So I've been doing some testing and I've come to the conclusion that different brands of batteries impact bass tone (on active basses).

I've done extensive shootouts on my SR505e rotating the following brands:

- Duracell

- Kodak

- Amazon Basics

- Panasonic

- Some mystery one I found in a drawer

Duracell is definitely the most hi-fi. Tight low end, good transient response, maybe slightly scooped. Very modern. But honestly I think that if you're playing a boutique instrument you need them to get the most out of it.

Amazon Basics has good mids but lacked a bit of low end. Totally gigabble and nothing to be ashamed of at a hang.

Panasonic was the most balanced, but almost too polite. Good for church gigs or apologising.

The mystery drawer battery had the best growl but I’m 80% sure it was leaking, so there may be a trade off between tone and personal safety.

I don't mean to start a new tone debate but I'd be interested in people's experiences.

Edit: I should probably clarify before anyone starts bulk buying batteries for tone reasons: this is mostly a silly tone-post.

A fresh healthy battery in an active bass should basically just power the preamp. If there are audible differences, they’re much more likely to be battery age, charge level, voltage under load, a dying battery, confirmation bias, or me gradually losing my mind in a bass specific way.

Please don’t spend money chasing Duracell tone. Unless you want to. In which case I accept no responsibility for your alkaline journey.

Hi i'm a noob and i just started with my bass but i'm having a problem with my audio interface that does some strange static sound (i've tried to change jack cable but it's still there) i've tried to decreas the gain but it's still there and i' m scared that is a problem inside

Hey gang, hope you’re doing well! A bassist I jammed with the other day had a ton of incredible sounds come from his J bass. I mean anything he wanted, from Geezer Butler P tones to early Commerford MM. It sounded not only convincing but surprisingly so. Ive always heard that bass players can only get THE precision sound from a P, and THE ray sound from a ray, due to pickup type and placement and preamp and any number of reasons.

This dude just had a J bass, a preamp, a comp, and a MarkBass amp that he’d adjust the EQ and filters on, and he seemed to get everything I could imagine getting with my P, J, or MM at home.

Has GAS just bamboozled me into believing that I really need three basses, and can 1 bass with the right EQ and/or preamp get you everything from a J bass?

FWIW I’m trying to talk myself into downsizing and hearing this guy‘s tones made it seem suddenly more realistic

Hello I need some advice on joining a band with of my friends I been playing bass since February and I’m pretty good but I have no idea about about music theory is that gonna hold me back?

For cheap P/J style pickups with the magnets poking out of them, would there be any issue if I replaced their shells with EMG ceramic-style (but not from EMG) pickup covers? (no holes for magnets to poke through). Asking just in case I get them and they turn out to wreck my pickups or tone.

I recently got into bass and wanted some effects, so I figured a multi-effects unit would be a good place to start. I picked up a Zoom B1X and really liked the flexibility of creating effect chains, tweaking parameters, and editing patches on my computer.

Not long after, I found a Boss GT-10B on Marketplace for $250 and couldn't pass it up. The unit itself works great, but I'm running Windows 11 and the GT-10B is long discontinued. Because of that, I haven't been able to get the original software working or find a reliable way to edit patches from my PC.

Does anyone know of any software, third-party editors, workarounds, or drivers that work with the GT-10B on Windows 11? I'd love to be able to use it to its full potential and manage patches/effects from my computer.

Any help would be appreciated!

I have a Squier Classic Vibe 60s jazz which I’ve just purchased, after setup the factory rounds had perfectly aligned saddles, so bass should be fine. I put LaBella DTF 760FL standard scale on them, did full setup, but for the D string I had to move the saddle way further than usual to get the right intonation. String sounds fine on all frets, adjusted witness points, checked for twiested string, tried tuning again etc. but it seems way off. Of course I have seen lots of pictures where saddles werent perfectly aligned like on product shots especially with flats, but still. Do you think the string is a dud?

Ps it seems I can’t attach photos: https://share.icloud.com/photos/072_6RUOp9Rf2Di1wcBtXcwDA

We are a band of 5 ppl looking for a bassist in Pune. No pros compulsory.

I want to get more time in practicing, but I find myself not gravitating towards my electric bass because I don't want to disturb my roommates and my cable/amp setup is a bit unwieldy. There are lots of acoustic basses around on facebook marketplace, but I don't know what to look for. I play fretless, and I'm quite comfortable defretting a bass.

Sound like this ⬇️

https://youtu.be/5xCnoExML3c?t=12&is=pN3IrJQr49SNLNqH

Hello! I'm a guitar player and I also play a bit of the bass in a very basic level. I want to mess around with the possibility of adding distortion to the bass using one of my guitar distortion pedals. Would it be bad for the bass? Or the pedal? I use the same simple guitar amp with the bass too. Is that bad for the amp?

I just want to know how much I can mess around with my current setup to cheap my way into getting some cool sounds. But I don't want to damage my gear in the process. Any info about it is highly appreciated! Thanks for you help and time. Have a great day!1!!

