- Mar 19, 2013
- 1,612
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- If only I were that good....
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Add Warmth
- Thread starter Titanium
- Start date
Yup; I even tried turning my Korean Spector all passive, with Lace Alumitones. Still just got boom and sizzle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You might want to try putting a Sushi Box FX Space Heater in the Mesa's effects loop.
Space Heater – Sushi Box FX
Space Heater – Sushi Box FX
This is true, though engineers back in the day worked really hard to *avoid* the kind of tape clipping we now try to emulate with so many plugins and pedals. The gear imparted color whether it was clipping or not, and that makes up a large part of what we think of as warmth, but at the time compression was used to limit peaks and prevent the kind of auditory imperfections that we now value as "authentic".
That amp had too many knobs on it for 'me' to figure how to get warmth. At the time I went back to the D800+.
I always find two-humbucker basses to sound pretty sterile right out of the jack, which is why I tend toward single-H or dual single coil basses. From there though, I find that chopping out some tweeter frequencies helps, either via a low-pass filter pedal or just by turning down the tweeter volume control. Using more neck pickup may help also. Also nickel-wound strings tend to sound warmer than stainless steel, so try that as well.
There are a lot of good suggestions here, and I hope they end up working for you. My experience with my Ibanez SR800 has been the same, and I've struggled to learn to love it even though ergonomically it's the most comfortable instrument I own. It just doesn't make the sound I expect to hear when I play. I am slowly coming around to the idea that I just need to lean into the sound that the bass makes, and let it be snappy, bright and cold. I'm currently using a set of Pressurewounds on it, because I love the way they sound on my Yamaha, but when it's time to replace them I'll probably go for some stainless steel rounds. Sometimes you just have to work with what the bass gives you and not try making it into something it isn't.
OP - your bass is a multi scale 34 - 35.5"? The longer scale will tend to add clarity which is the opposite of warmth.
Do you run both PUs or just one? How do you set the on-board EQ?
For warmth, run just the neck PU. You want the full midrange from the instrument and adding in the bridge PU will cause loss of some mids. Roll off the highs to kill the clarity. Cut some lows to eliminate some boom and mud. Leave mids flat or maybe boost a bit around 200 Hz.
The other component is sustain. With the longer scale of your axe, you may benefit from a bit of muting of the strings to reduce the sustain, esp of the higher harmonics.
Do you run both PUs or just one? How do you set the on-board EQ?
For warmth, run just the neck PU. You want the full midrange from the instrument and adding in the bridge PU will cause loss of some mids. Roll off the highs to kill the clarity. Cut some lows to eliminate some boom and mud. Leave mids flat or maybe boost a bit around 200 Hz.
The other component is sustain. With the longer scale of your axe, you may benefit from a bit of muting of the strings to reduce the sustain, esp of the higher harmonics.
Another vote for nickel strings. DR Pure Blues added a big spoonful of mids back to my sound, but I still have the snap and growl I want. Steel strings just amp up the scoop even more and things get way too thin IMO.
Someone else mentioned the on-board preamp just might not be right and I can 100% see that. I recently got the Tr-Logic II from EWS, which is a 3-band preamp pedal, and I like it more than the EQ on my amp. Sometimes the frequencies in the EQ you're using just isn't the sound in your mind.
Someone else mentioned the on-board preamp just might not be right and I can 100% see that. I recently got the Tr-Logic II from EWS, which is a 3-band preamp pedal, and I like it more than the EQ on my amp. Sometimes the frequencies in the EQ you're using just isn't the sound in your mind.
Try a P-bass with LaBella DTF 760FL strings .. a whole new world will be revealed to you and you’ll never turn back, you’ll see the light my friend .. AMEN
GHS Balanced Nickels or Pressurewound strings may get you closer to the sound you want without going all the way to flatwound town.
No.
I don’t have a P bass, and frankly I hate them and flats lol. Sorry.
Too bad .. that’s why you miss the real warmth ..
Check this setup in this tune I made just to see if it can inspire you somehow:
The line is always the same but the tune was conceived as a tune not as a bass sampler.
Tell me what you hear …
Note:
The bass has been recorded straight from an iRig 2 connected to an iPhone through the Ampeg SVT amp. emulator of GarageBand .. nothing really sophisticated.
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I'm the same. Never played a P bass or even a P + J bass that I loved. Love them for other people, like Paul Simonon of The Clash, but the sound never inspires me. Thankfully there's room for all kinds of sounds in the bass world.
Tweeters in bass cabs are among my least favorite ring-shaped objects
Between strings and pedals, there's been a lot of good suggestions made here so far. No need to buy a new bass as your starting point.