Gain Knob: How much gain you give ?

[10emmanuel]

Hello everyone. I Have an Ampeg 4x10 with a Peavey head and I Was Wondering, How Much gain I Should give. I don't use any pedals, I don't like distortion on bass, for instance, I Have The gain of At 3 Out of 10. There's no Reason For That, Only not to Give Too Much distortion to the sound, but I was wondering if I just should put the gain knob On Zero And Just put the volume up with the volume knob.. What do You guys Say? How Do You relate The gain knob and the volume knob?.

Thanks!

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Gain knob = Volume boost before EQ/Preamp
Master Volume = Volume boost after EQ/Preamp

The short answer is, if you want the cleanest sound your bass amp can provide, max the master volume (although I might start at 12 to 3 o'clock first) and then increase the gain until it reaches a volume you're comfortable with.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Hello everyone. I Have an Ampeg 4x10 with a Peavey head and I Was Wondering, How Much gain I Should give. I don't use any pedals, I don't like distortion on bass, for instance, I Have The gain of At 3 Out of 10. There's no Reason For That, Only not to Give Too Much distortion to the sound, but I was wondering if I just should put the gain knob On Zero And Just put the volume up with the volume knob.. What do You guys Say? How Do You relate The gain knob and the volume knob?.

Thanks!

Good question and depends on the amp. Most directions read like this: "turn gain knob upwards until peak LED flickers occasionally". This sorta makes sense as it supposedly "saturates" the circuit for optimal S/N response...we hope. If it introduces too much break-up or distortion, back-off the gain to taste and compensate via master volume. Anecdotally, I have one amp that requires the gain be cranked to 7 / 2:00...any lower and it introduces too much floor noise.

Bottom line: experiment with the gain with the master set fairly low...find the sweet-spot.

Riis

 

[agedhorse]

Just use your ears…

 

[pepj]

Definitely depends on the amp, imv so its down to your ears.
Ime, many amps can't really do clean clean enough.
I would also suspect PV and Ampeg were not really the ideal choices either.

 

[NitroBobby]

there is no right answer. you adjust the gain, the volume, the EQ section and whatever other settings the amp has to make it sound like you want it to sound.
your ears are going to provide you with the answer you seek.

good luck
kgb

 

[H Nighttrain]

I generally juice the gain as high as it will go without clipping (or getting 'excess' distortion) and then backing off a tad bit, a la the old Eden WT amp manuals.

The point on the knob where that happens depends on the bass, some basses have much hotter output than others.

 

[JamesGrant]

If it sounds good, it sounds good.

 

[Cleezmo]

As other have said, there is no single correct answer. For years I kept my Gain at noon and adjusted the Master for volume. Then after watching a couple of GK video demos with Bob Gallien recommending that you max the Gain until you clip, I started doing that. But that position depends a LOT on the bass. For example, I can put the Gain almost all the way up with a lower output bass, like my G&L Jazz. But with another passive bass, my Reverend Mercalli 5, I can't go beyond 12:00 or the clip light will be flickering constantly. So it's not a one-size-fits-all type of thing.

If you want very clean tone, then lower the Gain and use the Master for volume as the first post here stated. I find that more Gain tends to 'phatten up' the tone a bit, at least on the two amps I have (Mesa D-800+ and Blackstar Unity 700), so I usually follow the 'add Gain until it clips, then back off slightly' method, and then adjust Master from there.

 

[Nebadon2000]

Just use your ears…

: I hope everyone on TB reconizes how profound that is coming from a Top Amp/Speaker Cab designer/Engineer

The Amature Techies though may hate it

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Simplest answer I can give you is “it depends on the situation”

 

[Wasnex]

1. Knob position does not really give you the answer.

1.a) The taper of gain controls varies from circuit to circuit. Distortion in one circuit might start with the control at 9:00, while distortion in another circuit might occur around 2:00. Yet another circuit may remain clean when totally maxed.​

1.b) The level you feed into a circuit impacts how much gain you can use before the circuit overloads. If you hit a circuit with a weak signal, you have to turn the gain up; you might not get distortion until to control is above 13:00. If you hit the circuit with a hot signal, you have to turn the gain down; you might have to turn the control down to 10:00 to keep the signal clean​

2. The way the signal transition varies from circuit to circuit. I think of it as four stages, but this is an oversimplification.

