Another help me with my bass sound

[Corvetti]

So I've got an Ampeg 810 with a Gallien Krueger MB500 with a Corvette Standard 5 string, passive. I can get the sounds I want at pretty low volume but once I try to get it pretty loud it starts making a distorted sound as if its being pushed pretty hard. Only problem is it starts to happen once I have my gain and volume at about 11 or 12 o clock, which is not loud enough to be heard over my guitarists.... Do I just need a more powerful amp? I've tried everything from cutting bass a little bit, to boosting mids, to cutting gain and boosting volume, to boosting volume and cutting gain, balanced gain and volume. Everything. I can get it loud enough without it distorting or just losing sound quality... I'm using the right chords etc. for hooking up my amp to the cab. Any advice?
My amp also sounds very thin/sterile (hard to describe) when playing. It just doesn't seem to have much warmth no matter how I EQ it.

 

[scottfeldstein]

Interesting! I'll be doing the exact same experiment in about a week.

I'd try putting the Master at about 3 o'clock and bring up the Gain accordingly. Also, you might want to keep the Boost down low. or just use the Master, not the Master B volume.

Aside from that, I'd say see if you can get a shelf-type cutoff for the low frequencies. Anything below 50hz is just deadly. It takes a lot of power and a lot of speaker capacity while adding virtually nothing to your tone. Maybe you just need to get more aggressive on the MB500 eq. Put that bass down to about 9, keep the low-mids around noon.

And make double darned sure you have the Limiter on!

I really hope I don't have this same problem. One of the reasons I decided to get a separate head (the MB500) was so that I could drive not only my own modest set of cabs, but also the big Ampeg 8x10 that lives in the rehearsal space of a loud band I play with regularly.

 

[moebass]

Is your bass active? If it is you might turn down the bassguitar volume. your signal might be too hot.
On the tone issue I find alot of folks will always start boosting or adding more EQ.I find some times a little roll off on the highs and the lows go along way in helping add that warmth.
The best thing is to find tube amp.
The other thing you might check into is one of those preamp DI stomp boxes. The VTbass or the sansamp are some good ones I know of.

 

[Corvetti]

Interesting! I'll be doing the exact same experiment in about a week.

I'd try putting the Master at about 3 o'clock and bring up the Gain accordingly. Also, you might want to keep the Boost down low. or just use the Master, not the Master B volume.

Aside from that, I'd say see if you can get a shelf-type cutoff for the low frequencies. Anything below 50hz is just deadly. It takes a lot of power and a lot of speaker capacity while adding virtually nothing to your tone. Maybe you just need to get more aggressive on the MB500 eq. Put that bass down to about 9, keep the low-mids around noon.

And make double darned sure you have the Limiter on!

I really hope I don't have this same problem. One of the reasons I decided to get a separate head (the MB500) was so that I could drive not only my own modest set of cabs, but also the big Ampeg 8x10 that lives in the rehearsal space of a loud band I play with regularly.

Ah yes! That's exactly what I was looking for. I was totally oblivious to this feature because when I play I sit on my couch and since my 810 is so tall I couldn't see the limiter button since it was on the top of the amp and not on the front. This pretty much solved my main problem! (The buzzing/distortion) problem. Thank you!

 

[scottfeldstein]

With that solved, try the GIVE feature. Set the Boost between noon and 3 o'clock. That should put some hair on your tone. When this is engaged, use the Master B knob instead of the Master volume. You can switch between the Boosted signal and the regular one via the footswitch or the button on the front of the amp. That may make your sound a little more gritty and less "sterile."

Do you have the manual handy? I got a paper one with the unit, but you can also download one from GK. I have the PDF manual on my laptop.

 

[scottfeldstein]

I would have been surprised if the MB500 couldn't push the Ampeg 8x10 to high volume levels. I see another bass player push that cab pretty hard with an old Peavey Mark IV every week. I got tired of being jealous, so I got my own head--the MB500. Comparing the two manuals, the GK actually has more watts than the Peavey. Ergo, I should be able to do what he does.

 

[Corvetti]

With that solved, try the GIVE feature. Set the Boost between noon and 3 o'clock. That should put some hair on your tone. When this is engaged, use the Master B knob instead of the Master volume. You can switch between the Boosted signal and the regular one via the footswitch or the button on the front of the amp. That may make your sound a little more gritty and less "sterile."

Do you have the manual handy? I got a paper one with the unit, but you can also download one from GK. I have the PDF manual on my laptop.

Will do! And yes I have one, I've read through it. I'm familiar with the GIVE feature but I've never been able to try it because it always seemed to make that buzzing/distortion problem way worse. I'll play around with it now, thanks mate!

 

[Corvetti]

I would have been surprised if the MB500 couldn't push the Ampeg 8x10 to high volume levels. I see another bass player push that cab pretty hard with an old Peavey Mark IV every week. I got tired of being jealous, so I got my own head--the MB500. Comparing the two manuals, the GK actually has more watts than the Peavey. Ergo, I should be able to do what he does.

Yeah I always wondered why I wasn't able to really push my cab.. I was thinking wow, do I seriously need more than 500W? Problem solved. Now I can be content with my amp.