BASS EQ SETTINGS?

[Herbz]

Im Looking For a Killer Sound.

[thesilence]

Your not going to get a different answer on this one than you did on any of the others...

[bassist4dalord]

Oh boy.. Here we go.

For my P-Bass, I set it flat, maybe a small treble bump.

[thesilence]

Since he has asked the same question in Amps and it was sufficiently answered Mods can we delete this post and his other one asking the same thing in Miscellaneous?

[MysterMunky]

I like to use a smiley face on the slider eqs so that my sound is happy.

[Russell L]

Aw, well, whatever bass and amp ya have, set it flat to start, scoop out just a little mids, and you'll sound fine.

[JohnMCA72]

My fingers, bass, amp, speakers, band, musical style, taste, & room or yours?

[rtslinger]

here this will give you whatever you are looking for

Flat Setup
3. The flat setup is the most basic one to use. For this setup, the Bass, Mid, and Treble are set to the same value. For this type of setup, 5 is usually a reasonable value to use. This setup can basically be used for any technique and style of music without any issues. It lacks the unpleasant tonal characteristics of more extreme settings. The downside to this setup is that it is not the most appealing tone, but it is functional. And until you are comfortable setting up your sound yourself this will keep any sound man happy.
High Mid Setup
4. The high Mid setup is a bit more appealing variation of the flat setup. The Bass and Treble are still left at about 5, but the Mid is increased to about 7. This gives the notes a bit more clarity and helps cut through the mix better than a flat setup. There is a slight risk of developing some of the bad characteristics of too much middle frequency. The most common one is a honking quality to the tone. If this develops, it is usually a good idea to drop the Mid to 6-6.5 to try to eliminate it. This usually works better when played with a pick for rock music Best example of this sound is Duff Mckagan from GNR at the start of Sweet Child of Mind. ( by the way one of my favorite bass sounds)
High Bass -Treble Setup
5. The high Bass-Treble setup is more oriented for slap-pop bass playing. For most other styles of bass playing, a flat or high Mid setup tends to be more appealing. In this case, the Mid is left around 5, while the Bass and Treble are both set to about 7. The relatively lower Mid value tends to lower the overall note definition, but the higher Bass and Treble give a bit more power and brightness to each note. This can be useful when playing slap-pop lines. This setup is best used for songs that almost exclusively use that technique, example: (RHCP where Flea uses it in most if not all of his lines) rather than for songs that have only a few small slap-pop parts.

[JTE]

Originally Posted by rtslinger

here this will give you whatever you are looking for

Flat Setup
3. The flat setup is the most basic one to use. For this setup, the Bass, Mid, and Treble are set to the same value. For this type of setup, 5 is usually a reasonable value to use. This setup can basically be used for any technique and style of music without any issues. It lacks the unpleasant tonal characteristics of more extreme settings. The downside to this setup is that it is not the most appealing tone, but it is functional. And until you are comfortable setting up your sound yourself this will keep any sound man happy.
High Mid Setup
4. The high Mid setup is a bit more appealing variation of the flat setup. The Bass and Treble are still left at about 5, but the Mid is increased to about 7. This gives the notes a bit more clarity and helps cut through the mix better than a flat setup. There is a slight risk of developing some of the bad characteristics of too much middle frequency. The most common one is a honking quality to the tone. If this develops, it is usually a good idea to drop the Mid to 6-6.5 to try to eliminate it. This usually works better when played with a pick for rock music Best example of this sound is Duff Mckagan from GNR at the start of Sweet Child of Mind. ( by the way one of my favorite bass sounds)
High Bass -Treble Setup
5. The high Bass-Treble setup is more oriented for slap-pop bass playing. For most other styles of bass playing, a flat or high Mid setup tends to be more appealing. In this case, the Mid is left around 5, while the Bass and Treble are both set to about 7. The relatively lower Mid value tends to lower the overall note definition, but the higher Bass and Treble give a bit more power and brightness to each note. This can be useful when playing slap-pop lines. This setup is best used for songs that almost exclusively use that technique, example: (RHCP where Flea uses it in most if not all of his lines) rather than for songs that have only a few small slap-pop parts.

Well, not really.... The assumption that 5 means the same thing on all amps is the problem. Now if the amp is indeed an active boost/cut EQ amp, you're OK. But if it has a Fender-style tone bank, flat is actually with the knobs set WAY different. If you set a Dual Showman or a (real) Bassman so the bass and treble are at 2 and the middle is at 10, that's as flat as one of those amps is going to get.

And NONE of this takes into account what happens at the speakers and the cabinet. There's simply no way to tell people where to set knobs on amps to get a sound unless you're talking about a specific amp/speaker combination. So a generic "set your knobs this way" is going to mislead as many people as it might help.

Much better to help the OP learn what issues impact a "good sound", help guide them to resources for their specific amp, cabinet, bass, and goals.

I could say "set all the semi-parametric EQ to the mid point, set the enhance to zero and then boost the bass control two clicks past 12:00" which works great for my Eden WT-400 driving the (mis-matched) Avatar SB-112/B-210 stack. But it'd be useless for an (real) SVT/810, or for an old Dual Showman driving a pair of JBL 15's in a Sunn 2000s cabinet...

John

[rtslinger]

Thanks for correcting me on this, whatever helps others get a head start. Notice at the beginning I stated (The flat setup is the most basic one to use. For this setup, the Bass, Mid, and Treble are set to the same value) that was just a kick off point for whatever they have. I was just generally speaking, if he or she are new at this a semi-parametric EQ you mentioned will be lost to them. But you are correct every amp is different and until they learn to set it up correctly it is a crap shoot! thanks RTS