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It’s the
age-old quest for better and better tone, one that goes from the
scientific approach to the mystical. Can the idea of “tone” be held up
to strict laboratory analysis – waveforms and the atomic components of
wood and metal? Is it in the equipment, the hands of the player or in
the connections between – cables, strings, DI boxes, amplifiers and
speakers? Is it a purely philosophical concept? My experience tells me
that the answer lies in a combination, to greater and lesser extent, of
all of these and I hope to point to some solid advice from
manufacturers and from the New York bass community to help shine a
light on this somewhat controversial inquiry.
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About once a month, I host a lunch gathering
of some of New York’s most experienced
working bass players at the Rodeo Bar in
Manhattan. We usually number between
20 and 30 and it has become somewhat of
an established means of networking and
exchanging ideas in the bass community.
Discussions are usually informal, but talk
invariably turns to the latest gigs, tours,
recording sessions and equipment. It is a
way to take part in a valuable community
experience while gleaning important information
about the current state of affairs in the
bass world. When Premier Guitar asked me
to write a bass-related article for them with
the theme of “getting a great bass tone,” I
thought that a more moderated discussion at
the “Bass Brunch” would be an ideal forum.
We met on May 26 and I’d like to refer to
some of the comments, which I think will clarify
our path to a getting better bass tone.
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THE COMPLETE CREW
1 - Hashim Sharrieff
2 - Jeff Kerestes
3 - Brian Murphee
4 - Nick Sullivan
5 - Jeff Ganz
6 - “Cricket” Cohen
7 - Tony Conniff
8 - S.A. Sebastian Gnolfo
9 - Bradley Wegner
10 - Frank Canino
11 - Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley
12 - Mike Visceglia
13 - Bruce Gordon
14 - Mas Hino
15 - Jimmy Coppollo
16 - Paul Nowinsky
17 - Chris Anderson |
Let’s start with the instrument itself. My personal
feeling is that you can tell a lot about
the amplified tone of a bass guitar by listening
to it acoustically. Since most basses are
made primarily of wood (some are carbon
fiber and composite parts), we’re dealing with
organic substances, whereby each combination
of neck and body, along with the variable
of age, can result in dramatically different
acoustical properties. When talking to Jimmy
Coppolo, luthier and CEO of Alleva Coppolo
Basses and Guitars, Jimmy – a frequent bass
brunch attendee – spoke of the differences
in quality of shipments of wood, moisture
content and finishes. We’re talking primarily
about alder and ash, as these woods make up
the most common types of consumer-oriented
bass bodies (there are boutique builders
like Fodera, Alembic, Ken Smith, and a host
of others, who use more exotic woods, but
for the purposes of this article I’d like to talk
about the more commonly used varieties).
According to Jimmy, wood with less moisture
content tends to sound better and is more
stable, be it alder or ash. Wood that holds
moisture tends to cover or inhibit the tonal
qualities of the instrument. This is one reason
why older, vintage instruments are coveted.
Jimmy also prefers nitrocellulose finishes,
like those found on basses from the fifties
and sixties. According to him, they allow
the bass’s wood to “breathe” more quickly,
which is an asset to good tone. The poly
finishes are harder, and, if not applied correctly,
can tend to smother tone. The preferences
for maple or rosewood necks are
personal. Maple necks, like Marcus Miller’s
Fender Jazz bass, tend to be brighter while
rosewood necks, such as James Jamerson’s
Fender Precision bass or my Lakland Joe
Osborne Jazz bass, tend to be a bit darker
or “warmer” sounding.
If you listen to the bass acoustically, you should be able to determine the relative
balance and consistency of the tone. Play
all the notes up and down the neck. The
bass should be loud
enough acoustically and
resonant enough for you
to be able to hear the
definition and duration
of each note. There are
customary “dead spots”
on bass guitars – usually
on the G string between
the 5th and 7th frets – but
this is normal. Any other
pronounced dead spots
are not normal and should
be detectable by scrutinizing
the instrument
acoustically. Logic then
follows that amplifying
these unwanted and aberrant
properties will result
in a decrease in tone.
