How would you describe your tone?

[paul_c2]

I know my place - just above the bass drum, but below everything else.

It helps that I have (IMHO, of course) an instrument that "just does it" with no fuss - a Japanese Fender Jazz. If I were to use words, I'd describe it as solid, punchy, a bit of twang but always fitting in.

People/audience don't necessarily know/analyse the "tone" of each instrument but they will perceive when several instruments play together, it just "fits together nice" and doesn't sound like an indistinct mush.

The other thing, if its a gig where the sound is going thru the PA, the amp will play a very minor role (just letting me and a few others near hear it) and I don't necessarily care what the monitor sounds like; and will trust the sound man to send to FoH a good sound. But more often than not, the amp IS the only source of the bass so I am in control, and I know my gear so I know where to put the knobs to make it sound good.

[Bobthedog]

43 minutes ago, ped said:

My sound is akin to the noise of a wet hand spanking an empty Wellington boot

So like most slap then (IMHO)

[krispn]

35 minutes ago, Bobthedog said:

So like most slap then (IMHO)

Slap bass is when the wellingtons are made form tin!

[Baloney Balderdash]

My sound is so fat it it reminds me of your mother. 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Baloney Balderdash

[Reggaebass]

Big fat and heavy 😁

[Baloney Balderdash]

My sound is so big fat and heavy last gig I played your father stormed the stage and beat me up, cause he thought I was slapping your mother. 

And by the way while I retaliated knocking him out by repeatedly slamming the body of my bass against his face, not like it could get any uglier, he begged for mercy stuttering: "Please don't hit me honey-bunny". 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Baloney Balderdash

[StephenFerguson]

I play a lot of chords after the 12th fret and use the open A and open D (with a higher notes on the D or G string respectively). I try and get a sound somewhere between Joe Lally, Zack Smith and Kim Gordon... and probably fail miserably 🤣 I like to emphasise the mids higher up the neck and use the lower end for big clangy smacks with bass drum. None of this is helpful to describe my sound 😒 I need a p bass for some and my MM for others. 

[Obra]

You can ''Hear the Dollars'' coming out of my Tone 😂

Edited April 17, 2021 by Obra

[Stub Mandrel]

Hmm... it's interesting to see that long signal chain described.

I find that the fewer effects I use the better my sound gets, aside from my compressor which works as a 'better knob'. My effects are used for, well, effects...

My brother is a guitarist. Some of his playing videos have been getting attention recently. He got queries from people with lots of FX asking how he got the tone on one video. He replied  'I went direct into an amp'. Of course, they then demanded to know what wonderful amp was creating the elusive tone... a Blackstar Fly 🤣

[Geek99]

On 07/04/2021 at 09:51, BigRedX said:

My bass guitar tone sounds like a bass guitar.

P bass into a zoom b2.1 on the ampeg sim. That’s all I use 

[Hellzero]

My tone is woody. 🤣

[grandad]

How would I describe my bass tone?

Like cold butter on warm toast. 🙂

[Baxlin]

Can you change the tone?  I thought it was bass, bass, and more bass.

[grandad]

It's all about how you spread it. 

[Stub Mandrel]

My tone is entirely dependent on the tonewood the bass I am using is made of*.

 

 

 

*Or more accurately, the cost per cubic foot of the tonewood...

[Vin Venal]

On 08/04/2021 at 08:59, NancyJohnson said:

I'll say this first off, I couldn't finish reading the original post; it's like when you're watching a film where there's a mad scientist with a blackboard covered in unfathomable calculations and he's screaming that in a few hours he'll work out how to time travel.

While I'm sure the OP harbours a passion and an element of madness for his/her tone, I'll pass along something that I've learnt from my long and varied experience of bass playing in bands and studio sessions, it's that (read carefully); nobody except you cares what you sound like.

Truth hurts, eh?

Understand that all these boxes, these nuances, these dB tweaks that you're throwing in are going to be lost in a band context; if you want a gnarly but polite Jean-Jacques Burnel tone, just dump all the existing outboard gear and buy a Tech21 Sansamp BDDI, roll back the drive and plug it into the effects return on your amp.

 

I can't believe there are professional musicians who think this way. So weird.

