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Getting a farty, distorted mid-range tone.

B

Brenntlee

Oct 28, 2014
4
0
31
#1
Hey Talkbass! I've been scouring the internet for a little while, searching for solutions to my problem but I've decided to just ask on this forum instead. It seems that I can't push my rig beyond finger plucking or light picking without getting a farty, distorted mid-range sound from my cab. It seems to fluctuate slightly with my presence and distortion, yet it won't go away altogether.
My rig is :
Peavey VB-3 Pro head, 300 Watt
Ampeg 410HLF Classic
Tech 21 SansAmp Driver Deluxe
I run the EQ flat on my head and just use the SasAmp for most of my tone. Typically I like to run a distorted(About 2 O'clock) mid-heavy tone, but I have to resort to a distorted low/high combination to avoid this issue and get an alright sound while playing.

Thanks!
 
#3
I've been trying to get that tone for years. I mainly use my Muff for it.

Probably blown speaker. Try plugging into a different cab and see if the problem vanishes.

Not sure if your Sansamp has this option but make sure it's not on Line level (if it has it) if you run it into the input on your head. That could cause your pre to clip potentially.
 
#5
You need to isolate which piece of equipment is actually causing your problem. If you can get access to another amp try it with the cabinet. If the cab sounds bad then you know what to get looked at. if it is OK, try the amp alone to see if the problem lies there. If OK add the SansAmp and try again.

Let us know the results of these tests.
 
#9
“Tech 21 SansAmp Driver Deluxe: I run the EQ flat on my head and just use the Sansamp for most of my tone.”

Here is my take on the situation. What are the settings for the BDDI? I think you need to take this piece of gear out of the equation since you already have a tube amp. It’s a tube amp emulator and if you have the Bass and/or Treble knobs above 9 o’clock (along with the blend knob higher 9 o’clock), you are basically creating a midrange deficient tone with lots of low end. I think you are pushing too much low end on the rig overall – the 410hlf is VERY sensitive to low end and you should NOT have to boost anything below 100hz with this rig. The cab will be pumping low end no matter what.

What are the settings on your bass? If you are boosting bass here and on the Tech 21, the amp is going to have a hard time putting out a LARGE amount of low end. Tube amps only have so much headroom. As much as it sounds weird, try decreasing the low end content by A LOT on the Peavey head and see what happens.
 
#11
I'm using a Fender Aerodyne Jazz. I'll definitely try cutting the low end and lining the SansAmp, seems like I would just get a better sound overall that way. I'm also going to test the head and Sans separately lined into the PA. Thanks for the input guys.
 
#14
Does the amount of farty mid distortion change whenever you mess with the presence and resonance controls? My vb-2 has that issue, and if I dial in the pres/res knobs I can get it mostly gone but not all the way gone. It is currently getting looked at so maybe we'll find out how to fix it.
 
#15
So I ran my head through the PA with the cab attached and it sounded great, I also ran just the SansAmp through the PA and it was fine. Now I've got the EQ on my amp 9's across the board and the sound has cleared up but it's not completely fixed.
 

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