Depressed Corvette $$ NT Ash Owner...

I can testify that upgrading from the MEC pickups in my ovangkol/ash $$ has made a world of difference. But then again, I upgraded solely to improve clarity in the lows. And I feel no need to upgrade them in my maple/mahogany $$, granted it also has a 3-band preamp.

But don't convince yourself you have to make some massive change either. I mean, I just added a Streamer with active pickups to my arsenal yesterday, and both of my $$'s have just as bright of a tone as it does... ;)
 
This morning I paid a visit to the luthier.
His opinion:
- this is the typical double humbucker sound
- to be honest, perhaps the pickups are too close each other
- changing pickups would not get things much better for a price near to 500 €
- so, there are two possible choices, guy:
a) trade your bass but won't be a bargain
b) pan towards the bridge pickup in parallel, neck in single coil, increase treble, cut lows, or let it flat and work it out on the eq
and kick your guitarists ass...
He also said that the bass is good, its tone is ok, and that probably, if I decide to sell it, I will regret, because this bass is just like some girls we fall in love with: sometimes it mistreat us, and we think it's time to dump it, but if we really conquer it, it will be eternal love.
In the end, he did a general setup, put on nickel strings, and now I badly want to conquer my $$ heart...
A philosopher, more than a luthier!
 
Your luthier sounds like a smart man.

But personally, more than "the pickups are too close to each other", I think passive pickups on a neck-thru bass is just a questionable idea. In my opinion, passive humbuckers need the attack of a bolt-on neck. But... there are plenty of things you can do to remedy this without trading away a killer bass...

*EDIT: And I still suggest bypassing the preamp on your bass and getting an MXR M-80 with a mid-control...
 
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EVOLVEBASS said:
Your luthier sounds like a smart man.

But personally, more than "the pickups are too close to each other", I think passive pickups on a neck-thru bass is just a questionable idea. In my opinion, passive humbuckers need the attack of a bolt-on neck. But... there are plenty of things you can do to remedy this without trading away a killer bass...
Click to expand...

So you think I should definitely change my pickups?

EVOLVEBASS said:
EDIT: And I still suggest bypassing the preamp on your bass and getting an MXR M-80 with a mid-control...
Click to expand...

Not a plain equalizer, just like the Boss one? Sorry for the question, but I do not know the MXR, and i read on the web that it's (also) a distortion effect.
Thank you!
 
parabolic said:
So you think I should definitely change my pickups?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. My bass has an all-ash body, yours has a maple-middle - your clarity should already be better than mine.


parabolic said:
Not a plain equalizer, just like the Boss one? Sorry for the question, but I do not know the MXR, and i read on the web that it's (also) a distortion effect.
Click to expand...

Nope, not a EQ... a bass driver/preamp. The disortion channel is just a bonus. The SansAmp is also good, but lacks a mid-control. This is more to help you compete with the volume of your guitarists without overdriving the gain channel of your amp...
 
I myself would bring the pick ups up by about 1mm from what you say they are now.

With my amp I'm barely using the eq. Just boosting the mids at 1khz and my attack dial on full boost and I think that's 1.1khz. For me that seams to work and it doesn't sound too bad by itself either. But as people have been saying, solo sound is usually bad for band sound. A sound which is great in the bedroom is typically awful on stage. The sound I've got, by itself does seem a little thin, but in the band mix, it actually comes across as thunderuss. I keep trying to improve the clarity but when things aren't thunderuss I'm not happy so I keep going back to certain settings.

The bridge pick up has the most clarity and Parallel has the most umph.

I definitely agree about the girlfriend analogy. Some time I have mixed feelings about my bass, but after a while of tryin another and coming back to my $$ i realise I've actually missed her. I don't think I'd ever get rid of this bass either.
 
I think you might have a problem with crashing frequencies with your guitarists. The $$ should be able to get a tone within reach for many bands, but if everyone in the band is struggling to be heard, then someone will always end up cranky. Tell your solo-guitarist to turn down, and then you and your lead-guitarist must agree on what frequencies you wanna fill out.

The world of bass lies before you, you might just wanna add another amp or a stompbox like Sansamp DI or Hartke VXL for that extra "pump" that many brands could need.
 
Sansamps lack a mid control. IIRC the MXR does have it but I am not sure if you can select the frequency. Try getting your paws on an Aguilar Tone Hammer, it has variable mid boost/cut, it's a great pedal with lots of presence and tone shaping potential.
 
Delano makes a pickup that has both Jazz and MM-type coils in one housing; I don't know if it would fit. They're called the Hybrid 4 and Hybrid 5. They're pricey, though.
 
Pedro said:
+1, what you think will be an awesome 'band' tone when your playing on your own invariably isn't. For me, the $$ almost has too many options for tone on it, if I were you I would just stick everything in the middle on your bass and get working on changing the sound thru your amp settings. Can you bypass the preamp on a $$? If so, it might not be a bad idea, it'll give you a much 'simpler' (can't think of a better word) tone for you to then mould through the settings on your amp.

And seriously, tell your guitarists to turn down, and if they won't then why are you playing with them? You're suppose to be in a band playing together, not against each other.
Click to expand...

Oldish post, but yes, you can bypass the pre-amp :D
 
Regarding the pre-amp/DI stomp boxes... the EBS Microbass II has a huge amount of versatility in the EQ. I tend to have the EQ flat on the bass, or by-passed, and make all the adjustments on the DI box
 
Also, I will admit that some of the passive tones you get on the $$ sound better than some active tones. Like, when I slap, It's active all the way. However, I prefer a passive sound for finger playing.
 
saxonbass said:
Regarding the pre-amp/DI stomp boxes... the EBS Microbass II has a huge amount of versatility in the EQ. I tend to have the EQ flat on the bass, or by-passed, and make all the adjustments on the DI box
Click to expand...

+1 I think such a piece of gear is indispensable. You can fix your basic tone anywhere you go, then do small corrections with the on board.
 
parabolic said:
I've got a Boss ME50... would it fit the need?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no. I would at least suggest giving something like the MXR a try. If it doesn't get you closer to what you're looking for, then just return it. Experiments like this are far less 'work' than installing new pickups, etc.

As for the other suggestions, I can't speak about the Tone Hammer, I've never tried one. The EBS would probably be good, most EBS stuff is, but also like most EBS stuff, it's very expensive compared to the other options...
 
Absolutely. Most bassist usually have it as one with them, and with DI, you can also do without an amp as long as you have a good monitor. My Hartke VXL makes my 250$-bass sound way more expensive.
 
gotta go with flo on this one. start with a flat eq and cut the lows somewhere below 50hz around -3db to -6db to start. work with the low mids for the warm feelings not the lows
 
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