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Bass volume

P

pedulla1

May 14, 2005
563
8
NYC
#1
This might seem like a rookie question but how many of you play with your onboard pre of your bass wide open or close to full? Meaning you do most of your volume adjustment from your amp or rackmount pre. Thanks.
 
#6
My bass at full volume is louder than I usually play. I leave myself some head room by turning the amp up a bit & not turning the bass up to full volume. Since I usually have to sing I don't want to get trapped into being too soft & not being able to leave the mic to turn up the amp.
 
#8
I run mine full on. Even when I had basses that had higher output. Best sound that way to me. However the bass and treble eq settings are ussually fairly close to flat. Midrange boost or sweep varies more often. Most tone shifting for me is by degree of pup blending. The 3 main settings being: even, rolled a little toward neck or rolled a little toward bridge. I seldom solo either pup.

Different volumes when needed are mostly via processor settings or mixer level for bass channals.

Agrees with Aaroneous method. Lol.
 
#11
I do Master vol. on bass all the way pickup vol. on P pickup a little over half for punch Jazz on all the the way for grit and the Amp is on atleast half way bass amp EQ on almost full Mid low and Mid high EQ on almost half and Treble EQ on almost half of half.
 
#12
Aaroneous said:
I check the level of my bass at sound check. Then I turn the bass down and get a beer and flirt with girls. Then I turn the bass back up and play the songs. Then at the end of the set, I turn the bass down and unplug it.

Is that wrong, or do I suck real bad? Or both?
Click to expand...

Yes you suck. :spit:

You need to get one of those basses that have no knobs, just an on-off toggle switch.

Seriously. Things to consider.

1. Do you have a sound man? If so then the Aaroneous works because the level and tone of your bass is being handled by a second "musician"! The bass player doesn't have to deal with it.

2. Passive instruments can have different tone (or tone control actions) depending on volume settings. Guitars are worst at this, but basses do it to.

3. The minimum noise level (usually hiss) from a given bass/pre/amp usually occurs with certain settings of bass volume, the preamp gain, and amp level controls. Changes from the optimum settings may give you more hiss etc. So ideas like bass up full and control from amp vs amp up full and control from bass may neither be optimum for noise.


Personally, I usually don't have a soundman. The sound board is usually set up at sound check and thence unmanned unless a problem develops. For this reason I usually play with volume nearly full on but with just a tad of additional volume left for solos or other adjustments that may be needed when playing. This is especially true when playing with a DI where there is no amp to use for adjustments. In any case it's handier to have the tweaks (both volume and tone) available right at the bass when playing with a DI which is why I prefer an active bass in that case.

In passive cases (especially guitar) I find that with passive instruments there can be a large tone change from full volume to reduced volume. And I usually like the full volume sound best. In that case I play volume full on and use the amp as an adjuster if needed. Note that the minimum noise setting for passive instruments is with volume full on. Anything less just decreases the signal to noise ratio.
 
#15
All knobs on 11 all the time. I may roll off for an intro or fade, but I crank the guitar knobs. If my pickup is too hot, I will lower it and set it up for cranking. It's much easier to roll the knobs quickly with my pinky finger and not think about how far to adjust it. I add amp volume as my ears fry throughout the night.
 
#16
Ric5 said:
With a passive bass I open it up all the way. With an active bass I run 1/2 to 3/4. Rember when you turn up the mids, treble and bass on an active bass you are also adding volume. Even more so with an 18 volt system.
Click to expand...

Don't now what type of music you are playing, but in general the AMP is set for volume and T-M-B and I tweak with the pre-amp.

When I'm using effect pedals, I find it useful to use a volume pedal as well. Some effects amplify the sound and there is just no way you can continue to play and adjust knobs.

-richard
 
#18
The tone on my bass changes noticeably the last 1/8 of volume, so I keep my volume on my front pup full. If it's a dead room I might add a little bridge pup. I roll the treble off and set the low mids up a bit and the high down a bit at the amp. It's a very bright bass so this gets me the clean old school bass sound I want.

I had the luxury today of hearing another bassist play my bass and rig today. I'm not a tone junkie but I was very pleased at the tone my rig puts out.
 
#19
I've always run the volume control on the bass wide open and set the maximum volume I should need at the amp. My basic sound is set with the amp's EQ. I start with the volume on the instrument wide open regardless of active/passive. If I'm playing the passive basses, the instrument tone control is wide open too. For active basses my starting point is the EQ set to the nominally flat positions.

Most if not all of my volume (and most of my tone tweaking) is the fingers rather than electronics.

John
 
#20
All controls, WOT on my two active and two passive basses. These are all strung with flatwounds, so I need all the highs I can get. I just ordered a set of DR Hi Beams to see if I can handle roundwounds again! If I get added highs maybe I'll back off on the tone control.
 

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