Use your ear I know it's not always what you want to hear on stage but,you got to have some mids to get the job done
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lacking presence
- Thread starter endsender
- Start date
To sit in the mix you need to boost your low mids, with the bass and treble flat. This will allow you to play at a higher volume with out blowing up your speakers. As for a lack of punch, that might be an argument you need to hash out with your compression pedal. I’ll bet there is nothing wrong with the combo.
Take some time be patient and work with your sound guy to get what he’s looking for.
High side is 11/32, low side is 16/32 from the plastic to the top of the string. If it wasn’t adjusted this way, it would be unbearable to play live.
Boosting the mids is not the answer.
I knew it was either the d and g were too high or the pickup was too low.
Doesn’t putting both pickups on a jazz bass up full volume create a mid scoop, where the mids are cut noticeably? Try backing your bridge pickup off 10-25% to get more mids presence.
Also, I often try to cut frequencies rather than boost them on my amps. Try cutting the bass knob on your amp, while boosting your mids.
Also, try sending the PA pre-eq signal so he can have more control over shaping FOH. He doesn’t like whatever you’re giving him so try changing that up. Then he has more control and you can adjust your amp settings to whatever sounds good to you on stage, which is often different than what sounds good for FOH.
Also, try a gig without the compressor. They usually cut the attack to turn it into sustain, as mentioned above, and you’re lacking attack. Couldn’t hurt to try ditching it.
Also, I often try to cut frequencies rather than boost them on my amps. Try cutting the bass knob on your amp, while boosting your mids.
Also, try sending the PA pre-eq signal so he can have more control over shaping FOH. He doesn’t like whatever you’re giving him so try changing that up. Then he has more control and you can adjust your amp settings to whatever sounds good to you on stage, which is often different than what sounds good for FOH.
Also, try a gig without the compressor. They usually cut the attack to turn it into sustain, as mentioned above, and you’re lacking attack. Couldn’t hurt to try ditching it.
- Jun 30, 2010
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Depends on the unit - I use a DOD Compressor/Sustainer and it is a main-stay pedal for delivering my sound. It's the only pedal other than my MXR d.i. + I leave on the whole time in rehearsals and live.
- Jun 30, 2010
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Yes, every Jazz bass I have ever played was like this. Because of the reverse wound/reverse polarity of the pickups, the 60-cycle hum is cancelled when both pickups are all the way up, but the result is a thin, quacky, scooped sound and a pronounced drop in volume. For a fuller, more punchy, more "present" P-bass type of sound, the best solution I found was to leave the neck pickup full on and slowly dial back the bridge pickup until the overall volume suddenly rises, usually around 75%. That's the sweetspot.
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Hmmm. That's not my experience at all with passive J basses.
That's my experience with passive J basses too.
I'll second/third/fourth/whatever the advice to try backing off the volume of one of your pickups. A lot of two pickup basses act this way, where basically the best tone is not when both pickups are on full. Max both volumes, then try backing off either one a little bit at a time. You'll probably notice a point where the overall volume increases a bit and the tone seems to open up.
This will work backing off either pickup, so try it both ways, neck full/back off the bridge, bridge full/backing off the neck.
Fender's Roscoe Beck models were made with 100% bridge/~90% neck volume as a hard-wired option via a switch, per Roscoe's request. He too talked about how he found the "sweetspot" for jazz basses was with one of the volumes backed off a bit. And Roscoe knows a bit about bass tone.
This will work backing off either pickup, so try it both ways, neck full/back off the bridge, bridge full/backing off the neck.
Fender's Roscoe Beck models were made with 100% bridge/~90% neck volume as a hard-wired option via a switch, per Roscoe's request. He too talked about how he found the "sweetspot" for jazz basses was with one of the volumes backed off a bit. And Roscoe knows a bit about bass tone.
MDBass
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- Nov 7, 2012
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Hate to break it to you, but if you’ve ever recorded an album or played a gig using a digital console...there’s a 99% chance your signal had some element of compression on it
- Jan 26, 2014
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- I teach lessons and perform live music in and around San Diego CA. Sometimes I even make money doing it!
Sounds like the classic bedroom vs stage tone dilemma. What’s usually referred to as presence in bass tone is in the mids. You can’t EQ with your eyes, gotta trust your ears, or those of a good sound guy. Favoring the neck pickup often actually boosts presence, which seems counterintuitive, but that tends to boost a throaty, punchy part of the low mid spectrum. Kinda like faking a p bass. The bridge pickup certainly adds more high mids, which accentuates the pitches of your notes, but it tends to reduce punch the more you dial in. Pickup blend is the first thing I goof around with to tune to a particular stage or room. I start with neck full on and zero bridge, and dial in bridge to combat muddiness. There have been rooms where my bridge has been higher than the neck, it’s just a function of what works; the room isn’t going to change, So you you need to.
It sounds like you’d consider yourself a fair to middlin’ bass player, as you’ve admitted your technique is a little rough around the edges, and you’re using the compressor to smooth things out. Not a bad band-aid, but you’re finding out technique is kind of a bid deal. So my unpopular and difficult answer to the REAL problem is, take some lessons from a player who has good technique. Compressors are great if you have a light, controlled touch, but the way you’re using it, it will probably make your tone muddy. A compressor is best used to bring quiet sounds up to the level of loud sounds, so things like muted notes are more audible- further raising the importance of good technique. Relying on it to squash clams and clangs is another possible use of the device, but it will not help make things punchier, you’re literally dialing any dynamic punch out of your sound by doing so. Listen to higher ground by RHCP, Flea’s ultra squashed tone is incredible in the intro, then gets almost completely buried in the rest of the song under the brutish heavy metal guitar overdubs. Further proof that good solo tone doesn’t equal good mixed tone.
In the short term, I’d continue using the compressor to keep things even, but you’re probably going to need to roll off some lows and boost mids, maybe treble. It might not sound great to you, but if the sound guy is getting better results, you may need to retrain your ears to hear what’s actually needed in the mix, as opposed to what sounds good for you solo. But like I said, the real answer is addressing your technique. There is no reason the rig you’re describing shouldn’t have presence, flats and all.
Are you using both pickups on full?
If so, back off one of them a bit until your bass is more present in the mix.
Alternatively, find a way to boost low mids (EQ pedal?)
I don't use the bridge pickup alone in a Jazz, so what I do is set the neck one (height) so that it sounds good alone, and then turn both pickups on full, and play with the height of the bridge pickup so that the blend sounds good too. That way I avoid getting too scooped a sound (lacking mids, which makes you get lost in the mix and I suspect this is what's happening to you). Then I generally use the neck pickup on full, and use the bridge volume to blend in more or less bridge, to taste.
Give it a try and see if it helps. Strings are also important... but they cannot really compensate for an extremely mid-scooped sound if the pickups are balanced that way.
There is no "boost" in a passive instrument. With both pickups of the interaction of the pickups cancels (aka "scoops") some of the mids.
The first thing I recommend it take your bass to a good luthier & get it serviced and tweaked to suit you. (New strings if they recommend them.) It could be a problem with set-up yet. Get that sorted, take to compressor out of the equation, eq the amp and the bass tone at 12 o'clock - both pickups on if multiple pickups, and play a gig. See what the sound man says. Start there - which is pretty simple. Also go standard gauge strings (just 'cause everything is set-up around them-a known quantity).
Or I'm talking through my hat...
Or I'm talking through my hat...
