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Bass won't cut through :(


nickhuge
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So I have my finished rig (apart from a bass driver DI but I’ve run out for money for now!)
Fender American P-Bass, 2 Markbass cabs, Ampeg SVT III pro. It sounds pretty damn gorgeous when it’s on its own. The issue is when I’m playing with the rest of the band, anything played low down sounds awesome (we play in drop C# so only a semitone below drop D), but as soon as I move up onto the A string and up the fret board I lose all the bass and it doesn’t cut through. I’ve tried a different cabs (2 massive trace’s last night) and I’ve tried knocking the EQ off the ampeg and still have the same issue. The bass is pretty light for a P-Bass. I had a look at the pickups and the pickup does seem to be quite low on the E-string end. I was thinking perhaps a compressor might help so i could boost the overall volume but keeping the low end at its current volume, but when you listen to the bass on it’s own it seems to keep the same volume through out and I love the tone.
Have you got any ideas what I could try?

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Ok this is the first time I've tried to upload an image on here, hope it works. Does anything look amiss here? I basically just got to a sound which I really liked but perhaps I need to compensate the tone somewhere on diff frequencies?

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:100988]

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Yeah, you've got a lot of low end added there, while the frequencies you'll actually hear in a band setting, your mids and highs, are turned down.

Set everything flat, next time you're playing with the band, and tweak as you go on. Don't judge your tone by how it sounds when you play solo, because it's not an accurate reflection of your tone once the bass drum, snare, guitars and vocals start taking frequency space away from you.

Your biggest boost, 30hz, is pretty much inaudible in a band context but you're devoting so much energy to it. Can your cab even do 30hz? Get that right out of there, see what a difference it makes. In fact, I'd say reverse every slider on the eq, see how you cut through then.

Edited by Doctor J
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[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1330184595' post='1553868']
Don't judge your tone by how it sounds when you play solo, because it's not an accurate reflection of your tone once the bass drum, snare, guitars and vocals start taking frequency space away from you.
[/quote]

Excellent advice. A lot of people don't seem to understand this! :D

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I used to have the frequency selector on 2, the Master volume on 3 or 4 o'clock and used the Gain for setting the volume, the Tube control on 3 o'clock, all the buttons out (I didn’t use the eq) and most of the other controls on 12 or 1 o'clock. I used Mesa Boogie cabs but I could cut through anything.

If you use the EQ then the right hand fader is a volume control. You don't seem to be using yours. If you're not cutting through then I'd try taking some bass off and push the mids and low mids.

I didn't drop tune so this may not be any help.

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