pickup distortion help please..

[Danny Fox]

...The bartolini pickup on my hyperbass is distorting when the active bass setting is turned up past 3/4. Im playing through a 450watt peavey head so is the pickup overpowering the amp? My tech skills are nil and void so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Danny

[line6man]

That sounds like normal behavior to me.

Boosting the bass that much gives you quite an increase in volume, at least in that frequency range.
The preamp stage of your amplifier just can't handle something that hot without clipping past it's headroom.

Do things get really boomy and bassy sounding when you do this?

[guroove]

How old is the battery in the bass?

[Danny Fox]

yes exactly! really boomy, then really distorted, is there any cure?

[Darkstrike]

Yeah, once you start boosting the bass that much, you want to cut back on the volume on the bass a bit.

[Danny Fox]

so just cut back the master volume on the instrument to compensate? It's getting late here in the uk so i'll have to try that in the morning. would the pre and post gain settings on the amp make any difference?

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Danny Fox

yes exactly! really boomy, then really distorted, is there any cure?

There really isn't much you can do about this unless you got an amp with better headroom or something.

IMO, there is clearly something wrong somewhere if you are needing to boost the bass that much from the instrument.
Either your pickup, or the preamp, or the amp is not delivering what you need, and you are resorting to extreme EQing to fix it.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Yeah, once you start boosting the bass that much, you want to cut back on the volume on the bass a bit.

Well, yeah, adjusting the volumes on everything would be an obvious start.

[Danny Fox]

I have been, to be fair the peavey was quite cheap. I've been looking at the 1000watt hartke head, would that be more suitable you think?

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by Danny Fox

so just cut back the master volume on the instrument to compensate?

Yeah, exactly, I usually only boost the bass with the bridge pickup, which I guess is exactly what you have on the 'ol Hyperbass.

Originally Posted by Danny Fox

It's getting late here in the uk so i'll have to try that in the morning.

I've noticed.

Originally Posted by Danny Fox

would the pre and post gain settings on the amp make any difference?

Nope, it wouldnt.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Danny Fox

I have been, to be fair the peavey was quite cheap. I've been looking at the 1000watt hartke head, would that be more suitable you think?

I've have never even used a bass amp actually (Outside of trying a bass at Guitar Center.) so I can't offer any info there.

It would be a question of getting an amp with really high headroom that can handle everything from low volume playing up to the extreme bass boost without clipping.

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by line6man

IMO, there is clearly something wrong somewhere if you are needing to boost the bass that much from the instrument.
Either your pickup, or the preamp, or the amp is not delivering what you need, and you are resorting to extreme EQing to fix it.

Sounds like he's trying to get the deeper fuller neck pickup sound, since there's fingerboard where the neck pickup would be on a normal bass.

[Danny Fox]

well thanks for your feedback guys, much appreciated. I'll be experimenting again tomorrow!