Hearing my bass at gigs.....

sammyp · #1 04-10-2012, 06:23 AM

getting more bass gigs.....i'm still gathering experience for amp placement etc .....anyway, i have difficulty hearing my tone in smaller rooms when i'm tight to the drums and can't get my amp (350 watt combo) away from me .....i know i'm plenty loud and can feel lot's of bass but i can't hear the highs and mids in my tone the way i want ....play with loud drummers....

i recently got a house gig on sunday nights ...the pa is pretty good with big subs but the stage area is small and there was funky odd frequency stuff going on sunday....some notes were jumping out and others were dead etc...

so...i'm thinking of getting one of the new wedge style amps and facing it at me like a monitor...let the pa handle all of the front.....

i can't sidewash my amp cause there's a 4 foot wall beside me ...

what do you think i can get away with wattage wise? i'm thinking 100 watts to maybe 75's minimum .....maybe the ampeg 100 watt wedge one ....it's $350 or so .....i hate running guitars like this but i might like it for bass..

ideas?

mcnach · #2 04-10-2012, 06:51 AM

Place your amp high. I use two 2x10 vertically not so much for volume and dispersion, but because that way I hear it better.
Foam insulation on the ground helps in some stages, removing boomy sound.
That would help a fair amount.
In my case, add a Stingray with a John East preamp, with a midsweep control... and I can pretty much always hear myself ok.

Alembic7 · #3 04-10-2012, 12:58 PM

Mcnach offered a good solution, You could also try leaning the cabinet against the wall behind you if its close enough and place the head in a chair or on the floor. If you are going through a pa with monitors feed the bass into the monitor mix until you can hear it. Hope this was helpful.

mccartneyman · #4 04-10-2012, 01:04 PM

You might try tilting your current amp in front of you, monitor style, before buying a new wedge. And If you move around on stage a lot, you will of course move out of range of your amp, so you might have to decide how to cover dead spots. And it depends on how loud your band is. In my experience in smaller venues, depending on hearing your bass through monitors that also carry the rest of the band will not suffice. I just left a church band that played so loud that my 600-watt head powering two 112 cabs had to fight to compete with the monitors that were 20 feet in front of me. I solved some of the problem by tilting the top 112 back on top of the bottom 112. Or you could try elevating your combo toear lavel, but you will then lose bottom because the cab won't contact the floor.

turbo chicken · #5 04-10-2012, 02:01 PM

figure out a way to tilt it... a cheap 2x4 and some wood screws and build some kind of stand that will let it tilt back

ZeroSymbolic · #6 04-10-2012, 02:51 PM

TO me it sounds like an EQ problem. Are you burying your bass in low end?

I was watching ALex Webster explain that he plays an EQ for jamming, an EQ for recording, an another EQ for playing live.

I learned that I like a scooped EQ.

Bass at 9:00
Mid at 12:00
Treble at 3:00

mambo4 · #7 04-10-2012, 02:52 PM

I recently played a gig where I just plopped my humble 1X12 on top of an unused 6x10 back line cab, and had my speaker right next to my head. I heard myself better than I ever had before. Speaker next to ears is a win for me, much better than on the ground and tilted. I;m looking for a permanent (but portable) way top get my cab up there.

TC2112 · #8 04-10-2012, 02:58 PM

I use a 2x10 stacked vertically onto one of these amp stands and drive it with a MB200.
We have plenty of PA out front, so I let that handle the room and I never have any trouble hearing. Amazon.com: On Stage RS7500 Tiltback Amplifier Stand: Musical Instruments

I should say though, our drummer uses a Roland V drum kit, so I am not competing with anything but his monitor.

sammyp · #9 04-10-2012, 06:18 PM

thanks for the replies guys .....no i don't bury myself in bass ....i do quite a bit of mixing in the studio so i'm pretty aware of frequency....although live bass playing from room to room is relatively new for me..

i had tilted my amp back sunday night against the wall to get some angle but i was wondering if this creates extra maybe unwanted bottom end ...

my combo is too big to use as a front monitor ....but it's a house band gig for an open mic so there is no movement on stage ....i won't be wandering out of my hearing area.

i think i will try get the amp off the floor and sacrificing some natural bass before i buy and small amp for a monitor!

angryclown5 · #10 04-10-2012, 06:57 PM

I use an old Eden 210 on top of an SWR Workingman's 212 which is on 3" wheels. That puts the 210 up high enough where I can hear mid and high definition.

What combo amp are you using?

bassjnky1 · #11 04-10-2012, 08:10 PM

Sounds like much of the problem may have been created by the close proximity of the walls. Others may want to weigh in on this, but, I think you need to be further from these reflecting surfaces.

**bassybill** · #12 04-11-2012, 08:09 AM

It will help hugely if you can get the drivers pointed at your head by tilting your combo or raising it off the floor. Before I had my Markbass conbo (which is tiltable) I used to use a stand something like this for my Hartke 2.5xl cab.

Guitar Amplifier Stand, Amp Monitor Floor Tilt Stands, Stage Speaker Stands. Free Shipping. Ace Division Inc.

Plaz · #13 04-11-2012, 08:14 AM

Ampwedge Polyurethane Amplifier Isolation Floor Wedge | Musician's Friend

Toastfuzz · #14 04-11-2012, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mambo4

I recently played a gig where I just plopped my humble 1X12 on top of an unused 6x10 back line cab, and had my speaker right next to my head. I heard myself better than I ever had before. Speaker next to ears is a win for me, much better than on the ground and tilted. I;m looking for a permanent (but portable) way top get my cab up there.

+1 million

If FOH / PA is providing your sound to your audience, and monitors are covering your bandmates, its more important for you to hear your individual notes than feel the bass, and a single speaker pointed at your face (and properly EQ'd for this purpose) would do the trick.

tdelamont · #15 04-16-2012, 09:33 PM

Uh, not to be Captain Obvious here, but have you tried a 98-cent pair of foam earplugs? You can use one or both, and slide them in or out to varying degrees to cut however much ambient noise needs to be filtered out.

Gearhead17 · #16 04-16-2012, 09:38 PM

I use a 2x4 ALWAYS when using a single 210. It allows me to hear my notes really well. If you are in close proximity of the subwoofers, roll off the low end below 150hz and you will be able to crank your rig even more - while hearing more mids and highs in your tone.

ronlitz · #17 04-17-2012, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

It will help hugely if you can get the drivers pointed at your head by tilting your combo or raising it off the floor. Before I had my Markbass conbo (which is tiltable) I used to use a stand something like this for my Hartke 2.5xl cab.

Guitar Amplifier Stand, Amp Monitor Floor Tilt Stands, Stage Speaker Stands. Free Shipping. Ace Division Inc.

This has been my experience as well. If a PA is handling the room, get a little combo near your head or pointed at your head. I've used a 120 watt Hartke 1x12 kickback combo for this.

Chris K · #18 04-17-2012, 07:03 AM

Use IEM
=
In Ear Monitor

zaubertuba · #19 04-18-2012, 09:51 AM

To add my vote to the "just tip it back" crowd, you could easily build your own wedge to tip your combo back--here's my solution:

"Rock Amp" optional - my Crown was rattling like the dickens at this gig!

I built it (and the rack-case topper) from scrap lumber and stain from my fEarful build, so it technically cost me just my time.

If you build it solidly enough, you'll still have *some* ground-coupling.