Shot Straight.

A service of Scott Beckwith of Birdsong Guitars, Wimberley Texas.

I was young and cocky once and thought I knew it all too. Had something I thought was cool, therefore everything else sucked and nobody else knew what the hell they were talking about. But I could only spout off to one friend at a time. Now we have the internet, where folks like that of all age & description valiantly come to the rescue of those less experienced, not on the back of a white horse, but riding a big bull they THINK is a white horse... and we know what bulls leave in their wake, don't we? Yep, fresh steaming piles... posted forever for all to read as Gospel. This poor guy asked a perfectly good question - how do I get a good bass tone? And man here they came to the rescue. So I get this Email...

I'll do my best - first off, anyone who would make such a generalization as that probably has more in the way of opinion than actual knowledge about whatever the topic they're pontificating about is. Folks like this are a dime a dozen, especially online where everybody can be an expert. Which neck-through... an Alembic? A Rickenbacker? A Jackson? A $300 Schecter? A $2300 Schecter? All completely different sounding basses.

There are iconic, legendary, beautiful bass tones made by bolt-on, set-neck, and neck-through basses, both passive and active, of all scale lengths and woods.

There are also cruddy, clanky, thuddy, muddy and awful bass tones made by bolt-on, set-neck, and neck-through basses, both passive and active, of all scale lengths and woods.

The amp/direct box, environment, your skills & hands & style & technique, your listening environment, and your perception of what you want to hear are all MORE contributions to an overall picture of a tone.

Good, bad, it's all subjective. But if anyone ever tells me "You have to have a Chevrolet to have a good ride", I'm taking my automotive advice from elsewhere. :) WAY too many variables to be generalizing blanket statements in such a simple way based on such a small detail as brand name or 2 pieces of wood vs. one.

Personally, I prefer the tone of bolt-neck instruments as well as their easy adjustability & repair. I find many neck-throughs a little dead in the midrange that my ears like to hear as part of what I warm up to as a "good" bass tone. Does that now mean that all neck-throughs suck? No - it's one man's opinion.

If you get the Hy5 and it doesn't work out, it wouldn't be because it's a bad sounding bass, or that all bolt-ons don't sound good, or this or that or the other thing... it would be because it didn't fit your needs tonally. To someone else, it could be the best bass in the known universe... how do we reconcile this disparity? Well, we don't make generalizations for one thing. And second, we don't listen to them. 

For you, I would listen to nothing but notes from your fingers. This is a tonal quest. Try the standards - Pbass, Jbass, etc. And even there don't think "This is what ALL Pbasses sound like..." it's what THAT Pbass sounds like through that amp in that room with those settings. Then play the wilder stuff - your active Soundgears, different scale lengths, oddball stuff - again making no generalizations until you've played thousands of basses - just find something that speaks to you. I would no more let somebody tell me what the best bass tone is than what the best guitar chords to use in my song would be.

Educate yourself on the basics of what a bass sounds like as a family of instruments - then find in there one YOU like, even if it's a 15 year old Peavey or a Squier J or some piece of wierdness someone carved in their garage. Or an Alembic. Or anything in-between. Find the paintbrush that fits your needs and then come up with your tone colors.

What you need to get a "good bass tone" is good basic technique (clean fretting, a sense of time, good right hand technique be it pick, fingers, or both - and the idiots will spin your head around on that too, believe me), a good functioning bass (balances in the lap, comfortable to play, intonates decently, holds tuning, and has a pleasing low end fullness that's neither muddy or overly bright), a pleasing sounding amp or direct box, and THE most important thing - a sense of bass' role in the music and position in the groove.

All else is either academics or half-assed opinions, both of which swarm surround art and its tools but rarely contribute to their greatness or purpose.

Hope this helps, and I'll be happy to verify or dispel any "information" the chumps and know-it-alls of the world will shovel at you during this process, whether you wind up with a Birdsong or not. :) Music is my life.

**

And that goes for all of you, too. I don't know it all, but I have played thousands and I do know bull when I hear it. If you feel the ground rumbling after you asked for advice, I'll be happy to throw my two cents in, which you can at least count on being real copper. Shot straight, thank me later, help the next guy. 

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