If you could only have 1 Bass Guitar for recording

[Milesholmwood]

I am searching for a Bass that can do an overall great job on everything. I currently have a Sting Ray with a piezo but am not happy with it. I have a top end studio with gear such as, MCI console, U5, BAE 1073s, C2s, Chandler Germs,distressors, 1176s...etc.. so I have tons of tonal options. But like I said the sting ray just does not cut it. I keep directing my self to a brand new USA P Bass. maybe switch the pick ups? Who knows.

What are your guys go to Bass guitars and if you could choose just 1 what would it be?

[Jtt]

P-bass, just about anyone will do. Flat-wound strings, hot pickup, and the DI on a Great River.

I'm no pro but this works for me.

SB

[Whitecat]

Yep. P-bass and a great DI is the one true path, IMO. If you're talking current American Standard then I think you don't even need to change the pup.

[cinealta]

Fender Precision. If you prefer a slimmer neck, Fender Jazz. Both very versatile.

[swafford]

P-bass.

[Ward Pike]

That does not make ANY sense. I have owned many basses and recorded just about everything there is in bass guitars. Ricks, Ps, Js, PJs, Hofners, SdGr, grabbers, gibbos, pedulas, tobiases, Warwick, and a thousand custom jobs and more I'm forgetting.

Nothing beats a stingray single pickup, save a Stingray single pickup 5. Astounding and flexible beyond belief. Switch in middle, eq flat, Plug it into an Avalon u5 or m5 tone setting 4, gain as needed. Done.

Rock. Country. Pop. Funk. Soul. R&B, blues.

A stingray 5 is a dream for any recording engineer and/or bass guitarist. Mixes like a dream. You can't bury it!

[Mario-C.]

Modulus ... the one that used to be flea's model is amazing ...
that's the one I'd get.

[sonic dogg]

Originally Posted by Mario-C.

Modulus ... the one that used to be flea's model is amazing ...
that's the one I'd get.

Anything without dead spots in the bolt-on neck.......hmmmmmm..sounds like a P-Bass to me.

I too am a little questioning why you cant get a good sound out of a stingray Bass?? A Stingray and a U5 is a meal ticket for a lot of studio guys.

[Milesholmwood]

Originally Posted by sonic dogg

Anything without dead spots in the bolt-on neck.......hmmmmmm..sounds like a P-Bass to me.

I too am a little questioning why you cant get a good sound out of a stingray Bass?? A Stingray and a U5 is a meal ticket for a lot of studio guys.

Not too sure. Don't get me wrong, for certain things its amazing. But its just not an overall Bass I can pick up, plug in and be happy with it on any scenario. It takes a lot of tweaking, even with the best bass players. I'm leaning towards the P Bass since it's sound is a little more neutral, raw and less color to it vs the Sting Ray.

[Animus]

Get a Ampeg SVT all tube amp. I personally hate the sound of direct injected bass, except maybe with a little mixed in with an amp. A Stingray 5 thru a Ampeg sounds awesome.

[fretless]

my goto is either the SB-1 or another P not pictured with a Lollar or the Schecter 'S" or the Suhr classic J

[Fisticuffs]

G&L SB2 with a P and a J or just and ASAT or L2000 with two humbuckers and a lot of switches. There's much more versatility in that than just a P. A P is great when you want a P sound but it can't give you a J sound or a MM sound. My ASAT bass does all of the above brilliantly.

[Woody Aki]

In an ideal world, a Wal Mk.2 or Mk.3
In the real world, a Musicman Stingray or a Fender Jazz Bass

[swartzfeger]

Originally Posted by Woody Aki

In an ideal world, a Wal Mk.2 or Mk.3
In the real world, a Musicman Stingray or a Fender Jazz Bass

+ 1 on both points.

As for the P, I'm more of a Jazz guy... love the Jazz. But the P is universal, and I slightly prefer the P's neck.

I also have an EBMM Bongo with the HHP pup config. I thought I would love the piezo, but it more often than not causes fits when I'm tracking. To the op, it might be the piezo in the Stingray. Try dialing it out.

The piezo in my Bongo fretless does get used, but I'm not sure I wold be dialing them in for 'traditional' stuff.

[stephent28]

If money is not a top priority then a Leland Sklar Dingwall.

Otherwise my Dingwall Afterburner.....and yes, I own P-bass, Jazz, Rick, couple fretless and a few other classics.


Guess I am a sucker for the Novex frets

[mjtripper]

Any Tobias or MTD American with two Bartolini humbuckers.

[henge]

Ken Smith. Does anything amazingly well.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by fretless

my goto is either the SB-1 or another P not pictured with a Lollar or the Schecter 'S" or the Suhr classic J

That 4004Cii sounds great, too!

