How were you using gear WRONG as a noob?

[Texican]

I remember working hard and saving money as a teen to buy my first bass rig. I got a used SWR Goliath 410 that didn’t fit in the front seat of my old Camaro… UNTIL I MADE IT FIT!!! Completely trashed my interior. That cab weighed a ton. Or roughly 100 lbs to be exact.

I also bought a used SWR Bass 350 or Basic 350 or whatever it was called. The one with the red face. Anyway, I ran it with the “Aural Enhancer” contour all the way up, and a complete smiley face scooped EQ on both my amp AND my Ibanez SR’s active EQ. No mids. Fieldy didn’t need mids and neither did I!

…until my amp would struggle in the mix, overheat, and then shut down. Over and Over. If I could go back in time and slap that kid I would!

Do you guys have any similar stories of “doing it wrong”? These new guys now are lucky to have access to all this knowledge at the click of a mouse.

 

[two fingers]

The first paying gig I had I was a teenager in a bar band with guys in their 30s. I had a Peavey TKO combo that I pretty much turned down all of the treble on up until then (which was only a couple of months of playing to begin with).

Those guys taught me that you actually want to HEAR the bass rather than just feel it. We did the best we could with that rig. For a little while we even ran a Rockman bass pre to the board.

A year or so in they helped me score a vintage blue line SVT and cab. Everything changed right then and there. Mids became my friend.

 

[spatters]

I listened to my parents, who told me I should buy a new instrument instead of used because "you never know how someone has treated it."

Thus, passing on a Matsumoku Aria, which I liked better even at the time, in favor of some plywood Korean atrocity, off the wall at the local music store, that never stayed in tune. But it was new, and shiny.

 

[gtirard]

When I was around 20, I used to play in a band where the solution for all musical problems was to buy more gear. At the end I had a Mesa 400+ and the matching 1516 cab, plus several rack mounted effects, including a graphic EQ.

As I was still struggling with my tone, I asked to a pro bassist friend to give me an advice (what else should I buy to solve my problems?). He came in the studio and said "Wow you've got this amp, always dreamed to have one…". Then he removed all the effects and external graphic EQ, put all EQ knobs at noon on the amp, and started to play. Of course it was beautiful, and he finished with: "it's all in the fingers".

 

[Sparky Mark]

Back in the early 90s I used my pre EB Stingray with a Trace Elliot SMX350 410 + 115 stack. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to use EQ and always had the bass and treble full up on my 'ray. Sounded meh.
Saw a gig in a local bar where the bass player had a Warwick thumb and new Hartke AH3500 with 410 and 115XL. I was blown away how great he sounded. Within a month my TE was gone and I had the same Hartke rig and a thumb. The graphic EQ taught me a lot and the thumb had mids a plenty.
I still have my 'ray but now know to keep bass and treble around halfway to keep mids in the mix.

 

[basscooker]

No concern for impedance

Smiley face / scoop mids

Crank bass

Liberal, indiscriminate use of Contact cleaner spray

 

[Bunk McNulty]

It was hard to go wrong when all I had to do was plug in and play. Ohm was something you hummed while doing yoga. The only pedals I knew about were on sewing machines. Well, except for Jimi and his wah-wah.

 

[bolophonic]

I scooped my mids like everyone else in the late-80’s/early-90’s.

 

[BassyBill]

Too much EQ. Took me a long time to realise how unnecessary it generally is.

 

[Gearhead17]

I watched live videos of my favorite bass players and waited until I could see their stage rig settings. Then I would do the exact same settings on the amp head I had because that was GUARANTEED to make me sound like them. Right?!!

 

[Sparky Mark]

Before the internet we were kinda on our own. Now I can't imagine not being able to google just about any problem or question on any possible subject at any time and have instant answers (some of which actually work!).

 

[Gearhead17]

Before the internet we were kinda on our own. Now I can't imagine not being able to google just about any problem or question on any possible subject at any time and have instant answers (some of which actually work!).

Exactly! ALL OF US were at the mercy of guitar store employees who KNEW NOTHING and "know-it-alls" at school. We could not decipher any of it.

 

[daveman50]

Mid-1970s. Sunn Concert Bass. It has an unusual tone stack, which I had no idea how to use. No guidance was available. I still have the amp...and it's a cool tone stack .. which now I know how to use.. but back then, I think I just dimed everything.

 

[scott sinner]

Starting playing bass as a teen. I figured I could get some free music lessons by joining orchestra. I obviously didnt appreciate how different upright was, but I got some better fluency with theory.

And I had a very underpowered small combo amp.

That all combined, I was playing bass with a ridiculously heavy hand. Had action way up there. Heavy gauge strings. Essentially had no dynamics because I was just blasting it to be heard at all.

I knew I needed a better amp and eventually did save up for it.

First practice with the new amp and I initially set it pretty damn loud not knowing it.

But then it all clicked that I was working way too hard on electric bass.

 

[Verb the Noun]

Didnt grasp ohms, EQd with a smiley face, and thought my playing style and genre were the only valid options.

 

[JimmyM]

Plugging in 2 guitars and a bass into an amp just because it had 3 inputs.

 

[Mechanical]

I played my bass way down low on the strap with a pick on roundwound strings that were years old because I thought that was so "punk rock". I didn't care what the knobs did on my amplifier, I just set them to "look cool".

 

[Altitude]

I’m sure I used speaker cables and instrument cables interchangeably for maybe 15 or 20 years. Surprisingly, I lived.

 

[MasterG]

Had a small,,,probably 10W...Kent tube amp...with the speaker wires soldered to a 1/4" plug. Plugged that into a Super Reverbs input. Talk about pushing the front end of an amp. Sounded pretty good to 12yr old me....for about the 10 minutes that it lasted.

 

[REV]

My first decent amp was a Sunn concert lead amp that I bought used from a guitar player I knew. To me, in those days an amp was an amp. It didn't matter if it was a "guitar" amp or a" bass" amp. I built my own speaker cabinet. I had no idea how to set the tone controls on that amp and at that time it probably didn't matter. I was playing punk rock.