First night I was happy with my sound.

[JasonKain]

I've been playing bass in my Tuesday night church service for a while now, probably almost two years. Since the beginning, I've had to fight with my sound. I was too loud in the mix to start, so I kept turning down and getting turned down until I was almost inaudible. Just a little rumble filling in the guitar. The basses during this time changed, from a low end Dean, to an SX PJ, to a T-40. I switched between flats and rounds, but could never really get it all together. To solve to volume issue, I left my rig at home and started going right to the board. My ears never really agreed with it, it always sounded sterile and lifeless to me. So, I started putting a VT pedal before the DI. I livened up my tone, but the speakers we were using for mains were doing nothing for the bottom end. So I'd get a bunch of honky mids no matter how I set up, with not a whole lot else.

Eventually, I mentioned my displeasure to the other members of the team in the last lineup change we had. After adding a drummer and rebooting the guitarist's rig to a Mesa triple rectifier, I got encouraged to bring my amp back in to fill things out, because people were starting to mention they couldn't really hear me. I did, and things improved dramatically after a week or so, when I finally got a good sound for the band dialed in. There was still something missing, though. So, I kept looking at options. I looked at new cabs, a pedal or two, and making my second foray into active basses as my last one had the electronics blow up two days after warranty. I even had the money, too. But then a financial hiccup with the family but me looking down a very real, very difficult money situation, and I knew the gear I had was all I was going to be able to get for a good long while.

So tonight I played and for the first time in a long time, I actually enjoyed the sound I had. I wasn't searching for what I could do better, or how to get closer to the sound in my head, I just played and honestly enjoyed what I had going.

I play a Squier Jaguar(with a purple pearl pickguard, all the tone is in the pickguard) through a VT bass pedal, into a Carvin BX500 head and a tc electronic 2x12 cab. It's not exactly the setup I want, but it came through for me.

Anybody else have those stories of being just simply pleased with something, be it an overall tone, a piece of gear, or whatnot, without it having to be perfect?

[kcole4001]

When I finally discovered that boosting the preamp to clippping then backing off until it stopped works really well for my Ricks. That and the SWR amp made all the difference in the world, as well as boosting the low mids.

After years of wandering aimlessly through the amp desert, I found what I was missing, thanks to some helpful folks online.
I wish we had these types of fora back in the 1980s, it would have saved me a lot of searching (and not finding).

I knew the basses were what I wanted, I just wasn't getting that sound I was looking for.
Now I usually have it, though some nights are just odd due to atmospheric changes, etc.

[ben12390]

for me, it was the first gig i used a SansAmp. just. love. tech 21.

[Lublin]

Amen. It took my large bass tone and made it enormous.

Originally Posted by ben12390

for me, it was the first gig i used a SansAmp. just. love. tech 21.

[bassclef216]

Been there...Started out in church with a 100 watt BA-115 combo. Sometimes I would use the direct out to he board and others I would do just the amp itself. The sound always seemd boomy and blahhhh. Then I got a Zoom bass effects pedal and the sound was a little better with some of the amp models. Then I bought a Hartke 500 watt head and a 410 cab. Played through the Zoom effects pedal.......WOW. The sound was amazing. Finally understand what cutting through the mix means. With the old comobo, to hear myself I had to turn way up, but the sound I got was almost annoying. Now, with the 500 watts and the 410 cab I barely turned the volume up, but was able to produce enough smooth bass tone that sounded great.