The last bass I built has three knobs on it, a smile/frown EQ and a volume for each pickup. I honestly didn't put a lot of thought into that set up when I got it, it was something a local bass builder had for sale, it was the right price and it relieved me of the hassle of figuring any of this stuff out.
There is now a website called Best Bass Gear that has so many different pickups and preamps its a bit overwhelming. I spent a few hours figuring out my options and asked them a few questions before settling on the same pickups I have in the other fretless, but changing the preamp to one that has six knobs. On this one I have treble, bass, mid-range, mid-range sweep, volume and pickup mix.
I played with everything flat to begin with, I mistakenly thought that's where I keep the controls of my other bass (it looks like I'm going to need to come up with names for my basses since I now have two fretless ones!). I wasn't happy with the tone or the output of the bass. Right towards the end of practice I started really twisting the knobs and found a sweet spot (incredibly sweet) with bass and mid-range boosted. I had a really nice slap tone for a heavier song and by pulling down the mid-range, a sweet thunky sound for a more blue grassy song. I really don't think I need to go to two batteries.
I'm thoroughly impressed. I am convinced I need to take care of that neck. I'll put some pencil lines on it today and see what I'm looking at, I have some ideas, but not sure how they will translate onto the bass. I can see that the neck needs more radius - its too square and I think I can easily take 1/8" off the back without worrying about hitting that truss rod channel. I don't think the neck will be as thin as the Carvin necks I've been using, but I should be able to slim it down considerably.
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