favourite tone is bridge on full, neck on 50-70%. It doesn't scoop the mids but has more depth than Bridge soloed.
I think it's what Tim Commerford did on Evil Empire.
Lol, I do pretty much the opposite. Neck on full and bridge at 50-75%, tone to taste. I'll bump up the bridge if I want more clarity or to achieve more of a cut-thru treble tone.
Hi Scott !
what flats strings do you use on your Pb bass, please ?
Scott uses D'addario chrome flats on the P bass!
@@devinebass thanks !
I have owned many bass amps over 40 years of playing.That "flat thing " has never made sense to me. Each Amp I had sounded completely different when set flat. My Eden Amps were dark, My EBS amps sounded brighter. My Mark Bass amps somewhere in between My old Ampeg V4B completely different. I had a bi amp rack system with a Trace Elliot pre and a massive QSC stereo poweramp back in the 90s. What a hassle that was to drag around!....all of them sounded different when set flat.
I do agree that extreme EQ curves don't work that well but just setting any amp flat does not give you the best possible results even with a great full range cab.
Good point. Although. I have found in my limited time on bass, and more so with may years of playing and gigging guitar, that a mostly flat amp eq and using my guitar/bass tone controls and pickup selection gives me the best and most predictable sound. I might do a bit of fine tuning tone with my amp eq, but 90% of it is pickup balance and guitar tone knob(s) adjustment.