Cover bands - One bass solution

[Guest MoJo]

I currently play in a three piece cover band and I try, where possible, to emulate the tone of the bass in the original recording. As you can imagine, this is quite a challenge with one amp and one bass when you're trying to emulate everything from a deep reggae tone for 'I Shot The Sheriff' through Nathan East's polished tones on Clapton's 'Old Love' to Paul Simonon's aggressive gnarly P-bass on London's Calling. I'd be interested to hear what other players in a similar situation do. Do you adopt the 'this is my bass tone, take it or leave it' attitude or do you try to adjust your tone to suit the song? Do you take more than one bass?

Thanks

[Happy Jack]

One bass, and occasionally play with the knobs a bit.

All that matters IMHO is that your bass sounds good. The few audience members who actually know what the bass should sound like for any given song won't be hearing your bass anyway - they'll be hearing the original song in their heads.

[chris_b]

One bass, one sound.

I developed a sound I liked a long time ago and I'm still using it. Must be doing something right because I have never been asked to change or sound like someone else.

[Beedster]

+1 with the addition of a Tech 21 VT Bass. Active bass might also be useful depending on how close to original your band mates want the sound (in response to Jack's post I usually find its them, and not the audience or the bass player, who wants 'authentic' bass tone)

C

[Guest MoJo]

You may be right HJ. The guy I replaced used to play a Fender Precision with the tone rolled completely off for the entire set

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1430046487' post='2757352']
+1 with the addition of a Tech 21 VT Bass. Active bass might also be useful depending on how close to original your band mates want the sound (in response to Jack's post I usually find its them, and not the audience or the bass player, who wants 'authentic' bass tone)

C
[/quote]

I have, until recently, played passive basses exclusively. I currently play a five string active and do find myself boosting the lows and cutting the highs for the reggae and conversely, boosting the mids for the rock

[ezbass]

I only take 2 because I need fretless for some tunes, fretted for others. In other bands I've been in I've used just one. The bass I found covered more tones than most was a Sandberg P/MM config bass. I'd still have that, but you what GAS is like.

[sprocketflup]

I take 3 basses with me for doing the KB stuff - and that's just one artist (tribute), a P strung with ancient flats, a J strung with fresh and tight rounds, and a fretless.

Id love to be able to do it all on just one bass, but its just not possible for the range of tones I need to emulate. One day id liketo try an upright too

[spike]

Jazz bass with a J-Retro does it for me

[ezbass]

[quote name='spike' timestamp='1430046941' post='2757361']
Jazz bass with a J-Retro does it for me
[/quote]That reminds me, my old Roscoe Beck was a do it all bass. However, GAS again

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='spike' timestamp='1430046941' post='2757361']
Jazz bass with a J-Retro does it for me
[/quote]

Do you alter the EQ depending on the song?

[Truckstop]

A PJ with rounds covers everything I need to. Bridge pup for disco and funk, bridge and neck for rock and pop and just the neck pup for blues, Motown and soul.

Plectrum for specific songs too.

[Urban Bassman]

I use a MM Bongo(HH) which can archive a great range of sounds played through a TC RH450, which has three presets, so I can have a gnarly amp setting for London Calling and similar songs and with the push of footswitch get an entirely different sound set up for China Grove for example with an entirely different sounding bass.

Using the pickup blend on the Bongo means I also have a nice range of sounds from the two Pups right on the bass before I need to change the eq. I also find that being able to play with a pick or fingers can also influence the sound. I also have a small pedalboard with Chorus, Octave, Synth/Wha and Distortion for specific songs.

I guess the for the cover band gig you need a flexible bass plus an amp and effects set up that offers the widest range of tones and effects with the minimum of fuss. It works for me anyway:)

[Norris]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1430046193' post='2757347']
One bass, and occasionally play with the knobs a bit.

All that matters IMHO is that your bass sounds good. The few audience members who actually know what the bass should sound like for any given song won't be hearing your bass anyway - they'll be hearing the original song in their heads.
[/quote]

This ^^^

Twiddle to get an appropriate tone rather than trying to nail each recording sound

Edit: And that's using my Ric, Tbird or whichever bass has taken my fancy that night. I only take one with me.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Norris

[Rich]

One bass, plus knob twiddling, plus in my case a Line 6 Pod XT Live. With careful patch setting-up, I can get smooth Marcus slap, warm Jamerson woof, Bruce à la Badge, My Generation JAE, you name it. The versatility is incredible and I highly recommend it for live work if you need a wide tonal variety of the type you describe.
I just wish I could play as well as these guys too

[Muzz]

I play in a function band which does all sorts from Johnny Cash to Nirvana to Luther Vandross to GnR to Bruno Mars - all my basses have U-Retros in them, and despite having an iPad with Jamup, I find I just have one tone set on the amp (the fantastic Acoustic preset) and the U-Retro, together with different playing styles is plenty to get all sorts of sounds to cover everything. It's all in the mids...

[booboo]

I reckon about one more page until this morphs into a P vs J/ Flats v rounds / maple v rosewood debate!

[deepbass5]

You could of course buy my Line 6 24 basses in there

[booboo]

[quote name='deepbass5' timestamp='1430049644' post='2757400']
You could of course buy my Line 6 24 basses in there
[/quote]
These sound great, but I would also worry that if anything went wrong with the fancy electronics you would have 24 broken basses instead of just the one! I'm pretty confident of handling a running repair on most basses, but with the variax I'd imagine anything beyond a loose jack socket is beyond DIY?

[Beedster]

[quote name='booboo' timestamp='1430049161' post='2757396']
I reckon about one more page until this morphs into a P vs J/ Flats v rounds / maple v rosewood debate!
[/quote]

[louisthebass]

One bass usually does it for me.. Just tend to change pickup selection, or use the tone controls on the bass for whatever the song needs.

[Truckstop]

[quote name='booboo' timestamp='1430049161' post='2757396']
I reckon about one more page until this morphs into a P vs J/ Flats v rounds / maple v rosewood debate!
[/quote]

Fingers crossed!

[molan]

Closest to a 'one bass fits all' instrument would be a 5 string PJ with an active/passive circuit (set for no loss in volume in passive mode) and a passive tone control that doesn't work in active mode.

In a 'perfect' world maybe with a simple flick switch to solo either pickup. I've had this before and it let me go from bright active with both pickups to solo P mode in passive with tone rolled right off by flicking one switch and pulling up on a tone knob

Edited April 26, 2015 by molan

[discreet]

[quote name='booboo' timestamp='1430049161' post='2757396']
I reckon about one more page until this morphs into a P vs J/ Flats v rounds / maple v rosewood debate!
[/quote]

Wait, what..?! I thought we had this all sorted out: P bass, flats, maple? We'd agreed, hadn't we??

[Les]

1 bass, plectrum, fingers, tone control and move hand about. 2756 different bass sounds.