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Having to play with an awful tone


Marvin

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I went to a blues open mic/jam night last night with a couple of mates whose blues band I'm playing with at the moment. A really nice crowd of players, the guy who runs it is a real gent, if you can play then they really want you to get up and have a go...

...the only disappointment was the absolutely awful tone emanating from the bass amp all night. I thought I'd got to the stage where I didn't really care too much about tone. As long as it sounded reasonably bass like then what the hell, life's too short to be continually swapping amps and twiddling knobs :). But this thing was like sludge...and I mean sludge, there was no definition at all to any note you played. It was a one of those Ashdown 180 combos, and it sounded as if the octaver was permanently on. I can only assume it was in some way broken, because you could play around with it for an eternity and you'd still just get sludge.

It was really disconcerting and off putting. Because of the tone I couldn't hear myself at all. I spent the numbers I played relying on playing shapes on the fretboard. 

I won't be tone hunting, it wasn't that bad, but there's clearly a limit to how bad a tone can be. :)

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I had to play through one of those before, they really do sound like butt. You're not wrong about the octaver-like tone, I also noticed this, from what I recall these combos have a 'deep' switch, which makes them sound like a sub-octaver going through some digital overdrive, I don't think it's just a low boost EQ. It makes a god awful racket. 

Edited by project_c
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They're awful, hateful things. I remember playing though one 12 years ago and I still feel scarred by the experience. It made my status buzzard sound like a rubber ball being bounced on a wet bathroom floor. 

The fact that it could do that to without a shadow of doubt the brightest and most cutting bass I've ever played says it all. Total and utter crap.

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My ABM 500 head always sounded like the Octaver was on to some degree. 

Ive recently bought a Sansamp to help with this sort of thing when doing jam nights and rehearsals when I can’t be arsed bringing my own amp (every time)

This of course assumes there is an effects loop present. 

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I`ve found that with Ashdown you have to work to get your sound, they`re not a plug in and play amp, you need to take some time to find what you`re looking for. But once you do find it, well from there it`s all great. My ABM600 is a cracking amp, much more flexible on the eq than the ABM500s I`ve had, and much louder too.

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Ive had mixed results playing through provided back line amps in the past - however by far the biggest impediment has been not understanding the controls of an unfamiliar amp - particularly things like pre shape push buttons which if you're not familiar with the amp, and in a dark area can cause problems of ludicrously scooped tone if depressed - as a for instance. 

Ive used Ashdown in the past (I have an ABM 500 with ABM cabinets which I don't gig currently) and it's true their sound is a combination of hi fi and vintage - but generally pretty good.  I've also played through an Electric Blue combo as described which produced a perfectly good sound when set up neutrally, using a Stingray. It was set up anything but neutral before - IIRC at least one tone control on the amp was full on. 

I think the issue is trying to get a neutral sound when the amp has other gizmos which may be switched on and also when the people providing the amp either haven't a clue how to set such an amp up or use an extreme tone.

My worst recent example at an open mike was where the 'house band' shares duties every other month with another - when I attended as a guest on my month off, myself (and several others) used the bass equipment provided by the other band, with our own basses and appeared to produce a bass sound a fraction of the volume of the house bassist - to the extent that every 'guest' bassist complained they couldn't hear themselves and worse still neither could their co-performers who also complained. It seems there was some trickery afoot in the signal - perhaps a boost button or maybe the amp had some gizmo engaged - anyway it was not very satisfactory and just shows the levels of tomfoolery which can occur when using provided equipment. 

Edited by drTStingray
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I used to own an Ashdown EB 150 combo. It sounded great.

But they do have a contour switch which removes the mids from your sound and with it all definition (it's for slapping apparently).

It also has a deep switch and an octaver control which are both pretty pointless.

I used to play with all of these gizmos switched off and the EQ controls at 12 o'clock and it sounded excellent.

 

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On the one I mentioned above,  you certainly have to spend an age working out how to get the best out of it as mentioned above, sadly that ‘best’ is still poor. The TE 150w head I bought for pennies knocks it’s socks off. Getting a good sound is highly personal and I think we make judgements on makes very easily, whilst I can rationalise this I also know that other makes sound better to my ear with almost no fiddling so why bother with one that doesn’t. They do seem to drop in value quickly so are perhaps worth looking at for someone on a budget. As with most makes they will suit some and not others, I am one of the others.

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Not all jams are created equal.

I've only been to a Jam where I've been the house bass player, so I get to bring my rig and sound like me.

Currently, if you come to my jam, you get to use an Aguilar AG700 and 2 Barefaced SC's.  Before that you'd have used a Thunderfunk and 3 Bergantino 112's.

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