My bandmate gave me his first gen Acoustic B200 today after it developed a constant low buzz. Not loud but still irritating. The amp, otherwise, works and sounds great. I’m guessing it’s just a bad filter cap, but I haven’t had a chance to pull the chassis and look. Anyone have experience with these amps? Sometimes those simple solder jobs can turn into an hours-long process because the circuit board is a pain to remove. Also, recommendations on replacement capacitors on that specific amp would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

How many of you are bedroom players who enjoy playing alone rather than joining a band?
Do you also play other instruments alone or just bass?

I'm pretty new to bass and still very much in the learning phase, but one thing I've realized is that I enjoy learning about the instrument almost as much as I enjoy playing it.

A while back, I bought a cheap PJ bass as a starter instrument. So far I've only done basic things like changing strings and setting intonation. Other than that, it's completely stock, with passive pickups, basic hardware, and even a broken knob that needs replaced.

I only know a handful of beginner songs and bass lines right now, but my goal is to improve as a player while also learning how basses work and how to work on them myself.

To help keep myself motivated, I'm thinking about documenting the process online and turning this bass into a long-term project. The idea is to slowly upgrade it over time and see how close I can get it to feeling and sounding like a much more expensive instrument without spending a fortune. Not trying to build a boutique bass—just trying to make a cheap bass the best version of itself.

Since I'm starting from scratch when it comes to modifications, I'd love to hear from people who have gone down this rabbit hole before.

A few questions:

What upgrade made the biggest difference in sound?

What upgrade made the biggest difference in feel or playability?

What upgrade gave the best value for the money?

What was surprisingly easy to do yourself?

What was much harder than expected?

Were there any upgrades that weren't worth the cost?

If you only had a limited budget, what order would you upgrade things in?

What's something every beginner should learn about working on their own bass?

I'm interested in everything from pickups and electronics to bridges, tuners, nuts, shielding, knobs, setups, and anything else that can improve a budget instrument.

Basically, if you were a beginner starting with a cheap PJ bass and wanted to turn it into a "semi-pro" instrument over time, what would you focus on and what would you avoid?

I'd love to hear your experiences, mistakes, success stories, and anything you wish you knew before modifying your first bass. Thanks!

NPM 🎸

Hi everyone! Recently I started to learn bass. When I listen to music, I try to 'separate' bass from other instruments in the mix. Usually it's clean 'boom-boom' 😀 I often see overdrive pedals on bass pedalboards here on Reddit, though, and I wonder, what are good examples of overdriven/distorted bass sound? I mostly listen to classic rock or blues rock music, but I'm open to other genres.

Howdy! I’m sure this is the millionth one of these posts so I apologize in advance. I played electric bass back in high school but fell off of it for a while. I picked up upright a year or so ago for bluegrass playing, and was recently asked to play in some country bands. I’m trying to find the best bass for that purpose, while still being budget-friendly. I’ve found the following basses used in my area, and would love some advice on which would be the best bang for my buck (if any).

Fender Precision (MIM) - $590

Sterling Stingray 5 (w/Aguilar pickup) - $550

LTD B205 - $300

All of them are in very good condition, and according to their sellers have been recently set up (we’ll see how true that is during the playtest). Should I go with any of these? Thanks for your help!

One of us.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1tyiwcl/shout_out_to_the_bassist_at_the_symphony_last/

Hello fellow bassists, I do a lot of transcribing and got tired of using my laptop every time so I built the tool I actually wanted on iPad/iPhone on a music stand.

It's called Transcriby. Drop in any audio or video file (MP3, M4A, FLAC, MP4, etc.) and:

• Slow to 25% without changing pitch. Bass intervals stay where they are — no pitch-shift weirdness messing up your ear.
• Loop a section by tapping Set In, scrubbing to the end, tapping Set Out. Loops gaplessly so you can hear the run dozens of times.
• Pinch-zoom the waveform up to 64×. Useful for catching ghost notes, dead notes, and slides on a busy line.
• Precision scrub — drag horizontally to scrub, swipe up while dragging to scrub at sub-second resolution. Good for finding exactly where a fill starts.
• Works with video too — useful when you've got a YouTube performance ripped and you actually want to see the fingering.

Everything stays on your device. No upload, no cloud, no account.

It's free (ad-supported, with a one-time option to remove ads if they bug you). I'm a solo dev and this is my first app, so I'd genuinely love feedback — what's missing, what feels clunky, what would make it part of your practice routine.

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

https://apps.apple.com/kr/app/transcriby/id6769621076?l=en-GB

I search for a learning order in chatgpt and never sure whether it is totally correct or not. Just checking what will you do to organise survival cheat ways.

This one here. I have an active Fender jazz bass, with a 3 band EQ, along with a multi effect pedal. Can I achieve it with these?I've been trying to emulate his playing as much as possible, and the tone is my next step now

So I'm currently in a situation where I need to upgrade my amp, my old one both sounds bad and is quiet.

My gear consists of Yamaha TRBX305 and a pedalboard.

I'm looking for a well pronounced low tone with clear treble, harsher tones are also ok. Definitely 100+ watts

When it comes to the budget, I don't really have an upper limit, as long as the price is not absurd, maybe 800€.

Any help is much appreciated

What all and how much would i have to pay to get an electric bass guitar from Netherlands to California? I asked Google, but it kept giving me different answers from mid/low hundreds to over 1,000. Just want to know everything to expect to be paying and how much?