Studio/Live Session Work bass

[klinic]

I need to get a decent to good level 5 string bass for studio and live session work. Currently playing a 6 string Korean Ibanez BTB and a Cort 4 string, neither of which are keeping up in the studio. Cort sounds decent for live use however.

I need to cover Jazz Standards and Top 40 Pop/Rock stuff for the live work, studio is generally punk, pop-punk, metal etc. I also record bass for my own bands work which is Progressive Rock/Metal, but rarely ventures into modern 'djentier' bass. Despite that, I'm a big fan of Periphery and Tesseract bass tones, but also more classic 2000s era bass tones. Never needed to tune below Drop A so far, but who knows?

Budget is probably around AUD$1000 possibly more or less depending on how much I can sell my current basses for. Any suggestions, especially for something that punches well above it's weight class?

 

[Mwoit]

Second hand bass market is usually pretty good, but I've no clue in Australia.

If you're doing lots of studio work though, I think the standard go to are Jazz and / or Precision basses. Pedals can go a long way for tone shaping, but I find for cleaner bass tones, a good solid bass is important. What is your rig? What are the problems that you are having with your Ibanez and Cort? Have they been set up recently?

 

[klinic]

Second hand bass market is usually pretty good, but I've no clue in Australia.

If you're doing lots of studio work though, I think the standard go to are Jazz and / or Precision basses. Pedals can go a long way for tone shaping, but I find for cleaner bass tones, a good solid bass is important. What is your rig? What are the problems that you are having with your Ibanez and Cort? Have they been set up recently?

Second hand is almost definitely the way I’ll go, although I’ve been looking at the sire Marcus Miller basses which are in my price range at new prices. Japanese or Mexican Jazz basses are also definitely on the radar, but I worry about them keeping up in a metal setting.

I’m running the basses through an Ax8 for both live and in the studio. For live monitoring I’m going direct into PA or into a house bass amp depending on the circumstances.

As for what’s wrong with them, I’m sure I could improve them a lot with some hardware upgrades as the electronics are crapping out a bit, but if I’m going to go through all the effort I’d rather end up with one nicer bass than two upgraded but very entry level basses. I’m not primarily a bass player, I just moonlight as one sometimes, so one bass is definitely preferable and reduces the ridiculous pile of instrument cases somewhat.

 

[TedEH]

I worry about them keeping up in a metal setting

There's not really such a thing as a "bass for metal" so it's not something I'd worry about much, unless you're drop tuning ridiculously far and think something with extra scale length is going to cover that better. Plus Jazz basses sound great for metal IMO. But in the context of "a good overall bass to record with", I think the idea of going with something traditional is a good bet. I'd aim to cover tonal areas the other basses don't hit on their own. Are both of the other bases using giant humbuckers or something? Go for a J-style setup instead. Maybe the Cort is a J-style anyway, and the BTB is you're usual active HB setup, maybe try a passive P bass instead.

IMO another thing to keep in mind is that for recording a clean bass I find that a good DI signal coming in is super important. The built-in instrument level ins on any interface I've tried so far have left me a bit disappointed until I threw a good DI into the process instead. Maybe the Ax8 covers this already, but maybe it doesn't.

 

[stevexc]

I worry about them keeping up in a metal setting.

I play an Aerodyne and a AmStd Jazz V in straight-up death metal settings. No issue keeping up.