Are you a "set and forget" or an "endlessly explore" kind of player?

[kesslari]

I notice that I tend to quickly find a few settings that I like, and generally stick with them.
I know there are myriad other tones availabe (from my instrument, amp, and effects) but I tend to find a few that I like, learn how to replicate them, and then be done. I mostly work then on employing those tonalities in my playing.

Others, I know, can find endless tones and are always exploring further.

How do you roll?

 

[OptimusPrime]

My settings normally stay the same. The setting on my MXR flanger has been the same for over a year. I occasionally turn the width up a little if I need it more pronounced.

 

[fightthepower]

Endlessly explore. Nothing is ever quite good enough...

 

[FrigginChris]

endlessly explore. i tweak my effects constantly.

 

[sgtdemeo]

on my amp, my settings NEVER seem to change (caveat: I use a passive volume pedal to set volume) But I am constantly changing settings on m basses, i.e. tweaking the tone knobs, etc. so I guess a little of both!

 

[DosiYanarchy]

i explore at home, but when im playing with a band i just find the sounds i have in my head and then once their set, leave them. the Bass Mycro Synth on its own has so many possibilites to explore that i try not to go off on a tangent with the band.

 

[sonicnuance]

On a gig, I endlessly explore changing tone with my technique if need be. If the bass is so equipped, I also change the tone via the preamp/pickup selection if need be.

I generally have 5-6 go-to tones that I can get. They are subtle variations of the same theme.

I generally don't change the amp accept during soundcheck, and then only for the room dynamics/cabinet

For a given song I rarely change anything, but sometimes mildly tweak the bass and mids on the bass' preamp.

Boy, that was complicated

 

[greenboy]

Happy medium. If one of my own V-Bass presets can benefit from what I recently learned when tweaking one of my other V-Bass patches, I'll sometimes set off a chain reaction where the whole patch in every modules' parameters (since nearly everything can ultimately be switched off/on within that preset) and many of the footcontrol settings get a makeover.

At the gigs and jams it's strictly what my fingers and feet can do - no tweaking goes on, even at the rack/head.

Sometimes I come up with treatments that I don't yet have a gig song that'll allow them to be shoehorned in gracefully, so they wait for jams where I get to set the tone of the session.

 

[ytsebri]

I only fiddle with an amp, bass, etc. if there's something wrong. Sometimes I have to change eq on my amp according to the room, but more often than not, I'll just plug and play. BTW, I don't use any effects at all, just Bass>Monster cable>amp>di+mic>applause and sometimes gasps of fear and pain.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

I have a dual looper/blender. In one loop and on the combined series portion to the amp it's pretty much set and forget. On the other loop (HOG/Holy Stain) those two get tweaked constantly because I rarely do the same thing with those two for any pair of songs (too.... much.... versatility.....). Sometimes an unfortunate sonic accident occurs, but usually I get everything set up right pre-song and it's alright.

 

[kevteop]

On my main bass ('91 Warwick Thumb) I leave the EQ flat, usually the pickups mixed 50:50, but sometimes for a more classic sound I solo the front pup and if I need more I whack it with a pick. My fretless (Stingray) I leave flat if I'm running effects, or I add a bit of treble and cut the mids and pick up by the neck if I'm playing something soft.

The amp I tune to the room.

As for effects, I tweak a lot.

The BMS I have a dozen different "go-to" sounds for. My Meatwad, similarly, I've got a whole bunch of sounds I use - it's a great tweaker's pedal and I'm very familiar with it now. My OC-2 I usually solo the OCT-1, but sometimes mix in the clean tone on the fretless, the Mammoth I have a base sound for but sometimes I use more "pinch" to make it a bit compressed and nasal, and sometimes I add a lot of treble and use my LS-2 to mix it with a clean tone, my Bassballs I tweak between guitars and sometimes crank the dirty tone a bit if it's not cutting through.

I don't have one set sound on any of my pedals. I did on my phaser but that found a new home last week. I'm currently trying to buy a Chunk Squeezer so I suppose that marks me out as a tweaker.

