String Balance / EQ effect HELP NEEDED

[holio.cornolio]

Hello all, I'm new here so be gentle

I play a bog standard precision bass. Very vanilla nothing special, but I have the age old problem that I'm sure we're all familiar with, namely, for the most part I only use 2 strings. Why? Well the d and g strings sound too thin and twangy to my ears. I can't get a bad sound out of the E and A, but D and G are only ever used in an emergency (i.e. when my hands physically can't stretch far enough to fret the right note on E or A strings!) because they sound ugly. Of course one man's meat is another's poison and all that, but seriously, there must be some sort of box of tricks out there that would help to smooth out the twangyness of the high strings on a 4 string bass.

For reference, my setup is, Bitza P Bass - Boss tuner - orange squeezer clone - Big Muff (occasionally) - Ashdown EVO 2 500 4X10

Cheers

[maxrossell]

Basic question: What strings do you have on there (brand and gauge), and how old are they? Also, do you play with a pick or with fingers, and do the D and G sound different when picked from how they sound fingerstyle?

Is your P Bass an actual Fender Std, and if not, do you know what pickup it has in it?

[cheddatom]

Drink whisky until you're very drunk. Go to sleep. Wake up with a horrible head, and extremely clammy/sweaty hands. Scratch your arse a bit. Immediately grab your bass. Play only the top two strings. Now they'll never twang again!!

DONE

[holio.cornolio]

Strings are D'addario stainless 45 - 105. forget the EXP ESP or whatever. Pickup is a duncan designed vintagey ouput P Bass type - i think about 10 - 11K ohm dc resistance whenI measured it. Pots are CTS 250K 10% tolerance - a standard 0.047uf ceramic tone cap. Body is (shock horror) Agathis (nicked off a squier vintage modified p bass), neck is slab rosewood 'board, medium chunky profile, vintage radius. I play variously fingerstyle, thumb style and with a pick. D and G are always sh*t. Cheers Cheddatom, but I already tried the arse trick. Even using the D string as arse floss doesn't take the edge off..

Edited May 13, 2009 by holio.cornolio

[thisnameistaken]

Until you said the sound was the same whatever technique I thought it might be your fingerstyle technique (I know I attack the higher strings from a different angle most of the time, and it gives a very different sound). And until you said you were wearing 105-45 I thought maybe your strings were too skinny. Hmm.

I think you just don't like the sound of the higher strings. Have you heard other bassists' higher strings that you actually like the sound of, and would like yours to sound like theirs?

Might be an idea to string your bass B-E-A-D and see if you prefer that?

[holio.cornolio]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='487507' date='May 14 2009, 01:57 AM']I think you just don't like the sound of the higher strings. Have you heard other bassists' higher strings that you actually like the sound of, and would like yours to sound like theirs?

Might be an idea to string your bass B-E-A-D and see if you prefer that?[/quote]

Cheers. Well every record I own it seems like the bass is eq'd nicely and string tone is nice and evenly matched. The bass line on kings of Leons song Ragoo spans all 4 strings but still sounds evenly balanced to me for instance (I know it's a Thunderbird but hey) and a bassist who's string use matches mine is andrew (or royston can't remember) langdon of Spacehog, who's all over the neck, but only ever e and a strings, and the occasional d.

I might try flats again....

[johnnylager]

Pickup height? Tried raising the D/G pup up?

[burno70]

What's the setting like on your amp?

[xgsjx]

[quote]What's the setting like on your amp?[/quote]

[quote]Pickup height? Tried raising the D/G pup up?[/quote]

These would be the 1st 2 things I try (in that order) followed by trying a different brand of strings (I don't like the DR Highbeams cause they're too zingy & bright, but some love this). Failing that, change your bass .

[maxrossell]

It could be an extra expense, but you could try a trick I like to try on my guitars - I found that the wound strings were too twangy and loose if I got a set light enough for nice easy top strings, but similarly, the top strings were far too heavy and tight if I got a set with nice thick bottom strings. Originally I used to just get two sets of strings, one heavy, one light, use the heavy bottom strings and the light top strings - Until Ernie Ball cottoned on that I wasn't the only one doing that, so they released Skinny Top Heavy Bottom strings.

What I'm saying is, try some heavier gauge strings on your D and G. Heavier gauge strings always sound less thin and less twangy.

[mildmanofrock]

Have you tried turning the treble down on your amp and bass?

I have a Fender Jazz - with the treble up on the bass and using a plectrum, the D and G strings sounded like a wasp in a jam jar. So, I just turned the treble pickup knob down a bit, and it's fine.

I recommend getting a good compressor pedal. I have an EBS MultiComp and it's great at evening out the sound across all the strings. All that plus a heavier string gauge for the D and G, as recommended above.

Edited May 14, 2009 by mildmanofrock

[holio.cornolio]

[quote name='johnnylager' post='487517' date='May 14 2009, 06:42 AM']Pickup height? Tried raising the D/G pup up?[/quote]


[quote name='burno70' post='487524' date='May 14 2009, 07:37 AM']What's the setting like on your amp?[/quote]

Amp settings pretty much flat. graphic eq set flat, bass at 1 o'clock, mids and treble at 10-11 o'clock.
Cocked around with pickup height until the cows come home but the d and g are always brighter than I want. It's true that my compressor evens things out a little, but I was hoping that there might be some magic eq pedal to help my quest. I'd seen this [url="http://www.musicelectronix.com/clips/submarine.html"]http://www.musicelectronix.com/clips/submarine.html[/url] and had hoped it might be the panancea? Or would it be a waste of cash?????

[burno70]

NOt sure if that would help - it all depends on what the problem is.

Have you tried using any other amps? If not take your bass to your local music shop and pretend you are trying out different amps and see what happens - no twang and it's the amp, not the bass.

[xgsjx]

It sounds like a good pedal but it would only mask your problem, not resolve it.

I'd see if anyone on here has any spare strings (even a D string) to see if it is the strings. Pop a post in the wanteds or look in recycles. Unfortunately I have none spare (the last ones snapped).

Another thought I just had but don't know if it would have any effect... Could it be the P/U under the D & G strings has been put in backwards or that the P/U is faulty? I don't know a great deal about P/Us other than the basics.