When the topic of pickups came up during
the brunch, veteran bassist and former
Johnny Winter sideman, Jeff Ganz, made a
cogent argument, saying that an important
factor in choosing pickups is the ability to
adjust the polepieces individually. Several
major manufacturers make pickups with this
feature; the advantage of this design is the
ability to even-out the response of the pickup
to the individual string as desired. Pickups
that do not have this feature might have
a bias toward one string or another, creating
inconsistencies in
tonal quality.
Another
aspect of pickup choice
would be humbucking
or non-humbucking
configurations. The
humbucking setup exists
in the Fender Precision
-style split pickup configuration,
or in active
pickups. This does not
occur in a passive, two
single-coil pickups unless
both pickups are turned
up all the way, as rolling
off the volume of one
pickup results in hum
that would obviously
interfere with your tone.
I prefer a passive setup,
as do many other professional
bassists. On my 1962 Fender Jazz
and my Lakland Joe Osborne Jazz basses,
I leave both pickups turned up full (in humbucking mode) and rely on preamps to fine
tune the high, middle and low frequencies.
There are three types of strings to consider
when thinking about tone. If you’re a fan
of old funk and roots music – think James
Jamerson or Duck Dunn – then you probably
want to play with flatwound strings. These
have less sustain and a stronger fundamental
– the primary note before any overtones
meld with the sound. If you’re into more
modern bass sounds, like Marcus Miller or
Anthony Jackson, then you might consider
roundwound strings. These are brighter, have
more sustain and provide overtones as part
of their sound, making them more suitable
for slap-style playing. A less commonly used
string is the half-wound, which as you might
guess, gives a sound somewhere between
flats and rounds. The brunch crowd was
mixed in terms of personal preferences; my
personal choice is D’Addario roundwounds,
which I find dependable, long lasting and rich
in tone.
What the Bass Brunch Gang Says
Mike Visceglia |
When canvassing the bass brunch gang
about tone, the general philosophy was that
the player needs to control his or her sound
as best they can before handing it off to a
soundman or engineer. So now that we’ve
spoken about instruments and strings, let’s
go beyond the bass and talk about cables
and DI boxes.
There has been significant progress made in
cable technology and an important contribution
has been made by Planet Waves. Rob
Cunningham, Planet Waves product specialist,
explained these advances. By attaching shielding
to the ground on the amplifier side of
the cable and having dual layers of shielding,
Planet Waves has virtually eliminated ground
loops and noise interference, creating a transparent
signal that is “direction oriented.” I use
these cables both live and in the studio and
have found them to be first rate. Using what
they call “In = Out” technology – essentially
using low capacitance – they’ve made cables
that transmit the full sonic spectrum. This kind
of transparent transmission is obviously critical
in the ability to control one’s tone.
Bass brunch-ers, Chris Anderson and Paul
Nowinsky (Ricki Lee Jones, Les Paul, Keith
Richards), were quite vociferous about the
use of the Radial JDV direct box. It is what
they call an “honest” DI that will send out to
the front of house soundman or recording
engineer exactly what you’ve given them. My
conversation with Peter Janis, president of
Radial Engineering, shed some light on the
unique qualities of their JDV direct box. It
was explained to me that all DI boxes have
one thing in common – they are constructed
with negative feedback loops that have been
considered an intrinsic part of the design, but
negative feedback loops impede signal flow.
While high-end audio companies like Neve
boast that they’ve created circuitry that’s
“almost free of feedback loops,” Radial’s
JDV box has no feedback loops. It also has
30V internal rail voltage, whereas a typical
DI box has 3V. An average passive bass puts
out about 1V, but an active bass can put out
as much as 10-15V. You can easily see how
the common DI box can be overloaded, thus
diminishing signal flow and consequently,
tone. Having an internal rail voltage of 30V
eliminates all possibilities of overload. The
Radial JDV also has a feature called “drag control” that matches to the impedance of
your instrument. So what you have with the
Radial JDV is a box that passes your signal
and sound with the greatest degree of fidelity
and virtually no coloration.
It was unanimously agreed
that a low-quality DI box
could subvert all of the
gains made in the preceding
tonal chain.
Obviously, there have
been great gains in the
field of bass amplification.
I had a lively discussion
with Dave Boonshoft, CEO
of Aguilar Amplification
and frequent bass brunch
attendee about this. I like
his idea of thinking of bass
amplification as “completing
an incomplete instrument.”