 

[JimmyM]

I lean closer to set it and forget it. I make a tweak here and there during the night but I do my best to set it and forget it.

 

[fuNKmaster83]

set and forget is not the way with any thing!!!

i see that a lot of guys are afraid to tuch the controls live... i say the only consatnt thing in the world is change!!! every thing changes al the time and you have to adjust!!! the EQ setings on your amp may be good in your home or practise room, or on the sound check... but when its time for the real thing things might change... the same is for efx!!! the tone, responce and all things connected to efx change from venue to venue from place to place, day to day...
a good expert, pro or any one must always pay close attention to things like how do i sound now, is it good, better, worst??? and resolving the isuses at hand!!! if you are stupid and ignorant and think that the settings you have found are LAW and no one must toutch them, you will find your self in a situation where you have constant rpoblems with your gear not responding the way you wat... ITS BECAUSE YOU DON'T LISTEN TO IT AND FEEL IT!!!
the same porblem is with sound tech guys... most of them have a preset EQ for all things... and the y set it and don't even listen!!! WRONG!!! all venues have different acoustics and will respond different!!! you should start at flat or neutral and listen and adjust so that the resoult is good and satisfying...

eh to whom am i preaching?! do what you do... but do it as best as you possibly can and all will be OK!!!

 

[DanielleMuscato]

I used to be a set & forget guy, until I got my first bass with an active preamp. Twiddling knobs is now very much a part of my playing. The two things I do most often are roll off the high end during slow/acoustic-y parts, so my string noise doesn't "ruin the moment," and another thing I do a lot is slowly/gradually boost the active bass to make whole notes and breves last longer without losing volume. Sometimes I use the bass boost to get my low notes to feed back intentionally, too, and I use my mid-boost a lot when I'm doing solos. My newest bass has series/parallel switches for each of the dual-coil pickups, which I definitely take advantage of as I feel the whim.

When I'm playing one of my Variaxes, I'll often even change bass models entirely during different sections of songs, and very often from song-to-song, depending on the type of tone I want. If I'm playing a softer ballad, or even just a low chorus or bridge, I'll use the '58 P-bass with flats tone, or '64 Höfner 500/1 with flats tone, etc. For rock songs or upbeat parts of songs, I'll use the '63 P with rounds tone, the '02 MTD 535, the '77 Stingray, the '03 Warwick Thumb, the '03 Modulus Flea, etc. There are a lot of options on that thing and changing sounds can be done in less than a second if you use the knob, or even faster if you use a POD Live XT pedalboard, as I do.

I also adjust my technique extremely frequently. I came to bass from a classical guitar background, and learning how to use the positioning of my hands, nails, pads & tips, etc is the only way to adjust your tone, when you don't have an amp or effects to work with. I would recommend a year or two of classical guitar lessons to ANY serious bass student, before you're "allowed" to use any effects

I don't use any effects really (a touch of compression if the room acoustics are bad, a touch of grit and compression for soloing or for backing distorted guitars), except wah once in awhile for fun.

 

[meatwad]

Set and forget, except for the active EQ on my basses.

 

[Yvon]

set and forget kind of guy..
And I feel guilty about it

 

[Jeff Martinez]

When I'm old, and in the hospital dying, I'll be trying to tweak the settings on all the machines keeping me alive.

 

[Phalex]

Definitely set & forget. I can adjust the settings on my head to best accommodate any bass I own without even plugging it in. I don't even think I've touched the volume knob the last few gigs.

 

[scotch]

I tend to set & forget, except for a couple of pedals where I do use other settings. These secondary settings tend to be consistent as well, though...

I'd estimate that every year or so, my tastes change & a tweak happens. Overall, my settings don't change much. My rig is set-up so my pedalboard & di send a consistent range of sounds to the engineer, so I make any room or "how-I-feel-that-day" adjustments to my amp.

 

[thehangingmist]

depends on the effect. with the fuzz i keep tweaking it all the time to get that sound i never can perhaps. others i tweak less but i keep tweaking a little though