BYacey
Well-known member
Actually I am quite happy with the bass. It is made from coco-bolo, body and neck, with EMG pickups, PJ series. It has great sustain. I was thinking of building another couple and trying some passive pickups.
DIY compressor for bass guitar
- Thread starter Smoke
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Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
A Fender bass, P or J, is really good starting point for getting a good rock bass sound. They're fairly affordable and even the newer, cheaper ones sound pretty good if they're set up well.
The Fender J bass has a honky clacky midrange naturally EQd into it that guarantees it will be heard in a mix, something that doesn't always work, but many times is just right for a rock song. I find the J bass sound to be very easy to mix.
A lot of the modern bass designs seem to sound nice and big by themselves but lack that interesting midrange of the traditional Fender bass. These are the ones that I have to work harder with, hunting for a midrange frequency to boost that will work on the small speakers. I tend to double source or reamp these kind of basses just to get something interesting happening on them--some distortion or funky speaker sound to mix in in the upper mids.
Every studio should have a Fender bass around. It gets you in the ballpark (for rock, anyway) automatically. Then once you run it through your good DI, amp, preamp, compressor, that's where the magic happens.
The Fender J bass has a honky clacky midrange naturally EQd into it that guarantees it will be heard in a mix, something that doesn't always work, but many times is just right for a rock song. I find the J bass sound to be very easy to mix.
A lot of the modern bass designs seem to sound nice and big by themselves but lack that interesting midrange of the traditional Fender bass. These are the ones that I have to work harder with, hunting for a midrange frequency to boost that will work on the small speakers. I tend to double source or reamp these kind of basses just to get something interesting happening on them--some distortion or funky speaker sound to mix in in the upper mids.
Every studio should have a Fender bass around. It gets you in the ballpark (for rock, anyway) automatically. Then once you run it through your good DI, amp, preamp, compressor, that's where the magic happens.
My bass is actually a DIY one too, including the finish on the body, i should post pics, green to black dragon burst i think they call them.
I've never really needed compression now that i think of it, however i want to progress with my gear.
I've never really needed compression now that i think of it, however i want to progress with my gear.
StephenGiles
Well-known member
But how do y'all play bass - I always think it looks funny to see a limp arm dangling over the front of a bass and strings being pulled by 2 fingers - nothing wrong with a plectrum in my book.
Stephen
Stephen
NewYorkDave
Well-known member
I think plucking with fingers sounds better for bass. Unfortunately for me, I never got the hang of that technique--it always sounds clangy and uneven when I do it--so I usually have to resort to my thumb or a plectrum and adjust my tone controls to take the edge off.
It's actually a technique I learned from a teacher who was a lute player, would you believe. I think it's the best way to get power, speed and a wide range of sounds without hurting yourself. If you worry too much about how you look and not enough about playing in a way that your body can sustain you could have a short career. But that's me, and I'll play with a pick if it's more right for the song. I second what ytrehalf said about Fenders and modern basses. I've had active basses but they never sounded good on tape so I've either gotten rid of them or torn out the preamps and made them passive. Another problem I've noticed with modern basses is that in order to accomodate two-octave fretboards builders move the pickups closer to the bridge. I think that puts the pickups under ugly-sounding nodes on the strings. I don't really know for sure, but I don't believe it's an accident that Leo Fender put the Jazz pickups where he did, and they were the right spots. Also, moving the pickups closer to the bridge raises the tension if you play with your fingers, particularly over the bridge pickup, and you can't hit as hard without risking hurting your right hand.
CJ
Well-known member
Remember that some of the early T4 modules did not have the cap at all.
Just a 1 or 2 meg resistor whose probable purpose was to hold the EL panel down!
A switch on the cap would be very easy. There are a few spare pins on the octal socket that could be brought out to a switch. Internally, these pins would connect on either side of the cap.
cj
Just a 1 or 2 meg resistor whose probable purpose was to hold the EL panel down!
A switch on the cap would be very easy. There are a few spare pins on the octal socket that could be brought out to a switch. Internally, these pins would connect on either side of the cap.
cj
A great Luthier that New York Dave and I had the pleasure of working with, Ed Monteleone, pointed this out to me a while back when he was helping me to build a Warmoth parts guitar.
