• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Im officially a "No" tweeter guy

#161
Stevorebob said:
So, I get the not liking tweeters and all, and not using them in bass rigs. But what about FOH? Eventually a DIed bass runs through the FOH tweeters, no? Not trying to be antagonistic here, just wondering.

I don't know; it seems a bit ironic to me hating on something that we end up being forced into anyway.
Click to expand...


That's why you mic a speaker or cut the treble out of your sound before you send it to the house. Especially important if you use grit, overdrive, etc. in your tone.

Forgot to do that a couple times and the mains tweeters sounded like there was a nest of hornets living in them. :)
 
#162
Sure, I'm old school 60's & 70's rock & pop styles, but every band I ever worked with, every engineer and producer I worked with
wanted the bass part to hold down the low end and only play up neck parts at very strategic places in the material, so the part did not
compete with the vocals or other parts that had that higher range covered.
They never wanted an overly busy bass part.
Our job as musicians was always to support the vocalist, priority #1.
 
#163
FFTT said:
Sure, I'm old school 60's & 70's rock & pop styles, but every band I ever worked with, every engineer and producer I worked with
wanted the bass part to hold down the low end and only play up neck parts at very strategic places in the material, so the part did not
compete with the vocals or other parts that had that higher range covered.
They never wanted an overly busy bass part.
Our job as musicians was always to support the vocalist, priority #1.
Click to expand...


Even low notes have a series of harmonics in them that reaches pretty high. It's not like the tweeter isn't contributing until you get way up the neck. They can put a 'crispness' on even very low notes. Some people like that, some don't, and they're both right.
 
#164
The only time anyone ever said a negative word about my tone was after my SVT was stolen and I bought that POS Fender B-300 solid state head in an emergency.
The worst piece of rubbish ever, even worse that my Peavy Mark III backup head.
 
#165
I've liked my tone more since I started learning from the speaker guys here and using 6 or 8" paper cone PA mid drivers, or 10" guitar speakers for my top end. Lots of tone in that area they cover. So, "no tweeters" doesn't have to mean "no treble". Just IMO a small cone sounds better playing it than a horn tweeter does, and still rolls off before you get to super high treble.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Doug Parent
#166
FFTT said:
Still if you need a tweeter to make a bass guitar cover higher than the highest harmonics on a guitar
that's not playing bass. Not the way I see it.
Click to expand...

If you don't roll with tweeters you won't get it, hear it, or appreciate it. And bass players are still playing the same low notes on the same place on the fret board as you. Your assertions they aren't bass players because they use tweeters to add crispness to the overall tone, well, you are extending propositions that are somewhat condemnatory and blanket generalizations.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SanDiegoHarry
#170
Mike Arnopol said:
One comment I heard Duck Dunn make

With the classic Stax recordings he was listening to his tracks solo'd. He thought that there were way too much highs. But when he listened to the entire mix the bass didn't sound bright--it sat perfectly in the mix.
Click to expand...
Yup. This was a REALLY hard thing to resolve in my mind, especially as I had been a guitarist for many years.

This reminds me of the name of that Stanley Kubrick film: Dr. Strange(Bass)...How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the (Treble).
 
#177
aprod said:
So the old guys hate the tweeter and the new younger players appreciate the technology and put it to good use. I need a tweeter to achieve my funky ass slap sound.
Click to expand...

I actually think it's largely the other way around - younger guys who are embracing the "everything that is old is better" thing. Tweeters are an *option* - an option that can be defeated, just as having bright roundwound strings are (roll off your tone), a low B string and a host of other things are. I want someone to explain to me how having options is bad, except that it means you don't have "mojo".
 
#178
FFTT said:
The only time anyone ever said a negative word about my tone was after my SVT was stolen and I bought that POS Fender B-300 solid state head in an emergency.
The worst piece of rubbish ever, even worse that my Peavy Mark III backup head.
Click to expand...

See I listen to anything through an ampeg 810 and think, "wow what a muffled tone." Regardless of amp that sone isn't for me, no matter what style of music I am playing.

Ymmv.
 
#179
doesn't n3382 said:
Or steam escaping, frying bacon, sword noises...
Click to expand...

My rig doesnt hiss at all and I use the horn or tweeter or whatever my cab has... I know, I'm a sinner for not remembering what's in there. It HAS hissed before when there was "dirty power" running near it. So, I dont think hiss should occur, or that it does necessarily occur, due to horns/tweeters.
 
Last edited:
#180
SanDiegoHarry said:
I actually think it's largely the other way around - younger guys who are embracing the "everything that is old is better" thing. Tweeters are an *option* - an option that can be defeated, just as having bright roundwound strings are (roll off your tone), a low B string and a host of other things are. I want someone to explain to me how having options is bad, except that it means you don't have "mojo".
Click to expand...

+1
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back