Has your taste in tone changed over the years?

[Rayman]

As the years pass by, my taste in tone has definitely changed. 20yrs ago I was into Marcus style zingy slap style, plenty of top end to the point where the audience at gigs we're wincing as I went at it on my Stingrays.

 

Now, it's very different. I prefer a much warmer tone. I love a round tone, with the top end rolled off both of my Arias. It's funkier, and sits in the mix much more comfortably.  I still love Marcus, but I really struggle with that bright zing now. 

 

Is it an age thing?

Edited January 27, 2022 by Rayman

[Owen]

It is a taste thing. My taste has improved over the last 20 years as well!

Edited January 27, 2022 by Owen

[Lozz196]

I’m pretty much the same @Rayman, my tone preference now is more for a warm rounded in the mix tone (which isolated doesn’t sound like that at all btw) whereas in my previous band it was a lot more noticeable, Sansamp type drive & twang. I’ve just joined a band and I love the mix of their album, although the low end of the bass is clearly there it’s very difficult to determine what is actually played, sits perfectly in the mix.

[Velarian]

I’m the same. BITD it was a p-bass, new roundwounds, tone fully up, played hard with a pick. Nowadays it’s tone rolled off about halfway, older strings or even flatwounds, finger style. I agree it’s a taste thing. My musical preferences have mellowed over the last four decades. 

[Steve Browning]

Mine hasn't, no. John Deacon on Queen 2 from the moment I heard it, to now. 

[Rumple]

I've been using passive medium scale basses for years, one with flats on but I have a major itch for an active Dingwall, so I don't think it's an age thing, I think ones taste changes from time to time.

[Doctor J]

Mine changes depending on the music I'm playing and listening to. Even within sub-genres I'll dig different tones for different things and it is educational to hear what others are doing. I still like the aggressive tones of much of the music of my youth but, even in my heaviest metal-teenager days, I was listening to Chic and digging the Stingray with flats tone too. I'm currently building 54 style P which I've got a set of Chromes waiting to be put on for that kind of tone but it's something I've wanted to have for over 20 years.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Doctor J

[Doddy]

Kind of.  I always wanted to have that active Jazz sound like Marcus, and I kind of still do. I don't want to sound exactly like Marcus but somewhere between him and Will Lee will do.  

I've been playing a Precision Bass a lot, and I've been going for a more aggressive tone similar to someone like Kevin Scott.

[Elfrasho]

I'm the same. A 16 year old me dreamed of that zingy tone... I seemed to have been under the impression that every tune needed slap! I love a far rounder tone... Not quite flatwounds on a p bass with tone rolled off style.... But definitely rounder.... Dare I say more boring tone. It just works better though.

[ubit]

My taste in tone has never changed. I like a toppy round wound twang. My ability to get said tone has definitely improved over the years.

[neepheid]

Not really - basses need to sound bassy and need to give me more when I dig in.  Still prefer rounds over flats for the top end - bit of clank when I want it.  Still leave the tone knob at 10 and never touch it.  If anything, I've dialled into that over time.  Bridge pickups can do one - I've found them to be utterly useless on their own and detrimental to being heard when blended with the neck pickup.  Just give me that phat, growly neck/middle tone please.  3 out of my 4 basses today don't have bridge pickups, go figure.

[Rayman]

I wonder if anyone has gone the other way? Preferring a warm tone for a long time, but more recently going brighter? 

 

I'm talking more about home playing/listening mostly. Obviously a gig often demands a particular tone, so that's slightly different.

[ped]

@devinebass did a great podcast episode about this very topic which I listened to in the car the other day. 

 

https://scottsbasslessons.com/podcast/g.a.s-its-a-thing-with-scott-ian

 

What's interesting is to hear how tastes/fashions have changed over our lifetimes, from six string active basses with fancy tops to five strings with a high C, then back to the P bass. Scott talks about how he made the conscious choice to switch to a p bass for his channel to differentiate himself from those big name virtuoso players using high end 5ers at the time. He didn't even especially like the P bass sound, but has grown to love it - and players like Pino switching to a P bass arguably caused a raft of players to follow suit, or at least make that change at the same time no doubt encouraged by the sort of music they're being asked to play.

 

Personally, my journey went from 60s jazz bass twang to active carbon fibre and synthesiser then stripped back to the P, 70s J and finally Stingray. I've mentioned it before but for the the Stingray has elements of each bass that I fond both comfortable to play but with the top end on tap, tight bottom end and an unmistakable character in a mix.

