Bass Comparisons

Legionreturns

Useable sounds out of all of them...except the Rick, which sounded like it was playing through a pair of 90s Sony Walkman headphones ...under a pillow. Garbage. Not sure how he produced those sounds, I've never heard a Rick sound that bad.

My favourite still the Stingray, but then it has been the last few times I've sat and played a few different basses. 

ICBM

PolarityMan said:

Are you trolling? The rickenbacker was a pile of inarticulate fuzzy garbage, the opposite of what I mean when i say "punchy".

for me the warwick was easily the best, followed by the stingray. 
The fenders showed a clear divide with jazz better with fingers / slap and precision better with a pick
The thurderbird was OK, prob a better all rounder than either of the fenders.
See comment above on rickenbacker...just awful, useless unless you are searching for a specific era of sound.

Are you trolling? The Warwick sounded like a tizzy, buzzy metallic toy... not like a proper bass at all. The Stingray wasn't positively bad but it was characterless (and a bit clangy).

We obviously like very different things. The Rickenbacker is by far the best sounding in that demo for me - it has the most low-end  and punch and responds the best to the different playing styles.

And yes, I did listen on proper speakers.

Bridgehouse

I've just looked up that Shift Line Olympic Mk II Preamp - it looks like a cracking bit of kit!

PolarityMan

ICBM said:

PolarityMan said:

Are you trolling? The rickenbacker was a pile of inarticulate fuzzy garbage, the opposite of what I mean when i say "punchy".

for me the warwick was easily the best, followed by the stingray. 
The fenders showed a clear divide with jazz better with fingers / slap and precision better with a pick
The thurderbird was OK, prob a better all rounder than either of the fenders.
See comment above on rickenbacker...just awful, useless unless you are searching for a specific era of sound.

Are you trolling? The Warwick sounded like a tizzy, buzzy metallic toy... not like a proper bass at all. The Stingray wasn't positively bad but it was characterless (and a bit clangy).

We obviously like very different things. The Rickenbacker is by far the best sounding in that demo for me - it has the most low-end  and punch and responds the best to the different playing styles.

And yes, I did listen on proper speakers.

The main reason I liked the warwick was that it was so expressive and articulate. It does also sound a bit more aggresive than say teh fenders too which obviously leans in my direction musically. The stingray has that too though and sitll thought the warwick beats it out.

By contrast I reckon you could even tell if he was slapping on the rick. I agree with whoever said above that it almost sounded like clipping.

I reckon the rick would do one specific sound pretty well but since i think the beatles such the big one it's not the bass for me. The others I reckon could prob do most styles but had different strengths and weaknesses

FWIW, this is pretty much the definition of good bass tone:

Keefy

Beauty is clearly in the ear of the beholder! I would hope that the video maker set the preamp the same for each bass.

Legionreturns

Keefy said:

Beauty is clearly in the ear of the beholder! I would hope that the video maker set the preamp the same for each bass.

Doesn't sound like it on the Rick

dazzajl

I thought everyone knew the definition of good bass tone is on Joni Mitchell’s Cotton Avenue.

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

Keefy said:

Beauty is clearly in the ear of the beholder! I would hope that the video maker set the preamp the same for each bass.

Doesn't sound like it on the Rick

I have found some basses respond to some preamps much better than others - and visa versa. Being a preamp connoisseur (lol) I find one can do a great job on my 64P but a bit rubbish on my ACG, and then find another preamp suits the ACG much better. 

The one they used is an all valve posh job which may just have disagreed with the Ric. It's quite possible.

PolarityMan

you'd have thought that being able to play that well he prob wouldnt set the controls like a bell end though.

Bridgehouse

PolarityMan said:

you'd have thought that being able to play that well he prob wouldnt set the controls like a bell end though.

Tone is all in the (knob setting) fingers

ICBM

PolarityMan said:

The main reason I liked the warwick was that it was so expressive and articulate. It does also sound a bit more aggresive than say teh fenders too which obviously leans in my direction musically.

I just think it sounds thin, tinny and buzzy. It has far less aggression and punch than the P, let alone the Rick.

PolarityMan said:

I reckon the rick would do one specific sound pretty well but since i think the beatles such the big one it's not the bass for me.

The Beatles sound is completely different, McCartney mostly used the neck pickup and the mute.

