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Bass Clips on the PA.

B

benayrsty

May 19, 2009
11
0
#1
I have the tendency to play my bass very hard, sometimes to get destint sounds and other times just to emphasize on specific notes and such. However, my bass seems to clip on a lot on my PA system and makes a horrible tone when it does that. So I have started playing very softly on my bass in the mean time to correct it (borrrrrinnnggg!). I have tried many things to try to fix the problem. Is there anything else I can try like a limiter pedal or compressor pedal??

-I have an active bass.
-I have a -6db pad on my amp, and a -25db (i think) on my channel on the PA.

Thanks :)
 
#4
benayrsty said:
The one built in on my 100watt fender bass amp
Click to expand...

I'd try a good quality external one with a pad switch as a troubleshooting measure at least. If that helps, you could consider inserting an additional pad in front of the board and seeing if the Fender's DI sounds OK at that point.
 
#15
If there is a pad in your signal chain, engage it. A compressor inserted on your channel will help with wild peaks/clipping. Even the little cheap behringer DI's have a -20db pad. If your amp has no pad, and your console has no pad, consider using a DI box with one.
 
#16
it could ultimately just be the preamp being pushed in that little 100 watt amp to try and get some volume, and running out of room and clipping.

a "real" bass amp (300w +) could likely be run less hard, giving more room for hard digging in to come across without clipping everything.

also, there's plenty of musical range between "plucking so hard you give yourself carpal tunnel" and "plucking so softly that the energy goes away".
 
#18
I use active pickups (mostly EMG's) and if I dig in too hard it will overload the pickup preamp resulting in an instantaneous distorted fuzz - just horrible. This is with the pickup adjusted a good distance away from the string, fresh battery, string not hitting pickup, etc.. It's just that too much string motion (extreme digging in) overloads the pre.

Do you ever break bass strings? I know a couple of bassist friends who dig in so hard that it causes problems with tone, extremes of dynamics, overloads and other bad sounds. They both have a tendency to break bass strings and they are simply playing way too hard.
 
#19
hbarcat said:
I use active pickups (mostly EMG's) and if I dig in too hard it will overload the pickup preamp resulting in an instantaneous distorted fuzz - just horrible. This is with the pickup adjusted a good distance away from the string, fresh battery, string not hitting pickup, etc.. It's just that too much string motion (extreme digging in) overloads the pre.

Do you ever break bass strings? I know a couple of bassist friends who dig in so hard that it causes problems with tone, extremes of dynamics, overloads and other bad sounds. They both have a tendency to break bass strings and they are simply playing way too hard.
Click to expand...

Tried 18V yet with those EMG's?


OP: a compressor will take a tad of the dynamics away, but I'd try that.

If you get a rack unit with two channels, you can configure one as a gentle compressor to take the edge off for the amp and configure the other as a fairly hard limiter for the DI.
 

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