Need brighter sound - Page 2

SoVeryTired · #21 10-05-2012, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattattack187

My suggestion may rattle a few cages. Play with a pick!

That does give a brighter sound indeed (depending on the type of pick). You may or not like the different sound it produces - I play pick for certain songs.

dhsierra1 · #22 10-05-2012, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoVeryTired

Stainless steel rounds. Despite what some say, my experience is that stainless gives a brighter sound than nickel.

maybe all that hearing damage over the years is negating the difference for some?

wes stephenson · #23 10-05-2012, 01:13 PM

If you don't already do this, always play with the master volume on your bass all the way up. I've noticed that I get a darker sound with the volume down lower...

oniman7 · #24 10-05-2012, 01:16 PM

Can we get some soundclips?

I'm thinking maybe mess with the EQ. Even with a Stingray, Nickel strings, and a GK cab set up, I get kind of a "meh" sound with flat EQ. Still awesome, but not growly and bitey and bright like I like it.

jim777 · #25 10-05-2012, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argento1980

My amp's huge and I'm quite satisfied with it. I set my EQ completely flat and play on both pickups but wish to get a brighter sound.

Change your EQ settings before you swap out pickups. You have it, use it. Flat isn't better than any other EQ setting, it's just easier to spell.

pgolliher · #26 10-05-2012, 01:35 PM

+1 to the following:
Play closer to the bridge
Favor the bridge pick up
Mess with your EQ
(try using a pick)
try a new pair of steel strings (I like Blue Steels for a bright tone that still has some roundness)

You shouldn't have to swap pick ups or change your rig...

Argento1980 · #27 10-05-2012, 01:56 PM

Thank you all for the replies!

For those who may be scratching their heads regarding what I said about replacing the P pickup with a J one... lol I apologize for forgetting to mention that these are EMG P and J pickups but enclosed in a soapbar housing which is what the bass is routed for, so that's how I would do it.

Otherwise I wouldn't think it's possible to replace a P with a J.

So there's a load of ideas. I'll definitely try them and let you know!

DigitalMan · #28 10-05-2012, 02:29 PM

A little OD might help you cut through the mix and help emphasize your attack. The best time to work on your tone is when playing with the band. Good band tone != good solo tone in the genre and at the volume I predict you play. (If you play in a quiet jazz trio in the back corner of a wine bar then the preceding statement may not be true.)

darkstorm · #29 10-05-2012, 03:41 PM

Your amp has tone controls for a purpose. Use them. Saying you want brighter sound and then leaving eq's flat is just silly. Raise the treble control on the amp.

seang15 · #30 10-05-2012, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argento1980

Hi, everyone. This is my first post. I went through some threads on muddy sound but didn't find what I was looking for.

So I have a PJ bass (Korean-made Spector), not a USA-made one but for now it has to do.

Then for strings I use nickel-wound D'Addarios.

My amp is a Trace-Elliot head with 2 cabinets of 2 10" speakers each (so 4x 10s in all) on top of an other 2 cabinets each with 2 15" speakers (that's 4x 15s in all).

My amp's huge and I'm quite satisfied with it. I set my EQ completely flat and play on both pickups but wish to get a brighter sound.

Strings are obviously new. I'm thinking it could be the P-pickup. I was thinking of changing it to an other J-pickup. Any opinions, please?

Trace Elliot is one of the best preamps out there, why run it flat? Push the right-most faders up to taste, repeat as necessary.

Nice new nickels helps too!

Argento1980 · #31 10-06-2012, 03:42 AM

So, as Mushroo said... EQ is meant to be used.

I don't think they put 7, 10 or even 12-band EQs on bass amps for nothing. It's not like guitar amps where you usually have just 3 knobs for bass, mid and treble (although some guitarists add EQ pedals but it seems the bass needs more EQ'ing in my opinion).

So I cut the sub-bass 30 Hz frequency by 3 dB and cut some mids by 3 dB. I also boosted at 5, 10 and 15 kHz by 3 dB, too.
This definitely made it sound cleaner and brighter.

An other thing I did was turn the treble horn / tweeters all the way up for full treble response.
I hear a little distortion or buzzing when I play in front of the amp but I don't notice it when I play at the side of the amp or from a few feet away.

lucas vigor: Yes, I am cautious about damaging my hearing. I'm sorry that you permanently damaged your hearing from playing loud. I read that Eddie Van Halen, who's obviously a guitarist, damaged his hearing, too. Some people find that his signature amp is too trebly and I've heard that's because he designed it because of his hearing damage. :/ Thanks for the advice!

drTSTingray: Yeah, I can use 2 out of 4 cabs. The head can drive up to 4 so I'm sure there's no ohmage issue.

So why rounds instead of hex-core strings? As far as I know, hex-core retain the tuning better. Wouldn't they be better then?

GBassNorth · #32 10-06-2012, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pgolliher

+1 to the following:
Play closer to the bridge
Favor the bridge pick up
Mess with your EQ
(try using a pick)
try a new pair of steel strings (I like Blue Steels for a bright tone that still has some roundness)

You shouldn't have to swap pick ups or change your rig...

