krispn Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 (edited) Our ears can get ‘fatigued’ when tweaking tone controls so when we go back to a ‘flat’ setting it’s nearky a relief and can sound great after a prolonged period of time tweaking. Solid advice is to start at noon and make small changes but remember if you’re playing with your band in a particular room twist the tone controls until it sounds good and balanced with the band not to where the knobs look correct. Sounding cohesive as a unit is the goal. Edited February 23, 2018 by krispn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taunton-hobbit Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Just checked my rig settings - It would seem I start level & tweak accordingly................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 In Logic, I spend a lot of time with EQs and my personal fave seems to be the API take on it. Very simple but very musical EQ. With regards to the EQs found on bass amps, I generally find them particularly frustrating because they aren't as useful as I think they should be. For a lot of people, EQ is about drawing shapes whilst shifting sliders or thinking "I need more bass, or low mids..." and then just tweaking the appropriate knob. Amazingly, alot of people don't appreciate the frequencies that they are dealing with - and bass guitar frequencies are not as low as they think - because it's the harmonics and not the fundamentals which are produced at volume through bass rigs. In reality, without understanding the impact that the room is having on the sound and the fact that a lot of tweaking with narrow notches is the answer to many troublesome rooms. If in doubt, leave it flat... because it is bound to sound better than an ill configured EQ. Swamping bass and nasal boosts are going to do your band no favours. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twanger Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 For me EQ is about solving problems rather than shaping tone. A bit of bass cut to solve bassy howling and booming. A mid boost (or two, sometimes) to cut through. It's never more than that. And the more knobs you have, the more opportunity to screw everything up royally. If there are no problems, don't fix what ain't broken. Well, actually, I do add a bit of honk, now and then, so I guess that is tone shaping....:D And when it comes to roll off tone controls, I have only ever used them on P basses. But they really do work on P basses! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 4 hours ago, EBS_freak said: Amazingly, a lot of people don't appreciate the frequencies that they are dealing with - and bass guitar frequencies are not as low as they think - because it's the harmonics and not the fundamentals which are produced at volume through bass rigs. Mea culpa! The greatest epiphany I ever had was realising that most of the tone I was seeking was in the mids, not the bass frequencies, and that actually it was perfectly acceptable to dial the bass back for a clearer sound. Sadly it took me years to realise this... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 19 hours ago, stingrayPete1977 said: Other people might actually be using a preamp with less controls or a tone they prefer but using the power amp just for the power section so the myriad of knobs might not actually be doing anything. Exactly - but then why do people spend a fortune on an expensive amp to only use the power amp section? Beats me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, casapete said: Exactly - but then why do people spend a fortune on an expensive amp to only use the power amp section? Beats me! Well I'm sure there are a few reasons, first one that springs to mind is that my Shuttlemax is great but if I was doing a motown gig I'd probably want some kind of valve drive to warm it up, the next gig may well be a modern function covers band without the preamp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said: Well I'm sure there are a few reasons, first one that springs to mind is that my Shuttlemax is great but if I was doing a motown gig I'd probably want some kind of valve drive to warm it up, the next gig may well be a modern function covers band without the preamp. Fair enough if you do a myriad of different styles / gigs. I'm just one of those old school guys who expects to use just one main amp to cover all my gigs without having to add stuff to it, or carry alternative amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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