Like I said I'm just looking for a basic tone that can be used in a church. Something really smooth for quiet songs/parts and something at least a little drivey for when songs build.
I’m not sure what “basic tone” you prefer, or what gets used in a church setting other than to say that the last time I played in a church I brought:
Tuner: Sonic Research ST-300
Compressor: Keeley Bassist
Preamp: Barber Linden EQ/Preamp
Misc: Broughton HPF
DI: Countryman Type 85
Amp: SWR SM-400; Goliath II 2x10
Bass: Gretsch Junior Jet w/GHS Balanced Nickels
The Keeley Bassist is a straightforward and very transparent limiting type compressor. Good for preventing volume spikes in an unfamiliar room with fussy acoustic characteristics.
The Barber Linden EQ is basically a B-15N tonestack plus some useful extras that provides a huge amount of warm useful tone shaping. If you’re comfortable with a Baxandall/James tonestack you already know you have more control over your mids with just a treble and bass knob than you do with your traditional 3 or 4 knob FMV style EQ. I sidestep the SM-400’s preamp stage and go directly into its effects return with the Linden. Instant 400W B-15N. Yay!
The Countryman Type 85 is an really nice active DI that just sounds good and just works. It adds a little coloration or warmth. But it’s a good sound. Sorta tubelike to my ears. On this particular gig I didn’t use it since the church was a traditional gothic stone and oak pew place with a choir loft and
no FOH.
The HPF is something I absolutely need to use if I’m running the SM-400 by itself. The reason would take time to get into. And it’s totally irrelevant unless your using an SM-400. But that said I’ll also use it when I need to rein in my lows for other reasons. In this particular church I set it to cut starting around 80Hz to avoid booming in what was essentially a stone tunnel with a 50 foot ceiling.
The Gretsch Junior Jet (I have the one with the single TV Jones pickup) is a great utility infielder short-scale bass that sounds great and has a huge range of excellent tones. Especially if you use rounds on it. The shorter scale comes in handy if you’re crowded into a small ”stage” area like I knew we would be. I was tempted to bring something else too (just in case) but ended up taking my chances. And it worked beautifully. Nice round warm tone that slotted perfectly with the music on the program.
There's a lot of videos and info about compressors, but I'm not really sure the difference in them all.
The subject is wide and deep and something most of us had to grow into. But compressors basically fall into one of two main groupings: transparent and colorizing.
Transparent compressors have no (or extremely little) effect on your tone. These types of compressors mostly just control the dynamics and shape of your signal. So they’re mainly a clean up tool.
Colorizing compressors add something to your tone. Which makes a colorizing compressor more of an effect than just a plain a signal shaper.
Between those two poles there’s as many shades and shapes and mixes of features and degrees of complexity as there are compressors. And each brings to the party what their designer considers to be the ideal compressor. So if it seems deep and complex, that’s because there is so much to choose from. And no two players will necessarily agree on which is best.
It can take some time and effort getting your head around compression. But it’s an effort well spent IMO. Knowing how and why to use compression is a fundamental skill I consider to be a must have for any bass player once they reach an intermediate level.