[DoctorG]

I don't feel like I'm missing anything with Stringray and U5. Passive DI and 1073 is also nice as an alternative. Also agree the P-Bass would be a good way to go.

[Pfhuck]

If you can find one....

Gibson Victory Artist.

Please and THANK YOU!
-pfhuck

[fretless]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

That 4004Cii sounds great, too!

no question ! Truth is they are all really my go to basses

[Electric Blue]

its not the most expensive bass, but the fender jaguar bass is a wonderful utility piece.

[BGTProductions]

I can see why the single pickup musicman might not be the most versatile, though what it does well it does very well. The double pickup 5 string however can be placed in any situation and sounds massive without losing the musicman sound.

[johnnybregar]

I'm in the EXACT same boat as the OP. This morning I posted this (sorta long) up on TalkBass: Help me find a bass! - TalkBass Forums

Maybe I just have the wrong Stingray, but I've tried for years to get a ballsy, big round tone out of it and I can't get what I want for the life of me. I plugged in my friend Rebecca's '72 Jazz and POP - there was the sound I have been looking for....

I think I'm going to head over and play as many Jazz basses as I can today. Maybe one will have what I'm looking for.

[danly]

Gibson Ripper! Best bass I've heard. Personally I'm not a big p-bass fan, but that G&L in the pic above looks pretty nice.

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by johnnybregar

I'm in the EXACT same boat as the OP. This morning I posted this (sorta long) up on TalkBass: Help me find a bass! - TalkBass Forums

Maybe I just have the wrong Stingray, but I've tried for years to get a ballsy, big round tone out of it and I can't get what I want for the life of me. I plugged in my friend Rebecca's '72 Jazz and POP - there was the sound I have been looking for....

I think I'm going to head over and play as many Jazz basses as I can today. Maybe one will have what I'm looking for.

And I never ever found a place to put my thumb on a Ray that was comfortable.

So I swapped for a P.
And play a J a lot at my buddys studio, where we rehearse.

After selling my 62 P in 63, I finally caught up with the guy I sold it to a few weeks ago.
Sadly, it was stolen from him in 64.
Best P I ever played. An Ill-fated instrument though - it was stolen from me in late 62 but I luckily got it back, then it fell out of the back of our van and got run over by a truck. In its original Fender cardboard box....I did have to replace one knob and a couple of strings... NO other damage!

[ravenosa]

If money is an object, which it usually is, I'd have to go with an Epiphone Viola bass with flatwound strings. So wonderfully easy to play, really neat warm and funky sound. Great for both picking and finger style. With some aftermarket pickups, preferably...

[Jim Williams]

Fender Precision bass with the split pickup. It's always the go to standard bass sound. Those pickups are humcancelling, unlike the Jazz bass, placed in exactly the sweet spot and those fat coils get a lot of fundamentals while retaining clarity.

Clever users wire the pickup up to a DPDT toggle switch to select series/parallel operation, that switches the bandwidth from 6k hz to 12k hz for that acoustic like hi fi tone in the tops. Screening the pickups removes all noise, I lined the plastic pickup covers with copper foil to silence them. I also lined the control cavity with the copper foil tape and used screened wire off the pickup. I lined the pickup cavity as well. Lastly, a piece of black electric tape across the magnet/pole pieces prevents any buzz sounds if your fingers accidently touch them while playing.

For a clearer top end, replace the 250k volume pot with a Bourns or Alessandro conductive plastic 500k pot. Next, replace the tone pot with the Fender "no load" tone pot, that has a switch that switches out the tone control for less top end losses as all passive tone controls suck off some top end, even when on "10".

If you play live, cut the string ground wire and solder a .022 uf cap in series to ground. That will prevent burned lips on badly grounded mics and may save your life someday.

Use an alder body for a softer attack, ash for a harder sound. Mine is between, it's Koa from Hawaii. Rather than buy a factory made slab of questionable wood with several laminations, I would get one made up by Warmoth or similar, using good tonewoods and a nitrocellulose finish.

[johnnybregar]

I just bought a new Fender American Standard J Bass. It sounds awesome. There's plenty of meaty "P" like bass, and some nice midrange definition if you want it.

I'm totally diggin' it at the moment...

[popote_jr]

Originally Posted by Fisticuffs

G&L SB2 with a P and a J or just and ASAT or L2000 with two humbuckers and a lot of switches. There's much more versatility in that than just a P. A P is great when you want a P sound but it can't give you a J sound or a MM sound. My ASAT bass does all of the above brilliantly.

2 pick-ups ASAT.

Active or passive, you can get pretty close to a Musican Man sound, J or P bass sound with it.

I play rock, blues and folk and besides the occasionnal foray with the LB100 (basically a better P-bass than the P-Bass) with flatwound, I can cover pretty much every sound I need.