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Live Tone question

S

schmig

Nov 30, 2008
318
31
#1
Quick one here, chancing my arm.

I'm playing a couple of years, blues about 1.5 years, link here to some live stuff recorded on a ZoomH4 handheld a couple of months back, in a small bar.

Red Herrings :: Charlies 2011 :: Dirty Old Man / Rollin And Tumblin by user4617874 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

I find my tone a bit woolly.

Am using:

Fender 59 Relic Precision with medium gauge d'addario rounds (yes, I shouldn't have such a nice bass given my **** playing, but I got it for less than half price, have a well paying job, and was encouraged by the guitarist to do so). Tone fully open, played slightly bridge side of pickups, fingerstyle.

This into a boss TU2 tuner.

Into a Boss CS2 compressor, everything at noon.

Into a sansamp VT bass, more or less:
- Volume noon
- Mid slightly above noon
- Character around 8pm
- Drive similar
- Low around noon
- high around 1

Into a genz benz shuttle 8, using the tube preamp, everything at noon.

Out through a peavey 4x10.

I would like some more punch..I find it a bit vanilla. Haven't had much time to fiddle with amp as only see it at gigs and the odd rehearsal...and just...plain don't get it anyway.

Track maybe worth a listen for the singer antics, funny guy.

Just running out of office to go to tonight's gig...will check from phone, if anyone has any suggestions, I'll try them out!
 
#2
I don't have a great amount of experience with compressors, but maybe I'd check there first and foremost. With your compression settings, you might be squishing the life out of your tone (I've been guilty of that myself before, not really understanding compressors well). Maybe try a little less compression (or play with it off and see how your tone is effected or if you even need the compression).

Next, you might want to take a look at the VT settings. I personally find when the character is low, it can sound a little muddy (other people may disagree). I would maybe suggest (if you're still completely SOLD on keeping the VT always on), that you try dialing in more character (closer to 10-11 o'clock and perhaps even a smidge more towards noon). I would also probably pull a smidgeon off of your mids. I seemed to notice that you were very low heavy and mid-low heavy.

Making those adjustments might alleviate some of your tone issues.
 
#5
Red Herrings -- clever band name, good stuff.

As an experiment, try running everything the same except bypass the CS2 compressor. This will give you a better sense of the sonic pros and cons of having that compression as part of the chain.

If you find that you really need the balance/dynamic control of the CS2, add the compression back in a little at a time. A little squish can go a long way, while too much compression (even just a bit too much) is a nearly sure-fire way suck the life and nuance out of tone.
 
#6
Don't just take out the CS-2: take out your whole FX chain and plug straight into the amp itself. Try and dial in your tone with just the basics first, then add the FX to-taste on top of it. Leave out whatever doesn't sound good or is detrimental to your tone.

I don't personally consider any passive Pee to be inherently "punchy" anyway, so that's another thing to think about.
 
#7
I suggest taking things out of the chain and seeing if your tone clears up. If you don't need the compressor, by all means don't use it and take it out of your signal chain (it has a buffered bypass that affects your signal even when the pedal is off). The VT is a great pedal but takes a good deal of experimentation to find the sweet spot for your rig. So when in doubt, go back to plugging your bass into your amp and making a few EQ adjustments to see how you like it. Once you find the best sound between your bass and your amp then try the pedals knowing you have a reference tone to go back to.

If you need more punch, try cutting a few dB around 400Hz on your Shuttle and maybe boost a little 5K for presence.
 
#8
Thanks for the responses - this forum is an oasis of sanity and kindness on the internet.

Left the Sansamp box out of the chain last night - tone was much more defined. Left the compressor in for now as I use it as a bit of a crutch - my right hand attack is a work in progress, I used to rip strings out of the bridge from time to time, and have been told by a couple of professionals at gigs that they've never seen such a heavy right hand..so am working on that.

Anyway - looks like my settings on that pedal are the problem. I used it to play in a rock band for a while before started with blues, and was using it to dirty up my jazz bass a bit...don't think I need it at all with the P however - the tone is nasty enough on its own.

Again, thanks!
 
#11
schmig said:
Left the compressor in for now as I use it as a bit of a crutch - my right hand attack is a work in progress, I used to rip strings out of the bridge from time to time, and have been told by a couple of professionals at gigs that they've never seen such a heavy right hand..so am working on that.
Click to expand...
then definitely lose the compressor!

if you're digging too hard, then squashing out the peakiness with the comp, you'll never correct the bad habit, and risk hurting your right hand without realizing it.

it's the same reason that you don't want to compress vocal monitors; the singers will push harder without realizing it and blow out their voices.
 

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