It pays off to do your homework

[Noot]

I did a gig last evening where I applied everything I've been reading about live sound and band mix. It was a small/medium sized bar with bad acoustics and the PA only supported the kick drum, the snare and the voices. I used a Fender P, a Hartke HA5500 and a Music Man 115RH Seventy-Five cab. We play classic rock. The main fact is that I've EQ'd down A LOT of bass on the amp. 30Hz was almost all the way down, 62Hz a little higher and so on following an ascending curve. 10 years ago I would have laughed at such an EQ curve, thinking that you need to at least leave the low bass alone, if not boost it. Theoretically it should have sounded very thin, but it was actually fat and full. So with this EQ I thought the bass sounded OK, but after the gig people told be they were blown away by the bass sound. Musicians and civilians alike, they all loved the bass tone. So cutting is winning

 

[Zooberwerx]

Good show and congrats...you're now smarter than the average bear. Do post a pic of your EQ. Chances are you found that attenuating the lowest freq's "unmasks" the true bass character which resides in the low mids.

Riis

 

[UnfortunateTony]

This is a big part of cutting through live. Especially when you're only playing a 4 string, those low frequencies aren't doing anything except muddying up your tone.