Had amazing tone tonight at practice!

ashtray · #1 07-10-2009, 12:49 AM

I've had this bass rig at home for a while, but b/c it's pricey and heavy, I haven't brought it out to a band practice yet, so it's always stayed in my house, and only gotten played at bedroom levels. Finally tonight, I got to play it with the band, and it sounded wonderful! Everything I had hoped it would actually sound like "at volume". Note were clear and true, and there was no overly loud frequencies - everything was nice and even.

I was able to manipulate tonal differences with the blend knob on my bass. Everything was gellin', and I was happy all practice at finally getting to hear this rig after playing only low volumes (by myself) for the past 5+ months.

At the end of the night, I turn to the guitarist and ask him what he thought of my bass tone tonight. He turned to me and said "actually, I was going to comment about that - I didn't like it. Sounded too percussive and not warm enough. I like your other rig better." *facepalm*

(he told me to play whatever rig/bass I wanted and it didn't matter to him - but he was used to the sound of me on the other rig - which is a 4x10 combo amp with a few of the eq knobs broken off and I have no idea what they are set at, and they can't be turned! hahaha)

Oh well... you can't please 'em all!

(I still think it sounded killer tonight!)

bassist4dalord · #2 07-10-2009, 01:02 AM

Great! Now what was it, what bass, etc...

Too many non-descript threads.

ashtray · #3 07-10-2009, 09:02 AM

Oh - right. You guys like gear stuff....

My rig of tonal nirvana was: US Masters EP-42 bass through a BBE Bmax pre, to a QsC RMX1450 amp into a custom made 6x8 cab.

The setup my guitarist liked much better was my Brubaker Brute into an Eden Nemesis 4x10 combo. (he also mentioned that I should just play "that cheap Fender" I brought to practice last week, b/c that sounded good. The bass in question was a cowpoke.)

Emmaporkchop · #4 07-10-2009, 09:27 AM

He's probably just used to the sound of your other set up, or maybe you positioned the new stuff kind of weird? I used to have a BBE pre, pretty good sounding.

mkrtu9 · #5 07-10-2009, 10:17 AM

did you tell the guitardist "well if this is honest hour I've never been fond of your tone either".

ashtray · #6 07-10-2009, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkrtu9

did you tell the guitardist "well if this is honest hour I've never been fond of your tone either".

Actually, he gets some pretty killer tone...

I actually value his opinion b/c he's a good musician, with a good ear for tone, etc. (he's also a very good bassist) It was just a surprise (and a bit of a letdown) when I was so proud of my tone all night only to find that my opinion wasn't shared.

xgator4u · #7 07-10-2009, 08:25 PM

Perhaps he was scared that your rig of doom sounded too good. So good that it just might take away some of HIS spotlight.

ashtray · #8 07-11-2009, 12:40 AM

Hahaha - nah, I don't think my rig was all that intimidating. (had I brought the matching 4x8 cab, maybe...)

Actually - I now have a admission to make. We had practice again tonight (got a big party to play for tomorrow, and we weren't quite ready). This time I walked away from the amp, and sure enough... he was right! Next to the amp, I was in tone nirvana. 12' away though, and the low dissipated (where do they go?) and it sounded thin and empty! Ugh. So I went back to the amp and turned up the bass, and that helped a bit. Still wasn't anywhere near the tonal nirvana I was getting standing near the cab. Gonna have to experiment some more.

I think adding the other cab on top would give me more bass projection. At home when I just ran one cab, it would sound noticeably thinner than both combined (stacked) - but hearing it yesterday sounding so good, I didn't think I needed the other cab.

Going to play the gig tomorrow with just the single cab - though it's an outdoor gig, it's a small area to fill the sound, and I should have no problem. (last time we played outdoors at a party like this, the cops said they got a complaint from almost 2 miles away! hahaha) Tomorrow's gonna be FUN!

BrennP90 · #9 07-11-2009, 01:55 AM

A few months ago I brought an old $100 Dean to practice instead of my MIA Fender Jazz. The Dean has a P-Bass like pickup so it sounds a bit different than my Jazz pickups for the rock covers we play. Well after practice the one singer said she liked my sound a lot that day.

Stumbo · #10 07-11-2009, 02:29 PM

I suggest you use both cabs(4x8 and 6x8) with QSC(mono) so you'll have more headroom. With that setup you should be able to dial in the low bass just like you want it and so it sounds good from more than 12' away.

Or how about using your two 2x10 and 2x12 for the gig? Those should sound pretty good as well.
Good luck with the gig.