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Cranking The Bass Knob

#162
I love cranking the bass!!! However, that does not work well in a band situation for me, as TOO much bass (is there such a thing??) can flood the stage and mess up with over all sound of the band. Problem with bass tone is, it really can't be heard up close but when it expands into the room, gets LOUD!! I like having bass at about noon, little to no mids, and treble about noon. Neck PU with knobs dimed out. On stage volume I get RIGHT at the point when everyone, me included, JUST starts to be able to hear me. But that's just me.
 
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#164
JimmyM said:
I am going to admit something that may get me raked over the coals...I love cranking the bass knob! Didn't always...took me a long time to warm up to the idea. But now I'll turn the bass up all the way if I need to. Gotta be judicious about it sometimes...don't want to overcrank the lows in a dark sounding room with a lot of natural reverb or anything dumb like that. And mids are still important if you want some note definition as well. But over the past years, I've gotten less shy about warming up the room real good, and I think it's working out great, and I don't get why so many people on here tell bass players not to do it. The lows are what people mostly hear out of your bass in a mix. Might as well let them have it.

There. I said it. I do something considered wrong by conventional TB wisdom, and I do so unapologetically. Take that.
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I'm unafraid of turning knobs on stage. I figure, that's why they're there, right?

I never understood the TB meme of the -knob-nooner- or in my mind they're part the flat EQ society. Dark ages, man.
 
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#165
JimmyM is no dummy. Of course he's seen his tone controls before. He is saying something subtle.

I had an iAMP 800 and didn't love it. The day it was boxed up for sale TomB told me to crank the Master all the way. I'd had the pre set at about 10 and the Master at 10 or so. TomB said that was the least dynamic and worst sounding possibility. Cranked the way Tom suggested was not something I would even consider. It became really tubey phat!

I had a Ken Smith BMT Elite G. I did a lot of studio and live but it wasn't perfect. Then I read that a Nashville session cat cranked his bass and treble eq on the bass to the max. It became the fattest warmest bass sound. Who knew?

So if I get JimmyM's point, sometimes we have preconceived ideas that prevent us from doing the obvious. We have already not considered a range of possibilities.
 
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#166
chadds said:
JimmyM is no dummy. Of course he's seen his tone controls before. He is saying something subtle.

I had an iAMP 800 and didn't love it. The day it was boxed up for sale TomB told me to crank the Master all the way. I'd had the pre set at about 10 and the Master at 10 or so. TomB said that was the least dynamic and worst sounding possibility. Cranked the way Tom suggested was not something I would even consider.

I had a Ken Smith BMT Elite G. I did a lot of studio and live but it wasn't perfect. Then I read that a Nashville session cat cranked his bass and treble eq on the bass to the max. It became the fattest warmest bass sound. Who knew?

So if I get JimmyM's point, sometimes we have preconceived ideas that prevent us from doing the obvious. We have already not considered a range of possibilities.
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Everyone should handle their knobs in a way that makes them happy is what you're really saying here. Sometimes it just takes more handling to get you to your happiest.
 
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#167
A couple points that people have brought up:

---While it is true that on a lot of amps the bass knob is centered at 40 hz (all mine are except the PF50T which is centered at 60 hz), and while it is true that the majority of that room-warming tone lives between 100-150 hz, that does not mean that your bass knob centered at 40 hz only affects 40 hz. I've found most of them have a pretty wide Q that affects a whole lot more than 40 hz. So to automatically assume that you're not affecting those warming freqs with a bass knob centered at 40 hz is fallacy. It's only the center, and not the only frequency affected.

---I am not playing reggae. I am not turning down the tone knob on my bass all the way, cranking the lows, and turning down mids and treble all the way. I am also not advocating doing it in every situation. My sound is far from a muddy and indistinct woof that has no note definition. I have plenty of note definition, or at the very least, plenty enough. So you can stop assuming that I'm advocating getting a muddy and indistinct woof.

---Yes, it's possible that my doing this is a result of having to play at pretty low volumes. I always try to balance my volume out with the rest of the band, and I will turn down happily if I think I'm too loud. Maybe if I were in a louder band I would need less bass response, but I would still want it warming up the room, so maybe I wouldn't.

---I'm doing this because it works for me, not you. You have to find your own voice, and if it's diametrically opposed to what I do, so be it. But never let yourself get so arrogant to where you tell someone that what works for them won't work at all for anyone. And I think that was my whole point of this thread...to drive that point home. For example, I don't care for the typical reggae sound that's all bass knob with no mids or treble. But there's a 60+ year history of reggae bassists doing exactly that with great success. So just bear in mind that what has proven unsuccessful for you doesn't mean others haven't had great success with it.
 
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#168
It's a bit of a genre thing.

When I play br00ts I use a lot of my B string (guitars in B or extended F#). I cut lows (40Hz and 80Hz) just a dash and sometimes cut lows on my bass too. Basically in a br00tal situation there tends to be so much low thunder overall that clarity becomes the main battle. The mix is going to be massive and bassy sounding enough. If I am going br00t I prefer punch and attack to buried sound/playing that is more felt than heard. My master usually cranked so the lows are there, just less in proportion to the low mids I prefer to push.
 
#174
JimmyM said:
That is easily rectified by tilting your amp up so your speakers point to your head and not your knees.
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I have a handy amp stand I use, called "an additional subwoofer". It gets the first woofer up near my ears. And puts that bass knob at really convenient eye-level for me to be able to turn it up easily.
 
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#175
chadds said:
JimmyM is no dummy. Of course he's seen his tone controls before. He is saying something subtle.

I had an iAMP 800 and didn't love it. The day it was boxed up for sale TomB told me to crank the Master all the way. I'd had the pre set at about 10 and the Master at 10 or so. TomB said that was the least dynamic and worst sounding possibility. Cranked the way Tom suggested was not something I would even consider. It became really tubey phat!

I had a Ken Smith BMT Elite G. I did a lot of studio and live but it wasn't perfect. Then I read that a Nashville session cat cranked his bass and treble eq on the bass to the max. It became the fattest warmest bass sound. Who knew?

So if I get JimmyM's point, sometimes we have preconceived ideas that prevent us from doing the obvious. We have already not considered a range of possibilities.
Click to expand...
...must have been a different TomB. I don't know iAMP. ...but I know bass control :)
 
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#178
BurningSkies said:
Everyone should handle their knobs in a way that makes them happy is what you're really saying here. Sometimes it just takes more handling to get you to your happiest.
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This! I think a lot of people (myself included) aren't always positive how things will impact their tone. So you fiddle around and don't get a great tone and give up. I've been guilty of this in the past. Now I keep going, and spend more time tweaking which is how I've learned (more - it's all degrees) to shape my tone. Now I have a much better handle on it and have a more informed decision when evaluating gear. Patience is the name of the game...
 
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