Dom Mcsweeney
Roadie
- Messages
- 707
Tldr: got a new to me s/h bass, it already had flatwounds on it, it's great and does what I wanted. Old school bass tones. Yay!
Bit of a ramble and some backstory:
So, I'm generally speaking mostly a guitar player as my main instrument of choice, but at heart, I'm also a closet bassist but with very low hours of practice, or experience, even though it goes back to 30 years ago when I first played bass in a cover band (at about the age of 12).
Anywhoooo... so the other day I was playing along to some dub bass tutorial using my roundwound equipped Squier Jazz bass, and I was really frustrated because I was not getting anywhere near enough bottom end warmth no matter how I adjusted anything, and at first I thought that it really had to be the fault of my studio monitors and the limitations of their frequency response, not putting out enough of that good low end I so desired. But, 'duh' after much thought, I realised that what I heard played in the tutorial video was fine, and all other bass sounds from songs I love and listened to was fine... 'hmmm'...
... and then I realised that I had completely overlooked that it was the choice of strings.
Roundwounds vs Flatwounds.
Dammit.... I very nearly convinced myself to spend just shy of £1000 for a major upgrade to my monitors and maybe also get a sub, which of course one day I shall do anyway... but not now. It wasn't the solution, I just needed the right strings.
So, I looked up flatwounds and how expensive they are ~50, and then got the plucky idea in my head to head over to ebay / reverb, and see if anyone was selling a bass that suited my budget <500 and already had flatwounds on, because then I was not just winning at life, but also saving 50 and the bother of restringing my already good bass that has strings suited better for other music styles.
In the process, I found out this older gentleman was selling their beloved bass, and he was most recently the bassist for a band that included the old 'Squeeze bassist' (who was instead of bass, the guitar player and lead vocalist). So, this old dude played bass in the band and was really proud of having that claim to fame, though it was only short lived and they disbanded during the pandemic and have never re-banded.
So, because of that, I got talking to the seller, and had a listen to how the bass sounded recorded via the linked album and youtube videos, and, I sort of fell in love with the story of the bass, and the whole thing - and that the old dude/gentleman was clearly getting into retirement, and also had a load of listings of model train set pieces and scaletrix pieces, and the bass was kept in such good condition etc. etc. etc.
It just felt good doing it, and I love a story behind a second hand instrument...so I just went for it and now I'm happy because I can get my old dub bass lines on the go and it's really satisfying, and also, when I was that 12 year old kid playing bass in a band, I was actually using one of these Steinberger Spirit basses too - (borrowed from a friend of the drummer's dad at the time) - so the whole experience of buying this bass is not only fully random, fully stupid, and all about learning what a bass can do, but the purchase of the bass itself comes with a story, and I have now completed a full circle of coincidence with former 12 year old me.
Yay. Fuck the twangy roundwounds, it's all about the phat flatwounds.
Bit of a ramble and some backstory:
So, I'm generally speaking mostly a guitar player as my main instrument of choice, but at heart, I'm also a closet bassist but with very low hours of practice, or experience, even though it goes back to 30 years ago when I first played bass in a cover band (at about the age of 12).
Anywhoooo... so the other day I was playing along to some dub bass tutorial using my roundwound equipped Squier Jazz bass, and I was really frustrated because I was not getting anywhere near enough bottom end warmth no matter how I adjusted anything, and at first I thought that it really had to be the fault of my studio monitors and the limitations of their frequency response, not putting out enough of that good low end I so desired. But, 'duh' after much thought, I realised that what I heard played in the tutorial video was fine, and all other bass sounds from songs I love and listened to was fine... 'hmmm'...
... and then I realised that I had completely overlooked that it was the choice of strings.
Roundwounds vs Flatwounds.
Dammit.... I very nearly convinced myself to spend just shy of £1000 for a major upgrade to my monitors and maybe also get a sub, which of course one day I shall do anyway... but not now. It wasn't the solution, I just needed the right strings.
So, I looked up flatwounds and how expensive they are ~50, and then got the plucky idea in my head to head over to ebay / reverb, and see if anyone was selling a bass that suited my budget <500 and already had flatwounds on, because then I was not just winning at life, but also saving 50 and the bother of restringing my already good bass that has strings suited better for other music styles.
In the process, I found out this older gentleman was selling their beloved bass, and he was most recently the bassist for a band that included the old 'Squeeze bassist' (who was instead of bass, the guitar player and lead vocalist). So, this old dude played bass in the band and was really proud of having that claim to fame, though it was only short lived and they disbanded during the pandemic and have never re-banded.
So, because of that, I got talking to the seller, and had a listen to how the bass sounded recorded via the linked album and youtube videos, and, I sort of fell in love with the story of the bass, and the whole thing - and that the old dude/gentleman was clearly getting into retirement, and also had a load of listings of model train set pieces and scaletrix pieces, and the bass was kept in such good condition etc. etc. etc.
It just felt good doing it, and I love a story behind a second hand instrument...so I just went for it and now I'm happy because I can get my old dub bass lines on the go and it's really satisfying, and also, when I was that 12 year old kid playing bass in a band, I was actually using one of these Steinberger Spirit basses too - (borrowed from a friend of the drummer's dad at the time) - so the whole experience of buying this bass is not only fully random, fully stupid, and all about learning what a bass can do, but the purchase of the bass itself comes with a story, and I have now completed a full circle of coincidence with former 12 year old me.
Yay. Fuck the twangy roundwounds, it's all about the phat flatwounds.
