EMG JX Pickups Help?

[redneck2420]

I have a set of EMG JX pickups in my bass right now that produce quite a lot of mid-range tone, but not the large fat low-end that I have grown accustomed to with the previous pickups (which sadly died on me over a period of a few months). The JX set comes with separate volume controls for the neck and bridge pickups and an active tone knob. I have experimented with the EQ on my amp (Markbass LittleMark II) and have found that I can get a tone that I really like if I dial the high mids down and bring up the lows. Unfortunately, we have been opening for a few of the larger acts in the area and, at their request, playing on their equipment (which I guess makes it easier on their sound engineer). He is the one who has complained the most about the mid range being way too prominent on my bass and has suggested that I look into an EQ of some sort.

I know almost nothing about onboard electronics, so I have several questions:

1.) Will adjusting an onboard EQ system help me get similar results to what I receive from adjusting the amp EQ?

2.) Since the bass has a lot of mid range, would it be more beneficial to go with a 3-band EQ with mid range controls over a 2-band system with only treble and bass controls? I have been doing a bit of research and found that EMG makes two onboard EQs that might work, the 2-band BTS system and the 3 band BQC.

I am quite confused by most of this, as I have never really had to delve this deeply into the tonal aspects of the bass guitar. I have usually been able to plug in and play, so any advice or knowledge that you could share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

[Groove Doctor]

Hi Tim,

Hope my reply isn't too late, but a really simple solution until you get your head around all this stuff: borrow a pre-amp or eq pedal between your bass and the other guys amp.

Preamps:
Xotic Tri-Logic or EWS Tri-Logic II (smaller) - simple but powerful freq settings, same Pre in Xotic basses
Aguilar Tone Hammer - mids switchable and sweepable, same as OBP-3 (?).
East UK - great sound, switchable mids, unique treble for vintage/modern tones (cut@1K/ boost@5K), same Pre as J-retro (?)
Sadowsky Pre - boost only bass and treble, volume cut only. Less versatile BUT may be perfect sound for you, same pre in Sadowsky basses (?)
There's others but the ones I mentioned are pretty common

EQ pedals -Boss bass one is easy to find


Pros:
not messing around with a bass you're happy with,
can try different ones until you've found what you really like,
Just tweak pedal to match borrowed amp and leave it on
Add to your current rig to get a 'second channel', great to just stomp a pedal to turn on/off a different sound for a particular song, solo section of song, simple clean boost

Cons:
Carry a pedal and a second lead
Not much else

Good luck!!