Tone management with hot P bass quarter pounder

[Brewsbrother]

I built a short-scale P bass with a SD hot Quarter Pounder, 500k pots, 0.067uf cap, and flat-wounds. I'm finding that the tone is too dark, deep,, and boomy when I play at jams, even with the tone set at 10. Any suggestions for brightening it up a tad?

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

how short scale? the duncan qp p bass pup is a thick loud pup for sure, but ive had gotten great tones with it in 34" scale basses. in a 30" scale, it could be dark depending on position of the pup, flats arent helping at all

 

[Seashore]

Try lowering the pickup a bit. Roundwound strings might also work well. I don't know how the "de-mud" mod would work on a bass but that might be another option, there are a few threads here on it - a tone cap in series with the pickup output. Or, put an EQ pedal first in the chain and shape to your heart's content.

 

[Chistopher]

You put a hot pickup into a short scale bass with flatwounds. All 3 of those things are gonna make your bass sound darker. Maybe put some roundwounds on it and it might be manageable, but I'd say it would probably be best to get another pickup entirely.

 

[Mincer]

Short of getting an EQ pedal to suck out some of those frequencies, I think it comes down to the pickup. Bass pickups generally get darker as they get hotter and louder. I'd go with something that is more vintage, like the Vintage P-Bass. Short scale, the tone cap and flats are just making it worse.

 

[jeremy]

i think the de-mud mod actually is a good idea.

is there a reason youre using flats?

 

[Clint 55]

You put a hot pickup into a short scale bass with flatwounds. All 3 of those things are gonna make your bass sound darker. Maybe put some roundwounds on it and it might be manageable, but I'd say it would probably be best to get another pickup entirely.

This. You combined all your spex to maximize darkness. Start by putting roundwounds on. If that isn't enough, get a cooler pickup.

 

[idsnowdog]

Try a 1 meg volume pot.