Advice on EQ settings

Your EQ will probably change depending upon the room you're in, the bass you're playing, the band your with, even the song you play.

It sounds like you've also got a misconception about how EQ works...those low notes contain plenty of content up in the mids and highs, and the D and G strings are still affected by adjustments to the low bands on your EQ. The notes we play cover a wide range of frequencies, not just the 'fundamental tone' of that note.

 

Best way to learn to EQ your amp/cab/bass combination is to start with all the EQ knobs on your amp set near the middle. Play up and down the neck. Turn one knob at a time up a fair amount and play the entire length of you fretboard before moving on to the next knob. Do the same, but with the knobs turned down a fair amount. Note the differences and then adjust them to suit your taste.

 

This is a really good place to start, it helped me out a lot with learning to dial in tones.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/eq-bassics-thread-144312/

Now, for MY tone I use a fair bit of mids to add a cutting quality to the sound. I love the way low mids sound (around 300hz) but I've found that depending on the venue and PA your playing through that frequency area can become troublesome. That's led me to using more mids at around 800-1200hz and it's worked quite nicely.

Once I've got that I usually just add a little bottom to give depth and leave the highs at noon.

When I'm eqing in a new room/band/whatever. I like to work from the Treble side backwards to Bass. I'll dial all my knobs to 0, and bring them up one at a time to noon. If I hear something i don't like, I dial that back. By the time I reach the Bass knob noon is usually plenty of low-end for a nice round, aggressive and usable tone. I really try to avoid boosting in my eq, if you search Talkbass for Subtractive Eqing, you can learn a lot.

Just my way though.

 

I always start with my controls flat (0) and then adjust my hands as necessary. If I still can't get the sound I'm looking for then I cut the bass knob slightly (-3 to -6). I think a small amount of bass cut will help your fills on the D and G string sound good; another couple of suggestions are 1) move your right hand a little closer to the bridge and 2) boost your overall volume and cut undesired frequencies, rather than boosting desired frequencies with the EQ.

Hope that helps!

 

My playing is somewhat like the OP. The basics are mostly low strings. The fills are either up the neck, or on the higher strings. I think that volume balance is mostly achieved by technique. My EQ strategy is quite simple. My preamp has an "Enhance" knob. It does all of the EQing for me. According to the mfg. the knob... "simultaneously boosts the very low bass, upper middle, and high frequencies." I could do the same thing with the bass/mid/treble knobs, but I choose to let that enhance knob do all of that for me. I just adjust the amount of "enhance".

 

Its a fancy description of a 'scoop' button or what's known around here as 'the bedroom button'.

 

I don't know how long you've played, or what you're looking for.

I remember when I first started playing I wanted my bass to sound like what I heard on my stereo or in my car. Big deep thumpy cool stuff.

I was disappointed at first because my amps never seems to get me that tone......took me a while to figure out that what works in the real world of bass playing is quite a bit different. Even when I spent a good amount on money on the latest thing, it wasn't what I was looking for........but what I was looking for didn't exist.

Once I started playing in a band, everything changed. Because that deep bottom end usually doesn't work or muddies everything up. What works in a band doesn't always sound that great on its own.

Now, if its practice time at home, I don't really care about the tone I like. I want a non-scooped mid and high end sound that forces smooth playing.

The only tone I care about now is one that works in the band.......i've totally abandoned the quest for that "tone I like". Now its about a tone that works.

Maybe its a helpful perspective..................maybe.