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Advice on light rig with good mids and highs

currently using a 500 watt
mark bass head (not tube) and 2x10 cab. Guitar guys are telling me mids and highs aren’t loud enough. Playing through Fender American basses. Any suggestions? Would going with their tube head make a difference?
 
currently using a 500 watt
mark bass head (not tube) and 2x10 cab. Guitar guys are telling me mids and highs aren’t loud enough. Playing through Fender American basses. Any suggestions? Would going with their tube head make a difference?
Adding a second cab will move more air and get you a vertical stack. Better stage volume, easier to hear yourself and better dispersion FOH.

You can add an HPF to tighten up the low end and an eq. pedal for more adjustments.

Who listens to guit players anyways?
 
Guitar guys are telling me mids and highs aren’t loud enough.

Are they saying the mids and highs aren't loud enough on stage, or that the mids and highs aren't loud enough out in the house? Asking because the solutions are not necessarily the same.

Would going with their tube head make a difference?

Assuming you've already explored what your tone controls can do, my guess would be that this is more of a cab thing than an amplifier thing.

currently using a 2x10 cab.

Which 2x10 cab? The devils are in the details...
 
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Adding a second cab will move more air and get you a vertical stack. Better stage volume, easier to hear yourself and better dispersion FOH.

You can add an HPF to tighten up the low end and an eq. pedal for more adjustments.

Who listens to guit players anyways?
LOL! So, what EQ pedal would you recommend? Never devolved in to the realm of ‘pedal world’.
 
Are they saying the mids and highs aren't loud enough on stage, or that the mids and highs aren't loud enough out in the house? Asking because the solutions are not necessarily the same.



Assuming you've already explored what your tone controls can do, my guess would be that this is more of a cab thing than an amplifier thing.



Which 2x10 cab? The devils are in the details...
I use mark bass cabinets. I have a 2x10 and a 4x10 cab. cab doesn’t get used much. I’m thinking an amp stand and an eq device would help. Both j bass and precision are 1990’s The Jazz seems to have better tone control. I’m liking the eq idea, just not sure which one to try.
 
I use mark bass cabinets. I have a 2x10 and a 4x10 cab. cab doesn’t get used much. I’m thinking an amp stand and an eq device would help. Both j bass and precision are 1990’s The Jazz seems to have better tone control. I’m liking the eq idea, just not sure which one to try.

Use the EQ built into your amp.
Chances are you have a knob setting issue, not a hardware one.

First things first: What are all the knob settings on your bass and amp, what strings are you using and how old are they?
Is there anything unusual about your instrument setup, like a foam mute?
What kind of right hand technique are you using? Fingers, pick, slapping, thumb picking, palm muting, etc?
 
I use mark bass cabinets.

Some Markbass cabs have tweeters and some don't. If yours doesn't then perhaps there is room for improvement by switching to one that does have a tweeter.

You might try orienting the 210 cab so that the 10's are vertical instead of horizontal. This will improve the dispersion in the vertical plane, at the expense of reducing the dispersion in the horizontal plane (so it might be harder for you to hear your overtones if you stand close to the cab). The improved horizontal dispersion will result in a bit wider and more uniform coverage of the audience.

If the issue is that your guitarists can't hear you, maybe use both cabs and aim the 210 towards the guitarists.
 
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Use the one built into your amp.
Chances are you have a knob setting issue, not a hardware one.

First things first: What are all the knob settings on your bass and amp, what strings are you using and how old are they?
Is there anything unusual about your instrument setup, like a foam mute?
What kind of right hand technique are you using? Fingers, pick, slapping, etc?
New flat wounds (we play a lot of blues), recently set up, nothing funky going on. Low on head is turned down, mids and highs turned up. Gain is low to medium. On bass jazz ( two pups) both dialed in at about 3-4. I did try to adjust mid gig but couldn’t tell much of a diff. Hope this helps.
 
Some Markbass cabs have tweeters and some don't. If yours doesn't then perhaps there is room for improvement by switching to one that does have a tweeter.

You might try orienting the 210 cab so that the 10's are vertical instead of horizontal. This will improve the dispersion in the vertical plane, at the expense of reducing the dispersion in the horizontal plane (so it might be harder for you to hear your overtones if you stand close to the cab). The improved horizontal dispersion will result in a bit wider and more uniform coverage of the audience.

If the issue is that your guitarists can't hear you, maybe use both cabs and aim the 210 towards the guitarists.
Thanks a lot! Appreciate the advice.
 
New flat wounds (we play a lot of blues), recently set up, nothing funky going on. Low on head is turned down, mids and highs turned up. Gain is low to medium. On bass jazz ( two pups) both dialed in at about 3-4. I did try to adjust mid gig but couldn’t tell much of a diff. Hope this helps.

"Down" and "up" aren't settings. They're general directions. What are the specific settings for every knob on your bass and amp?
Without knowing that any advice you get is just a guess.

That said, if you need more highs and mids ditch the flats and put on steel rounds. Then put the bridge pickup at 100%, neck pickup at 0%.
Those two things will get you more highs and mids than anyone could ever want.
 
I'd agree with the idea to try roundwounds first. Flats sound wonderfully full, but they do not cut through a mix if that's the goal. An active rather than passive bass will help.
Hard to go further with advice without knowing the answer to some of the questions asked.
 
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You only need to upgrade your rig if you don't have enough volume in total or if you lack bass - provided you have something decent. And the Markbass stuff is pretty decent.
Using both pickups on a bass will cancel out some midrange, so there's a starting point.
If your amp controls are not dimed yet, there's no need for a pedal. But in my experience, a Markbass head with the Hi Mid and the High turned in all the way will make your guitar players' ears bleed.

Maybe the positioning of the cab is to blame? Does it sit on the ground, in a corner, facing the wall?
 
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Try this.

Turn your input UP until the Blue Clip Light come on then back it DOWN just a bit.

Set the LOW at noon.
Set the LOW MID at 2 o’clock.
Set the HIGH MID at 2 o’clock.
Set the HIGH at noon.
VLE all the way OFF (to the left)
VPF adjust to taste WHILE PLAYING with your band, but start with it OFF (to the left).
 

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