• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

A question from a novice about tone.

Sojhen

Sojhen

Mar 2, 2003
253
7
Trying to walk on water
#1
I recently purchased a Yorkville XS400 head and a Yorkville XC410.

My question is about tone.. I've been playing bass for a little while now,.. but I honestly never really messed with my tone.
I use a BOSS ME-50B with my live setup... but usually I just set everything to 50% on the pedal and on the head, and put both volume pots on my bass to max.

Since getting my new rig I've been noticing a few things now that I can hear more of what I am doing..

Ideally, I (guess) I like more of a dry sound, where I can hear each individual note but yet there is still some warmth and body to it without loosing clarity. I'm definitely not into the muddy indecipherable mixture where everything just sounds like a blend on the bottom end.

I do enjoy using delay when the opportunity presents itself, thus the need for clarity.

So basically I am asking if any of you have any suggestions or know of some material that will help teach me how to eq my sound so that I can easily achieve this tone I am trying to describe.

Appreciate your time.

Grey :bassist:
 
#2
1. Start with no effects & all EQ "flat" (i.e. no tone modification at all to what comes out of your bass).
2. Make small adjustment to 1 band of EQ.
3. Play for awhile & see if it sounds better, worse, or the same.
4. Back it off or increase it, based on your opinion from (3).
5. Repeat stems 1-4 indefinitely for all the remaining EQ bands.

Repeat the same procedure for your effects.

Basically, play with stuff until you completely understand what it all does with your gear, to yourear. There is no right or wrong, & nobody else can tell you what your own ears hear. Your opinion is the correct one. The more you tinker, the more you'll learn, which is a very good thing.
 
#3
JohnMCA72 said:
1. Start with no effects & all EQ "flat" (i.e. no tone modification at all to what comes out of your bass).
2. Make small adjustment to 1 band of EQ.
3. Play for awhile & see if it sounds better, worse, or the same.
4. Back it off or increase it, based on your opinion from (3).
5. Repeat stems 1-4 indefinitely for all the remaining EQ bands.

Repeat the same procedure for your effects.

Basically, play with stuff until you completely understand what it all does with your gear, to yourear. There is no right or wrong, & nobody else can tell you what your own ears hear. Your opinion is the correct one. The more you tinker, the more you'll learn, which is a very good thing.
Click to expand...

+1
 
#5
JohnMCA72 said:
1. Start with no effects & all EQ "flat" (i.e. no tone modification at all to what comes out of your bass).
2. Make small adjustment to 1 band of EQ.
3. Play for awhile & see if it sounds better, worse, or the same.
4. Back it off or increase it, based on your opinion from (3).
5. Repeat stems 1-4 indefinitely for all the remaining EQ bands.

Repeat the same procedure for your effects.

Basically, play with stuff until you completely understand what it all does with your gear, to yourear. There is no right or wrong, & nobody else can tell you what your own ears hear. Your opinion is the correct one. The more you tinker, the more you'll learn, which is a very good thing.
Click to expand...

+2. Great advice. In the end, time and experience will be your friend. There's always a learning curve when you acquire new gear. I myself was like you for almost the first ten years of my playing, I didn't pay much attention to my tone and so forth. My first real head amp and cab was a yorkie bassmaster 400 and a yorkie XC210, still have that rig but for practice at home and the woofers have been replaced with two 10' fender bassmans because I split the yorkie cones. Anyhow, the above advice it great advice. Keeping your EQ flat and playing with no effects is huge IMO. The way you get to know your amp tone and bass tone together is the way you're going to get where you want to be. The more you play in different situations, ie live and jamming with others, the more you'll learn your sound, gear and tone. I'm still learning, always will be. I love when I get new gear and pedals and so forth, I get to relearn certain things all over again.
 
#6
In my opinion when it comes to eq either leave everything flat or if you must tweak keep it very subtle and also eq based on how your going to run your rig. For live what i did was walk out front with my wireless and listen to myself through the pa during soundcheck for a second. after a couple shows i had my tone where i wanted it and didn't mess with it all until it was studio time. Over EQing might sound cool to you standing a few feet in front of your amp but it often sounds bad through a pa. I honestly believe sans amps are so popular because of the blend knobs. You can tweak the eq a little but blend in the dry signal so there are no "dead spots" in the frequency range.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back