A Great Article For Those Who Have A Hard Time Dialing In EQ

BassSurfer · #1 08-26-2010, 02:40 PM

I just discovered this article recently due to my horrible addiction to adjusting my amp for the "sound in my head" all of the time.

I hope this helps novices and experts alike in dialing the perfect tone for their amps.

If this has been posted before, please remove!

http://bassguitarrocks.com/bass-amp-eq-for-beginners

rpsands · #2 08-26-2010, 02:48 PM

Umm...

Quote:

A good rule of thumb is that the size of the speakers in your bass cabinet dictate how far away you should be.
If you have a single 15″ speaker then 15 feet in front of that speaker should be the ‘sweet spot’ where you can hear it best. This works for any size speaker – a 10″ speaker will throw sound about ten feet ahead, and having multiples doesn’t change this (i.e. a 2 x 10″ cabinet will still sound better about 10 feet away, not five or 20 feet away).

Shenanigans.

BassSurfer · #3 08-26-2010, 02:58 PM

I diden't even fully read the whole page, just skimmed over some helpful sections to the new bassist.

Looks okay, and there will always be someone who disagrees.

projectMalamute · #4 08-26-2010, 03:04 PM

That's a pretty awful article.

Jonathan1990 · #5 08-26-2010, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassSurfer

I diden't even fully read the whole page, just skimmed over some helpful sections to the new bassist.

Looks okay, and there will always be someone who disagrees.

Yes, there will always be someone who disagrees with physical bullcarp (unless of course 'sweet spot' means the place where you see the speaker cone at just the right size).

JimmyM · #6 08-26-2010, 03:12 PM

this was clearly written by a guy who doesn't really know a whole lot about how audio works. some of the things he said will work well, but a lot of it is just plain inaccurate. i'm with rp...it's based on myths such as the "sweet spot" rule and a lack of true understanding of audio principles.

Beej · #7 08-26-2010, 03:19 PM

I have to agree that this is not a very good article. The site is new and written by its sole proprietor, Michael Ippersiel, whom, it seems, is a nice blogger who happens to "play bass" (not professionally or otherwise respectably when it comes to being an expert - which by virtue of the nature of this site he is purporting to be). I don't see how this information could even come close to approaching to hold a candle to the vast repository available on this site or others in which honest-to-goodness professionals or other knowledgeable types hang out.

Plus, the guy thinks the Flea Bass was "impressive". That makes me immediately question his ability to assess a bass' quality and playability...

Jools4001 · #8 08-26-2010, 04:00 PM

I've been playing a long time and, sometimes, dialling in a good tone is difficult. How about if the collective wisdom of TB was able to put a thread together on this topic that could be stickied?

I always find myself wrestling with getting a good midrange so that the bass sounds fat and punchy without getting that awful midrange quack and nasal boxiness - that's always on a knife edge for me. About all I could contribute is that, starting from 'flat' it's often better to cut frequencies you don't like rather than boost the hell out of the frequencies that you do like.

JimmyM · #9 08-26-2010, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jools4001

I've been playing a long time and, sometimes, dialling in a good tone is difficult. How about if the collective wisdom of TB was able to put a thread together on this topic that could be stickied?

I always find myself wrestling with getting a good midrange so that the bass sounds fat and punchy without getting that awful midrange quack and nasal boxiness - that's always on a knife edge for me. About all I could contribute is that, starting from 'flat' it's often better to cut frequencies you don't like rather than boost the hell out of the frequencies that you do like.

ok, sticky this...

plug in, turn knobs till sassified.

RickenBoogie · #10 08-26-2010, 04:45 PM

I've come to realize, after years of fumbling, that an amp that sounds good with all the dials set "flat", is an amp for me. Sure, there will be rooms that need a bit of tweaking, but essentially, if I have to do a bunch of knob twisting to get a decent tone, the amp is gone.

omegamike · #11 08-26-2010, 04:46 PM

Happens to be me.

By the way - BassSurfer - thanks for sharing the link to my post, I truly appreciate it and hope that it helps others to find the sound in their head...or something approaching it.

If anyone here has some constructive criticism regarding the finer points of my article, I'm all ears. I don't claim to be an expert on acoustics or sonic engineering but wanted to share the tips that I've learned from my own experience - your mileage may vary.

Tell you what - the first person here who writes a better post, reply in this thread with the URL and I'll link to it within my post.

Fair enough?

Cheers!

MooseLumps · #12 08-26-2010, 04:51 PM

edit: removed due to context

JimmyM · #13 08-26-2010, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omegamike

Happens to be me.

By the way - BassSurfer - thanks for sharing the link to my post, I truly appreciate it and hope that it helps others to find the sound in their head...or something approaching it.

If anyone here has some constructive criticism regarding the finer points of my article, I'm all ears. I don't claim to be an expert on acoustics or sonic engineering but wanted to share the tips that I've learned from my own experience - your mileage may vary.

Tell you what - the first person here who writes a better post, reply in this thread with the URL and I'll link to it within my post.

Fair enough?