In that demo is it's the one that sounds the best to me, but differently for each of the styles - the P sounds great too, but always basically the same. I agree the Rick does clip when it's played with a pick, but that's not the fault of the bass - other than for being too punchy and dynamic, and the gear not being set to cope with it!

PolarityMan said:

FWIW, this is pretty much the definition of good bass tone

Whereas I really don't like that at all.

For what it's worth I've owned a Warwick - a Dolphin, which I took in a trade. The worst-sounding 'quality' bass I've ever played, it was all top-end and fizz, just like what I'm hearing here.

mart

Interesting. Of the basses I’ve owned, none sounded in that video like my own sounded - the video made them all sound awful nothing like what I’m looking for in a bass sound.

I guess that’s another reason why I play fretless.

Legionreturns

mart said:

Interesting. Of the basses I’ve owned, none sounded in that video like my own sounded - the video made them all sound awful nothing like what I’m looking for in a bass sound.

I guess that’s another reason why I play fretless.

I've not tried fretless, but I'm well practised at talentless

Bridgehouse

mart said:

Interesting. Of the basses I’ve owned, none sounded in that video like my own sounded - the video made them all sound awful nothing like what I’m looking for in a bass sound.

I guess that’s another reason why I play fretless.

I really do believe that with bass, a bass sounds like the player playing it. 

We all have an individual sound - specially with finger style, muting, phrasing etc. there is so much variance that 3 bassists could play the same bass and all sound completely different. 

Then there's preferences on how you set up EQ, amps, cabs etc. etc. which give just as much variance. 

guitarfishbay

ICBM said:

PolarityMan said:

FWIW, this is pretty much the definition of good bass tone

Whereas I really don't like that at all.

For what it's worth I've owned a Warwick - a Dolphin, which I took in a trade. The worst-sounding 'quality' bass I've ever played, it was all top-end and fizz, just like what I'm hearing here.

I do think some basses sound better with the low end boost coming from a preamp.

For actual naturally occurring low end I think the Jazz style setup is the way to go.  The sound you get with both pickups on accentuates the low end.

It's quite interesting if you get a J and a P and a Ray all up to the same level, the J has the most low end by quite a clear margin with both pickups on.  The P is all upper bass thump and fat mids, it has a lot less sub low end.  The Ray really needs help from the preamp, the pickup on its own really isn't that punchy sounding IMO.

Bridgehouse

And it’s a good lesson in learning your bass ear.

Its about developing as sense of what is sub bass, bass, low and high mids and highs. As well as understanding how harmonics and fundamentals come across.

I have developed a liking for low mids and decent punchy bass but not so much sub bass hence why Pbasses work for me.

Having said that, I like the sounds my Ibanez semi makes - and that’s a bridge piezo only that has a lot of sub bass in it. 

guitarfishbay

A P-Bass just sits where it almost always works, regardless of genre.

JezWynd

For all that the video maker has presumably set things up to give the basses a level playing field, I think that with a change of string type (for instance) the results might have been quite different. The Warwick particularly, sounded like it had some aggressive round wounds that did it few favours. Not sure what was going on with the Ric, but it sounded less 'present' than the others (but still v good imo). The Thunderbird seemed to sound the same no matter what play style was used, with little definition.

My takeaway from it was; Stingrays and Warwicks should be avoided, Thunderbird's are a bit meh, Rics are weird (and fab) and the Precision is a bass colossus bestriding the musical universe. And maybe the action on the Jazz could have been raised a bit?

crunchman

JezWynd said:

And maybe the action on the Jazz could have been raised a bit?

Definitely.  The string buzz really didn't help it.

Precision easily sounded the best for me.

After that the Gibson and the Ric.

4th is the Sting Ray - not great but not offensive.

Warwick 5th - sounds too HiFi and without the punch of the better ones.

The Jazz was last and sounded thin - although not helped by the string buzz.

Bridgehouse

crunchman said:

JezWynd said:

And maybe the action on the Jazz could have been raised a bit?

Definitely.  The string buzz really didn't help it.

Precision easily sounded the best for me.

After that the Gibson and the Ric.

4th is the Sting Ray - not great but not offensive.

Warwick 5th - sounds too HiFi and without the punch of the better ones.

The Jazz was last and sounded thin - although not helped by the string buzz.

I’d say it was totally the wrong string choice for the Jazz period.