2.a) The signal has full dynamic range.​

2.b) The signal begins to compress.​

2.c) The signal begins to distort (OD)​

2.d) The signal begins to distort heavily​

How quickly a circuit transition can vary. Some circuits have a very narrow transition window. The signal goes almost immediately from clean and dynamic to heavy distortion. Other circuits have a wide window and transition gently from dynamic, to compressed, to OD, to heavy distortion. How the circuit behaves is dependent on designer intent. In some tube circuits the characteristics of the tube can have an impact as well.

 

[micguy]

: I hope everyone on TB reconizes how profound that is coming from a Top Amp/Speaker Cab designer/Engineer

The Amature Techies though may hate it

I designed the front end of your audio chain (at least if you're a singer), what you hear yourself through (if you're on in ears), and a few other things and I agree. At the end of the day, the reason we design audio gear is to make it sound good. Everything else is in support of that, so....If it sounds good, it is good. That might sound profound to some, but it's a bedrock principle.

 

[Paul New]

Just use your ears…

I tried that and now I need a massage and probably some PT.

 

[BowserGriff]

I used to be afraid of turning the gain up too much on my solid states just in case I broke the amp. I don't know why I came to that conclusion, so I used to be very conservative with the gain knob. I didn't realize the effect that it had on my sound, and I didn't really care because not breaking the amp was more important to me.

Then, I can't remember where i saw, read or heard it, but I heard that a lower gain signal results in a weak bass sound. That, whether true or not, is stuck in my brain and no matter what, I cant shake it! Hahaha!

Therefore, I max the gain out until just before clipping. If I want a fat sound, I play softer, if I want to blow the socks off the grannies at the social club I'll dig in. I do think that you can have more control over your sound with higher gain because it can catch all the nuances and articulation in your playing.

 

[Bass Ape]

I honestly have never thought about that question before. Just dial it in till it sounds right.

Having some kind of metering, ala mixing desk, is helpful but most amps don't give you meters so you have to use your ears.

 

[mambo4]

Just use your ears…

Yes, this.

While realty is:

• gain = level for the preamp stage , to match various possible instrument levels
• master volume= level for the power amp stage

Practically speaking it's:

• gain = "loud plus spices"
• master volume = "loud , no spices"

so mix and match until you achieve your desired spice and volume level

• set master volume so you can hear
• then adjust gain until you like the spices
• set master volume for the gig

cue tube amp guys pointing out that "the big tubes have spice too! "

 

[BassicJazzy]

I think it depends on your amp and how hot your bass is. I know on my SWR they wanted the pre to just clip, which was indicated by an LED, then back off a hair, but that was a tube pre. For the Rumble100 I set gain at 12 o'clock, except for my fretless which is twice as hot as my other basses. I do not use overdrive.

As Agedhorse said, use your ears to get the setting that is right for you and your bass/amp.

Some amps like the lower level GK and Rumble25 don't even have a Gain, only a master.

 

[space]

This is just from my own experimenting, but maybe someone here can explain the technical side. I play a lot of hotel gigs and occasionally some bigger venues, usually with whatever solid-state amp is on stage. What I’ve noticed is that as I turn up the gain, there’s a point where the D and G strings suddenly feel more balanced with the lower ones. Below that point they sound a bit weak, and if I go past it, the sound starts getting kind of muddy when I play with softer dynamics. That “in-between” spot is where the whole bass feels most even to me, and it’s basically how I’ve been setting my gain on SS amps.

Can’t say much about valve amps as I have little experience with them but I imagine it’s the same.

Hope this helps!

 

[MegaSwing]

Just use your ears…

And don’t stress your speakers.