I recently discovered what I regard as the perfect bass sound. To my ears, it sounds amazing, and I would love to make a decent attempt at recreating it. The low end has so much power and fullness. The highs just sound clear, tamed and crisp. Have a listen to when the bass kicks in on this song (only 20 or so seconds in).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFE9FpD86JY

I'm curious what you think from start to finish. It sounds like definitely played with fingers. Brand new strings (of course). Maybe a nice valve amp? Scooped mids. Bit of tape saturation? I know I'm not going to have anything close gear wise to replicate, but if I can get 80% there I'd be happy, but I don't expect even that. We shall see! How would you go about it? Could you only do it with an amazing amp and bass combo, or could you get reasonably close by tweaking less than ideal gear?

P.S. I ordered some felt picks today following the suggestion on another of my bass guitar threads. So hoping those sound good cause even though I'm starting to LOVE the sound of playing with my fingers (and beginning to hate the pick sound), I'm just not able to play with the same control yet and I don't have time to learn. Or not willing to put the time into learning. I'm hoping the felt pick will be a suitable easy way out!

That does sound fat.  Sounds like a nice Fender through a Harke 4x10 with aluminum cones compressed to shizz!
Eq'd to give a nice low end with just enough highs for distinction.  Almost sounds synth it's so fat.

Mmm, those Hartke amps look niceeeee. I want.

I wonder how I could go with emulators. Check this:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/ampegsvx/audiodemo/

Listen to number 18 Octa Groove Unprocessed (which I think my bass sounds pretty similar to) and then go to 16 Octa Groove and listen what they do to the sound. THAT is what I want! Hell, if you can get it that good just from a simulator, I think I'm gonna have to get my credit card out...

I think maybe that the person actually played some actual bass notes.

I can barely hear any bass on my laptop speakers... I can hear the top of the swell.

Which, indicates to me that the bass part is actually a bass part.

That suits my personal preference, but it sort of defies the common approach of playing a bit higher up the scale so that the cheapy speakers play some bass.

I like my kick and bass to sound great on a system that actually plays back the lows with authority. I find that when I play the low E and love it on my real systems, that sometimes it just disappears on cheap systems. That's not ideal, but it sure sounds good on a nice system.

A lot of "bass" parts these days are episodes of hyped lower mid range because it translates well on modest playback systems.

I'm imagining you are enjoying the bass in that song on a nicer system for playback... or perhaps headphones... and I think I would too.

Perhaps you are simply responding to the novelty of hearing a true bass part?

If that's the case, I'd say any simple setup with enough power and a speaker that can actually play bass tones will do it. It's all in the player... but a SVT with a JBL wouldn't hurt.

:-)

If you haven't already.... Matt Check out the sans amp tech 21 bass driver.  Nice DI with a lot of flexibility to get different tones for $200 US.  I have been very happy with mine. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BassDriver/

I think I worked it out.

It's an octave pedal. Blended with an octave down. That's the sound I was hearing. I'm pretty sure of it! Would that sound right? I know nothing of bass specific effects but from what I'm hearing, that's the main thing going on here. Still a very nice amp, but I think it's the sound I want.

Ever consider contacting the artist and simply asking how the bass sound was achieved? You're already doing them a favor by calling attention to their music, and you might be surprised by just how forthcoming some artists are (or not).

Sounds like a synthesized bass to me. Or perhaps an amped bass doubled with a synth. It does sound good.

Well I went in to a bass shop today and talked to the guy about getting this sound. Turns out the bass player of this band actually is a customer of this shop!! He wasn't able to tell me too much other than what bass the guy normally played (Fender Jazz) and he said it was highly possible he used an Octaver pedal (without listening to the track). I'm pretty much convinced that's what he's done. I can hear it real clear now. So I bought an EBS OctaBass pedal after A/B ing a few different ones. It sounds great. It was cheapest too! And I liked it the most. As I can't play with fingers well enough, I got a set of flat wound strings and some felt picks to emulate it as much as I can. I think it'll at the very least get me a very unique sound as this is probably all a very unusual combination! So that and maybe some amp modelling at mixing time and I think I'll get me a nice sound. The Octaver could work great for use in a chorus too, and switch it off for the verses.

Long weekend now so time for some fun and see what I come up with!! Hopefully I can lay some tracks down :)

Thanks for the posts, guys

Mmm, these new strings are sounding pretty similar to my old strings (As you would expect, cause they are meant to be super dark) but I think they hold their notes a little better. Bit smoother transients and just better intonation. Expensive for a new set of strings, but I think worth it.