How do I try basses so that to exclude amp/cab influence on the sound?

[Oleg BassPlayer]

How do you usually try basses if you want to buy one? If you buy it in a store, it's pretty simple: just plug a few in the same amp. But what about used ones? People have very different gear. Some don't provide gear to plug in at all. It seems to me that the gear has so much influence on the sound that one needs to exclude it somehow from the comparison.

So how do you usually try basses? Do you bring your combo or a pod along? Or can you assess the sound on any gear?

 

[GIBrat51]

For me, it's very easy. I simply don't worry about the sound. All I'm concerned with at that point is:
- does it feel good on a strap, and in my hands?
- is it put together well enough for me to spend my money on it?
- do all the controls work like they should?
- does sound come out of the amp when it's plugged in?
Basically, all I'm doing is a function and quality check. I don't really care what it sounds like at that point. Why should I? It's got strings on it that are going in the trash as fast as I can pull them off (there's a lot of your sound right there). I've never bought an instrument in my life (and I currently have about 30 of them) that was set up like I want. And it's plugged into an amp that I don't own (and there's the rest of your sound). "How it sounds" is up to you, after you get it home...

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Ha, I guess if you get it home & realize the pickups stink, it's time to buy new pickups.


I take my own amp now. I went to check out a guitar yesterday & brought my own amp.
The pickups were hotter (than a similar model I have at home), but the tone wasn't great, so I left the guitar there in the pawn shop.

It depends on where I'm going though. The Rickenbacker dealer has a Rumble amp, so it basically sounds like my Rumble at home.

 

[GIBrat51]

Ha, I guess if you get it home & realize the pickups stink, it's time to buy new pickups.


I take my own amp now. I went to check out a guitar yesterday & brought my own amp.
The pickups were hotter (than a similar model I have at home), but the tone wasn't great, so I left the guitar there in the pawn shop.

It depends on where I'm going though. The Rickenbacker dealer has a Rumble amp, so it basically sounds like my Rumble at home.

I suppose it's possible, but I've never bought anything with pickups that "stank". Well, maybe my '94 Gretsch Broadkaster... but ceramic-magnet Filtertrons are just not real bass pick ups. Gretsch guitar players would kill for a set of them, though.. And the right strings pretty much take care of the problem, anyway. Besides, from the posts here on TB, stock pickups seem to get replaced before the factory strings do - so who cares if the pickups stink?

 

[Killed_by_Death]

In the two basses I have currently, I don't think "regular" pickups will fit in there, so it matters a great deal if they sucked: