LeftyBassist.com

(I wasn't sure if this should go here or in "Sights and Sounds"... but since it's more of an experiment than a "showcase" I thought it might fit here better)

I recently did an audio comparison of all of the basses I own playing the same exact tune (Duck Dunn's bassline for The Blues Bros' "She Caught the Katy"), through the same exact setup, at all the same levels, with some slight tweaks to the on-board settings on a couple basses, just to hear some differences.

There was NO EQ or compression or anything added in post... what you're hearing is the bass into an amp modeler set to "clean bass", and into my computer.

It came out pretty well, so I thought I'd share it with everyone!

https://soundcloud.com/addison_bass/set ... omparisons

If you click on the link above, each track should play in order.

Here's the description for each track:

Track: 1
Bass: Fender "American Design Experience" Precision
Body: Alder
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Pickups: Fender Custom Shop '62
Preamp: None
Controls: Volume and tone maxed
Strings: Fender Flatwounds, 45-60-80-100
Comments: FINALLY... a new lefty P-Bass with a maple board! Fender hasn't done this in over 30 years and this one is a winner. LOVE IT.

Track: 2
Bass: Fender "American Design Experience" Precision
Body: Alder
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Pickups: Fender Custom Shop '62
Preamp: None
Controls: Volume maxed and tone at 50%
Strings: Fender Flatwounds, 45-60-80-100
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Comments: Same as above.

Track: 3
Bass: Fender "American Design Experience" Jazz Bass
Body: Ash
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Weight: 8.25 lbs
Pickups: Nordstrand NJ4SV (hum cancelling)
Preamp: None
Controls: Volumes and tone maxed
Strings: DR Sunbeams 45-105
Comments: Brand new bass.. LOVE it... totally impressed with what Fender is doing.

Track: 4
Bass: Fender "American Design Experience" Jazz Bass
Body: Ash
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Weight: 8.25 lbs
Pickups: Fender Custom Shop 60's
Preamp: None
Controls: Volumes and tone maxed
Strings: DR Sunbeams 45-105
Comments: Same as above

Track: 5
Bass: Fender "Custom Shop '64 NOS" Jazz Bass
Body: Alder
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Capped Rosewood
Weight: 9.5 lbs
Pickups: Nordstrand NJ4 Single Coils
Preamp: None
Controls: Volume and tone maxed
Strings: DR Sunbeams 45-105
Comments: This is the "ONE"... I would gig with it every day if the set lists I play didn't demand a 5-string so much.

Track: 6
Bass: Elrick Gold e-volution 5-string
Body: Ash with Holly top
Neck: Wenge
Fingerboard: Wenge
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Pickups: Aero Single Coils
Preamp: Bartolini NTMB
Controls: Volume maxed, EQ set flat
Strings: Elrick Steel 45-130
Comments: This is one of my main gigging basses, alternating with my Pedulla about 40% of the time.

Track: 7
Bass: Elrick Gold e-volution 5-string
Body: Ash with Holly top
Neck: Wenge
Fingerboard: Wenge
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Pickups: Aero Single Coils
Preamp: Bartolini NTMB
Controls: Volume maxed, Passive mode, EQ bypassed
Strings: Elrick Steel 45-130
Comments: Same as above.

Track: 8
Bass: Pedulla MVP 5
Body: Maple
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Ebony
Weight: 9.6 lbs
Pickups: Proprietary Bartolini PJ
Preamp: Proprietary Bartolini 2-band with mid-boost
Controls: Volume maxed, EQ set flat, mid switch off
Strings: DR Dragon Skin 45-125
Comments: This is my favorite bass to play live in my most active band.

Track: 9
Bass: Pedulla MVP 5
Body: Maple
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Ebony
Weight: 9.6 lbs
Pickups: Proprietary Bartolini PJ
Preamp: Proprietary Bartolini 2-band with mid-boost
Controls: Volume maxed, Bass set flat, mid switch off, 40% boost to treble
Strings: DR Dragon Skin 45-125
Comments: I was amazed by how much overall tonal change there was just by boosting the treble a little bit.

Track: 10
Bass: ZON Sonus BG5 (Billy Gould Signature)
Body: Poplar
Neck: Composite
Fingerboard: Phenowood
Weight: 9 lbs
Pickups: Proprietary Bartolini BG
Preamp: Bartolini NTMB
Controls: Volume maxed, EQ set flat
Strings: Elrick Nickel 45-130
Comments: Out of the bunch, this is the only bass that I feel didn't have a good string match and wasn't set up very well. I'm going to add DR Dragon Skin strings and set it up properly and redo the sound clip.

Track: 11
Bass: ZON Sonus Elite 5 Fretless
Body: Spalted alder
Neck: Composite
Fingerboard: Phenowood
Weight: 9.6 lbs
Pickups: Bartolini Radiused Humbuckers
Preamp: Bartolini 918F
Controls: Volume maxed, both pickups, EQ flat
Strings: DR Black Beauties 45-130
Comments: I do not deserve this bass. I'm a pretty bad fretless player and this thing is a work of art.

Track: 12
Bass: ZON Sonus Elite 5 Fretless
Body: Spalted alder
Neck: Composite
Fingerboard: Phenowood
Weight: 9.6 lbs
Pickups: Bartolini Radiused Humbuckers
Preamp: Bartolini 918F
Controls: Volume maxed, bridge pickup soloed, EQ flat
Strings: DR Black Beauties 45-130
Comments: Same as above

Ok, that's it... hope you enjoyed my little experiment.

I'd love to hear what you think!

EDIT: I updated the track listing.

