How do you set volume when playing several basses live ?

[Papersen]

I`ve always been a 4 strings player and slowly started developing my love for 5 stringers. Now I use them both when recording, but since some tunes were done with a 5er, it represents a problem live.

I`m planning to take more than 1 bass to my gigs, but I`m a bit concerned about output adjust. They go from passive to active (9V and 18V) so their output varies a lot.

How do you make sure you`ll have an even volume when switching from bass to bass ?

 

[wateroftyne]

I just remember where the input gain is for each, and manually adjust as I swap basses.

 

[Dan Knowlton]

Well, there is this little knob on my bass and when you turn it the bass will sound louder or softer - works well most of the time.


Or you could use a Bassbone or something like that.

Dan K.

 

[Papersen]

Well, there is this little knob on my bass and when you turn it the bass will sound louder or softer - works well most of the time.

Thanks Dan, never thought how useful it was

Do you adjust the volume when the song starts or do you already know the output difference between basses ?

 

[Bassslayer69]

Get yourself one of these!

 

[stones18]

Buy a compressor pedal, a compressor pedal is a volume control pedal you set it to a maximum volume you want and the pedal dosent allow you to go over that set volume no matter how hard you hit the strings or wether your playing with passive or active pickups it will allow you to stay at one steady volume.

 

[pickles]

Do not get the tone sucking radial bassbone, instead go for the cheaper, sturdier, true bypass Radial BigShot I/O. Use the loud active bass on the channel that has the pad. Its a great little box that also has a built in tuner mute function.

 

[lowbass68]

My old Sunn amp has two channels with independant volume and tone controls for each channel. Plus it had an A/B channel foot switch. That works well but my Carvin amp is a single channel amp. So now I have 2 Boss GEB-7 Bass EQs in my peddle board to change tone and volume for 2 basses.

 

[Bassslayer69]

Or go with 2 rigs,and an a/b switch!

 

[Deacon_Blues]

Do not get the tone sucking radial bassbone, instead go for the cheaper, sturdier, true bypass Radial BigShot I/O. Use the loud active bass on the channel that has the pad. Its a great little box that also has a built in tuner mute function.

I had to check out that one: Radial BigShot I/O

Thanks for introducing me to that one. I've been looking for something like this for some time and I really need to get one of these. I only have one input on my amp so this one would come in really handy. I hate to play around with changing cables and so on, so I've always just brought one bass to the gig. With this one I can more easily bring another one as well...

 

[Jumbotron]

I use a boss EQ-20, programmable eq. It rules for compensating for volumes, plus it allows you to make subtle eq tweaks for each bass without having to remember where knobs were and adjust accordingly every time you switch it up.

 

[ihateusernames]

I change less than one time back and forth and give the man at the board a good heads up so he can adjust the volume. Usually sound check both so he knows exactly what to expect. Been in a one bass per night rut lately though.

 

[peterbright]

Unless you are doing volume swells etc. tape the volume knobs in the correct places. Use tape that won't mar the bass...like blue painters tape.

 

[zachbass02]

+1 on just adjust the gain at the amp manually. Memorize where to place it and go with it. I had to do that with my basses...passive Jazz to active 5er...

 

[Mikeyd74]

I use a Zoom 506 pedal to set different volume and tone changes depending on the bass I'm using. It's also nice because I can add a little compression as well to tighten up my basses with dropped tunings.

 

[scarekrow]

Volume control works for me, but I like the looks of the Radial BigShot i/o, too.
Thanks, Pickles, for introducing that!

 

[gillento]

I am using an outboard preamp like the Sadowsky Preamp/DI or the Xotic RC bass preamp

Adjusting the gain on the amp might not be an option if you are feeding a pre eq DI signal to the board

 

[optikhog]

Do not get the tone sucking radial bassbone, instead go for the cheaper, sturdier, true bypass Radial BigShot I/O. Use the loud active bass on the channel that has the pad. Its a great little box that also has a built in tuner mute function.

+1 GREAT little box. Passive, too. Yum.

 

[WarriorJoe7]

I always turn my bass slightly down when doing soundcheck. Then when we are playing i rturn it up if needed LOL

I only do this because we play a type of music where the bass needs to be prominent and out front.

 

[play4zero]

I assume the reason you want to use multiple basses is because you want to hear the distinct sound of each instrument. So for a start, I set my amp pretty flat so it doesn't color the sound of the instrument and then I take the quietest bass and run it wide open with the amp set to give it plenty of headroom. Then you take the next loudest and back it off until they're even and so on down the line. Very simple, and doesn't cost me a dime.

If you're fooling around with tone knobs on the amp, why bother with multiple basses, just change your sound on the amp.