 

Like Ian says on the podcast, and especially in the episode after the one above, I like to have 'my' bass, and then have others that make me mould to the way they want to be played, so that I sound different and they bring out different things in my 'playing'

 

Sometimes I just wake up and need to play a P with flats. Other times I'll reach for a top 70s jazz and slice my head off with the sheer hifi top end. My '83 Ray though has a great even attack with a really plastic sounding middle range which seems to work on everything. Every day is an adventure.

[Rumple]

3 minutes ago, Rayman said:

I wonder if anyone has gone the other way? Preferring a warm tone for a long time, but more recently going brighter? 

 

I'm talking more about home playing/listening mostly. Obviously a gig often demands a particular tone, so that's slightly different.

Yes me, I no longer play in a band and only do recording at home these days and hanker after a brighter 'modern' tone.

[BigRedX]

My tone changes depending on the band I'm in.

 

Unless you always play the same kind of music it's arrogant to assume you can use a "one size fits all" attitude to your bass sound.

[Woodinblack]

Not really, still like clanky stuff.

[neepheid]

3 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

My tone changes depending on the band I'm in.

 

Unless you always play the same kind of music it's arrogant to assume you can use a "one size fits all" attitude to your bass sound.

 

I guess that makes me an arrogant so-and-so then.  Having said that, I wouldn't want to play in a band which mandated that the bass be played in a way that was displeasing to me.

[WinterMute]

Tone is contextual, if I'm playing on a 60's track, I'll probably not use the same sound as a 90's pop track....

 

That said, for originals my tone has become a lot dirtier over the years, I always like a zingy sound with plenty of string, but as I've got older the distortion levels have come up quite a way, even for fretless.

[BigRedX]

6 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I guess that makes me an arrogant so-and-so then.  Having said that, I wouldn't want to play in a band which mandated that the bass be played in a way that was displeasing to me.

 

What I meant was that I always want the bass to sound awesome in the context of the song/band that I am in. That means the bass sound changes depending on the style of music I am playing and what the other instruments are doing.

 

Maybe it's because I see myself as a composer first, and arranger second, a producer third, a performer fourth, and a "musician" a very distant fifth.

 

Also over the 45+ years I have been playing, I've played lots of different style of music (and not always been the bass player either).

[ped]

Someone will be along shortly to say we all sound the same whatever we play 😂

[Nail Soup]

3 minutes ago, ped said:

Someone will be along shortly to say we all sound the same whatever we play 😂

And that no one in the audience cares anyway. Or the rest of the band.

[neepheid]

Man, that BassChat Bingo/Drinking Game is growing arms and legs - so many trigger phrases!

[neepheid]

Come to think of it, my tone can change within a song if you count stomping on an overdrive pedal at the chorus then disengaging it for the verses, for example.  Does that qualify as caring how I sound and tailoring what I do to the music/band?

[NancyJohnson]

Suppose I've moved from clean, through very dirty, to dirty to a more hi-fi dirty. 

 

When all this was fields, I didn't really favour effects at all; I'd had maybe 15 years of just plugging into the front of an amp and that was it.  Dejected with music/bands, I stopped playing for a while in the late 90s and had 'The Great Fire Sale'; I kept one bass and got rid of everything else.  I was hankered into a local studio project (so no amps required) and the studio owner was obsessed with Line6 PODs, so it was inevitable I'd go the POD route, which was a revelation.  I was finally able to dial in a mix of my desired Geddy/JJB dirt and it felt like I'd actually arrived. 

 

The Pod gave way to a Sansamp BDDI, then various @Tech21NYC rack and floor kit (RBI/VTBass/Geddy/GT2).  All the Tech21 kit gave me the grit I wanted, but they were more controllable/responsive to how I was attacking the bass.  So where are we now?  I've got a Darkglass A/O head (still for sale, folks - I'd still like a Demeter Minnie), but I'm only using the poweramp side of that and I just switch between a Tech21 Geddy DI2112 or a dUg DP-3X.  The Geddy is the one really, though.  It sounds great with anything, active, passive, my EUB.  

 

[Linus27]

I'd say yes and no that it has changed over the 35 years I've been playing. I've always loved that rounded balanced P Bass tone, even if on some occasions I've never had that. My bass playing is pretty melodic so my natural tone is a 60's Jazz with rounds, so smoother and less bassy than a P Bass but also a bit thinner.

 

Nowadays, I like to have more bottom end to fill the sound out although my playing is still just as melodic. I also play fretless and use an octave pedal a lot. I flick between a Stingray with rounds, a P Bass with Cobalt flats and a 60's Jazz with rounds. Some sounds really suit the attack of the Stingray, some songs really suit the warm bassy tone of the P Bass with flats and other songs really suit the articulate musical Jazz with the rounds.