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Just added piano player, I now sound muddy.

J

Johnny StingRay

Guest
Nov 24, 2006
749
746
#1
Our group just added a pretty good piano player.
She plays on a baby grand.
My bass always sounded very warm, just the way I like it, but now with her playing, I sound extremely muddy.
We play country.
Any suggestions on amp/bass settings to clean up my sound?
I play a MM StingRay 5 through a Fender Rumble 100/15 that I run a line from to our PA mixer.
Thanks in advance.
 
#3
JimmyM said:
turn down the bass response on the piano.
Click to expand...
:p:D


A grand piano (or even a baby grand) act as a big "spring reverb" on a stage , it will pickup everything , if you are medium to loud onstage.
And it IS the hardest instrument to mike/amplify.

When you say you sound Muddy , you mean in the FOH mix or on stage ?

Whenever playing with a grand piano , the stage level has to be down , don't put any amp or monitors directly towards it , if possible , put it on the more silent part of the stage.

If your bass amp is near the piano , it's maybe just "symaptic resonance", move away and lower your volume.
 
#5
This may or may not work, but I've found, with larger groups, simply switching to flats works wonders. There's more emphasis on the fundamental, and less overtones to further muddy things up, making it easier to sit in the mix. Just a thought...
 
#9
could she be playing low notes with her left hand that are clashing within your frequencies? I just started in a TX blues/rock band with a very good keys player and I've asked him to try to stay off the low-lefthand-notes when possible. But I guess most keys players are accustomed to playing the entire keyboard, I can understand that.

Guitarplayer stepped in recently and said, "hey we have a real bassist now, let him play those low notes" Good for gitarista, I'll never call him a "guitard", he's one of the rare cool ones. :bassist:

So when keys does start playing those brown notes, I slide up the neck and play my notes in the mids to high range, then slide back down when he gets outta there. He's been staying out of that area abit more lately so maybe our talks had some effect. He uses electric piano/organ, don't know if a acoustic piano would cause same problems or not.

Or if I'm even describing the same issue as you. Let us know if/how you resolve it.
 
#12
I play in a band with a piano player. I tend to EQ my amp more toward the high mid frequencies and pull a lot of the bass out. The piano can hit lower notes than I can so I let it, but it doesn't "punch" in the mids like my bass does so I focus on in that area of the spectrum.
 
#18
I played in a couple bands with keyboard players that were very heavy left hand players.

I took to duct taping the lower keys together before every set to make the point that they were un-needed. Keyboardist ended up leaving because I was 'detracting from his musical liberties'.
 

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