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LB75AP - UPDATE!!

vinxbass

vinxbass

Mar 31, 2008
2,758
98
71
Sacramento/Pacifica, CA
#1
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[/IMG]As some of you know I'd been having some trouble getting a decent sound out of my LB75AP. I was going so far to say that I hated the sound of the bass. Well that may have changed. This afternoon I decided to take the LB75AP out of it's case and plug it in. I pulled out the volume control and set it for passive. Some of you suggested that I do that, so I did. At first I didn't care for the sound, but as I fooled around with the eq on my BX1200 w/4x10 & 1x18, I was able to get some thickness to the tone. Now as I'm doing all this fiddling around, I just so happened to put all the controls on the bass set to a middle position. For some unknown reason I decided to put the bass back to its active mode. When I did all of a sudden the midrange mush, and the low b's buzzing distortion were gone. Oh!! I should say that I also raised the strings and lowered the pu's a bit. Thoughout the next hour or so I was able to dial the bass in and make it sound more like my Ibanez BTB405 that has passive pu's w/active electronics (That bass sounds really nice through my stack). By running the bass control on the guitar to the middle position and selecting the pu's with a little more emphasis on the neck pu, plus turning the piezo's all the way down, and running the amp full instead of bi-amp, I was able to crank my bass way up in volume without there being any speaker clipping on the low b and much more clarity with the E,A,D. I'm not getting all these low overtones crowding those strings. As far as the D and G strings go they were really anemic before, especially in the higher registers. But they seem to be a bit stronger, it's hard to say without a band playing behind me. But for now, I think there may be some hope that I won't have to fight with Carvin to give me a refund or some trade in dispute. I'll keep my fingers crossed. If you have any other suggestions please let me know.
 
#7
Yeah, I'm still working on the amp. It's hard to tell, because I play in so many different types of rooms how it's going to sound with the band. I've only had this bass 2 months. The main thing is the actual bass control and where I mix both pu's with the blend knob on the LB. That's the trick IMO.
 
#11
I brought the bass in to a reputable tech in this area (he does pu and preamp work for Bass and Beyond) and his take on swapping out the electronics and pup's was that he didn't think it would make that much of a difference in the sound at all because of the woods and the neck thru. I was kinda surprised. Honestly I disagree. What I'm finding out with the LB is that the controls on the bass are extremely touchy, the slightest movement does make a difference IMO.
 
#12
vinxbass said:
I brought the bass in to a reputable tech in this area (he does pu and preamp work for Bass and Beyond) and his take on swapping out the electronics and pup's was that he didn't think it would make that much of a difference in the sound at all because of the woods and the neck thru. I was kinda surprised. Honestly I disagree. What I'm finding out with the LB is that the controls on the bass are extremely touchy, the slightest movement does make a difference IMO.
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I can't believe that, I would get a second opinion.
 
#15
vinxbass said:
I brought the bass in to a reputable tech in this area (he does pu and preamp work for Bass and Beyond) and his take on swapping out the electronics and pup's was that he didn't think it would make that much of a difference in the sound at all because of the woods and the neck thru. I was kinda surprised. Honestly I disagree. What I'm finding out with the LB is that the controls on the bass are extremely touchy, the slightest movement does make a difference IMO.
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Maybe he meant that the basic character of the sound would still be there. I remember Sadowsky saying that if the bass sounds good acoustically it will sound good with pretty much any pickups. Unless there's something seriously wrong with your electronics, which I don't think is the case. It sounds like you haven't quite figured out how to work them yet.
 
#16
Exactly, I'm still figuring this bass out. It's alot touchier than other basses I've used in the past. I've been playing bass for 35 years and most of the time I just run my treble and bass controls on the guitar full up. Everything about this Carvin I'm finding out is very subtle. I like that aspect of the bass, but it sure has had me driven up a wall at times.
 
#17
Well it WORKED!!!!! Finally, after almost 3 months of trying to get my LB75AP to sound good at a gig I finally was able to get a real decent growling tone. We played a very large venue last night and it was a cavernous setting, but I was able to get a real nice growl by simply leaving the pickup blend right down the middle and tapering off the bass tone on the guitar itself. And I had the amp cranked up with no speaker buzzing, overdriven sound. I still have to fine tune but, at least I've finally got it where I can feel good. Considering, that at one time I had even taken the bass back to the store and left it there as a return, to come this far with it I'm have to say I'm very pleased.:hyper:
 

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