My favorite sound was track two, which is rather important for me because I've always
thought of myself as a Jazz Bass kinda player and have always shied away from P-Basses.
I think I may have to re-evaluate my choices in bass geetars.

Thanks for this experiment. I enjoyed it!

pete

This is beyond awesome! Thank you for investing the time to do this and share. I love hearing comparisons like this... In fact, I have a file where I record a riff for about a minute--moving up and down the neck--on every bass I own. I follow the same idea--flat input, no EQ, no compression, etc. In fact, I don't adjust input volume at all so I even compare the natural output volume of the basses (e.g., no surprise that the Musicmaster is waaay lower output than a P). I record the riff with different tone and pick-up configurations when relevant (e.g., on a Jazz, neck and bridge, neck only, bridge only). I love comparing the different sounds from the basses. I'll consider sharing my file but I'm a little intimidated by the fact that you recorded a song vs. me just riffing for the sake of experimenting. I'd also have to edit the file a bit since it's a lot of stacked tracks that I'd have to make sequential. Maybe I can get over that for the sake of science.

Great stuff!

Oh, and track #2 is my fav [edit - I meant to say track #1 with tone all the way up for that extra top edge]. I'm a P bass guy for 20 years. It's my go-to bass. I do use other basses as needed for different sounds, especially the Hofner for Beatles-esque stuff and the Musicmaster for power pop. I find when I play Jazz basses, I'm trying to get a P sound out of them anyway, although I love the thinner neck and different contoured body.

Thanks for putting all that time and great playing and information into this. Super cool to hear all the different tones from the same basses. Good thing there is different strokes for different folks. #2 was my least liked tone for pretty much anything. That's just my thing but I "get" the P tone I really liked #1 much better I guess I’m just not a huge Fender guy at heart. They sound good in a mix though no denying that.

My favorites are the Elrick tones by far and away. It has elements of the Fender flavor with more woody clarity and broader tonal range to my ears. I'm listening with my Rokit 6 monitors at home. Also reinforces my belief that composite necks although maybe the best behaved children they are missing something that I love very much from wooden necks I think.

One more thing thanks in huge way for not slapping all over the place for a sound/tone comparison. God I hate it when I see a review of a bass and I get all pumped to check it out and some guy tappy slappy flappys all over the thing. Not that I don’t like that sort of thing on occasion but it’s not a good way to hear the bass if that’s all they do.

Thanks again this is super-duper cool! Can I send you all my basses to do this with?

but . but ... what happened to the 'fless ?????? Did she loose the Katy?????

Since I switched to Black Beauties it needs a setup... I'll try to fumble through it at some point after I set it up.

Great job Chris.

I love these things

Thanks!

Here, I just did some more...

Here's my black/maple ADE Jazz after putting the Fender Custom Shop 60's back in it after trying the hum canceling Nordy p'ups. These will be staying in... I like them better.

https://soundcloud.com/addison_bass/fen ... omparisons

And here's my Zon fretless after a quick setup... and a couple of takes to get it right.

Both p'ups:
https://soundcloud.com/addison_bass/zon ... omparisons

Bridge only:
https://soundcloud.com/addison_bass/zon ... omparisons

OMG the last Zon fretless is just killin! You added that after my first listen. The Elrick and the fretless Zon are freaking amazing. If I ever get another Zon it's def going to be a fretless. Thanks again!

Whoa, Chris, nice work, and thank you -- really eye-opening. I do this type of comparisons from time to time myself to get a clear perspective.

My comments:

-My favorite was also the P-Bass, with both Jazzes with the CS '60s customs pickups second. The Nordy NJ4 come really close; the NJ4SVs, not so much.
-The Elrick has a nice growl to it and it adds an extra dimension to the Jazz formula. Very luxurious sound. I hear hints of Warwick in this sound, probably from the wenge.
-The Pedulla. . . never been a fan of the P/J sound, in this confirms that, not my thing.
-The Zon fretless with the bridge pickup soloed. . . very nice, as others commented.

Overall, this confirms that I really like passive instruments more than active, at least for recording. I know that active comes in handy when playing live, but passive rules in my book right now.

Chris, I'm glad I don't live close to you and that I'm not a criminal. . . otherwise I'd totally be setting up surveillance at your house and breaking in at the earliest chance.

Super nice Chris! I got to listen to the samples in my Focusrite interface and high-end headphones today. For me too it confirms what years of experimentation have taught me:
- P Bass all the way!!! The ADE is the dope man!
- Passive basses are my fave (Since I record a lot, I eventually thought about this analogy: Adding a preamp to a bass is like looking at a fly with a magnifier, it makes it appear bigger but in reality it is not, what really matters is the size of the fly in first place - meaning the initial tone that comes out of the pickups)
- What can sound great by itself might not cut through or work in a mix, frequencies, attack, decay have a lot of influence here. Possibly because of the way a preamp fed with a 9 or 18V battery will impact the signal, the transients on an active instrument are not as clear. I got that from a Jonas Ellborg interview who too, came to the conclusion that a bass preamp can not compete, in terms of headroom, transients and signal distortion with a 110V fed studio preamp. That's why he came back to passive basses. (although he uses low-impedance pickups and connections)
- Now, this fretless is fantastic with just the right blend of nasal/fatness/clarity/Mwha which is difficult to achieve in a fretless. Fretless are often "too" something to be usable in different contexts but this one is perfect.
- A lot of after-market Jazz Bass pickups are too hot and grindy to my taste. That's what I hear in the NJ4's. I like a softer and rounder sounding pickup with a peak in 2.5 kHz and less low-end. The Custom Shop "60's sound better for sure.

Btw I noticed you posted it in TB too but prefer responding here. I enjoy much more the tone and quality of bass related conversations on leftybassist.