You can also roll the tone knob off or reduce the volume on the bridge pickup to get a darker and bassier sound

I have the Ibanez Soundgear 5 string full size bass and it has that same boxy hump. I always cut between 600 and 900.

more like this please! great stuff!

super helpful topic! thanks for the lesson

Joe - if you really want to enjoy the bass even more and change the tone, throw some flat-wound strings on there.

I bought that exact bass for the exact reason. It feels/plays more like my guitars so I am more comfortable playing it. As far as the mids go, to me they actually help it stand out in a a mix, but like you I have found I need to boost the low end of and do a couple of compressors (each set conservatively) to even out my inconsistent playing style.

This is something I've always wondered about with my Squire P bass - thanks!

What I found most useful about this video wasn't the technical stuff, but your approach in the first place. Like you, I'm much more comfortable on the guitar, so all the nuances of playing the bass aren't in my toolkit, and that makes for some tedious sessions trying to lay down a track. This really helped me realize, that it is in fact "easier" to play the bass when I'm hearing what I know the bass should sound like, and therefore concentrating less on the things I don't like about my sound/playing, and instead focusing on playing and feeling the music.

Joe, you’re reading my mind! Thanks for this video!

Always a tough call between too much scratchy mids, and not enough bottom end. Im a guitar player who tries to play bass on recordings. We all want clarity, yet strength in the sound. Stop slapping the thing Joe :) I reckon bass always needs more top end than we imagine. Great vid as ever. Ive learned a lot from you. Thank you!

Thanks for that Tutorial. I am going to try the Eq setting and see the results

Thanks for this Joe. Just tried these settings on a track where I couldn’t get the bass to sit..just checked on a few devices and voilà, it worked! Cheapish Gretsch short scale bass, old strings and Logic Pro Plugs (FET comp and vintage console (Neve) EQ).

In regards to getting a fatter and well rounded sound with a short scale bass, here's a tip that has worked for me... Split your bass track into 2, then EQ (and/or compress) both tracks separately and blend them to taste.

I use the JHS Haunting Mids pedal for this same thing in my bass rig. Most people think of it as a mid BOOST, which it can do, but it's really just a parametric mid EQ with a switchable Q. Really powerful.

Very cool - very useful.

Love this. I play at the bass once in a while when the church band needs a player. Normally a guitarist. My cheap bass is a Cort Action bass that costs all of $200. Messing with these changes on my helix with a nice multi-band EQ and compressor and it does sound better.

I feel the compressor isn’t the best choice for the popping/slap sound. What about trying to find that frequency range and using a noise gate to duck it - would that work?

def warmer...thanks for the tip - have a Fender Squire Jag SS Bass, will for sure help !!!

Cheap basses are my specialty! But I also play prog so the mid heaviness is great

Very nice. Can we get more videos about bass?

oo, yes, it's Presonus r80 in the background). Do you think these monitors are more for beginners or professionals?.. are these monitors enough to create quality mixes from all acoustic instruments and vocals, for example "guitar + vocals + cajon"

Hey Joe, do you have any tips on how to set up a separate recording room? I have a dry room set up down the hall but I'm not sure what route to go as far as running cables. Should I use a snake? Should I try an interface with adat? Help lol

Do you add this to the Bass track or a bass bus

That's cool because I play percussive beat hits like you do. And I've been searching if some well known bass players were famous to play like this as well. As a mixer I think you've experienced some don't you?

Hey what mic are you using for the video recording?

It has the ideal tone for a Beatles Song. 😊

Damn I need start treating my bass with some EQ and most importantly with Compressor. I totally get the idea. It's really uninspiring and almost stressful when you record and playback and hear that inconsistent play and you try to record over and over again to sound it more even. And almost loosing a hope to get it right ever. Yeah, of course you can fix it afterwards, but I if you don't do that in recording stage, you can end up with no bass track at all, because none of the track is recorded since you give up.

How do you avoid hum without a DI?

How about getting a descent amp head or even a foot pedal. sounds waaaayyyy beter and no Ilok or subscriptions or looking at a screen. ☺

Simpler solution - turn off the bridge pickup : ) then it will sound similar to a P bass / Mustang bass with far less upper midrange

That bass is basically like playing a baritone guitar. Which one probably use to emulate if needed. But more girthy tone can also be achieved by playing on strings with more actual girth. So if that low A isn't big enough on the open string try playing it in the 5th fret of the E. Or re-string it with thicker strings. This will likely require some additional setup on the instrument itself, but it should deliver the goods.

It's so small. (punchlines withheld)

This video has me thinking of getting out my Samick 5 string now that there's a way to make it not sound like utter trash. I think the model I have is even called the Samick shitstick 2000. Horrible bass.

I hear a lot of bass players in the area who I think are really guitarist who agreed to play bass just to be in the band and everything from the tone to the vibe is a buzz kill and to be a good bass player you have to think like a bass player and it starts with the tone because you and the drummer are the meat of the band and since we aren’t known for shredding people think they can do that but you’ll find out that it’s easy to play bass but it’s not so easy to be a great bass player but I think you have a good tone going because you have enough low end and punchiness and growl from the mids and a hint brightness and you get that “another one bites the dust” sound and if you become one with the drummer it gives a major lift to the band and if you don’t believe me, let another guy fill in for a song and watch the rest of the band look at you like hey! What are you doing bro?😂

Seinfeld was a synth/keyboard, not a real bass - FYI.

zzzzzzzz

Amusing how you refer to the natural sound of that bass as "wimpy", when in fact, by boosting the low end as you did, suddenly you have a sound which lends itself to being far more shapeless and lacking in discernment. While I agree there should be a bit more of the low end, a quality bass tone should ALWAYS have a fairly significant amount of mid-range; that's called "meat" and gives the sound "bite" or "teeth". You pretty much castrated that bass's tone.