help with my svt4 pro

mdrago · #1 10-11-2010, 12:24 PM

So this is going to sound completely ridiculous for a bass player but here it goes...

I have been playing now for roughly 14 years and been in bands for probably 10 years. After having played roughly 500 gigs I started noticing that I was having a hard time hearing, and I mean I have a hard time hearing when people are talking to me. When I was younger I thought like a lot of kids that earplugs were for posers so I never used them. I went to a doctor a couple of months back after noticing that my hearing is really getting bad. Almost every time my roommate talks to me, if he is on my left side, I have to repeat what he said to make sure thats actually what he said. I'm about to buy him a damn megaphone. But anyway, I went to a doctor and I am completely deaf in my left ear now. I hear nothing in my left ear at all. This news kind of devastated me because I thought I may have to quit playing all together. After about a week of still practicing, I came to the conclusion that I can still decipher a change in pitch but as far as over all tone goes everything sounds very flat to me. Once I noticed this I thought maybe it was a problem with my amp at first so I took it in to get a "check up" on it. It did have a few problems but nothing that the tech told me would be tone related. It's been roughly 6 months now since I got my amp back and I still am not happy with the tone at all. I am running a Fender Aerodyne Jazz with passive P/J pickups through an ampeg svt4 pro into an ampeg 8x10". I play in drop C for the metal band I play in. I guess what I am looking for would be for someone with a similar setup to try to help me getting my bass dialed in so I can get a good tone. I know this is kind of impossible because my tone needs to work with the guitar players tones as well so I can cut through but if anyone has a really good idea I would really appreciate it. At this point in my life, with my girlfriend being pregnant and having just been laid off from my job, I am not ready to throw in the towel yet on playing completely. It's my only escape from reality currently and has been my passion for a long time now.

RickenBoogie · #2 10-11-2010, 12:38 PM

As with just about ANY good bass amp, run it flat. No boost, no cut. Just do a fine tuning for whatever room you're in. If the amp doesn't make you smile set flat, it's time for another amp that does. And, sorry about your hearing. That sucks.

Jim Campbell · #3 10-11-2010, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdrago

So this is going to sound completely ridiculous for a bass player but here it goes...

I have been playing now for roughly 14 years and been in bands for probably 10 years. After having played roughly 500 gigs I started noticing that I was having a hard time hearing, and I mean I have a hard time hearing when people are talking to me. When I was younger I thought like a lot of kids that earplugs were for posers so I never used them. I went to a doctor a couple of months back after noticing that my hearing is really getting bad. Almost every time my roommate talks to me, if he is on my left side, I have to repeat what he said to make sure thats actually what he said. I'm about to buy him a damn megaphone. But anyway, I went to a doctor and I am completely deaf in my left ear now. I hear nothing in my left ear at all. This news kind of devastated me because I thought I may have to quit playing all together. After about a week of still practicing, I came to the conclusion that I can still decipher a change in pitch but as far as over all tone goes everything sounds very flat to me. Once I noticed this I thought maybe it was a problem with my amp at first so I took it in to get a "check up" on it. It did have a few problems but nothing that the tech told me would be tone related. It's been roughly 6 months now since I got my amp back and I still am not happy with the tone at all. I am running a Fender Aerodyne Jazz with passive P/J pickups through an ampeg svt4 pro into an ampeg 8x10". I play in drop C for the metal band I play in. I guess what I am looking for would be for someone with a similar setup to try to help me getting my bass dialed in so I can get a good tone. I know this is kind of impossible because my tone needs to work with the guitar players tones as well so I can cut through but if anyone has a really good idea I would really appreciate it. At this point in my life, with my girlfriend being pregnant and having just been laid off from my job, I am not ready to throw in the towel yet on playing completely. It's my only escape from reality currently and has been my passion for a long time now.

take care of your good ear,dump the ipods/headphones and figure out a way to play without further ear damage

LaklandBass · #4 10-11-2010, 12:42 PM

agreed ^ rickenboogie has the right idea. EQ on an amp should be to correct for rooms and situations. The eq or tone of the bass should be to provide a desirable tone.

renniw · #5 10-11-2010, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaklandBass

agreed ^ rickenboogie has the right idea. EQ on an amp should be to correct for rooms and situations. The eq or tone of the bass should be to provide a desirable tone.

+1 to that... I had a SVT4-PRO for 5 years and I was not satisfied with the sound I got. I played with every knobs on it and went trough every imaginable settings from the subtle to the extreme...

Now I'm the proud owner if a Markbass LMIII and play it flat 95% of the time...

Note : Same cab with both amps : Bergantino AE410

About the earing : Protect yourself ASAP... earloss will never come back. Playing with earplugs takes time to get used to, but it's worth it.... been there...

mdrago · #6 10-11-2010, 01:29 PM

So should I just turn off the graphic EQ then and run everything at 12 0 clock or completely down at 0? I'm kind of gear-tarded, sorry. I haven't used headphones for anything in a long time. Ipod is strictly for my car only.

The more that I think about this ****** problem I have, the worse it gets when I think of dumb things I've done because of it (before I finally realized what was really going on). I picked up an SVT classic for $600 and it worked perfectly. Everyone raved about how good it sounded but I didn't like it because I could never get the kind of sound out of it I wanted. I sold it probably 3 months after I bought it. Granted I made a nice profit on it, but looking back, with the amount of compliments I got on it, it probably did have a really good sound. I'll probably never get a chance to buy another one for $600.

RickenBoogie · #7 10-11-2010, 01:37 PM

Yeah, graphic eq off, and all other tone knobs at 12 o clock. You may need to bump the low mids up a tad, but that should just about do it.