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EQ Adjustments

Markent17

Markent17

Apr 8, 2013
32
6
#1
Dear TBers--

Not sure whether this post is better suited for amps, but I installed an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp and Bartolini pups in my bass. I use the Aguilar Tonehammer 500 amp through the Berg CN212, although not sure that matters for purposes of the question. Do you find that when you make EQ adjustments you make them more often on the preamp or on the amp? Or do you set it and forget it? I am finding that the preamp is so very capable of make wonderful tonal adjustments, but so is the amp. I can set the preamp as flat as possible and achieve wonderful tones simply adjusting the amp, and this capability just multiplies as i change the preamp settings. And vice versa--i can set the amp flat and make similarly wonderful adjustments using preamp. Almost unlimited tonal variety. When I have time I enjoy spending all day making knob adjustments and thrilling at how different my music can sound. What about you?
 
#3
From when I played active basses....
My Method of Operation was to set the bass "flat" with not much boost or cut as much as I could. But I'd try to dial in "at the amp" as much as possible, tweaking that to get the most solid, useable full "base" sound.
THEN, I'd do the fine-tuning from the bass itself. A little bump here or there, a little cut or boost to match up with the room's acoustics (according to my ears.)


Big knob-twisting at the amp, fine tuning at the bass.
 
#4
M.R. Ogle said:
From when I played active basses....
My Method of Operation was to set the bass "flat" with not much boost or cut as much as I could. But I'd try to dial in "at the amp" as much as possible, tweaking that to get the most solid, useable full "base" sound.
THEN, I'd do the fine-tuning from the bass itself. A little bump here or there, a little cut or boost to match up with the room's acoustics (according to my ears.)


Big knob-twisting at the amp, fine tuning at the bass.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much the same. I leave the bass EQ flat and start at the amp. Usually just do some fine tuning from flat. Then just depending on the song, I may do some p/u panning to the bridge so I might goose the lows some. A couple of songs I do some soloing in so I might bump the mids etc. the rest of the time I usually run both p/u's on full and EQ flat on the bass.
 
#6
These are my 'default' amp settings, which I tweak from there if I need to. I don't tend to touch the bass settings in general.

image-2.jpg


image-1.jpg
 
#8
zortation said:
I'm not telling you how to set your amp but you could try using the graphic as cut-only (where needed)...you might getting some interesting results. Generally, the less EQ you can get away with, the better the sound.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been toying with the idea recently actually, I figured since subtractive EQ is generally considered 'the' way to mix studio stuff, why wouldn't the same apply for amp settings? I might try it out next time I get my amp out.
 
#9
I guess once you have found the essential tone that satisfies your musical needs for the genre of music you play, there is no need to make additional adjustments. For example, if you are into country music, once you have that nice mid thump there is no need to adjust further.

I was practicing a few up-tempo versions of Autumn Leaves and just began to adjust the preamp knobs. Those tonal adjustments encouraged me to rethink note selections and timing changes i hadn't pondered previously. Then i started twisting amp knobs and and that prompted more changes. It was just lots of fun.
 

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