SteveXFR

Scheduled Diarrhea - Clown Core

Up The Bracket - The Libertines

Unfortunately the don't do a Stingray style humbucker but Tonerider pickups are pretty good and decent value. I've used their classic P style pickup before and it sounded great. A good upgrade on my old Squier, at least as good as Mexican Fender pickups. 

Some ceramic pickups are more powerful than some alnico pickups although that doesn't really effect tone. 

My old Sterling Ray35 sounded really close to a MM Stingray and that had alnico pickups with a Darkglass tone capsule preamp. 

The stock Roswell pickups are really pretty decent. You'll be spending good money to beat them. 

You won't get it to sound like a Stingray because the pickup position is wrong and most Stingrays are active. 

11 hours ago, JoeEvans said:

I think the right hand fingers do a lot - hard or soft skin on fingertips, hard or soft plucking, on the neck, by the bridge or in the middle, effective muting to reduce boomy rumble, etc.

I find the same with picks. Different thickness, material, shape, picking positions, the angle I hold the pick all makes a difference. 

46 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

And don’t forget tort…..

Madagascan, hand caught, wild, organic tort obviously. 

I'm working my way through the lineup for a festival I'm going to this summer (ArcTanGent) and this morning it's Lowen. This is really good. Not sure how to describe it so here's a video

Let's be honest, if you bass isn't made from the heart wood of the rarest tree in the western central region of the upper amazon, crafted by 800 year old artisans from a lost village on a remote island and painted using a 400 year old secret recipe for a colour known as slugs nipple and then strung with flat wound, hand forged uranium strings then your tone will always sound like s**t

15 hours ago, SimonK said:

I was playing drums this morning (sorry people) with a 17 year old bass player using a Vigier PJ bass into my Trace Elliot GP7 & 4x10 (so I know the amp itself sounds great). He wasn't playing the wrong notes but it just didn't really sound great. Looked over and he was plucking the strings right at the end of his fretboard - said "why don't you move your right hand closer to the bridge" and boom - straight away everything was loads better. He said he would go away and practice the new hand position, but I was stunned quite how much of a difference right hand position makes - I sort of knew it but as I alway play right over the pickup on my Stingrays I had kind of forgotten!

It's good to know what sounds you get from picking in different positions.

I used to have a really clanky, nasty, distorted metal tone but found that for solo parts if I picked at the base of the fretboard, it was much more acceptable and then move back to picking over the bridge pickup when the guitars came back in.

Amnesia - Swans

Boredom - The Buzzcocks

32 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

If this were the case people wouldn't be trying to sound like Cliff Burton and Steve Harris etc.

 

Heavy bands are no different to any other band.

 

Your tone is the most important thing you can get right for you and for the band. All band members making their sound fit into the band mix is the next objective. Sounding good on stage and bad in the room, and vice versa, is a fact of life. . . .  occasionally. . . .  but if you get that on every gig, there is something wrong with your signal chain.

Have you heard Steve Harris and Cliffs bass tone in isolation? They're not pleasant. They both created a tone which cut through fantastically well to sound good with the band. 

11 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

Very true but is the reverse possible?

You can't cut or boost frequencies that aren't there.

32 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

Sorry but I disagree 100% with that. Having a good balance in the band has nothing to do with each musicians sound. If you don't have a good balance then you have  to get one. If you have someone in the band who won't compromise on tone or volume fire them. If you can't fire them drown them out. Once you fix the band issues you'd better not sound bad. So your tone does matter. I know from experience that if you sound good you will play better.

 

 

IMO every part of the signal chain has an effect on the sound of your bass.

 

It's accumulative, one thing can't make you sound great, but one thing can make you sound bad. If you've made the right decisions and your signal chain is working well, you've got yourself a unicorn rig. Now you just have to combat the room!! 

In my experience of playing in heavy bands, that absolutely would not work. You've got two heavily distorted guitars and a hard hitting drummer. There's no compromise going to fix that, as a bassist you have to find a tone that fits with the band and it certainly exists but I can guarantee it will sound bloody awful in isolation. 

5 minutes ago, SimonK said:

EQ more than anything - I've had all sorts of pedals over the years, but to be brutally honest the tone knobs on my amp make a much bigger useful difference than anything else. A good compressor is probably second, but I find I have to tweak the EQ every single time I play, even using the same rig in the same room EQ just seems to matter!

I found overdrive made a huge difference in creating a sound that could cut through heavy guitars. EQ is definitely a big part of it though.

If you want to play in bands forget about YOUR tone, it doesn't matter. It's no good having great solo tone if you disappear behind guitars and drums.

3 minutes ago, bremen said:

 

 

 

I've got a face like a slapped arse and play like a drunken gibbon. I could 'mentor*' some of your pretty virtuosos.

 

*dementor?

Would you help them lose their talent or good looks? 

It should be illegal to be talented and good looking. One or the other please. If you can play bass like Mike Watt then you should have the decency to look like, well Mike Watt (I didn't think this example though)

Dead Skin Mask - Slayer

A66 - Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs 

F*** off money - Mogwai

Silver Machine - Hawkwind

My old Ibanez SRMS805. Partly due to it being awesome to play, partly due to it sounding great, partly due to using it in a great band.

It was a proper metal machine. It worked so well with heavy distortion and the clarity on the B string was spot on.

Sorry I wore a Dying Fetus T Shirt to your baby gender reveal party - Raised By Owls