bought a new bass on saturday...

[stonetone]

heh heh heh...

yup... a 99 hotrod p-bass in sunset orange transparent... it had been hanging in my local store for well over a year, time for me develop a powerful lust for it. then on saturday, the store had an inventory clearing sale, and i picked it up complete with a $400 discount.

played its first gig that night. the tones were outstanding. for about a year prior, i had played a mexican jazz bass into which i had dropped emgs and a badassII. that was my first active bass and i liked it well enough. i was not really seeking better tone when i bought the p, just something different. but i had no idea how much better that passive p-sound would fit the band. everyone was raving about it, the band, the bar, the patrons... the jazz is gonna end up collecting dust, i fear...

[Ken]

Congratulations. I like having passive/active Jazzes and a P in the stable.

Lately, I've been playing my active J-basses in passive mode. Preamps are great for some things, but I dig the passive tone of a bass almost just as much.

Ken

[stonetone]

well, i've noticed when the band plays as a trio, and the guitarist uses his marshall half-stack, the p-bass seems to fit into that like a glove. actually, it's more like it expands the bass tones to fill those holes i always seemed to notice when i played the jazz in the same situation. i don't think i'll ever complain again that we sound thin as a trio.

but when the keys are added, and the guitar player uses his hot rod deville, the active jazz seems to work better instead.

either way, i truly have justification for buying another bass now, even if i didn't know it at the time and even if it won't cut much ice with non-musicians (ie, the wife)