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Questions that define your sound.

1. Active or passive ?

2. Strings , stainless, nickel, half round, flat wound or tape wound ?

3. How many strings? 4,5,6,7, or more ? (main bass)

4. Neck, fretted , fretless,?

5. Fret board, rosewood, maple, other ?

6. Pick ups, configuration and brand ?7

7.Amp , brand, speaker configuration, tweeter, tube, solid state.

8. style (most used ) fingers, pick, slap,

For me it would be;

1.Active 2. nickel 3.4 strings 4.fretted 5.maple 6.single humbucker (Stingray stock)

7.SWR 4x10 tweeter tube/solid 8. fingers

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wayne Pau on August 4, 2011 at 2:48am

Hm... my bass playing is fairly pedestrian. Unfortunately it's not my #1 right now. It goes back and forth between what I own and what I have at hand.

Right now, last I played, I had:

1.Passive

2. Nickel

3. 4 strings

4. Fretted

5. Rosewood (neck-thru)

6. Dual Humbucker (Stingray stock)

7. DI into FOH

8. Fingers

Although last year I had my buddy's bass and I was:

1. Active

2. Nickel

3. 5 strings

4. Fretted

5. Rosewood

6. Dual J's (Lace Sensors)

7. DI into FOH

8. Fingers

Permalink Reply by Toni on August 4, 2011 at 9:27pm

OK, I'll play.

1. Passive

2. Stainless, Round on the J type, flat wound on the P

3. 4

4. Fretted

5. Rosewood on the J, maple on the P

6. Fender Geddy Lees in the J, Seymour Duncan SPB2 and GFS lipstick tube (yes, a guitar pickup) on the P. The SPB2 sounds fantastic solo, but much less good in a band context.

7. Hartke 3500 + Carlsbro 1X15 cab, Laney DP150 4X10 combo (I leave it at the church)

8. Fingers, occasional slap.

Permalink Reply by Bull on August 5, 2011 at 1:37am

1. Active

2. Nickel usually, stainless as a back up - round wound always (RotoSound 66)

3. 5 strings

4. Fretted, (but want to get fretless eventually)

5. Wenge fret board

6. J-style Warwick MEC active/passive (selectable).

7. Ashdown hybrid (tube/solid state), 1x12" Avatar cab

8. Finger style

Permalink Reply by Ben Aguilar on August 5, 2011 at 2:43am

hmm intristing question, I like it!

1.Active 5.Maple?

2. Nickel 6. Configuration

3. 4 7. Gallien Kruger Goldline 4/10 cab with the Gallien 700rb head

4.Fretted 8. during worship, ill rotate though out the worship set XP

Permalink Reply by Jon Wolske on August 9, 2011 at 5:09am

1. Active - Even have a preamp from an active bass that I had my tech put into a box so I can run my passives through it.

2. Strings: Elixirs. On my Jazz Bass, the Fender Super Bass 7250's are it!

3. How many strings? 5 on my main basses, fretless is a 4 stringer

4. Fretted on most, have a fretless and an upright...

5. Fret board; Rosewood.

6. Pick ups, configuration and brand ?EMG HZ's (Soap Bars. 2 of them).

7.Amp: Yorkville BM200 - 200 watt single 15" combo. nice and clean. and LOUD!

8. style (most used ): Fingers.

Permalink Reply by Wulf Forrester-Barker on August 15, 2011 at 12:50pm

I can't play directly - I can't remember or don't know a lot of the answers.

At church, I have been playing either my Sei Flamboyant 6 (six string fretted headless bass with roundwound strings and Bartolini soapbar pickups, normally in passive mode and with an even blend of neck / bridge) or my Stagg Electric Upright (active piezo pickups and flatwound strings). Both route into a Line6 BassPod XT and I've got a default sound set for each bass (confusing all the stuff about amp choice) and the sound is then split via a DI box between a large amp near where I stand (15" speaker + horn, can't remember make and model) and the sound system.

Playing style will be whatever is required - mainly fingerstyle but I'll try all sorts of different things (chords and harmonics in particular).

What really defines my sound though is 25+ years of playing; give me a load of different equipment and I probably still won't sound very different, particularly if the rest of the group and the setting stays the same.

Wulf

Permalink Reply by Tony Ray James on August 15, 2011 at 11:03pm

I agree 100% with your statement 'Give me a load of equipment and I probably won't sound any different " ,I have been playing for 30 years and sometimes I go back and listen to tracks I played on years ago....and no matter bass or amp the fills ,runs, push and pulls are the same.

Permalink Reply by David D Waggoner on May 16, 2012 at 10:00pm

1 Passive

2 Stainless round (for now)

3 4

4 Frets

5 Rosewood

6 Single J style mid position by Carvin

7 450w Behringer bx4500h head, GK 2x10 cab

8 finger/slap combo

Permalink Reply by Toni on May 17, 2012 at 1:42pm

Things have moved on a little (a little) since my previous post.

Still playing stainless strings, but the favourite tone of from a P type fitted with a MM style pickup by the bridge, maple neck, light roundwound strings. The MM pickup is punchy, growly and funky, and if damping with the hand provides the kind of bass tine you hear on Stevie Wonder records like 'Superstition'. Sound good with compression and played with a pick instead of fingers too.

I've also been playing a Fretless Yamaha a bit, fitted with flatwounds. It's the complete opposite of the above, giving soft, silky fundamental tones for a very different sonic foundation.

Permalink Reply by CWC on May 17, 2012 at 6:47pm