What about a rounded bass tone?

[neptunian]

I can get the gritty clanky bass tone just fine, but how do you get a rounded tone that works for metal? Something non-gritty that just lays down a solid foundation. Like this:



Heavier string gauge? Neck pickup only? Finger style only? Low pass EQ? Bypass the sansamp and just EQ/compress/limit a clean DI?

 

[Sloan]

fingers and flatwounds?

 

[Bay Studio]

^This. And, ofcourse the sound at source. Dial in a tone that is "round" already. Less presence and less highs will get you there too. How to play the bass is a big factor, too. Keep the finger attack nice and smooth.
I´ve tried and tested this with great results: Set your bridge higher, so that the strings have no contact with the frets.

 

[amarshism]

Turn the bass up on the amp.

 

[egan.]

Honestly you don't need to use flats or actively darken the tone that much. Just don't add 10dB of high end or scoop out all of the (low) mids. The high end won't come clacking through if you aren't actively trying to make it do that.

 

[~BURNY~]

Sounds like a clean bridge pickup, probably an humbucker.

I can get that type of bass tone with the bridge "music man style" pickup on my Sandberg California.

 

[FrankTheSmith]

Cut out everything above 200hz

 

[colonel kurtz]

turn down tone knob
play with fingers
less gain
optical compression/limiting

...are all your friend on this one

 

[neptunian]

Well I raised the strings, bridge pickup only, finger style, and then some EQ -> opto compression -> limiter. That worked. Didn't have a tone control on my bass, but the EQ took care of that. Will try some flats sometime for fun. Thanks for the advice.