Too much bass from Flatwound?

[walknbluez]

Originally Posted by fretlessman71

Plug into a tuner and tune the string in question.

Play the string at the 12th fret and note what the tuner says.

If the note is flat, loosen the screw that holds that saddle so that it slides towards the pickup just a bit and recheck until the open string and the 12th fret note both play in tune.

If the note is sharp, tighten the screw so the saddle moves away from the pickups and check again.

Make sense?

Yes thanks. I checked and my E string was slightly sharp at the 12th fret and so I tightened the screw a bit and that worked. Thanks so much, I didn't know about that

[Dbassmon]

The obvious answer is to adjust your eq curve. You can also adjust your pickup height, that will back off low end.

[mrufino1]

I use flats almost exclusively, and I do not have a problem with excess bass. Keep in mind about the amp sounding different far away. It took me a LONG time to learn that and several threatened firings (as well as one firing that did happen). I do not play loud in the overall scheme of things, but now if I get asked to turn down, even if it doesn't make sense to me I realize 3 things: 1. I am wearing earplugs (custom ones, but lowers the overall volume a lot), so I don't know what it actually sounds like, 2. I am right in front of my amo and not doing sound, so I need to trust the person doing sound, and 3. I am not signing the checks (most important!!!), so when the request is made, it needs to be accommodated if I wish to continue to receive said checks (or cash...). I use a sansamp RBI, and initially I had the low end up pretty high, but I have since backed it down to just a little bump above flat, and I cut the highs and mids a little (often more important than boosting lows, more natural and safer). I recently put dimarzio pickups in my bass and thomastik flats, and now I am very happy with the sound. Everything seems to be sitting in the mix nicely.

[walknbluez]

Originally Posted by mrufino1

I use flats almost exclusively, and I do not have a problem with excess bass. Keep in mind about the amp sounding different far away. It took me a LONG time to learn that and several threatened firings (as well as one firing that did happen). I do not play loud in the overall scheme of things, but now if I get asked to turn down, even if it doesn't make sense to me I realize 3 things: 1. I am wearing earplugs (custom ones, but lowers the overall volume a lot), so I don't know what it actually sounds like, 2. I am right in front of my amo and not doing sound, so I need to trust the person doing sound, and 3. I am not signing the checks (most important!!!), so when the request is made, it needs to be accommodated if I wish to continue to receive said checks (or cash...). I use a sansamp RBI, and initially I had the low end up pretty high, but I have since backed it down to just a little bump above flat, and I cut the highs and mids a little (often more important than boosting lows, more natural and safer). I recently put dimarzio pickups in my bass and thomastik flats, and now I am very happy with the sound. Everything seems to be sitting in the mix nicely.

In other words, it took you a long time to learn to turn it down or up?

Also, how does cutting the mids and highs help get those mids and highs into the mix better? I'm asking because I was boosting mine to try to get them to stand out better. Again hard to tell when I was close but when I heard the recording they were more pronounced.

[mrufino1]

Well, I don't always get the point quickly, I am a bit stubborn!

As far as pulling back other things, think of it like this: There is a point to which you can't push more than what is already there. If you keep boosting highs, 10db, 20db, eventually you are just boosting crazy amounts unnaturally. So if you want your highs to be 5 db louder than your lows (very simple explanation) then wouldn't turning your lows down 5 db do the same thing? Then you can adjust your overall volume to make sense, but it may not actually be as much as you think you need to do. One mistake made is that people worry about what their instrument sounds like by itself, but unless you are doing a solo show, that is not really important. If you have a pile of stuff on your floor, and you want something at the bottom of the pile to be seen, you could either move things from on top of it, or you could add stuff underneath to make it poke through, but eventually you just end up with a bigger mess.

Also, arrangement has tons to do with how your bass sounds. If you are playing with guitarists using tons of (unecessary) low end, you will have trouble being heard. If they are playing the lowest notes they can all of the time, same thing. But if you arrange it the right way, voila, tons of bass! Think about "With or Without You" by U2, which I consider a masterpiece of arrangement. The bass is plenty present, but a lot of that has to do with the airiness of the guitars and the space left by the music around it. The Edge says, in the Joshua Tree DVD, that his proudest musical moment ever is the light strum at the end of that song, where they could have just made it huge with tons of parts but the understated part actually made it sound bigger.

If you are able, search out the various multitracks available online (you'll have to research what I mean if you don't know, I can't tell you where to find them)- you will hear how the bass really sounds, and it is surprising sometimes. Especially the Bob Marley stuff- pretty ordinary jazz and flatwound tone, not hard to achieve (you know what I mean, I give Aston Barrett all of the credit in the world, he rules), but in context it sounds even bigger than it is by note placement, arrangement around it, etc.

[badboy1984]

I think i have settle and know abit more about how to adjusting the right ton for me.

I set my EQ flat as usual on my amp and just use the deep switch from the ashdown amp to thicken up the bass etc.

I also set my J-Retro onboard preamp on my bass flat too to start off. Then i cut all the treble on the bass and that sound very warm, mellow and deep without doing much. Then in term of being heard in the mix i will do the following. I will adjust the mid on my bass or the mid freq on my bass to make the tone cut nicely in the mix without taken all the low end away.

[markdavid]

Originally Posted by badboy1984

I think i have settle and know abit more about how to adjusting the right ton for me.

I set my EQ flat as usual on my amp and just use the deep switch from the ashdown amp to thicken up the bass etc.

Be careful with the deep switches on amps , a lot of them work by boosting the bass and cutting the mids (not good for cutting through the mix)

[DavePlaysBass]

Cutting mids at 200Hz can get rid of boom if that is what you are calling too bassy. Boosting mids at 800Hz gives nice cut and clarity IME in a band situaion.

On my P with flats I like rolling back the tone just a smidge. It gives a little mid hump that sounds great with my La Bella flats. But my cap value is a 0.1uF.

With a Jazz bass, just dial out some neck pickup if things are felling too bassy. This is what I do in boomy rooms with a two pickup bass.

TI flats have a ton of midrange and are a little bottom shy on a Jazz. I really like them on my 61J. And as been mentioned, pickup height can really effect the ways things sound.

Dave

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by badboy1984

I feel i getting too much bass now on my setup.

I feel my bass getting too much bass and thump. This is normal right when using flatwound? This is kinda my first bass with flatwound.

That does not compute. You're playing classic rock and gospel - you NEED that sound. Relax and enjoy it.

[Moe Monsarrat]

Too much bass? Too much thump? Impossible.
Seriously though, you can always EQ out a bit of bottom & turn down. But that wouldn't be sporting, would it? For me the best things about flatwounds are: 1. My bass doesn't sound like a piano(no offense, Chris Squire). 2. Zero string noise in the studio. 3. The longer they're on the bass the better they sound.
My advice is embrace the bass. Don't let them laugh at your Mighty Sword!