Reggae Bass

Originally Posted by mdsmith

Thanks guy. All of your replies are very encouraging, and I can't wait to dive in. I did check out some videos on youtube last night, and there's a tone of good stuff on there. One technical question. When people refer to their EQ settings, is it assumed that you are starting with all of them in the "in the middle"(Ithink it's called flat) position? And ,having settings on the guitar and amp, do you use both, of leave one alone. In other words, can you just leave all the amp settings flat, and control you tone from the guitar alone? It almost seems like ther are too many knobs to tweek

If you can get good sound just using your amp eq, just use that. If you can get good sound just using your bass tone nob, just use that. It's not compulsory to twiddle everything! Experiment and just find what you like.

You're right - flat means all in the middle.

(By the way, I use two different eqs in my set up, and the tone nob! I have a three band on my sansamp preamp, and a five band on my ashdown, and I adjust all of them to get the best sound in whatever venue I'm in (room size and reflectance affects your eq). But at home you should be fine with just turning down the mids a bit, boosting the bass a bit, and maybe a bit of top)

[bass12]

Not only will a better amp give you a better sound, it will change how you play. With reggae it's important that you be able to shake the room with one note. A thin sound won't cut it. If you have an amp that allows you to both hear AND feel the bass, you'll have confidence playing simple lines and knowing that they have impact. I don't get to play nearly as much reggae as I'd like to these days and when I do, I'm usually going through my small rig (a 210 cabinet). The other week, I was playing through a friend's setup (he has two 210s) and the reggae bass lines I'd last played through my 210 sounded so much better. I'd forgotten what I was missing playing through my measly 210! Really, with reggae you need to be able to push some serious air. You should, ideally, be able to send people running for the bathroom with the sounds coming from your bass! I've heard a lot of reggae bassists wear Depends...