Yep, what he (they) said.
On that Spector if you run your on-board controls at 30/70 favoring the bridge pickup, set the on-board bass knob flat and keep the treb knob maxed, bump your amp EQ high mids and highs up (keeping everything else on the amp flat), use a firm pick, remove one of the 15" cabs, slap on some Cobalt strings and dig in when you play you'll have all the high end anyone could want. About the only other thing you could do beyond all that is to lower your action so you pick up a bit of fret rattle when playing hard, that can add a lot of zing to the notes (not my cup of tea but a lot of metal players like it that way).
If that still doesn't do it for you, you might need to get your hearing checked to make sure there's not something more serious than gear adjustments going on.
Good luck

GBassNorth · #33 10-06-2012, 05:18 AM

Oh, and I forgot to add - you could always sell me your Spector and then go out and buy a Stingray that would really solve both your problem and mine.

clau · #34 10-07-2012, 12:26 PM

i've tried maybe all there is to try on getting more bright out of my setup: ken smith's slap master strings, the brightest i've ever heard (after many years of trying out strings). bartolini quad coil brightest model wired as single coils. evidence instrument cable (the lyric hg) 2x10 cab (currently using 2 cabs) this is critical and tweeter fully open, even though every eq stage is flat you should get a pretty bright tone. in addition i use two mxr KFK 10 band eq pedals to boost or cut certain frequencies at any given time. nevertheless my main source of treble is my bass' onboard eq

Argento1980 · #35 10-07-2012, 12:30 PM

You must get a pretty bright sound with that setup, clau!

I turned the tweeter/treble horn all the way up but set the 10 kHz and 15 kHz faders to 0 'cause beyond 5 kHz you get more hiss than treble.

I used to boost them previously. The manual itself advises about not boosting those frequencies.

Sartori · #36 10-07-2012, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argento1980

Hi, everyone. This is my first post. I went through some threads on muddy sound but didn't find what I was looking for.

So I have a PJ bass (Korean-made Spector), not a USA-made one but for now it has to do.

Then for strings I use nickel-wound D'Addarios.

My amp is a Trace-Elliot head with 2 cabinets of 2 10" speakers each (so 4x 10s in all) on top of an other 2 cabinets each with 2 15" speakers (that's 4x 15s in all).

My amp's huge and I'm quite satisfied with it. I set my EQ completely flat and play on both pickups but wish to get a brighter sound.

Strings are obviously new. I'm thinking it could be the P-pickup. I was thinking of changing it to an other J-pickup. Any opinions, please?

Why don't you just try turning up the highs and turning down the lows on your amp?

Sartori · #37 10-07-2012, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argento1980

Thank you all for the replies!

For those who may be scratching their heads regarding what I said about replacing the P pickup with a J one... lol I apologize for forgetting to mention that these are EMG P and J pickups but enclosed in a soapbar housing which is what the bass is routed for, so that's how I would do it.

Otherwise I wouldn't think it's possible to replace a P with a J.

So there's a load of ideas. I'll definitely try them and let you know!

It's quite possible to replace a P pickup with a J pickup.

It just requires a router and that you not really care about the appearance of the bass. Or a large pickguard to cover the hole.

Argento1980 · #38 11-16-2012, 06:12 PM

I bought a J pickup to replace the P on my PJ bass so I'll have two Js. The bass I was getting from the PJ configuration and the 10 and 15 inch speakers was overwhelming.

I tried opening the doors in my rehearsal room to avoid having a 'cave' effect which I think helped a bit.

I also tried placing the amp in the middle of the room since I read about placing the amp in the corner causing the 'coupling effect' making the bass frequencies amplified but it didn't seem to make that much of a difference.
My amp is a closed back amp not open back so it seems it doesn't affect the walls behind it and also has rubber foot stoppers so there isn't that much contact with the floor either.

The guitar tech told me the bass response will definitely be reduced and the brightness increased.

I was using the PJ configuration with only 10 inch speakers but with a JJ configuration I could include the 15 inch speakers, too.

I will definitely post how the sound changed. There's a lot of Physics involved in music.

monti2889 · #39 11-16-2012, 06:29 PM

First, the post about backing off bass is a +1

Bass= rumble (this will add boomy sustain)
Mid= voice (this will allow you cut through the mix)
Treble= attack (this will articulate each attack of the note)

then always keep in mind, that when you're eq-ing, you will generally get better results if you remove frequency rather than boost. So, to much rumble (or need more highs), start with backing off the bass end a bit.

pbass2 · #40 11-16-2012, 06:36 PM

Wow, that's a huge rig. Maybe lose a couple cabs and try and clear up/define your sound a little.

In any event, as previously stated, any time you're experimenting with EQ, always start by CUTTING frequencies. That's how ya do it when you're mixing in the studio, FOH, you-name-it. Once you get it more dialed in, then subtle frequency boosts can be used to finish it off.
Start pulling down lows, low mids, etc.---find what's making your sound murky. That bass and amp should be plenty flexible (and capable of more brightness than you'd ever want!)