Like, in a live context, I concede tone matters less, simply because you have less control over it, but even then, like, it makes a huge difference what's in the bassists signal chain. On recordings, it's even more of a huge deal. Like the idea that there isn't much noticeable difference in the bass sound between, say, The Police and The Jesus Lizard records? Crazy.

During covid I've "been to" a load of virtual gigs - livestreamed. And even then, in that format, with the sonic limitations it brings, on more than one occasion, there were punters in the chat commenting on bass tone.

The idea of other musicians not caring about it is way out there. All the musicians I know obsess over their own tone, sure, but they also talk about other people's all the time. Even drummers. Lol.

Maybe it's a generational thing? Or a genre thing. I know if you go back far enough, there were less readily accessible ways for bassists to easily alter their tone, and a lot of stuff did kind of all sound the same, and some genres are still quite traditional in that sense I suppose. 

I think that all changed dramatically in the 90s though really. Noise rock and shoegaze and stuff like that (sure there are loads of other examples but that's just my area) saw bands really pushing for different sounds, and I think since then, even non-musicians who are into music are relatively clued up on sounds.

My own take on this is that if you take the view tone doesn't matter, and you discount all the ways of changing it from your musicianship, you're missing out on a huge part of what playing bass is about. The quality of the sound is as much of a factor to me as your left hand and right hand technique. We play electronic instruments at the end of the day, so everything we do is about manipulating an electronic signal. It's no less musical in my opinion to do that with a massive pedal board, and a load of knob twiddling.

Being a minimalist or a purist is totally an option though. Like if you just happen to think the only sound in the world for you is a P-bass with the knobs all the way open, into an SVT with everything at 12 o'clock, through an 8x10, that's cool. Whatever works for you! It's totally subjective. It's just the idea that it isn't important at all I find weird.

[Vin Venal]

Oh and to answer the OPs question, I like to think of my tone as dirty and spiky. Like putting your hand into one of those bins for used needles. Lol.

[Baxlin]

Genuine question.  

Does ‘dirty and spiky’ come in different tones?  In your previous post you seemed to be advocating many different tones, not just one...

Edited April 30, 2021 by Baxlin

[ped]

I’ve been playing my P bass a lot recently. A good description of the tone I think is ‘chewy’. Super low action, light gauge flats, tone backed off a little and playing over the pickup with the occasional ‘pop’ on the G. Chewy. 

[BigRedX]

Trying to use words to describe sounds is ultimately pointless. One person's "burpy" is another person's "farty". One person's "deep" is another person's "muddy".

My bass sound is tailored to fit the band and the song. For one of bands I current play in, that means a different bass sound on almost every song. When you're in a band where the other instruments are just vocals, synthesiser and percussion, having the same bass guitar sound on every song is both wrong and boring.

[Vin Venal]

3 hours ago, Baxlin said:

Genuine question.  

Does ‘dirty and spiky’ come in different tones?  In your previous post you seemed to be advocating many different tones, not just one...

Dunno what you mean mate. I'm not advocating anything. Said it plain as day, it's subjective, and you should do whatever works for you.

Only thing I think anyone is "wrong" about is the idea that bass tone doesn't matter, or nobody else notices or cares, cuz that's a daft idea IMO.

Reckon I've got a few different sounds. A bit dirty. Pretty dirty. And really f*ckin dirty. Try to always keep it spiky though. 😀

[Vin Venal]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Trying to use words to describe sounds is ultimately pointless. One person's "burpy" is another person's "farty". One person's "deep" is another person's "muddy".

Don't agree that it's pointless. Except obviously in the sense that everything is ultimately pointless.

Trying to use words to describe sounds is fun, creative, and a great example of what language is for. Like using words to try to describe colours, smells, and complex emotional experiences.

I think its pretty cool that some air moves in a certain way, and what you hear, and what I hear, and the effect it has on us are totally different, and can never truly be shared, so we use this complex system of symbolic meaning to try to convey that to each other, and in the process discover that we're wired completely differently. It's the Kantian epistemological break happening right before our ears. Lol.

FYI I'm pretty high at the moment, so apologies if I'm rambling.

[Bleat]

My sound is so big and heavy I need a HGV licence to play.