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EQ bassics thread

#2
Here ya go -

just remember, there are no set in stone rules. Your bass, amp, speakers, and style will have an impact on the tone. Also, not all eq's are created equal, some do a much better job than others.

Lows - 60 Hz - 120 Hz. This is where the fundamentals (lowest harmonics) of your bass notes are. Most of the power and depth of your tone is here too. Boosting at the low end of this range can give you a lot of depth, but may be too much for your cabinets. Boosting at the upper end of this range can give you a “full” tone, but often becomes “muddy“. Cutting the lows can tighten up your sound, and give you more room to turn your amp up.

Low Mids - 120 Hz - 600 Hz. Boosting somewhere in the 120 Hz - 360 Hz range can give you a rounder, more present and defined tone. These are the fundamentals of the high-register notes on the bass. Too much can get “cloudy” sounding. Scooping 120 to 360 Hz can tighten tone down low, but might make upper-register fills disappear in the mix. From 350 Hz - 600 Hz there can be a lot of “quack” and “honk” and a lot of people cut here a bit. However, boosting 500 Hz with the bridge pickup soloed can give you a great “jaco” tone.

High Mids - 600 Hz - 3 kHz. Boosting somewhere from 600 Hz - 1 kHz can bring out higher harmonics add some growl and edge, and help you cut through. Sometimes this gets too harsh though. Cutting there can open up the tone a bit. Boosting around 1 kHz - 3 kHz can add string noise and get harsh as well, but can add a lot of definition and snap. Cutting here “mellows out” the tone.

Highs - 3 kHz - 20 kHz. Boosting around 4 kHz can add a lot of brilliance and presence, but finger noise can be a bit much. Likewise, cutting here can remove a lot of “clatter”. Boosting above 4 kHz usually adds “sparkle” and “air”, but can get noisy and add a lot of hiss. Unless you use a tweeter, you wont hear much from this range anyway.
 
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#5
#8
i think what lyle was getting at is that the less eq, the better. More often than not, the "problem" in your tone is that a certain frequency area or 2 is muddying up your tone or masking what you want to hear. By cutting out the problematic frequencies, your tone improves w/o any boosting needed. Boosting also tends to inject more noise into the signal. For example, a lot of times you can get a "rounder" more "bassey" tone by cutting the mids in the right place, or get hyped up clarity simply by cutting the lows.

one of the things to watch out for is the "curse of the smiley faced eq". On a graphic eq this looks like a big smile - boosted highs and lows, and cut mids. This can sound awesome, but in a full band setting the bass can virtually dissapear. Many a bass player has dialed in "the sound" at home only to find themseves inaudible at rehearsal or a gig. They're left wondering why their 2 thousand dollar 800 watt amp just won't cut it - meanwhile they're amplifying no mids (which is most of what people can hear).
 
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#9
The cut v. boost debate has more to do with purity of tone.

Cutting frequencies at the amp merely subtracts from the bass' intrinsic timbre. By contrast, boosting frequencies above flat at the amp injects the characteristic coloration from the amp.

Of course, many of us buy amps precisely for their coloration. There's nothing "wrong" with boosting; it just depends on what you like.
 
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#10
I wasn't thinking of purity of tone or of adding character from an amp. I was discussing a pure EQ circuit. Boosting adds noise, distortion, and can affect phase in unpleasing ways. A parametric is better in these areas than a graphic, but boosting is still not the best option regardless of the EQ.

In an amp, it can get complicated, as tone stacks don't behave like a dedicated EQ, and the controls are usually very interactive.
 
#12
Fuzzbass said:
IvanMike, I love your explanation above. To be nitpicky, I'd add one more subsection: 120 to 360 Hz. These are the fundamentals of the high-register notes on the bass. Scooping these can tighten tone down low, but might make upper-register fills disappear in the mix.
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hey fuzzy - i liked your addition so much i added it to the original post - thanks!
 
#15
IvanMike said:
one of the things to watch out for is the "curse of the smiley faced eq". On a graphic eq this looks like a big smile - boosted highs and lows, and cut mids. This can sound awesome, but in a full band setting the bass can virtually dissapear. Many a bass player has dialed in "the sound" at home only to find themseves inaudible at rehearsal or a gig. They're left wondering why their 2 thousand dollar 800 watt amp just won't cut it - meanwhile they're amplifying no mids (which is most of what people can hear).
Click to expand...
:hyper:

Great words of wisdom.
Between this thread and the one on the Ohms I just have one thing to say:

IvanMike for President!
 
#16
IvanMike said:
one of the things to watch out for is the "curse of the smiley faced eq". On a graphic eq this looks like a big smile - boosted highs and lows, and cut mids. This can sound awesome, but in a full band setting the bass can virtually dissapear. Many a bass player has dialed in "the sound" at home only to find themseves inaudible at rehearsal or a gig. They're left wondering why their 2 thousand dollar 800 watt amp just won't cut it - meanwhile they're amplifying no mids (which is most of what people can hear).
Click to expand...
This is very true, my sound when im playing with the band is probly the opposite of what I like when im practicing.
 
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