Cheers!

well we can start with the sweet spot myth. there is nothing to the idea that for every inch of speaker, you have to stand a foot away to find the sweet spot. in fact, there really is no "sweet spot" based on speaker size.

also, the part about the bass freqs bouncing off the walls and causing cancellations is true. but it doesn't cancel the mids and highs...it cancels the lows. actually, it causes areas where the lows are either gone or heavily reinforced, depending on where you stand. google "comb filtering" for a more in depth explanation.

also, to break the floor coupling with the cab, you have to raise your amp a good couple feet or so off the floor. i forget the formula, but it's related to the lowest freq your rig puts out, which averages to like 27 inches for most amps. i do know some good players who recommend the gramma pads, but i've not seen any proof from audio scientists that back up their claim that they break the floor coupling.

to be fair, you do have some good ideas, but there are some inaccuracies. i'd stop way short of calling you a hack, but i'd recommend reading up some more on the physics of audio reproduction.

now why don't -i- do it myself? because i don't know enough to do it. instead, i'll leave it to the pros who have published much great info at jbl or mayer or billfitzmaurice.com since they're actual audio physicists.

daflores · #14 08-26-2010, 05:50 PM

My "sweet spot" is where my speakers are low enough to the floor and far enough away from my ears so that I don't hear the clackety-clack zing zing of my sloppy technique.

BurningSkies · #15 08-26-2010, 06:40 PM

Setting your amp's tone controls to noon, or centered or to 0 in fact does not leave you with the sound of your bass.

Few bass amps are flat at noon, or zero. In some cases leaving everything there will leave you WAY off from 'the sound of your bass'. Any amp with the classic Bassman tone stack (and many many amps are based upon it) is nowhere near flat at noon. For instance, the popular Mesa 400+ if you set at 5-5-5 gives you loads of bass and treble boost and attenuates the mids considerably.

The reality is almost all amps have a 'tone profile' designed into them. Unless you know what that is, you're not going to find 'flat' even if you tried.

Also not true: sweet spot.

thudfromafar · #16 08-26-2010, 10:25 PM

try this one
http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/thefitz/blog/16324/

JimmyM · #17 08-26-2010, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thudfromafar

try this one
http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/thefitz/blog/16324/

i think that guy's high if he likes to cut 150.

Joe Nerve · #18 08-26-2010, 10:40 PM

I can pretty much set any amp I play out of flat, and take care of all my business from here.

Only read the first few paragraphs of the article. The dude seems well meaning.

Beej · #19 08-26-2010, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omegamike

Happens to be me.

By the way - BassSurfer - thanks for sharing the link to my post, I truly appreciate it and hope that it helps others to find the sound in their head...or something approaching it.

If anyone here has some constructive criticism regarding the finer points of my article, I'm all ears. I don't claim to be an expert on acoustics or sonic engineering but wanted to share the tips that I've learned from my own experience - your mileage may vary.

Tell you what - the first person here who writes a better post, reply in this thread with the URL and I'll link to it within my post.

Fair enough?

Cheers!

Fair enough? Well, not really, no. A brief analogy, since I'm not at all interested in calling you out, or starting a pissing match.

I'm a trained, accredited, certified, professional psychotherapist and have been for more than a decade. In order to practice therapy though, its a buyer beware world. Anyone can take a volunteer training program and learn to do "counselling" in which therapy is rooted. They can do this for "a long time" and then can write a blog about what it means to be a counsellor. The disingenuous part comes when they don't qualify their expertise. Just having an interest in something and doing it for years does not in any way allow that person to then go on and call themselves an expert, or present their personal experience and opinions as expert testimony.

The counsellor blogger when asked about their training, education, expertise and is asked to account for obvious errors says "tell you what, when you can type out a blog that better covers what I put down, I'll erase my blog and put yours down instead." Well, the flaw with that logic is that as an actual trained, accredited, certified therapist, I immediately see in their blog that there are so many elementary items and perspectives that it is virtually meaningless. I can't actually improve it without completely rewriting it, and altering the context its in its current state, and further, in the case to which I'm actually referring, the points they are making are moot in real practice as they are personally meaningful perspectives reflecting the writer's own experience and don't reflect a wider perspective or modus operandi at all. And further exploration would show even a layperson where the facts lie. The point is, research is key to being able to write something meaningfully, factually and accurately.

I see this as quite similar. You haven't laid out your credentials yet, you're making some fairly elementary errors in understanding and you're engaging in an argumentative fallacy when challenged on those errors in which you're asking others to produce something better if they can, the absence of which will undoubtedly be pointed to as evidence that your statements are valid.

I have no problems with you personally in any way, but this is simple speciousness. There are audio engineers on this very site who are actual genuine experts on the topic you've written. Would you be comfortable debating your points with them? It's literally only a matter of time before it actually happens..

rpsands · #20 08-26-2010, 11:10 PM

"put bass cab against wall, twiddle knobs and play while someone else walks around the room and listens. alternatively, have someone else play while you twiddle knobs and then walk around the room."

There, DONE!

Also, not sure who mentioned it, but cutting at 150hz is a great way to get rid of boominess/muddiness from a too-small speaker cabinet. Pretty much the center frequency for mud.