Diming the controls

[Old Garage-Bander]

Ever since I saw a video of I think Geddy Lee a few years ago saying he just puts all his knobs up and eqs at the amp, Ive just run my bass all knobs up. Kinda realizing this might not be a great idea for gain staging reasons? Or maybe it is? Idk what do you guys think?
P.s. wasn't sure if this was the right place for this thread.

Your bass, your amp, your pedals don't care if you dime them. If they did, the engineers would design it so the knob would stop at 9.
Now when you start stringing all these things together, all bets are off. You need to involve your own gray matter in the equation. If it was a Geddy quote, then I suggest he's either not concerned about, or can easily afford, whatever consequences may come of it.

 

[hieronymous]

Does your compressor have an indicator of how loud the incoming signal is? Mine does, and I use it to gauge how loud my various basses are. With my passive basses, I have all knobs at 100% and adjust the compressor to where it's just hitting if I dig in. Then, when I switch to an active bass, I generally adjust the volume on the bass to match the output of the passive bass.

But once, I set my active bass that way and there was so much noise and humming, I thought there was something wrong with the bass. Turns out, for some reason the volume on the bass was really low so the noise was being boosted by the pedals. Don't do that!

Once I have the compressor set, I adjust the output from the compressor so that it's playing nicely with the pedals down the line.

 

[Ggaa]

I've always dimed my passive basses...except the P I added a J pup to in '78. Rolled the J back a little, I didn't know squat about scoop, it just sounded better. Sound guys seem to like that I dime things because I'm less likely to turn up, have to step over to the amp.

 

[matante]

Your bass, your amp, your pedals don't care if you dime them. If they did, the engineers would design it so the knob would stop at 9.
Now when you start stringing all these things together, all bets are off. You need to involve your own gray matter in the equation. If it was a Geddy quote, then I suggest he's either not concerned about, or can easily afford, whatever consequences may come of it.

You realize that Geddy plays passive basses and turning all the knobs up doesn't cause any negative consequences, right? There's nothing unusual about what he does. He's simply saying he EQs his signal further down the signal chain, not on the bass.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

You realize that Geddy plays passive basses and turning all the knobs up doesn't cause any negative consequences, right? There's nothing unusual about what he does. He's simply saying he EQs his signal further down the signal chain, not on the bass.

That's fine what Geddy does. I still stand behind my statement that each individual piece of equipment doesn't care about being dimed. It's only when you start stringing stuff together that you can get into trouble.

Which "He" are you referring to? Geddy or someone else? I'm just trying to trace back to who the "He" was that said, what you said, "He" said.

Regardless... Adding EQ further down the line is really no different than putting pedals at the front of the line. Unless the EQ is native to the amp, you're adding more stuff, and I've already expressed my opinion about that.
You are very welcome to your own opposing view. And I will be more than glad to accept it as being your's.

 

[HelpImaRock]

I back off on the bass volume and tone so that I have some room for adjustment on a gig. There's nothing wrong with running everything all the way up, but then there's nowhere to go. The bass doesn't go to eleven.

 

[Wolfhound32]

Ever since I saw a video of I think Geddy Lee a few years ago saying he just puts all his knobs up and eqs at the amp, Ive just run my bass all knobs up. Kinda realizing this might not be a great idea for gain staging reasons? Or maybe it is? Idk what do you guys think?
P.s. wasn't sure if this was the right place for this thread.

My approach is pretty basic:
- Passive bass = controls all up.
- Active bass = controls centered, with volume backed off a few notches.
- Amp set neutral to begin, eq to taste.
No pedals to fuss with unless I’m going direct, but the approach remains the same

Has served me well for many, many years

 

[mongo2]

My current #1 has its single humbucking pickup wired straight to the jack and I control eq and volume at the amp.

On other basses I've bypassed the controls and wired the pickup straight to the jack. To me wiring straight to the jack sounds cleaner than wiring to the onboard controls and they're dimed.

 

[KenD]

My current #1 has its single humbucking pickup wired straight to the jack and I control eq and volume at the amp.

On other basses I've bypassed the controls and wired the pickup straight to the jack. To me wiring straight to the jack sounds cleaner than wiring to the onboard controls and they're dimed.

For a passive instrument this is the "purist" approach, one that I would favour in a studio setting where the signal is going to be EQ'd at the board anyway but perhaps not so convenient in a live situation where adjustments may need to be made "on the fly".

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

My current #1 has its single humbucking pickup wired straight to the jack and I control eq and volume at the amp.

On other basses I've bypassed the controls and wired the pickup straight to the jack. To me wiring straight to the jack sounds cleaner than wiring to the onboard controls and they're dimed.

I've experimented with the same thing and had similar results. Anything in the signal path can detract from the signal, especially with passives. It's about mitigating the losses while providing convenience.

Perma-dimed!

 

[mongo2]

For a passive instrument this is the "purist" approach, one that I would favour in a studio setting where the signal is going to be EQ'd at the board anyway but perhaps not so convenient in a live situation where adjustments may need to be made "on the fly".

I find the tone I like for the room at the amp and leave it. If the venue has a FOH system I leave that to their sound guy to deal with. Over the decades I've found I have no real need for on the fly adjustments.

 

[el murdoque]

What I think might be a relevant bit of information here:
I'm not big on Rush, but I think Geddy played either a Jazz or a Ric most of the time.
On those two basses, you have another effect to take into account: A bass with two pickups will produce a certain amount of mid scoop when you turn up all the volume knobs to the max.

On Jazz basses, it is common practice to play the neck or bridge pickup by turning that pickup up 100% and then mix in enough of the other pickup to eliminate the single coil hum.

My experience with Rickenbacker pickup mixing is quite limited and I don't know how the options are here, but on the Jazz, you basically have three sound options - and Geddy told which of these he preferred.

 

[Pacman]

Just to add some flavor to the discussion. Jimmy Haslip dimes every control on his basses (active preamps), using only the pickup blend to alter the sound.

 

[KenD]

Just to add some flavor to the discussion. Jimmy Haslip dimes every control on his basses (active preamps), using only the pickup blend to alter the sound.

It seems like that might produce some strange results with filter based EQ onboard.

 

[India_Sierra]

With a passive bass, even a high output model, you can get away with it. With an active bass, particularly with anything that even has moderate levels of boost above flat, it can and probably will sound dreadful and will hit the front of your amp pretty hard. This is not the case for all active basses, but anything that can boost will probably be dreadful when it's dimed.

But most importantly, play around with your settings and see what works for you and what sounds good.

 

[Jeff Roller]

Just to add some flavor to the discussion. Jimmy Haslip dimes every control on his basses (active preamps), using only the pickup blend to alter the sound.

Lee Sklar claims to do this as well. I had never heard of such a thing, and listened to his YT video again to make sure I had not misheard something (he was talking specifically about active Dingwalls).

I eagerly tried this immediately next rehearsal.....

Nope. Not for me.

 

[Pacman]

With a passive bass, even a high output model, you can get away with it. With an active bass, particularly with anything that even has moderate levels of boost above flat, it can and probably will sound dreadful and will hit the front of your amp pretty hard. This is not the case for all active basses, but anything that can boost will probably be dreadful when it's dimed.

But most importantly, play around with your settings and see what works for you and what sounds good.

Well, Jimmy's bass has a Bartolini pre, with boost/cut, and he dimes everything. Sounds pretty damn good to me.