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Is a mid-scooped tone such a bad thing?

#24
For me it's about where I want/need to sit in the mix (with my gear).
On a southern rock/hard country gig with medium drummer, 1 guitar, and chording keys; I have to roll off some 800hz to find the sweet spot.
With a hard hitting drummer & two guitars doing AC/DC, Aerosmith type stuff I have to bump the mids to get the punch I want for that environment.
But who is to say that another player may need/want to do the opposite? It's all relative i guess.
 
#27
Limeman said:
+1. The GS series + Mesa Walkabout = sonic goodness (IMO). :bassist:
Click to expand...

+1 Nice match-up. I always remind people that two highly voiced pieces of gear can yin yang to sound wonderfully balanced and relatively even. It is all about the combination of gear that makes up the entire signal chain. IMO and IME.

That is why I don't immediately jump on the 'enhance controls suck'. First, they are all differently voiced and impact somewhat different frequencies. Second, with some honk sounding cabs, they can be a very nice adjustment tool when used sparingly.

That being said, I rarely touch those knobs! However, my cabs at this point are relatively evenly voiced (or at least the peaks and valleys are where I like them).
 
#28
dmusic148 said:
The Scoop, Contour, Shape etc.. buttons should be labeled 'Bedroom.'
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Man, I hate to agree, but there is some truth to this.

I play a Markbass LMIII, and the VPF works great. Problem is, it's not always so great in the mix. But it's not every song, just certain tunes where the mid freqs are kind of stacked up and cluttered. Then you hear this ghostly shell of a bass lurking in the background.

Fortunately, I have a three band active bass so I can pump more mids into the mix whenever I need. I think this is the ultimate solution, to have either either an onboard or pedalboard application to add mids as needed.
 
#29
Ah, I see, said the blind man. Thanks for your input.

Of course, tomorrow it may all be a moot point as I have plans to demo a Bergantino HD112 cabinet, and if it's anything like I suspect, my "mid-scooped" GS112s may be getting replaced. :hiding:
 
#32
KJung said:
+1 Pretty much the only knob I ever turned on my LMII was the upper mid control, cutting that ganky upper mid clack on some cabs, and dialing in a bit more grind with others, depending on what was happening with the top end of the drivers in various cabs.

That upper mid control on the Markbass heads is just the PERFECT center point (800hz), and Q (I believe 1/2 octave) to tame the gank or add the grind with limited impact on the balls for you tone.:bassist: Same with the F1.
Click to expand...

Yep, I use it to tame some of the clack caused by my fingernails. Sometimes it's the only adjustment I make.
 
#35
THREAD RESURRECTION! :D :laugh:

... been really enjoying this 'mini-stack'! The MB combo has the prerequisite punch needed... and the Aggie (NT) provides articulate 'low-end'! The mid-scooped tone of the Aguilar cab PERFECTLY compliments the MB!!

image.jpg


Heres the amp settings I typically use:

image.jpg


... but... when I use my Aguilar TH500... mids SCOOPED!!!

image.jpg
 
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#38
When a piece of gear is perfect for you don't come on here asking for opinions to disagree with you because you will get them.:)

I've owned the GS112. In fact two. They were perfect for the KYDD six string electric upright I was playing at the time. They had in their tuning a huge hole that got rid of the nasal this bass had built in. To compensate with tone controls would have been a compromise of other great tones. With a traditional four or five string bass guitar that hole was so huge that I nearly hurt my hands trying to bring out mids that weren't there. Other than that, which is pretty significant, the cab had big lows and sounded warm and buttery. The tweeter sounds of much lesser quality than others out there on the market. The size is excellent. It's, when new, price point was very reasonable.

This is my review and my experience. Your mileage may vary. :)

Again, if it sounds good to you and works for you who is anyone to say otherwise?
 
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#39
Nope!

214ut1t.jpg


In context to a busy mix, there are plenty of other instruments as well as vocals covering the low-high mids.
While pushing mids adds hair, you can lose definition.
The settings you use playing live, dialing in the amp so you can hear yourself better, may not translate well
in front of a mic in the studio.

In live applications, your stage tone could be totally different from what the FOH is delivering to the audience.
 
#40
KJung said:
This is, IMO, one of the most misunderstood and problematic things in getting a good bass tone 'slap' or otherwise.

Most of the enhance circuits cut low mids and mid mids.... JUST the frequencies you don't want to cut for a good slap tone (or any tone). If you are relatively proficient in slapping, you realize that there should NEVER be a reason to turn any knobs or EQ when going from fingerstyle to slap.

The 'scoop' that most expert slappers use is a very narrow band scoop in the upper mids (that sort of 1K centered 'gank' region that can make a slap tone sound a bit harsh and clacky). This has limited impact on most fingerstyle tones (unless you are a 'rock distortion/grind' guy). That is one of the reasons why many slappers gravitate toward 410 with tweeter cabs... there is typically a natural 'scoop' in the upper mids (i.e., a combination of the drivers not extended up nearly to the point where the tweeter kicks in, and also some midrange interference with the drivers that further attenuates the upper midrange a bit).
Click to expand...

I know this is a post from a few years ago, and I don't know if Ken even posts here anymore. However, I find his to be exceptionally true. Just as an anecdote, I went to see a friend's band the other night. I was helping his bass player dial in a SansAmp. This player was using an older Trace Elliot rig and various higher-end Ibanezes (including an SR1200e, which is a sweet bass). His tone had a lot of mid definition, and when I tried some slap riffs, it just sung. And the same settings with finger style and pick style sounded awesome too. The scooped slap sound works for older funk, but I find that most styles still sound better with a good mid presence for slapping.

I think the reason why it's hard to make a lot of Ampeg heads sound bad is because many of them have 5-position sweepable mids. So if someone turns the mids the whole way to the left, they're just scooping out a relatively narrow band of mids. That doesn't always sound great, but it never sounds as bad scooping mids on most amps with a fixed frequency center. You generally have to push one of the bass boost rocker switches or buttons to get a true mid scoop out of a lot of Ampeg gear (and that rocker/button always sounds terrible to my ears for that very reason).

Also, I think it should be noted that the GS112 does have more extended lows and highs than mids, but that doesn't mean that it actually lacks mids. There's a difference there. The GS112 doesn't have a lot of 1 - 2k gank, but it still has a lot of energy in the low mids.
 

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