Trouble With My Tone

[ChinesePizza]

Okay i have a Ibanez soundgear500 series, with an MXR M-80 bass DI and an oldschool 74 Carvin Head, i'm trying to get that sloppy type sound Tool, Rage, Pantera come to mind. Where should i put my eq settings at can that sound be acheived at a lower volume. Thanks

[toug]

I'll offer some suggestions but with a few warnings:

1. I haven't meticulously listened to either of the bands you listed since I've started becoming obsessed with tone, but I have a rough idea.
2. I'm not familiar with the DI unit or bass, I just googled it real quick to see what your options are.

That being said...

From what I know about Ibanezs(which isn't alot), they can carry some lows pretty well on their own. It looks like the bass is active? If so, I'd say start with your DI and make sure the EQs on your bass' preamp are at unity.

From there, looking at the DI, I would immediately reccomend boosting the Mids a bit. After that I'd adjust the Blend to about 3 o'clock and then boost the gain a tiny bit to get some of that grain. From there maybe scoop the highs a little and see what it sounds like.

I only play a passive bass(not out of refusal, I've just never owned an active), so to me an active bass with a DI box such as this seems a tad overkill if you don't plan on running one of the EQs flat.

Rule of thumb: keep everything at unity and adjust one setting at a time. I would highly reccomend boosting the mids first, I think that is where you will first see the kind of tone you are looking for. From there continue fiddling with the DI settings. If you still can't find what you are looking for, do it backwards. Run the DI at complete unity and then adjust your instrument's EQ.

Good luck, there is nothing like finding a tone that makes you happy.

[chaosMK]

Steel strings.

Upper mids.

I like to cut the bass a little or leave it flat and crank the rig more overall. Sits better in the mix that way.

[beggar98]

I'm assuming you tune down from standard. That will do a lot to adding the overtones that make a distorted sound fuller. I'm not familiar with the MXR, but I know Rex from Pantera used the SansAmp, as do a ton of other guys.

[ChinesePizza]

I Read Good things about the MXR and the book manual show the settings rex uses with this pedal. Thanks for the advice from everybody, i'm just sick of my classic rock tone i need some balls Thanks