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Hey there folks,

I just had a quick question, feel free to answer or point me in the direction of a thread on this subject that I might have missed.

Recently, I've been playing bass with a few bands, and I noticed that my bass tone is totally lame. I have a Spector Performer 4dlx, and I've played it through both a shitty Fender Bassman and some kind of Sunn amp that I borrowed from a guy, but I run into the same problems. The tone, in general, is complete shit. The E and A strings are muddy and they sound like if you were in a really big room, and listening through a tank of water. The D and G strings have no body what so ever, they sound like metal rubber bands.

I've turned knobs, I've switched amps, and no luck. The thing is, when I bought this bass, about four or five years ago, it sounded awesome. Nice and punchy, nice body.

What do you think? I know the easy solution would be to sell it and get a P-bass, but right now that's not an option, I sort of need to make do. What should I do?

this might be a stupid question but when was the last time you put new strings on it?

probably March or so. It's been a while, but it had been a LOT longer the last time, and things still sounded right.

It does have active pickups and the battery was the first thing I did. I changed it and still nothing. I don't use any pedals. I use Monster Cables. They're pretty new. They work fine with other instruments. Same with the cab. I'm gonna change the strings again tonight and see.

I once read that if you boil your bass strings, they'll last longer. Don't know if its true or not though.

Do the amps that you've been using have a dedicated input for active basses? I'm not sure that it would be causing the exact problems you're describing but I know that if the levels aren't matching up it will have some effect on the tone.

Boiling your strings will get you more life out of them but only after you've run them into the ground. I used to do this often. Play them till they're dead and then take them off the bass coil them up and boil them in a mixture of water and vinegar. It removes all of the grease and oils that build up in them that cause them to go dead in the first place.

Dear com(?)


Take everything that you have for bass and put in the garbage disposal. After you switch it on, run to the nearest Kinko's and apply for a job. In the meantime, you could steal a bunch of newspapers and sell them to passing motorists. That's always a guaranteed way to make a few extra bucks, you know, until Kinko's calls you back. Seriously, are you using the same speaker cabinets? The speakers could have taken a dump on you, you know, slowly so you can't really tell right away. Hmmmmm....... like my real good friend BadComrade said, I'm not familiar with that guitar either (pronounced "I-thur"), so start at the speakers and work backwards. No-one anywhere wants to hear about, "I can't afford/buy/replace/etc. right now because I have no munny!!!!" You know why? Because, like Pi, that is a given, unless, of course, your name happens to be "Faiz" or "Steve". Get it? Okay, I knew you would.

Signed,
Vance Prancer.

vance wrote:Dear com(?)


Take everything that you have for bass and put in the garbage disposal. After you switch it on, run to the nearest Kinko's and apply for a job. In the meantime, you could steal a bunch of newspapers and sell them to passing motorists. That's always a guaranteed way to make a few extra bucks, you know, until Kinko's calls you back. Seriously, are you using the same speaker cabinets? The speakers could have taken a dump on you, you know, slowly so you can't really tell right away. Hmmmmm....... like my real good friend BadComrade said, I'm not familiar with that guitar either (pronounced "I-thur"), so start at the speakers and work backwards. No-one anywhere wants to hear about, "I can't afford/buy/replace/etc. right now because I have no munny!!!!" You know why? Because, like Pi, that is a given, unless, of course, your name happens to be "Faiz" or "Steve". Get it? Okay, I knew you would.

Signed,
Vance Prancer.

Thank you for this 100% necessary and helpful reply, Vance. I'll be sure to let you know when Kinkos calls me back, but until then, do you think you could lend me a few bucks? I really need to eat real bad. It's been a few days. And since I didn't know that I could get a job and make money, until you pointed that out to me just now, I haven't been able to buy my own food recently.

For your help I will be eternally greatful (pronounced grrrr-8-full).

Love,
me

P.S. I've used two different speaker cabinets with the same result, bro.

Hey com, have you checked the structural aspect of the bass itself? Like, are the tuners all working well and solidly, is the nut firmly in place and not cracked, are the bridge saddles all making really good contact with the bridge's mounting plate? An easy way to tell if this is the root of your tone problem is to play the bass in a super-quiet room, and don't play through an amp, and listen to the tone of the instrument itself.

If that sounds good, specifically focusing on your problematic strings, then I would check the pickups. Does it have this same crummy sound with one pickup or the other turned on or off, and mess around with the tone knob, too.

If the bass sounded whack in the room, how's the action (how far the strings are off the fretboard) set? Maybe it's super-high on the fat strings and low on the thin ones? Me personally, I like fret buzz in my sound. Not a ton, because then you get not enough ring on the notes. But a little fret buzz is part of most of the great bass tones, I think.

So if it's still sucking, I would move on to the position/height of the pickups. Maybe one side of one of the pickups is at a goofy height. Maybe the pickup is too close to the strings or too far on the deep side of the neck.

If it's still sucking, I would move on to the pickup's pole pieces if they're adjustable. The hight of the pole pieces affects how much treble they're gonna give you, so I'm told. I haven't noticed huge differences with pole piece height.

The odds of it being a wiring issue are pretty much nil. If there's an issue with the wiring of the electronics, it's not gonna discriminate against one string or another. It's all one signal at that point. So wiring is not likely the culprit.

Is it possible that the bass sounded awesome a long time ago because your ears have become more refined over that time, and the awesomeness of a new piece of gear has rubbed off? I had a Kramer aluminum-necked bass for a while that was the most amazing thing in the world to me for about a month or two. Then I realized that the problem was that the instrument sounded like ass. I changed the pickup, but that didn't make it any better. I traded it and a Crate B80XL amp for most of my current drumkit.

If all else fails, get rid of it. I ditched my Kramer in favor of a $30 Ventura p-bass copy which served me well for years. That think *barked*. I traded an original Nintendo and a couple-few games for it.

Sometimes the answer is to ditch the problem and get crafty and/or lucky with your solution.

com(?),

Then I dont know what. Ive found that when my bass tone got crappy, it was time to change the strings, or put a new battery in the back of my bass, something along those lines. I really don't know what to say. Do you have a sound sample? You should post one of those. Also, if you need a job reference, you can put my name down!!! haha.



Signed,
Vance Prancer