Changing tone and control knobs

[SinfoniaBass]

Hey everybody,
I am doing a study on the amount of times it is called for you to change your tone controls depending on the song that is being played, style of music, soloing etc. How many times on average during your performances do you change your tone? On this topic in particular, I would appreciate as many people as possible giving their say as I need this info for a school project necessary for graduation.

Thanks

[teleharmonium]

On bass I almost never change the tone knobs as such in a performance.

I use volume controls frequently - in my case, that's two volumes, one for each channel in a Vox AC50, and since they do sound different, it kind of is changing tone.

If I want to darken my sound I just use fingers, switch to the neck pickup , or play further from the bridge, or a combination of those.

[JTE]

I got no idea- I just do it as my ears dictate and don't really pay that much attention to it.

John

[JamesGoodall]

Originally Posted by teleharmonium

If I want to darken my sound I just use fingers, switch to the neck pickup , or play further from the bridge, or a combination of those.

Same. If i want to change my tone ill move from on the bridge to up onto the fingerboard around the 19th or 20th fret.

[smeet]

Depends on the band, but I usually adjust my tone to match the band and the venue and then do everything else with my playing technique.

If the band is playing a wide range of styles, I will roll the tone off or on, add or subtract midrange, switch pickups etc. as needed. I'll also play with fingers or pick, slap, play muted with thumb or fingers (or thumbnail), "typewriter" over the fingerboard, pull strings off the edge of the fingerboard to get a rattle, etc. But a lot of these fall into the category of special effects.

But as JTE said, this just sort of happens as I'm playing, it's rarely planned so I'm not sure how much I do it. Live, the variations in bass tone don't contribute as much to the band's sound as we bass players would like to believe. Certainly from the audience's perspective, if they can hear the bass, it's not too loud and it grooves, they mostly can't tell the difference. Once you dial in a tone that sounds good with the band, that's what I tend to stick with for the set unless a song calls for slapping or tapping or some other technique that really requires a tone change.

[Russell L]

Most of my tone shaping comes early in the gig when I am trying to figure out the room. Once I find myself I change very little, but I do tweak it a bit for different songs when needed. But, most songs can use the same tone. It also depends what kind of mood I'm in on any given night, or whether I have an idea I want to try out. Kinda hard to say, really, and it's not consistent. Sorry I can't be more precise.

[chaosMK]

I play in a hip hop band currently (new at it, prog metal is really my thing) and in this setting use the tone controls on my bass fairly often. In the past I'd never touch anything... just boost my mids/treble slightly as my strings aged or add more bridge pickup if I wanted to cut through a little more for some reason.

Usually I have mids boosted for a growly sound, but scoop and/or boost bass/treble if I have a slap part. If I am going to do a line that has a bunch of harmonics that I want to pop out more, I'll sweep to the bridge pickup slightly. If I have leads or fills that I dont want to be too dominant in the mix, I might roll off highs.

I am sure I could do things better (for example, set up my Sansamp BDDI for a good slap tone and leave it off most of the time) but that's how I've been rocking lately.

[kanonfodr]

I simply adjust volume for the gig, and between my active bass and my passive bass. I set up my guitars individually and then never touch the controls again once I'm happy, that happens at home or practice.

Peace,
Greg

[JTE]

It also depends a lot on which bass I'm playing. A lot of my tone shaping is my hands, from playing Precisions almost exclusively for so many years. But other basses offer other options which combined with the different sounds one can easily extract by playing at different locations on the strings (both hands, BTW), attack force, which part of the finger tip I use, etc. it becomes a big pallet that I don't think about on stage.

I used to do some very basic things like tweak the mids a touch higher on my Lakland for Cream songs, and roll the pickup selector to solo the neck pickup for Motown-ish stuff, but that's a second or less for each song. It takes longer for the drummer to look at the set list!

John

[KingRazor]

I always leave the volume knob on my bass at full. Tone knob varies depending on the bass I'm playing.

[jmattbassplaya]

Not all that often. I setup my tone before a performance and will fine tune it during the first song. For some songs I will cut my treble back, but that's really all I ever mess with.