How would you EQ.....

[thehiros]

Wondering how you would EQ a Jazz bass to cut through relatively heavy music? I'm thinking heavy rock and the like. I know heaps of other basses that might suit better, but I'm wondering if people out there do it and know how to

 

[jackall237]

Fiddle-fart around with the knobs until you get the sound you want.. That always works for me..
But really, dude, just get the sound you want from your instrument that is most relevant to the style of music you're playing. Trust your ear. You paid for the gear, so don't let other people determine what sound you get.
I know that J-Bass can get a somewhat-wide variation of tones.

 

[BassScum]

Boost the mids.

 

[lunarpollen]

There's also a limit with what you can do with any bass. Some of it depends on how the rest of the stuff is EQed and mixed. If the other stuff is mixed improperly, there might be nothing you can do except maybe resort to some extreme unusual EQing to make youself audible, but it won't do the mix any justice.

 

[One Drop]

All controls on the bass dimed, or favour a bit of bridge PUP by rolling off the neck a bit..

Play closer to the bridge.

You shouldn't need much in the way of special EQ, maybe just a bit of bass cut at the amp.

 

[BioDriver]

Boost the mids.

+1. Add some to higher frequencies and more to your bass, but let your mids get the biggest boost.

 

[dave64o]

Boost the mids.

Yep, even though it's almost a cliche it's true that mids are your friend. The last thing you want to do is scoop them out, especially if you also boost the low end. Regarding EQ'ing the bass itself, the suggestions about rolling back on the neck pickup and playing closer to the bridge are good ones. You'd probably also want to keep the tone wide open.

If the guitarists you're playing with are boosting their low end, you'll want to talk to them about giving the bass some space. A really low distorted tone might sound great to them all by itself, but it's probably not what's going to work best in a band situation, especially if you guys are heavy AND loud. If they're focused on the bands overall sound, they shouldn't have any problem with that. If they *do* have a problem with it then they probably aren't focused on the overall sound of the band and, well, you might have a difficult decision to make...

And it's true that there may be basses that are "better" (whatever that means) than a Jazz. However, there's NO reason your Jazz can't work in your situation - or most any other one.

 

[secombs]

+1 to what has been said thus far..

I would roll back a bit on the neck pickup to allow more mids to be present and possibly play a little closer to the bridge. Also- avoid boosting too much low end on your amp or other device. Maybe trying playing with a pick too.

I think the jazz bass is actually a good choice for this type of thing personally. It tends to cut through a mix better than a P.

 

[thehiros]

Thanks a lot everyone, and yeh, I meant 'better' as in, all the Ps and rays I commonly hear about which can cut through.
All the comments have been extremely helpful!

 

[Rock-Bassman]

Dude another thing you can do to cut through is throw some overdrive in your sound. It really helps me cut through.

 

[LDonnie]

Dude another thing you can do to cut through is throw some overdrive in your sound. It really helps me cut through.

My experience is often that you get lost in the mix with most overdrives. How do you do this?

To the OP, you can also try persuading your guitar players to leave out some low end in their sound so you can hold that spectrum. Depends on the sound you pursue...

 

[Diogenes]

Boost the mids.

+1. I'm amazed at how many bassists cut the mids and then wonder why they get lost in the mix or are convinced that they need to invest in a >500 watt head. Your tone may sound like crap when playing solo at home with the mids boosted but come gig time with a wall of guitars... your tone will sound a lot better. There are several songs in my band's set list in which I play harmonics and they pierce right through a couple of Marshalls thanks to boosting the mids (with a P bass no less).

 

[stingray69]

My experience is often that you get lost in the mix with most overdrives. How do you do this?

To the OP, you can also try persuading your guitar players to leave out some low end in their sound so you can hold that spectrum. Depends on the sound you pursue...

A lot of "bass" overdrives are still based around guitar-centric circuits like the Ibanez TS-9 and have a natural mid-hump nature to them, that & a healthy gain structure. I agree that both of these combined qualities can get you through a mix pretty quickly & easily, but with some trade-offs.

The trade offs are generally a tendency for overdrives to lop off some of the lower bass frequencies, even most of the "boutique" OD's that swear theirs do not lose the low end still do more often than not. Some retain more low end than others, but again, almost all suffer some amount of low end loss. Push the OD too far into distortion territory, and you'll blur into the guitar OD/distortion & end up getting lost in the mix or less defined in the mix at best, which defeats the purpose of using it in the first place as a means to cut through the mix. Plus, an OD tone (no matter how light) may not necessarily be suited to every tune you're gonna play in the course of a gig. You could use a blend device of sorts to work around the loss of bottom end, but that's another discussion entirely. I'd experiment with better EQ techniques as others have suggested. Add OD as an effect if desired, I wouldn't rely solely on it as the main means to cut through the mix though. YMMV, IMO, etc., etc.

 

[Lackey]

For me, I found that cutting low mids/high bass was the first step. Boosting the high mids is the next step.

I also like to have plenty of low end so I can be felt as well as heard.

 

[Korladis]

I'd do what I do with all basses. All knobs at full, well, maybe one pickup rolled back a little.

And then on the amp, I'd boost the mids.