Keeping Basses Simple!

1Soapbar · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2002 7:52 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

I have been playing bass for 5 years and have owned a variety of equipment. I have played on Fenders, Ibanez, Rickenbacker, and many other high quality basses. I play punk music and I must say that I found that simple is better. My mother bought a Dean Playmate bass for my younger brother. I played on it and loved it. So I went out and bought one. It has a single soapbar pickup and for some reason it creates the tone I want. So I bought one threw an EMG pickup in it and I now have sold my other basses and use the fender bass as a back up. The simple bass was like a breath of fresh air and I will never go back to the other more complicated basses. If anyone else has similar stories or likes tell me about it!

PJ · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2002 10:18 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

Yup. I've palyed Fenders, Carvins, Ibanez, and even "higher end" basses like Alembics and Conklins. I just bought a new Fender American Deluxe P-Bass, and it gives me more tones than I can create. Plus I have a few knobs on my amp to worry about. Everything I need is right there.

Now I just play with my amp flat, volume cranked. All I do with the bass is turn down the treble a little.

I jam anything from punk to jazz, but play in a punk band mostly. Simplicity works best for us.

But give me any instrument and an amp with sweepable mids and I'll adjust my playing style to what's needed.

Or maybe it's the ten years (not much, in comparison to some) of experience that helps out with that.

[This message has been edited by PJ (edited January 24, 2002).]

supermau · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2002 8:29 am Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

simple is better. i have a Fender Amer. Deluxe P too and a solid state SVT 350 head. Just a few tone shaping knobs and I'm off. It's sweet.

GroovemetalUT · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2002 6:54 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

Sure simple is better but what are you gunna do when you trip acid and you get a crazy sound in your head that you want on your bass a P bass aint gunna do it fro you i can make any active "super bass" sound like a standard p you just have to find that versatile kinda bass

pereek · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 12:18 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

yea... look at mark hoppus's signature bass. Very simple. Well punk is a pretty simple genre. I am happy with my ibanez i can get big chunky punk sounds if i ever wanted to -lay punk,a nice hair metal kinda sound for my GnR tribute and a metal tone for my metal band
perfect

supermau · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2002 11:05 am Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

I stopped tripping on acid 10 years ago, and my P bass IS active - with a standard P style pickup and a Stingray style big ole' humbucker in the rear. It's about as versitile as a bass could be.

Josh · Tadpole Joined: 27 Sep 2002 Posts: 24

I've got emg;'s on my warwick with a btc system and I can do anything I want. I hate everything about fenders. The new ones have wood inside the tuning pegs.

supermau · Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2002 8:20 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

Warwicks are nice as ****. Too bad I can't afford one. Fenders ain't so bad though, not the more expensive one's. To each his own ya know. Rock

robarc · Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2002 8:37 pm Post subject: Keeping Basses Simple!

Hey, guys.

Thought I'd get in on this. I'm an old-time rock 'n roller, played seriously in the late '60s and early '70s, mostly 12-string rhythm. After all these years, I've just gotten a bass and, since I'm not a bass player, I basically went cheap--but am I happy with what I got! My bass is a Cort Action V--a five-stringer, which is really cool; love the extra bottom--and it is incredibly versatile as far as tone goes. It's actually very sensitive, so it's taken about a week to adapt my technique to get a clean tone out of it, but the work's paid off--beautiful! It's about a $400 list price, but I got it brand new off eBay for $179! Can't beat it. Pretty much did the same with an amp. I picked up a Behringer Bx600--60 watts (60 BIG watts) and a 12" speaker; small enough for practice but big enough for small gigs--and got really lucky again. Incredible tone versatility on this amp again--4-band EQ and something called a Sound Shaper, so you can set two different tone settings and go back and forth. And to top it off, Behringer's just dropped their prices, so this amp is available right now at online shops like American Musical Supply for $139. Can't beat it.

So, I'd really recommend both of those--$320 for the whole kit and really nice.