netcarlos

I am a bassist, and since our band switched to IEMs, I have been struggling to achieve a clean sound at a high enough volume in my headphones.

The signal chain is as follows: Passive Jazz Bass -> Jad Freer Capo DI -> Presonus SL 24R -> Millenium HPA In Ear -> MEE Audio M6 Pro 2nd Gen.

Upon initial setup, I noticed that I am unable to properly adjust the gain on the input of the Presonus or on the aux output without experiencing distorted bass guitar sound in my IEMs. I have to keep both levels in the "green" zone and avoid the "yellow" entirely. This forces me to maximize the gain on my headphone amp. However, this leaves me with no additional volume reserve for potential stage use, and the sound is still not loud enough (especially considering the presence of a loud drummer nearby).

For comparison, I connected my headphones directly to the headphone monitor output on the Presonus main channel, and the sound was clean and sufficiently loud (probably because of on-board headphone amp). This leads me to believe that either the output from the Presonus rack mix is too hot or my headphone amp is unable to handle the bass frequencies.

I have also attempted using a Behringer PM1 instead of the Millenium HPA, but encountered the same issue.

I acknowledge that this setup is relatively budget-friendly, and I am willing to invest more. The initial goal was to transition the entire band to IEMs and then upgrade equipment once we are all comfortable with the system.

Rather boring technical specs follow:

After last few years of playing bass only with fingers, I'd like to get back to slap that I used to play many years ago.

Unfortunately, I'm finding that the volume of my finger plucking technique is much quieter than my slap and specifically pop. A possible reason is that I was used to practicing slap on "dry" bass without any amp. I remember getting blisters on my thumb and index fingers from slapping and popping.

I know that there are compressors, and I've already tried some mild compressions, but the difference in volume is too big to make any difference with compressor.

If I play on rehearsals, I can turn gain of my amp down, but the problem is when playing live where I'm pretty sure I'm getting the mixer guy very upset when I change the technique between songs unexpectedly. 

I'd say that if I play fingers with maximum effort in terms of power (much more than my average plucking volume) the volume is roughly the same as if I try to play slap very carefully and quietly. 

Also I'd say that I'm able to control the volume of slap better than the volume of pop. There is a narrow line between getting the bright sound of a string striking into a fret and getting "dull" sound similar to finger pluck.

So.. How to get even volume with both finger and slap technique?

Quote

Sandberg also offers a Soft Aged option with subtler notes, and a Hardcore Aged Masterpiece process that includes “strongly aged” hardware, fingerboard aging, as well as a vibration treatment that is said to coax a more vintage tone out of the wood.

Source: https://www.bassplayer.com/gear/review-sandberg-california-tm-bass

I think it's a mixture of being a Masterpiece build and

I think that "Masterpiece" label is only matter of the finish.

Just started to trade here so I'm creating this topic so you can leave feedback for me..

Thx.