Dialing it in: preamp pedal vs. amp head

[Killing Floor]

I’ll say in a more positive way.

Think of the tone of your favorite bass players. Those tones are not exactly the same. That’s you. Or me or anyone. You cannot mess up your tone if you like it.

Also when you think about the signal chain totality from your favorite players from bass to pedals/amps to mic or DI to console to edit and post edit and the radio or your headphones or how you set your car stereo or how the DJ at the club budgeted for their kit…

there are a dozen factors affecting your bass and if you add or subtract 1 that’s 11 or 13, round to a dozen and carry on.

 

[HelpImaRock]

How can you clutter your sound if you like it?

Let’s start with you’ll never meet another human who notices your tone or notices when you change it. It’s all about you and your bass. If it sounds good it is good.

I dunno. My guitarist has to deal with me telling him to dial back the modulation and use certain guitars because they sound better. Will the audience notice? Only in the confidence with which you perform. But bandmates and other people close to you will notice the sound changes. Even if it's just "what are you doing over there? It's different."

 

[BEADist]

I have seen threads with people complaining "I like my sound but I'm told to turn down and now I cannot hear myself anymore". So, liking your own sound doesn't always mean it's a good/workable sound. Maybe I misread your post ?

Let’s start with you’ll never meet another human who notices your tone or notices when you change it. It’s all about you and your bass. If it sounds good it is good.

 

[Hypercaffium]

I use an Orange Bass Butler, usually ampless. Sometimes I bring my BB800 and Barefaced cab and use the Bass Butler into the BB800.

 

[el murdoque]

If it sounds good and the sound works for what you do, you're doing it right.

One thing to remember is that instead of boosting a frequency, you can also lower all other frequencies.
I caught myself more than once, trying to fix something and over complicating things with 1000 knobs.
The remedy was rather simple: Set everything back to flat and then go for what is needed from scratch.
Treble needed? Set everything flat, then try all the treble knobs at your disposal. go with the one that sounds best. Rinse and repeat for every single thing you want to adjust.

This works well as long as you only use your amp's cabinet to pump sound into the room.
As soon as some kind of DI and a FOH system is involved, things get a bit more complicated.

 

[Zbysek]

All great perspectives. But what I am really curious about (and the original intent of my OP) is to what everybody else's approach is (people with passive basses + preamp pedal) to their EQing.

I use pedals (preamps and or EQ) with my basses. My current setup is the following:

• Broughton Messenger for my NS Design NXT EUB (pasive)
• Aguilar Tone Hammer for my Musicman Sterling (active)
  
• Sushi Box Space Heater and Broughton RFE for my Fender Dimension (active).

My approach is to shape the sound for FOH at the pedal and use the amp's EQ to shape my onstage monitoring sound.

The EQing at pedal depends on the particular instrument and the character of the band and the music. The EQing on the amp depends on the acoustics of the room and my monitoring needs. Even though the starting point on the amp is flat (controls at noon), I might arrive at more extreme settings on the amp. I don't do extreme settings on my pedals.

Pedals:

For my NXT EUB, I usually leave bass and treble flat (noon), I cut low mids (approx. 200-400 Hz), I boost high mids a bit (1-3kHz), HPF at 60-80Hz, LPF at approx. 4-5kHz.

For my Fender, I usually boost low mids (150-300 Hz), HPF at 50-60Hz (with little bit of resonance), LPF at 3-4kHz (with even more resonance).

For my Musicman Sterling, I have AGS on, gain at 8-9 o'clock, mids flattish, bass and treble boosted (1-2 o'clock).

 

[butterfingers1]

I discovered pedals during the pandemic and went a little overboard.

I have Traynor amplifiers and Fender precision and jazz bass guitars.

At this point I find frequency filters (HPF/LPF) and compressors useful for cleaning up the signal and allowing amplifiers to work more efficiently and sound their best.

As for tone preamps I have 3: Broughton SVpre, Broughton Scorpion, SolidGoldFX Beta V. They sound great. But then I discovered that with a little effort I can EQ their tones with the amplifier EQ. And as others have said removing them from the signal chain does improve the sound quality of my Traynor amplifiers. True bypass switches do degrade the signal it would seem.

Preamp pedals are probably necessary for specific effects like distortion, chorus etc if one wants these. But for tone colouring maybe they’re just too much clutter and distraction.

To conclude, for me HPFs and compressors are essential. Tone preamps are interesting to try but mine are put away for now.

 

[bassbrad]

I discovered pedals during the pandemic and went a little overboard.

I have Traynor amplifiers and Fender precision and jazz bass guitars.

At this point I find frequency filters (HPF/LPF) and compressors useful for cleaning up the signal and allowing amplifiers to work more efficiently and sound their best.

As for tone preamps I have 3: Broughton SVpre, Broughton Scorpion, SolidGoldFX Beta V. They sound great. But then I discovered that with a little effort I can EQ their tones with the amplifier EQ. And as others have said removing them from the signal chain does improve the sound quality of my Traynor amplifiers. True bypass switches do degrade the signal it would seem.

Preamp pedals are probably necessary for specific effects like distortion, chorus etc if one wants these. But for tone colouring maybe they’re just too much clutter and distraction.

To conclude, for me HPFs and compressors are essential. Tone preamps are interesting to try but mine are put away for now.

To each their own, I certainly have no issue with players relying on the tonal essence of their amp, especially when utilizing one with a distinct character. Not everyone is fortunate to own one of those classics and may choose a more transparent amp that can be enhanced with a preamp with a particular amp's character as well as the ability to change tones from song to song or style of music.
I have used a number of amps over the year and been fortunate to have used many now nearly unobtainable classics so using a preamp with those characteristics is a nice alternative.
I do agree that in most cases more does not always result in better, finding the perfect combination is always the goal. I call than "Sandwich Theory of Tone". Sandwiches are good and we all have our favorite but not everyone likes Sardines or Marmite especially with Chunky Peanut Butter.