Bass test.

I’ve tested four of my basses in an effort to find their different characters.

It’s my jazz, old 55 P-bass , semi-modern Yamaha BB 615 and modern MTD KZX.

All basses are recorded straight into the computer with passive pickups and no eq at all.

Compressed down to mp3s the level of the peak is the same (-1db) on all recordings.

If you think the level sounds different it’s all because of the different characters that put the transient peaks at different places.

First on the track is my modern sounding MTD KZX 5str

with Bartolini soapbars. All basses except the Yamaha are strung with Rotosound

Swing bass, 45-105 (130) of similar age. The Yamaha has D’Addario ProSteels med gauge.

  Both pickups                                                       Neck pickup

PS. The Yamaha has a preamp that’s not bypassable. It’s all neutral, no boost.