Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

[Sly_D]

I'll be looking for a bass for my recordings in the next few months, but I really know zip about basses.

Do you have any suggestions? Honnestly, I want to pay as little as possible for a decent bass.

There are many options in the entry level market. Squier, Ibanez, Jay Turser, Washburn, LTD... I'm a little lost.

For instance, what's better for rock, a P pickup or a Jazz pickup? And what about for blues and jazzy stuff?

And is a set neck better or is bolt-on OK?

Your input about the bass would be much appreciated.

 

[Tom M]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

Decent bass, buy a used MIM Fender or something similar. Squiers are for the most part crap, in my experience.

Most basses you hear on recordings are bolt-on Fender style basses. (Yes, I realize a lot aren't, but the majority are.) It's a design, like the Strat and Tele that's worked for 50 years now.

Both P and Jazz basses are good for everything. P-basses have a thumpier, low-mids sound to them. They work excellent with flatwounds for bluesy stuff, or roundwounds for more aggressive tones. Jazzes are rounder and smoother sounding. Jazzes generally have thinner/narrower necks than P's.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

If it's only for recording and not for appearance, take a look at Ibanez and Jackson basses. You can get a P/J pickup combo that will cover a lot of ground, and if you get one with the active electronics you can do even more. I prefer the Fender shapes to the crazy Ibanez/Jackson shapes, but if it's only for recording I think some of the imports are more versatile.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

One more thing not to over look when recording Bass is a good
Compresser/Limiter. As a guitarist I perfer the J-bass neck because
it's slimmer closer to a guitar neck. (that's just me) I have a J-bass
built from parts. Stewmac body,Musikraft neck. Duncan stack in the
neck,Duncan Hot in the bridge. I use a Alesis Nano compresser before
it hits my soundcard. The Boss bass comp/limter pedal will work good to.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

my dad plays an ibanez with antiquity II P/J combo.

to me, the bass sounds much beefier and neater when the volume for the bridge is all the way down. Unless you get a 'non humbucking' P bass pickup, you'll get hum with the single jazz pickup.

Go either all Precision or all jazz, you wont be sorry!

 

[Brow]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

I have a Yamaha RX270 Bass which cost me £149 used and in my opinion, it's a good 'starter' bass for recording.

It has a P and a J pickup, and a balance control to control which or a mixture of pickups are working at a time. It sounds good stock, but I'm thinking about upgrading the pickups in it to improve it even further

Craig

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

I have access to a few basses including a Jazz, Precision and a Yamaha active 5 string. My favorite to record with is my MIM Jazz bass. Recording is quite a bit different than live work, especially with a bass. The monsterous low end thump that you get from a P or Musicman style bass sounds killer live but all that bottom end tends to clutter up the bottom end of a mix and requires more EQing to seperate the bass from the other low freqs. Its not that it can't be done but the freq response of a Jazz bass is just easier to work with for me.

Slap a pair of SD Hot Stacks for Jazz Bass into a MIM Jazz and you're good to go.

Don't dismiss the suggestion for a good compressor/limiter in your recording chain. Basses are very dynamic and you won't get your best levels, s/n ratio and tone without giving the bass signal a good squish. It's expensive and I wouldn't nessessarily suggest you do the same but I run my bass in direct through an Aphex 207 tube mic pre and then through a DBX 166xl comp/limiter and then through a DBX 1231 31 band EQ. It makes a staggering difference in tone.

Something else I've seen done is to take a direct feed from a line out on a bass amp and also to mic the bass cab, mixing the two signals together for the final tone. If you do it that way you can end up with a minor timing variation between the two signals but that can be corrected if you have a digital format like ProTools where you can compare the waveforms and nudge the two signals until they line up.

I know, a little off topic..........

I like Jazz basses for recording.

 

[Thurisarz]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

I have heard great stuff about these cheap SX basses, there available in both P and J. Personally, nothing beats a P with flatwound strings IMO. And for blues and jazz stuff, you can't go wrong with it either.

 

[saladin]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

Much like his Telecaster, Leo Fender got it right the first time. You can not go wrong with a PBass for any style of music!

 

[MattPete]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

I don't know squat about basses, but I bought this a few weeks ago because it does both the P and J thing and has gotten good reviews:

Fender MIM Deluxe Zone Bass:

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0135800347

 

[Sly_D]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

Man I didn't expect that much info. Thanks a lot guys, this is really going to help me make a smart shopping decision.

Cheers!

 

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

I have access to a few basses including a Jazz, Precision and a Yamaha active 5 string. My favorite to record with is my MIM Jazz bass. Recording is quite a bit different than live work, especially with a bass. The monsterous low end thump that you get from a P or Musicman style bass sounds killer live but all that bottom end tends to clutter up the bottom end of a mix and requires more EQing to seperate the bass from the other low freqs. Its not that it can't be done but the freq response of a Jazz bass is just easier to work with for me.

Slap a pair of SD Hot Stacks for Jazz Bass into a MIM Jazz and you're good to go.

Don't dismiss the suggestion for a good compressor/limiter in your recording chain. Basses are very dynamic and you won't get your best levels, s/n ratio and tone without giving the bass signal a good squish. It's expensive and I wouldn't nessessarily suggest you do the same but I run my bass in direct through an Aphex 207 tube mic pre and then through a DBX 166xl comp/limiter and then through a DBX 1231 31 band EQ. It makes a staggering difference in tone.

Something else I've seen done is to take a direct feed from a line out on a bass amp and also to mic the bass cab, mixing the two signals together for the final tone. If you do it that way you can end up with a minor timing variation between the two signals but that can be corrected if you have a digital format like ProTools where you can compare the waveforms and nudge the two signals until they line up.

I know, a little off topic..........

I like Jazz basses for recording.

Rob, I have the deluxe active MIM Jazz bass...would those same hot stacks work in my bass or do I have to find active pickups? I'm not sure if it's the electronics or the pickups that are active in my bass..though I'm betting it's the electronics which would mean those pickups would be fine...any experience with these?

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

The Deluxe Active Jazz Bass has Fender passive noiseless pickups with active eq/preamp circuitry so the Seymour Duncan Hot Stacks will work in that guitar.

 

[Sly_D]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

Well, thanks guys, I finally fell for a black SX P-Bass... I took good notes of all your comments, including your warning about recording with a P-Bass Robert.

I'll post some clips later on... I got plenty of limiters onboard with Adobe Audition and a bunch of CSi master waves. I'll buy a pedal if they don't work good enough.

I'm still waiting for the bass to arrive! Should be here on Monday.

 

[Naps]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

a MIM jazz bass with some basslines had one of the best sounds I've heard in a bass that was under a grand.

Congrats on your P-Bass, those are great too.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Bass for recordings... any suggestions?

Congrats on the bass. It really wasn't a warning as much as a personal observation on what has worked best for me. I'm sure you'll be very happy with your bass and results.