Worship- How to get great tone for it...

[JetBlackJazz]

I play in my youth worship band full time and I need help on tone. I have a TC Electronic BG500 (love it) and a Schecter Custom 4 (ya, I know kind of inappropriate for the genre but it was a great deal for a good bass) and a parametric eq as my setup. I like to be heard but also sit in the mix properly. I don't want to be overbearing, putting on drive or effects to stand out and they suck tone 99% of the time. I want my bass to be thick and punch but smooth and sit nicely in the mix. We play modern stuff and old stuff. I have programmable settings so I can switch between fuller or smoother. Suggestions?

[JetBlackJazz]

Anyone?

[curbowkid]

Drop your mids back and crank your bass and treble.....

[TimmyP]

Go wireless so you can walk the house during rehearsal and hear the problems. Can't fix 'em if you can't hear 'em.

[Hactar]

You might have better luck in Amps.

As for EQ, set it flat, and see how it sounds. Generally, you will want to drop a bit of lows, and perhaps boost a slight bit at the "growl". The nice bit of having a PEQ is being able to set a strong narrow boost, and sweep until you find the freq that you like. Then drop the gain and widen out the Q

[JetBlackJazz]

Originally Posted by curbowkid

Drop your mids back and crank your bass and treble.....

Probably not

[nick98338]

Originally Posted by curbowkid

Drop your mids back and crank your bass and treble.....

I'm thinking just the opposite of this.

[NelsonNelson]

Use your fingers and never a pick. Play between the bridge and neck pickup and not on top of the bridge. Roll the blend back a bit towards the bridge pickup. Boost your bass and mids and roll treble down some. If the bass is alder it will help with the tone as well. If it's ash it might never get very deep sounding.

There are so many variables...

[klokker]

Originally Posted by Hactar

You might have better luck in Amps.

As for EQ, set it flat, and see how it sounds. Generally, you will want to drop a bit of lows, and perhaps boost a slight bit at the "growl". The nice bit of having a PEQ is being able to set a strong narrow boost, and sweep until you find the freq that you like. Then drop the gain and widen out the Q

I agree with this in general for getting a good sound in the mix. But just remember after you've chased tone for hours, your sound person will make you sound the way THEY want. That's how it is.

[curbowkid]

Originally Posted by nick98338

I'm thinking just the opposite of this.

I was being sarcastic

[El-Bob]

You schecter is an almost ideal bass for worship, IMO, since it's a clean modern sounding instrument, and that's a popular sound for worship. I find it amusing how all the 'metal' basses like Ibanez, ESP, schecter, etc. have these big crisp clean modern tones inherent to them which are far more suited to styles like contemporary christian than they are to metal, and more vintage style instruments like jazzes and precisions have a far more aggressive tone that cuts better in metal settings... off topic a bit, but whatever.

[uhdinator]

Depends on the room As to how you eq.
Getting a killer tone dialed in when in your living room or bedroom is not gonna sound the same when you play a different larger room and add other instruments that may be interfering with that killer tone you had when playing alone.

[OtterOnBass]

Nice equipment. One thing that works for me - I get a full, punchy tone, then for the classics, I pluck over the end of the fretboard, even muting with my left hand. For the rocking stuff, I move might right hand back towards the bridge for a more cutting tone.

[nick98338]

When I play in church, the only real tone problem I have is my really low notes causing stuff to start buzzing and rattling. The snare drum buzzes. The lights above the stage buzz. The music stands buzz. There's one big light fixture above the congregation that rattles. In order to keep my volume up enough, I have to turn the low frequencies down. But, I like the warmer sound, too. So, instead of turning up low freqs, I keep the low knob pretty flat, and turn down the mids and treble some. Mostly the treble. And, I keep the compressor up. A tone that lasts longer seems louder.

[Gigabajillion]

Originally Posted by NelsonNelson

Use your fingers and never a pick. Play between the bridge and neck pickup and not on top of the bridge. Roll the blend back a bit towards the bridge pickup. Boost your bass and mids and roll treble down some. If the bass is alder it will help with the tone as well. If it's ash it might never get very deep sounding.

There are so many variables...

Great advice, especially with your custom 4. (My main bass for 5 years, 6 nights a week for worship) If you have the Natural maple the upper register sounds fantastic in the mix!

It is all about finger placement, technique and velocity. DI, Amp, soundguy or not, the overall characteristics will come through. Remember, the bass soloed may sound bad by itself but fits perfectly in the mix. So listen for that!

[superdick2112]

Originally Posted by TimmyP

Go wireless so you can walk the house during rehearsal and hear the problems. Can't fix 'em if you can't hear 'em.

+ 1000

I always use a wireless at sound checks for just this reason, even if I end up using a cable during the performance.
Also, talk with your soundman before & during sound check to let him know what you are needing tone-wise, both FOH & on-stage.

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by NelsonNelson

If the bass is alder it will help with the tone as well. If it's ash it might never get very deep sounding.

Where on Earth did you get that idea?

[JimmyM]

Has nothing to do with the equipment whatsoever...not the bass, not the amp, not anything.

Turn knobs till it sounds good and accomplishes your goals. It's no different for worship music or any other kind of music. Timmy's idea to walk the house with a wireless or a long cord is a great one. Also, tilting your cab so it hits your ears is a good one. And watch the volume. I always try to make my sound onstage balanced with the rest of the band to where I hear myself as if I'm listening to a recording. Too many people want to hear themselves way louder than anything else, and that's where you get into trouble.

[joelb79]

I was going to say that most of the tone chasing I've done in my life was better chased with hand technique than knob twists. I found that a neck pickup tone was best for my church playing, and learning to make my hand make the tone was the way to get it done. I rolled my tone off most times. I also used a Multicomp and VT-Bass to make changes, running direct and hearing through a monitor wedge. Our PA was a line array with 6 18's for low end and not enough top cabinets in the line, so the bass was always cut because the house balance was low end heavy. We had none of the directional control that a line array normally has. As well complicating things, the subwoofers were on each side of the stage 40 ft apart making the lows node out throughout the room horribly around 50-60hz. The sound booth was located directly between the subs against the back wall. Honestly, there were more challenges from a horrible sound install and the sound guy would always eq and level things the same way: the best I could do was learn to play every note with perfect attack, decay, no over-playing.

I'm sure you'll find your room is different. Perhaps you could say what is wrong with your tone and maybe we can help better. There is no right or wrong way to do things, just things that sound better.

[curbowkid]

The key to worship bass tone is large amounts of distortion and scooped mids. I KEED I KEED.