I already have a P Bass

[Holdsg]

The P-bass has its place. It was the trailblazer, and is on thousands of recordings, and if you really want to get that sound, you go there. Sure, there are some better-made alternatives (I am thinking Lakland and G&L) and the Big Al more than nails the P-sound, and then adds about 10 other sounds to your palette.

Kind of like, when you got your first crush on the "girl next door". She was a 10 in your mind, at that time, but she was all you knew. Then you grew up, went to HS, and then college, and the definition of a 10 dramatically increased. If you put the "girl next door" up to those new 10s, she'd probably look pretty plain. girl next door = p-bass. hot girl at the gym = bongo or big al.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

girl next door = p-bass. hot girl at the gym = bongo or big al.

Sometimes all you need is the girl next door!

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I own and love a P-Bass, but I don't think of it as one bass is better than the other. Sometimes I am in the mood for a different feel or different sound and I just go with that. There's just a certain feel and sound that I get out of my Stingray 5 that I can't get out of my other basses and the same holds true for others.

I consider it like a bunch of flavors of good!

 

[cyoungnashville]

no one got more mileage out of the precision bass than me. its all i played for about 10 years... every day... in the studio. everyone else would show up with 15 basses in a road case, a rack of heads, stereo pedal boards, their own mixing desk, pretty much everything but the tape machine... i brought a pbass, and sometimes a tuner, i borrowed a cable usually.

i was proud of that. it was my "thing". so i was cruising along just fine, until one day when a song i had played on over 10yrs ago, comes on the radio. the tone of that recording absolutely ate my pbasses lunch and handed it back to him, and then said "how bout now , you go get me a juicebox BIOTTTCH??!! (stingray 5's can be like that)".

all of a sudden....it hit me..... OH MY GOD, HOW CAN THAT NON VINTAGE, NON FENDER, NON STUDIO, POST CBS, BASS BE KILLING MY ANTIQUE TROPHY BASS??? its impossible!!! it costs a 5th of what this studio engineer approved pre cbs jobby does!! i had better investigate!!!


so off to the music store i go. my worst nightmare became reality. someone makes a better bass than leo. i gotta track this guy down (says to self). so that began the journey out of my 1 trick precision pony rut.

my whole scene has changed, for the way better. meeting the ebmm crew, and eventually becoming part of it, was seriously one of the most important events of my life. my world was black and white, if not grey, now i got a big box of crayons. the movie "pleasantville" comes to mind.


im nowhere near where i want to be, but i know ill never go back. every once in a while ill be wraping with bp, and hell say..."hey, you ever try this.. on such and such a bass? (like passive on bigal or reflex), and ill go... "no , its got a battery in it, so i have to use it, do you understand me at all sterling???" then he straightens me out, and i learn something (like passive on the bigal, is 10 times deeper at times than active is!!).


why do you guys think im here almost every day?? i dont get paid to hang out here. i hang out here, because i always learn something. a lot from bp, but a lot from everyone else too. one time i even learned something from jack.

so ... all that to say... i have about $25,000 worth of vintage lumber just laying around if anyone wants to buy it. my j's, p's, old hollowbodies, shortscales, longhorns, etc. have literally not left my gear locker since they were humiliated in public by a stock , off the rack, classic ray.


wish i could get a refund.

 

[jlepre]

NO but we may have a setting for erectile disfuntion

That WOULD be a GAMEchanger!

 

[T Alan]

The P still has it's place, but for me, EBMMs are my performance tool. It's just too difficult to do the live looper work I do on a P. For jamming, EBMMs simply inspire me more. That said, for recording, there are times when a P just works better.

 

[Jim C]

Great post cyoung; funny yet accurate for many who woke up and realized that there might be a better tool for their craft other than the stone axe we used to use as humans; my 60'P, 3 other 70's P and 2 70's Jbasses are also just pieces of vintage lumber but all were used on different projects and have great memories attached.

The 83' Ray is the bass I play and am begining to think that owning a pile of MM's is a good plan as well.
Question is, do you stay with the safe (& easy) SR or get all modern and stuff with Big Al or Bongo?
Kinda scary isn't it?

 

[Movielife]

Totally with you BP on the Big Al options. First thing I did when I tested one was passive. It's an absolute tone machine. Bringing in active passive with passive tone control on 3 single coils sold me the Big Al before I'd seen one in the flesh.

It is destined to be the next EBMM classic, once the guys who are frightened of the options try it out.

Oh, and the design itself is just stunning, and more so in the flesh.

Seriously, if you like a more old school tone, try the Big Al. It will blow your head off.

 

[strummer]

why do you guys think im here almost every day??

You like us?

 

[strummer]

And I have a P bass, a good one too, though it does not get any playing time.

Mostly that's because to get a P bass to sound like the bass in my head i have to work, a lot. With a bongo, it's plug'n'play.

 

[Aussie Mark]

If I'm doing a gig where the P bass look is important, I take my P bass. If I'm doing a gig where I want the P bass sound (and others) in a perfect ergonomic package, I take my Big Al.

 

[Kristopher]

...MY ANTIQUE TROPHY BASS

Ha, I never thought of them like that. Thanks, I may use that phrase in the future!

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

That reminds me of a joke by Steven Wright (I think):
My friend married a trophy wife.
Unfortunately, she didn't come in first.

 

[oli@bass]

If I'm doing a gig where the P bass look is important, I take my P bass.

What sort of gig's require a "P bass look"? Does that mean you really have to have a P bass, or must it be a Fender, or is it just about the 70's Fender style look?

I'm seriously interested to learn about this, because I've never before encountered anyone giving a damn about what bass I carry, except for the colour. But then, I've never been a working pro.

 

[BigAlis4me]

I've never before encountered anyone giving a damn about what bass I carry, except for the colour.

 

[oli@bass]

Yep. Weird. Isn't it.

That said, I've never had a bad sounding bass....

 

[spencer]

I remember when I sold my stingray and got a precision. I posted pictures up here in it's own thread and couldn't understand why people were upset, that was 5 years ago and I was young. I quickly realized how stupid I was. The tone wasn't there. It was beautiful, there's nothing Like sunburst American ps with black or tort pickguards. But tone sucked.

I have owned EVERY model ernieball has made except classics. I always will. And there will always be a tiny place in my heart for ps. So I bought a fiesta red classic vibe squire. So I don't sell it for the money.

 

[Hellboy]

I had a -65 P-bass. Lovely instrument indeed. Sold it. They do sound great and are fine to play but it´s just not me. Prefer a Stingray. And the 25th HSS does sound alot like a P if you want it to. Very versatile instrument.

//J

 

[Dr. Lemonator]

Well, I used to - and then you came into my life.

TeeHee! I smell a bromance.

I own a P bass and the only reason I keep it around is because I made it sound like a music man.

 

[Vintage7]

I'm glad this thread came up because I'm looking into a new MM and the Big Al 3-p/u looks like a good choice.
I already have a Stingray and several P's.
So this may be a good in-between sounding bass.