Is my new bass too hot for my synthy rig?

[Omniant]

I posted this on the bass forum as well but thought it was still relevant here:

I just purchased a spector eurolx4 a few days ago and just used it for the first time last night for a couple hours. I’m a little concerned that the output is just too hot, but it’s also possible that it’s just a bass that I’m not used to and need to mess around with still. It's an 18v output and its super super hot.

It seemed to be clipping a lot of my effects and there was definitely some audible distorting as well, and I only had its volume up less than half way. I might be playing harder than I should be as well. I’m used to a Warwick vette proline with flatwound strings so this is obviously a really drastic change from that, this bass seems much brighter (and obviously the strings are contributing to that as well, I will restring it with flats and try that out). My chain is bass > tuner > OC2 > chunk systems brown dog > moogerfooger LPF > swr 350 red face head > swr goliath II 410.

Any suggestions? Should I look into getting something with less output?

[Cannabass]

passive!

lol

[Omniant]

That's an obvious answer...but a lot of people play active basses with effects.

[groooooove]

Originally Posted by Omniant

That's an obvious answer...but a lot of people play active basses with effects.

yes. but lots of those effects will bark at you with actives. some people like that though.

stuff thats considered "active friendly" around here sometimes isint. was your old bass passive?

[Munjibunga]

First, the bass doesn't have "18-volt output." It has 18-volt electronics. Now, let's say you had a passive bass running into your effects. The signal coming out of your bass would be at a certain level. You can get that same level from your active bass by turning down the volume knob. Add gain later in the chain, either with the level controls on the effects or at the amp. This is one of the reasons god gave us volume knobs.

[Kramsey]

You can also roll off all of your eq knobs a little bit so that all of the frequencies are cut creating a lower output. That way you can always have your volume knob up all the way without peaking your effects.

or...

Adjust your effects to accommodate your Spector's output and then buy a clean boost to boost the signal from your Warwick so you can A/B your basses. Good luck and congrats on the new buy!

[Omniant]

Thanks munjibunga. Had you read the post you would have realized that the volume knob was down.

[Omniant]

groooooove, the other bass I use is active as well, just not as hot.

[bigblondeafro87]

Turn down the output on the OC-2 if the volume on your bass is already really low.

[Kwesi]

I thought the same thing about my Euro 4LX and to a degree it's true. Spectors and certain pedals don't work too well together. I would first suggest turning down the drive of the MF101 and boosting the overall volume on the am pto compensate and see if that helps any. I've also heard that the Brown Dog has a leaky bypass so try removing that from your chain and see if the distortion issue improves. If neither of those solve the issue go one by one eliminating pedals from the chain until it goes away entirely. If you notice any one pedal contributing a lot of the noise then tweak the gain/volume options on it and see if you can resolve the issue.

[Buflow]

I have an 18v custom bass and went through the same thing.
1. I had to get rid of some effects that were difficult to manage.
2. I made a little home made variable resistor box that mounts to the input side of my effects board. When I use effects with this bass I just turn the knob a little bit then things are fine.
3. Now I have a different bass that I use when gettin my synth on. Keeping the hot bass for pure sound.

[Omniant]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Kwesi, its funny because I kind of like the tone I get out of a little bit of extra drive from the mf101. I suppose it could be the brown dog though. I'll have to try messing with everything by myself.

Buflow, you're probably right. It seems like the spector just isn't the right bass for lots of effects. If that's the case the search continues...

[newbold]

I had an active bass that did not work with my OC-2 but was great for pure tone.

If it's a hard barking peak then I think it's probably your OC-2 more than your moogerfooger

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Omniant

Thanks for the advice guys.

Kwesi, its funny because I kind of like the tone I get out of a little bit of extra drive from the mf101. I suppose it could be the brown dog though. I'll have to try messing with everything by myself.

Buflow, you're probably right. It seems like the spector just isn't the right bass for lots of effects. If that's the case the search continues...

I actually just got a brown dog and either the leaky bypass thing affects only certain ones or I got lucky because it's clean all the way through, lol.

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

I actually just got a brown dog and either the leaky bypass thing affects only certain ones or I got lucky because it's clean all the way through, lol.

I've seen this comment before regarding the Brown Dog, but it is a hardwire true bypass so I'm not sure where that's coming from. I've never heard any bleed through, but then I don't see how that would even be possible.

[OilcanRacer]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

I actually just got a brown dog and either the leaky bypass thing affects only certain ones or I got lucky because it's clean all the way through, lol.

of course you got lucky cause i am irish on both sides.....lol

the brown dog worked great with my ernie ball stringray and its pretty hot going into pedals. of course i dime all the knobs on the bass.

[JimiLL]

Do you have the original tone pump installed?? If so, that is the problem.. is the pre amp. Had some prob on my Euro 5.

Lookup "Tone dump" in the search engine

It went away when I went to a 18v emg pre. ToneJunk sucks.