Spot the difference?

[Soledad]

This deserves a wider audience.
Hidden away in the Precision thread about 16 pages down, I asked Sibob about the sound differences between his '71 Precision, and his Lakland 44-64. He went to the trouble of making an A/B demo track. So, here's the challenge.

{quoting Sibob)
*Use decent headphones/speakers*
I'll let you try to decide in which order they go. The basses change every 4 bars. Volumes have been normalised as one was a fair bit louder than the other, this is a tonal comparison, not a pickup volume test.
Both are strung with La Bella flat wounds, the '71 has 760FL, the 44-64 has 760FS 

________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes I think I've got it, then I get confused. I'm not done with this yet.

 

 

[GisserD]

To My ear the First bass is the warmer, little more low mid content?.. whereas the 2nd has more defined attack, and a touch more hifi to my ear....So my guess is ....1st - fender, 2nd - Lakland

(they are incredibly similar tho!)

[lou24d53]

I agree with Gisser, I like the tone of the first one slightly better, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was the other way round...

[MGBrown]

Prefer the second bass. However it's so close as to be immaterial certainly for live and probably also recording. Go through some plug-ins, nice valve compressors and eq and either bass will sound fab and different again. And that's before mixing eq, mastering eq/compression. 

[Stub Mandrel]

First one has a growlier bottom end, so the Precision?

I am very bad at this but trying is a way of elarning...

[Soledad]

Time to commit. I'm going for P/L/P/L...

To me it is really close and unless I was told to listen for 2 different basses, I'd not give it a thought. I think there might be a tiny bit more mid-high attack on the Lakland. Either way is very good anyway - if I was ever shopping for a bass at this level, I'd want to try the Lakland first, just because of the '64 neck profile which I am quite a fan of.
Reminds me yet again what a phenominally good job Leo did back in the beginning. Was watching Scott's thing with Sean Hurley about session players using P basses, and how they fit the space between kick and snare - just all round excellence, the reference bass in my book.

Excellent work Sibob, thanks from me 👍

[Sibob]

Happy to reveal whenever, maybe give it another day or whatever to see if anyone else wants in.

Si

[Sibob]

On 21/03/2019 at 11:09, Stub Mandrel said:

First one has a growlier bottom end, so the Precision?

I am very bad at this but trying is a way of elarning...

They’re both ‘Precisions’, just that one is an old Fender, and the other is a very new Lakland

Si

[Bobthedog]

Having just played this via my Adam Audio monitors I can safely say I could not tell any difference. Good monitors with duff ears but thank you for the comparison

[Soledad]

13 hours ago, Sibob said:

maybe give it another day

something for the weekend?

Edited March 23, 2019 by Soledad

[Sibob]

Well we've had the weekend

First bass is the '71 Precision, second is the US 44-64, as a few people guessed. As was mentioned, little more midrange content with the Lakland, I can't decide whether that missing from the '71 is emphasising the low end, or whether it genuinely has a tiny bump in that area. It does have older flats by about a year, so that could be the reason for that.

But yeah, super close, and probably wouldn't noticed with it mixed over a PA.

Si

[doonaboon]

Sounds super close to me on both K702's and decent studio monitors. And nice track choice! 🙂

[Soledad]

10 hours ago, Sibob said:

It does have older flats by about a year,

I did wonder - even unplayed I reckon strings loose the top a little just through oxidation (or something sciency). But there was next to nothing in it for me, and I end up imagining I can hear differences. Applause for a '71 P holding its own against an expensive contemporary take on the original.

Thanks again Sibob - informative and good fun.

and I have some Precision news to share - I'll be along soon

[Sibob]

Also forgot to mention that the 44-64 is quite a bit louder than the '71 (as you'd probably expect, although the '71 isn't a low-output bass), so had to normalise them in Logic.

Si