How do you EQ a Jazz Bass?

[sonic assassin]

bridge volume off, neck at 100%, tone all the way up. bright strings and a high mid boost. lows to taste. single coil grind with good low end

 

[KJung]

Backing off the neck pickup a little bit does add more midrange, something I need right now.

Interesting, cut 800 Hz? I was recommended in another thread (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=518734) to boost that area for clarity.

Paul's tone in those clips is exactly what I want.

There's not a lot of upper mids in Paul's tone on those clips. It's all about just slightly backing off that neck pickup and playing with a good, solid attack pretty close to the bridge. Amp settings are difficult to talk about, since every amp, every room, and every amp/bass combination has its own inherent voice.

However, I believe my Sadowsky single coils are based on the Antiquity II's (I think), and there is a LOT of upper mid presence. So, I back of just a touch of upper mids (both my TecAmp and Markbass heads have the upper mid control in the prefect place... the designers must be bass players!).

Most of that tone is again about clean, strong right hand execution reasonably close to the bridge IMO.

I have some clips up somewhere of my Alleva's through my TecAmp rig. The TecAmp rig is flat with just a slight cut at 800 hz, and there is part of the clip that has the neck pickup rolled back a touch, and the passive tone control back a bit with me playing over the bridge pickup. If you listen to that clip, you will hear what I'm talking about (it may or may not be the tone that you are looking for).

I'll PM you the clip.

K

 

[One Drop]

As mentioned passive Jazzes with Fender wiring have some built-in mid cut (due to phase cancellation from the two PUPs? IIRC) when both are wide open. Nice tone for a busy guitar mix when you want to blend rather than stand out, FWIW.

 

[Baryonyx]

I let the basses tone do the talking. EQ for me is a room-by-room thing to help me even out the sound and make my bass sound like it should sound in an acoustically neutral environment.

 

[jimmy rocket]

all knobs maxed. flat on my amp. i use flats on my bass so it's pretty tight on the low end and soft on the highs.

dimed and flat with flats... sweet sweet lovin'

 

[Ryan Mohr]

There's not a lot of upper mids in Paul's tone on those clips. It's all about just slightly backing off that neck pickup and playing with a good, solid attack pretty close to the bridge. Amp settings are difficult to talk about, since every amp, every room, and every amp/bass combination has its own inherent voice.

However, I believe my Sadowsky single coils are based on the Antiguity II's (I think), and there is a LOT of upper mid presence. So, I back of just a touch of upper mids (both my TecAmp and Markbass heads have the upper mid control in the prefect place... the designers must be bass players!).

Most of that tone is again about clean, strong right hand execution reasonably close to the bridge IMO.

I have some clips up somewhere of my Alleva's through my TecAmp rig. The TecAmp rig is flat with just a slight cut at 800 hz, and there is part of the clip that has the neck pickup rolled back a touch, and the passive tone control back a bit with me playing over the bridge pickup. If you listen to that clip, you will hear what I'm talking about (it may or may not be the tone that you are looking for).

I'll PM you the clip.

K

Yeah it doesn't sound like it, but would boosting me give me more clarity? I switched out the stock SX pickups for the SD Antiquity IIs. The Antiquity IIs definitely sound better than the SX; they are deeper, have a fatter low end, and have more vintage-esque extended highs. However, compared to the SX pickups the IIs are lacking in the mids. Nemo pointed this out when he analyzed my soundclips of both and compared.

I am playing right before the bridge, because it is a fatter sound than playing right on the bridge. Just like how Paul is playing. I should also revise my settings, it is more like 95% neck volume, 100% bridge volume. I slowly turn the neck volume knob back until I hear the threshold between humcancelling and single coil hum.

I agree absolutely about that. I pluck fairly hard normally, and as I said I play between the neck and bridge pickups.

I heard your clips in the AC thread, they sound great!

 

[BullHorn]

I don't know. :/

I'm usually with S-1 on and the tone at around 50%, unless I'm slapping or using a pick, then it's higher around 80-100%.

p.s. I sound like arse.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

both pickups on, tone generally dimed or at 75% depending on how much definition I want.

I generally boost mids and some bass and cut treble, gives me a pretty round jazz bass sound.

 

[Xyphere]

This is a great thread. I'd love to hear some more input from some other jazz players.

 

[panazza]

I noticed I have to cut mids (using the contour knob on my gk head) when I play with both pickups open, plucking on the bridge pickup, otherwise I get too much... twang? clank?

I always avoided cutting mids, but this way I get a better place in the mix and I can hear myself better.

 

[ozzyismetal]

How would I go about eqing for this kind of tone?

 

[Mr_Dave]

either both pickups or roll toward the bridge pickup - passive J. tone varies... sadowsky outboard preamp - bass 2 clips, no treble. GK800RB set flat, sometimes kick the low mids a bit... thats pretty much it

 

[LDonnie]

Modded Jazz /w Audere:

- Full volume
- Blend in the middle (so that's both pickups equally)
- Add a little bass and some treble

Through a GK 700RB-II/Peavey 410TVX with:

- Countour all the way on
- Prescence about in the middle
- High mids all the way on
- Boost all the way on

This makes a pretty aggressive, chunky (and clicking with my playing style) sound.

 

[IPA]

I have the 6 band EQ on my acoustic amp, I usually leave it pretty flat and bump up the 150 Hz and 2 kHz a bit, notch off.

 

[Kipaste]

EQ wise, I usually leave everything flat and only really use it to compensate for room/ boomy stages and so on, I like to make the big changes in tone with differend playing positions and techniques.

Bass wise, I usually favor one pickup over the other, I rarely have both pups on full. I favor the neck pickups (by 20-50%) when playing slap and slow tunes depending on the mix. Otherway around for fingerstyle. Tone pot is usually around 50-75%

However, I've been playing active jazzes too lately and found that with them I find the both pups on full setup more useful than with a passive and I even use the onboard eq time to time. But I feel these are just two differend ways of achieving somewhat similar results in terms of usability even if they sound differend. If they sounded the same, I wouldn't bother with the whole battery thing..