Bass solo boost advice

[Rexel Matador]

Hi all, my covers band does Mr Big by Free, and people keep telling me the bass needs to come up in the solo. I think just turning up will cause it to be boomy and overpowering, so I think I just need to boost certain frequencies to cut through - does that sound right? Do I need an eq pedal on which I just boost certain bands? It's not something I've ever had to worry about before so was just wondering what others do in this situation - any advice appreciated!

[BassAdder60]

Why do you think turning up will make it boomy ? It shouldn’t 

 

You could use various old school methods like turn down the vol on your bass slightly for normal playing and max it for solo time or .. 

 

Get an EQ pedal or Spark Booster pedal and press on it at the required moment or … 

 

Use playing dynamics and play harder to increase volume slightly 

[Dan Dare]

I'd look to cut extreme low frequencies and boost the mids (you'll have to determine which by experiment). Aim for a J bass sound. Andy Fraser used an EB3, but he favoured and played over the bridge pickup He would use thumb as well as fingers, too.

[Steve Browning]

Stay at the same volume and get the band to play quieter. The old school method.

[uk_lefty]

Various ways to do this... EQ pedal or a preamp pedal could be used, then you can take out any boominess if it's an issue. I had an Ashdown boost pedal before that did the job, there's plenty of alternatives too and they aren't expensive. Distortion and overdrive pedals with an EQ section could work too: I recently got a Marshall Guvnor guitar pedal that has a decent EQ as well as gain and volume controls, I press on that for passages where the bass needs to be more prominent and can have it clean or driven like a 70s guitar. I need this for things like the bass only part of the Hives 'Hate to Say I Told You So' and playing the intro on my own for the dreaded 7 Nation Army (or as I call it, Fisher Price's My First Bassline)

[Downunderwonder]

Boosting level flattens out our hearing relative deficit in the lows. See Fletcher Munson curves.

 

An EQ pedal that you kick in for solos which has a level control will let you boost as subtle as you like.

 

Or you could pluck harder closer to the bridge and that might be enough.

[Lozz196]

TC Spark Booster is good for this, it has a selectable Mid boost so as well as being able to boost the volume as required you add in extra mids at the same time, ideal for bringing up the bass for a solo.

[mr4stringz]

Another +1 for the TC Spark booster.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

A simple boost pedal is the quickest way (another vote for the wonderful TC Electronic Spark here!) but I would hazard a guess that if your solo isn't popping out enough, you should first look at your overall tone and EQ, or that the guitarist is overplaying/too loud (more likely).

It might just be that you're already too low in the mix.

[police squad]

20 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Stay at the same volume and get the band to play quieter. The old school method.

proper playing with dynamics. We do that in my 80s band. 😀

[spencer.b]

What bass you playing?

[la bam]

Simplest way is to gig at 3/4 volume on your bass. Then you can go louder or quieter easily depending on requirement. Other simpler ways are digging in harder and rolling up the tone control. It's not really about being louder, more being more prominent in the mix.

 

More costly alternatives are a mid boost pedal, compressor, boost pedal etc.

[Steve Browning]

3 hours ago, police squad said:

proper playing with dynamics. We do that in my 80s band. 😀

Let's face it. That's how Free would have done it themselves.

[Rexel Matador]

Thanks all - I think I'll try a boost or eq pedal. I'm not very confident with the volume control and as for it all being the fingers, I'm not Andy Fraser - it's all I can do to muddle through it playing something that sounds passable! I'm certainly not trying to emulate the tone - I play a very un-Free Fender P.

[Steve Browning]

1 hour ago, Rexel Matador said:

Thanks all - I think I'll try a boost or eq pedal. I'm not very confident with the volume control and as for it all being the fingers, I'm not Andy Fraser - it's all I can do to muddle through it playing something that sounds passable! I'm certainly not trying to emulate the tone - I play a very un-Free Fender P.

There's always the fall-back method. Look as though you're playing and keep looking at the bass, holding it up and look as though you're trying to figure out why it stopped working.

[StickyDBRmf]

I don't remember what I was using in my old band to cut thru, but our guitarist called it the "make our ears bleed" sound.

Seriously, I think when I wanted to cut through, I would turn on the Morley Wah and "tune" it to a frequency that cut through. It had a "boost", so the wah was a little louder.