wulbert
pfm Member
You are after one of the holy grails that folks spend a fortune on trying to get via expensive basses and amps. I think you can partially get there with equipment but I think it is really down to the player. One of my hero’s was Japan’s Mick Karn and his amazing fretless sounds on a Wal bass. I have a friend who met him and watched him play on a junker Squirer fretted and he still sounded like Mick Karn!
That said, if I were you, I would lose the active Warwick and Ashdown and buy a nice Fender J bass copy into a Ampeg or similar. Try to get a valve head or even just a valve stage. Both the Warwick and Ashdown have a very clean sound with that modern punchy active vibe, not really old fashioned blues IMO.
Also stick with the heavier strings and dig into the bass a little, your tone will change as you stress the strings and bass. Don’t try to wind up too much treble, it will get lost anyway unless you are super high in the mix, the mid and bass will cut through best.Try to get a trusted friend to listen in the crowd for your sound and tweak accordingly.
A Stingray is a fab thing and well worth getting, would sound lovely but they do seem to have got expensive recently.
Thanks for the insights. I'm planning to get rid of a lot of "stuff" soon. Kind of simplify things. I doubt I'll be in any more bands and my kids show no interest in the piles of music gear lying around. Stuff that I would have killed for at their age. My old Peavey T-40, keyboards, Les Paul, amps, PA stuff and whatever.
I'm just enjoying my acoustic bass guitar, which hangs on the wall near my chair and can be played whenever the mood takes me. I'll re-visit the "growl" research on the electric gear though, maybe try some thicker strings and using the bass passive. Or put some new strings on the T-40 and play around with that.