Hi all. I’m searching for a new bass (something to replace my first one, a 1989 fender squier), and i’m having a hard time.
everything i look at has a jazzy blues sound to it. I want a really punchy bass sound that from what i know does not exist. Whether it be fender, gibson, or washburn (of course not washburn), i cant find anything. All the basses i find are just the hollow jazzy sound. I’m not saying its bad, but its not what i’m looking for.
so, anyone know what bass i should buy then? Anyone even know what i’m talking about?
fyi, i’m looking for a bass that just has a sound sorta if you were to make the bass say “punch”. A mid rangy sorta sounding bass. Idk, its really hard to describe.
oh also, when i do find something somewhat like i’m looking for, it has this ungodly twang to the tone which i cannot stand.
also, i might try and get a friend to build me a bass body if i cant find anything, then wire up my own pickups and such.
Anyways, pickups can only deliver so much (Usually not much anyways) so the real tone comes down to the amp you use and those settings. My best friend and bassist gets an amazing tone. For the most part its all in the amp and head he uses, and every now and then he’ll actually re-adjsut the knobs on the bass.
One of my favorite bassist to talk to is Alex Webster. Which between him and Jordan is where I get all my bass questions answered. Another place to check is a bass forum. Just dont say your tone doesnt exist in there cause I wouldnt be surprised if you get called a noob and they think your egotistical.
Well, ive sorta had no budget bass wise, since i used to be a guitarist for my previous band. Anyway, my amp is a Crate 120w 3 channel amp. It does alright. I use it cause i can get a somewhat chunky punchy tone out of it. plus its all around nice. Thing can blow your ears too. anyway, other than that i got a 1980 something peavey 30w bass amp. Its pretty ‘meh’ sound wise, even though its somehow louder than my 120w.
its barely anything. I’m not really that into modulation and stuff.
I’m thinking of maybe going with a fender precision, just cause its a standard for things. Well, either buy one of those or a Gibson Ripper/g3/grabber, because its a punk bass.
i might really try to build my own pickup though and see how it sounds.
Yeah, Musicman might be what you’re looking for. I would recommend taking a day or so for testing all possibilities in a local music store. Lakland also make some pretty good and versatile basses that are sort of a mixture of fender and musicman.
A lot of the sound comes from your way of playing, the kind of strings you use and the amp obviously. So if you’re just beginning on the bass maybe you should experiment with those parameters before spending some major amount of money on a bass you might not like anymore once you become more experienced.
thanks. I’m not that new to bass, more than just to equipment. rambled around a bass for a few years before learnign guitar, then about half a year after learning i got my uncles bass and started. That was like… 3 years ago maybe? maybe less?
no clue. Anyway, ive just now been thinking about getting better equipment.
thanks for all the tips guys though, it’ll really help. I’ll try and go into a local guitar shop and ask questions about every single bass they have.
I went to guitar center with my interface cause it broke, and me and two employees there went straight to one of their computers, hooked it up, tested, started grabbing down all their other interfaces and testing hardware and software, finding one that works, doing a free swap from the broken interface to my new one.
The best part (Besides being able to just switch about a thousands of dollars of equipment around freely) was when the two guys were ringing my new receipt up, I was asked if I wanted a warranty. Luckily I brought $30 with me, but first I asked if it would be a free thing, and they said no, and there was two plans, 12-month and 24-month warranty. I tell them I have $30 with me and he says that will get me the 12-month deal, and then they give me 10% off so I wouldnt have to deal with taxes. Once I got home and looked at the receipt it showed as 2-year warranty that cost $70, and I got it for $30.
So yeah, go local, they will help you find exactly what you want, and if you make friends with them (also helps to spends thousands of dollars there anyways to get a reputation hehe) and then youll be getting awesome deals, great service and a lot of personal time talking about the setup and joking around.