It seems like the marketing benefit of a two octave fretboard beats out the sacrifice in tone that comes with that feature for many manufacturers and consumers.
Still, the traditional Gibson and Fender designs have something about them that just works right in many ways.
[quote author="ytrehalf"]Every studio should have a Fender bass around.[/quote]
amen to that. when nothing works for me, a P bass always seems to step right up and save the day.
Whenever I mix with a jazz bass, I always get into a war between lower tuned guitars and the midrange a J puts outs, I always have trouble keeping J basses sounding like basses if I add a bunch of distortion to them...
dave
amen to that. when nothing works for me, a P bass always seems to step right up and save the day.
Whenever I mix with a jazz bass, I always get into a war between lower tuned guitars and the midrange a J puts outs, I always have trouble keeping J basses sounding like basses if I add a bunch of distortion to them...
dave
i think a lot of the active stuff we're facing today comes from the slap-era were the notes had to be pushed out and heavy EQ'd for that "pleckploing" sound etc... :green:
Never had active basses sounding better then passives in my studio on roughly 400 projects... Don't know about on that stage though...
String gauges seem like another well worth investigating item when in search for the holy grail of basssounds, what do you usually use? And do you let the strings age or do you try to keep them as fresh as possible?
Just realised the topic and feel very sorry for going way off
Never had active basses sounding better then passives in my studio on roughly 400 projects... Don't know about on that stage though...
String gauges seem like another well worth investigating item when in search for the holy grail of basssounds, what do you usually use? And do you let the strings age or do you try to keep them as fresh as possible?
Just realised the topic and feel very sorry for going way off
StephenGiles
Well-known member
jtnintz - why do you need speed on bass? Now if you played in Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages, then perhaps I can understand it, but speed is for lead guitar surely!
Stephen
Stephen
[quote author="StephenGiles"]jtnintz - why do you need speed on bass? Now if you played in Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages, then perhaps I can understand it, but speed is for lead guitar surely!
Stephen[/quote]
You need whatever you need to play the song the way the producer wants the song played, whether you agree or not. If left to my own devices nobody would play more sparsely than me. The first lesson of studio recording is that you can't make the song into a vessel for what you want to play.
And surely Screaming Lord Sutch isn't playing all that fast these days.
:thumb: :thumb:
Stephen[/quote]
You need whatever you need to play the song the way the producer wants the song played, whether you agree or not. If left to my own devices nobody would play more sparsely than me. The first lesson of studio recording is that you can't make the song into a vessel for what you want to play.
And surely Screaming Lord Sutch isn't playing all that fast these days.
:thumb: :thumb:
NewYorkDave
Well-known member
[quote author="ytrehalf"]A great Luthier that New York Dave and I had the pleasure of working with, Ed Monteleone...[/quote]
Good ol' Ed, a real prince. RIP.
Does anyone still use flatwounds on bass? The bass player in my first band used flats on a shortscale Fender bass and I thought it was a good sound.
Good ol' Ed, a real prince. RIP.
Does anyone still use flatwounds on bass? The bass player in my first band used flats on a shortscale Fender bass and I thought it was a good sound.
StephenGiles
Well-known member
jrmintz - I forget that folks here play in proper studios and are directed by a "producer". I am just pontificating (as usual) about my likes and dislikes! Yes poor old Sutch, when I first saw him around 42 years ago, he had a bass player called Ricky Brown who played a 335 style bass and had the largest speaker cabinet I've ever seen. He played with his thumb - so you have to imagine - bass worn high, swinging from side to side or round and round, and playing fast. His guitarist in the shape of a skinny little Ritchie Blackmore doing exactly the same - and they wore leopard skins! Quite a spectacle back then.
Stephen
Stephen
peterc
Well-known member
The What compressor sounds great on bass, quite subtle. It has that typical "hollow" optical compression sound that I like.
Peter
Peter
StephenGiles
Well-known member
Hi PeterC - great to have somebody agree with me for a change! It's a magnificent compressor.
Stephen
Stephen
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