In other words,
the bass guitar doesn’t
stand on its own like a
saxophone or violin. It needs an amplifier
to “complete” it. With that in mind, Aguilar
thinks very thoroughly about the subtleties of
the instrument, the attack, how well the note
opens up and the replication of natural overtones
when designing amplifiers and tuning
speaker enclosures. It helps that the CEO of
the company is a bass player himself.
One of the bigger advancements in amplification,
specifically among Aguilar designed
amps, has been the development of non-distorting
preamps that can faithfully reproduce
bass tones below 200Hz.
Most consumer oriented
preamps produce lowlevel
distortion that will
color the tone of the
bass. Another advance
in amplification has been
in the area of onboard
EQ. With more precise
graphic and parametric
EQs, one can target
frequencies that need to
be addressed.
An interesting
point was made
regarding equalization
at the bass brunch by
Ivan Bodley, bassist for
soul legend Sam Moore.
He said that if you invert
the normal smiley-face
EQ curve to a frown-face
curve with 500Hz as the high point, you generally
will have a tone that cuts through most live band performances. He and others at the
brunch felt that 500Hz seems to be the most
important definition point in order for the
bass to sit in the right place on the spectrum.
Veteran NYC bassist and bass brunch participant,
Frank Canino, made a great point
regarding live bass tone. He said that you
should shape your tone according to the
character of the bass drum. In other words, if
the bass drum has a high pitch point, you can
warm it up by boosting lower frequencies on
your EQ curve. Conversely, if the bass drum
is muddy, you can make it more defined by
boosting middle and higher frequencies. This
is a good rule of thumb to improve the live
sound of any rhythm section.
Jeff Kerestes (left) and Brian Murphee contemplate the Zen of tone |
Speakers and cabinet designs have also
come a long way. When speaking to Larry
Ullman, CEO of Euphonic Audio, he talked
of great progress in their enclosures with the
development of “transmission-line” technology,
where the tuned port design eliminates
unwanted frequencies as determined by
the speaker size, and allows for maximum
speaker response time and “air movement.”
Euphonic Audio’s goal is to make highly efficient,
yet highly portable enclosures. They
don’t make cabinets for speakers larger than
12 inches. EA’s idea is to create a lighter
speaker cone without sacrificing rigidity,
allowing for quick response with durability.
Larry also said that EA uses almost 100
percent neodymium magnets, which create
a stronger magnetic field. Aguilar cabinets
are much more varied in size and are tuned
to take into consideration the specific needs
of the style of music that you’re playing.
They make enclosures of many sizes, up to
their DB810 cabinet for louder players that
demand a “stiffer midrange,” according to
Dave Boonshoft. Their goal is “coherency” of
tone across all styles of playing through the
detailed design of the enclosures for their
various speaker configurations.
The Zen
As we complete our journey in search of
bass tone, let me try to elaborate on what
I consider the most important aspect of
tone, and yet its most intangible corollary.
You can take the most well made bass, most
transparent cables, preamp, amp and cabinet
combination and have the greatest players
all play on the same equipment – yet each
will have a completely different tone! Why is
this? Why do Jaco, Jamerson, Marcus, Will
Lee or Anthony Jackson sound so unique?
Nothing can create tone more than the
player’s personal relationship to music and
his or her instrument. The mind, hands and
interpretive skills of the player can literally
“draw” tone out of the instrument. A player’s
touch can never be adequately analyzed or
defined. The years that it takes to perfect the
expression of music on the bass in a masterful
way is the most complete way to attain
great tone. There are no great shortcuts.
The technological advancements made in the
various aspects that have been discussed are
primarily tools that aid in the attainment of
tone. Take it to heart and buy all the gear you
desire, but don’t try to circumvent the intensive
amount of time it takes to learn the art
of bass playing. The quick route simply won’t
work. Great tone is the possession of the
master – go and become one!
I’d like to thank everyone at Premier Guitar
and all my bass brunch buddies for allowing me the benefit of their experience and
knowledge and for contributing to the
community and craft of the bass. I’d also
like to thank Dave Boonshoft of
Aguilar, Larry Ullman of
EA, Rob
Cunningham of Planet Waves and Peter
Janis of
Radial Engineering for taking the
time to inform me about their great products.
Please check out
mikevisceglia.com for
more on what I’m up to and
myspace.com/ for info about the NY bass
brunches. Thanks and keep your ears open!