Crate B200XL is quiet - Can I fix it?

[thundernoob]

One way to make the best of what sounds like a bad situation: turn down the bass control on the amp. Or, as a previous poster said, set the EQ sliders in a frowny face.

The low frequencies soak up most of the amp's power. With more power on tap from cutting the lows, the mids will project better and the amp will sound much louder. Maybe add a little distortion. It's fun having bowel-churning lows, but its unnecessary.

Especially if you play venues with a massive sound system and an FOH engineer, who's going to roll your signal off below 80 Hz or thereabouts anyway.

(BTW, I recently read an early '70's interview with Felix Pappalardi of Mountain, who said that he always had the bass control turned all the way down on his Sunn stacks. Might have got the idea from Jack Bruce, who used only the bridge pickup on his Gibson EB-3.)

Here's a perfect example: what Danny Sapko calls "the heaviest BEHS tone I've ever heard." Sounds massive, but notice that there's literally nothing below about 100 Hz there. All mid-range and distortion.

But he recreates it by cranking the bass and turning down the treble and mids? I'll have to play around with the EQ a little, but I've really enjoyed a heavily scooped sound on my Ibanez (tuned to Drop A). For my Gretsch which I just keep in E standard I do like having a lot of mids present, but I'm going for a totally different sound with that one

 

[Guitalia]

But he recreates it by cranking the bass and turning down the treble and mids? I'll have to play around with the EQ a little, but I've really enjoyed a heavily scooped sound on my Ibanez (tuned to Drop A). For my Gretsch which I just keep in E standard I do like having a lot of mids present, but I'm going for a totally different sound with that one

No, he doesn't crank the bass. Unless you mean that he cranks the volume on the bass, which he obviously does.

He may or may not turn down the treble on the amp. But he definitely has the bass control on the amp turned way down.

Yes, it seems counter-intuitive. But cutting the bass on the amp lets the amp project the mids much more efficiently. That's how he gets that punishingly loud "bass" tone. You think you're hearing bass, but it's all low mids.

Scooping sounds great at home. But it makes the bass disappear when you play with a band. As you've discovered.

Another example: Felix Pappalardi, live with Mountain, from a previous TalkBass thread. This is how his Sunn stacks sounded. (No fuzz box: just bass into multiple amps and cabs, with the bass knob on each amp turned all the way down.)

Thread 'Felix Pappalardi Tone'

Dec 18, 2016

I think Felix Pappalardi had one of the most amazing bass tones ever. Check out the clip below.
Does anyone know what amp and fuzz box he used back then (1970's)?

• Al Garcia
• felix tone
• Replies: 14
• Forum: Effects [BG]

•