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Amp tone vs Bass tone

#21
This is a good discussion as I have often wondered this myself. Between my bass and my amp I have a lot of tonal possibilities. I find that for me sometimes having too many options makes it easier to forget about K.I.S.S.

vin*tone said:
Well - unless you religiously mic your cab, your bass sound is what goes through the DI.
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Yes but if you are using the built in DI of your amp like I do there is a pre EQ and a post EQ setting.. I used to use the Post EQ setting but that made it hard to get a good sound in the room, at least at my church where the acoustics are very problematic. The place is riddled with dead spots.. and the sound used to be way too boomy with the eq of the bass and the amp and without EQ it seemed to have no ump on the platform.. ... Now I go through the DI with a Pre EQ setting that way the signal going to the board is flat as far as the amp is concerned.. I fine tune the tone where I want it on my bass and then use the amp to set the tone where I want it on the stage and pretty much leave it there then I make slight adjustments on the bass (pup settings etc..) as needed for the song.. I think that the house should augment what is coming from the stage to fill out what's missing in the room but the overall tone should be coming from the stage and dong it that way gives our soundman a bit more latitude in tweaking what is coming out of the house.
 
#22
I usually have both pickups on full, the tone full and the amp set to flat and let my GT-6B shape different sounds out of it. Unless I'm going for a specific sound, like say if i was trying to get the John Entwistle P bass sound then I would just have the front pick up on, tone full and treble set all the way up on my amp. But flat is usually the "go to" for me with a bit of compression in the GT-6B for some slap.
 
#23
Since I like the sound (tone) of my Bass, I adjust the amp to get a louder version and to compensate for my speaker's response in the room I'm playing.

I have an active Pre in the Bass that I run the EQ centered except for: Ballads: I boost the low control and play (right hand) lighter for a compressed-like low tone.
Some funk tunes: light boost on the mid control for a punchy staccato attack-presence.
 
#25
I have an SWR-400s (which has a tube preamp). Since the gain sets the volume level for the pre-amp, this does effect the overall tone I'm getting (although only slightly to my ears). On this amp, it also effects the limiter which is engaged based on the pre-amp gain.

I'm all for less controls the better. I have no interest in an 8 band EQ, so I tend to set my effects pedal flat, my bass tone and volume to max and do a little tweaking on the head.
 
#27
mp40smg said:
I pretty much set everything flat. Bass and amp.

If the sound coming out of the speakers is not right then I sell off and replace the gear until it is.

And I always use the DI on my amp (post eq)...
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I roll fairly close to this theory as well. Maybe just a bit of sansamp grit added though.
 
#28
mp40smg said:
I pretty much set everything flat. Bass and amp.

If the sound coming out of the speakers is not right then I sell off and replace the gear until it is.

And I always use the DI on my amp (post eq)...
Click to expand...

Sounds expensive! Why not just tweak the bass and amplifier tone controls to get what you want? There's more tone built into an amp and bass than just the "flat" one.
 
#29
walldaja said:
Please forgive me in advance, I must confess I'm addicted to reading the manuals on everything. With that confession behind me I was surprised when I was reading a manual that came with an amp I just bought. It directed me to max out the tone and vol of the bass, turn the amp gain to 0, and then set the amp vol to "3 o'clock" which is about the 75% position. Then it said to bring up the amp gain until I got the vol I wanted.

I was rather dubious about doing that but, what the heck, it's what the manual said to do. I was pleasantly surprised by the sound I got. I usually play in a church and rarely do we have a musician as the sound person. I've never tried adjusting my bass that way there but need to get a partner and give it a try.

Anyone else adjust the amp as this manual directed?
Click to expand...

That is what I prefer as my gain structure if I'm looking for the cleanest tone. If I want grit, it might be more useful to crank the gain, and then the master. Usually it's the grit.
 
#30
mp40smg said:
I pretty much set everything flat. Bass and amp.

If the sound coming out of the speakers is not right then I sell off and replace the gear until it is.
Click to expand...
Much better choice than turning a knob or two. If you're on a gig and the sound isn't right, do you just stand there helplessly while your gear doesn't put out what you want to hear?
 
#33
I leave my bass' active EQ flat and let the Barts do their thing. Amp-wise, I do most of my adjustments there, which are still minimal. Boost the lows a tiny bit, set the mids to around 150hz and bump them to 1 o'clock; the highs stay flat. If there's any unforeseen problems, I tweak the EQ accordingly.

On the note of input gain vs. master to control volume, I set the input gain to just before clipping and set the master to a point where I can turn the volume of my bass up and down to boost or cut volume depending on the song. My hand does most of the dynamic work though!
 
#34
LOL Jimmy......

To get 'your tone' together, IMO you are better off starting 'flat' on the amp(unless your amp/cabs are voiced in a way that you know you'll always need to adjust, or if you are aware of some room effect you'll need to compensate for), getting as close as you can with the controls on the bass, then fine-tune at the amp. **** in, **** out, as they say. Better to adjust as much as possible at the source.
Otherwise you can end up with an EQ war. For example if you cut tons of highs at the amp, you can't effectively get them back by boosting them on the bass- you'd get lots of hiss.
 
#35
I tend to leave my amp settings alone for the most part and either use the EQ on the bass or a EQ/Tone Hammer to dial in specific tones. Most of the bass amps I've owned over the years have had very simple tone adjustment controls on them. I usually set everything flat then take out a little in the mids at the amp.
 
#36
As a starting point, I set my amp up mostly flat, maybe a little cut around 400 Hz, a little bump about 800.

I mostly use my hand position, the pickup blend knob, and the mid and treble knobs on the Bartolini NTMB preamp to control tone at the bass for the particular song. The mid knob goes up a tick, blend biased towards the bridge pickup, and hand likewise for a more aggressive sound; the treble goes down with the neck pickup soloed and hand over the end of the neck for smoother tones.
 

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