• 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 freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Are you a plug in and play bassist?

Do you use one setting on your amp and play without effects and maybe just use bass tone only and then vary picking style to compensate if need be?

Im curious who uses 2 channels (if your amp has 2 channels) on a given night?
I set my eq and go. Depending on the room, I'll boost or cut the bottom a touch, for my sound I usually boost upper mids just a touch, roll the top off a bit. Between knowing how to drive my tube rigs, and changing up playing position and style (with the extra feature that I play not only with the pads of my fingers but also my nails, and can use my index fingernail like a pick. Don't cringe, that doesn't seem to be popular. Maybe just me and Geddy?) I can get so many varied colors. (Playing exclusively flats.) SO, my Bassman 100T has switchable passive vintage and active modern with overdrive channels. There are two songs in my current blues band that I switch channels for distortion, and that's it. The 100T also has a tuner output so I run nothing inline. When I'm using my Ampeg PF-50T rig I take a distortion pedal for those two songs, and also have to use the tuner in-line as well. I'm so anal about sound I remove the distortion pedal if it's not going to be used in a set. LOL! That's going a bit overboard no doubt, but makes me feel better.
 
Do you use one setting on your amp and play without effects and maybe just use bass tone only and then vary picking style to compensate if need be?

Im curious who uses 2 channels (if your amp has 2 channels) on a given night?
Venue acoustics will cause me to change my amp settings a bit. Perhaps more input/bass or less. It's always slight adjustments. Nothing drastic.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DavidEdenAria
Have never used effects such as foot pedals. Did use onboard compressors when they were on different bass heads. I do have a dual power amp head, the Genz Benz Shuttlemax 12.2, which does have two channels, which I sometimes blend. Not much of a knob twiddler unless the room is really bad acoustically. Never use a pick, occasionally use my thumb if in a real quiet setting. Other than that, a little bump in the low mids section, but everything else pretty much straight up noon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DavidEdenAria
Plug in and play. Dropped pedals/stomps from the '80s one by one 'til none 2000s. Will use a ProCo Rat with my Sunn Concert head.
Just started using a GK Fusion 800/210 combo which has two different channels; "clean" and "drive", so looking forward to going back and forth for a lil' tubey grit on some songs. The "clean" channel is so clean thought it was solid state! - amazing little unit.
 
Straight in. NFA. Plenty of variety with one on roundwounds and the other on flats. There's always the 66 Jazz or 68 Tele for extra variety.
2 Peas.jpg
 
I don't do preparatory calisthenics, perform any rituals, or engage in any other habitual acts, and I have no place on my body for me to plug in.

I do have a strobe tuner/mute, Cali76 comp, and an all-in-one SVT preamp/drive/LPF/HPF/DI/cab sim pedal. They're always on or in use as long as they're between my bass and my amp.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DavidEdenAria
Do you use one setting on your amp and play without effects and maybe just use bass tone only and then vary picking style to compensate if need be?

Im curious who uses 2 channels (if your amp has 2 channels) on a given night?

The only pedal I use is a tuner.
I play through an Acoustic Image Focus, which is equipped with two preamps, and a host of features like a variable high-pass filter for each channel, both XLR and quarter-inch inputs, and a few built-in effects.
I'm a doubler, and I typically set up each channel to accommodate a different bass; acoustic double bass, electric upright bass, and fretted and fretless electric basses. Sometimes I set up one preamp for fretted, and the other for fretless. I've also combined signals from a double bass pick up and a microphone.

I am having difficulty finding other amps with comparable features since Acoustic Image shuttered their business following the death of the owner.

Most other amps fall short of the mark for my needs, no matter how high their well-earned praise, because I've been utterly spoiled by a well designed and well executed bass amp with features like no others I have found.
 
Do you use one setting on your amp and play without effects and maybe just use bass tone only and then vary picking style to compensate if need be?

Im curious who uses 2 channels (if your amp has 2 channels) on a given night?

No effects but if I’m using an amp, I will dial it in for each room since they all sound different. Once that’s done I don’t touch it again except maybe for volume changes.
 
I play the same room (church sanctuary) every weekend. I may initially adjust my outboard HPF and tone controls on the amp slightly before play begins. I leave the tone controls on my active basses on their center detents and I leave the tone control on my precision full up, so I'm pretty much plug & play. :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: DavidEdenAria