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LMII: getting low-mid punch

#62
Steve Moodie, thank you. Tomorrow night I am auditioning for a band that has already rejected 3 bass players. I need an old school tone for my Jazz and tried your settings on my LMIII and 2 TC 2x10 cabs. Just PERFECT! I feel a lot better about the audition now. If you are ever in the UK I will buy you a pint!

FWIW the settings that I will be using are

Bass, noon. Low and high mid 10 oclock. Treble 11 oclock. The 2 filters both at about 8 oclock. thanks again, Bob
 
#65
Just a little more help here, if ya will. I read about Q, and I looked at the graphs in my LMII manual. I don't fully understand how the graphs work. I see that the X axis is Hz, and the Y axis is dB. If my low eq knob is at noon, for instance, just where is that along the lines? I assume that's all along the "0" line? But, that doesn't make sense to me, somehow. If I turn the knob to 9:00, for instance, I go down on the graph, but where? Confused, I am.
 
#66
Going from a SA450 to a F1 im going to give this a try at the weekend. Not that im lacking punch, but im always open to trying new tones out, and i do miss the slight 100hz boost i used to apply with my SA450 at some gigs.
I actually had a very honky tone at my last gig, it was down to the stage and venue rather than the amp but maybe the settings in this thread might have worked.
 
#67
Russell L said:
Just a little more help here, if ya will. I read about Q, and I looked at the graphs in my LMII manual. I don't fully understand how the graphs work. I see that the X axis is Hz, and the Y axis is dB. If my low eq knob is at noon, for instance, just where is that along the lines? I assume that's all along the "0" line? But, that doesn't make sense to me, somehow. If I turn the knob to 9:00, for instance, I go down on the graph, but where? Confused, I am.
Click to expand...

When the knob is at 12:00, it's not making that frequency any louder or softer, therefore it's 0db on the graph.

If you look at the specs you'll see that each eq knob goes to ±16db. This mean 16db louder at maximum and 16db softer at minimum. The black curve on the graph indicates how this alters the volume over certain frequencies when turned to maximum, and the grey curve when at minimum.

As to where the curve will be when set to 9:00, that's an educated guess. But seeing as the minimum position of the knob is around 7:00 which is -16db, the peak (or in this case trough) of the curve will be around -9.5db. This will affect a range (the 'Q' or width) of frequencies either side to a lesser degree. If you look at the graph you'll see that cranking the low knob to maximum or minimum also affects frequencies right up to about 1000hz (1khz). So if you also tweak the low-mid which is 360hz (which has a maximum width of around 80hz - 5khz) you can see how the frequencies between these knobs are also altered.

I wouldn't get too caught up in the mathematics though. Listen with your ears, not your eyes!
 
#68
ga_edwards said:
When the knob is at 12:00, it's not making that frequency any louder or softer, therefore it's 0db on the graph.

If you look at the specs you'll see that each eq knob goes to ±16db. This mean 16db louder at maximum and 16db softer at minimum. The black curve on the graph indicates how this alters the volume over certain frequencies when turned to maximum, and the grey curve when at minimum.

As to where the curve will be when set to 9:00, that's an educated guess. But seeing as the minimum position of the knob is around 7:00 which is -16db, the peak (or in this case trough) of the curve will be around -9.5db. This will affect a range (the 'Q' or width) of frequencies either side to a lesser degree. If you look at the graph you'll see that cranking the low knob to maximum or minimum also affects frequencies right up to about 1000hz (1khz). So if you also tweak the low-mid which is 360hz (which has a maximum width of around 80hz - 5khz) you can see how the frequencies between these knobs are also altered.

I wouldn't get too caught up in the mathematics though. Listen with your ears, not your eyes!
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch, pal. I just needed to make sure I was thinking straight with me eyeballs.:ninja:
 
#69
I finally got to try the settings yesterday - WOW... just WOW... low at around 11 - low-mid noon, high-mid/high 9 oclock. The vintage fillter off and the other one around 10. what a huge improvement of my sound. cuts like a swissblade, but still pleasent on the ears. coupled the VT bass in front and fiddleed around with the settings on there for a while. and really got an awesome tone :D
 
#74
dave_bass5 said:
Im not joking though. I had a GK1001RBII and my SA450 at one gig, did one set with each. Soon after that i sold the GK head.

Its a nice head but i never felt it was as thick, low or clean as the MB heads.
Click to expand...

That's cool.
To me, the Mark Bass stuff is too "plush" sounding... not gritty enough in a band situation. And the low mid control on GK gear is centered at 250Hz, which is the crux of this whole thread.
I have a GK 1001RBII, and while I use it almost all the time, I can see where a lot of people (including diehard GK fans) find that it can be a bit too "inorganic" sounding, in some situations. It would probably get nice and mushy if you plugged two SVT 810 cabs into it, turned it up all the way and quickly ran about a mile away. :cool: My trusty 26-year-old GK 400RB fills that gap for me... I get nice, "musical" low mids out of it.
Peace...
 
#75
And the low mid control on GK gear is centered at 250Hz, which is the crux of this whole thread.
Click to expand...

Agreed on this point. I prefer the 250 over the MBs 360hz low mid.

I have both the GKMB500 and the LMII and I was having a tough time deciding which one to sell as I currently have 3 amps and thats overkill for me. Currently I am leaning towards selling the GKMB500 as the LMII has less of a voice that I know I wont get bored with. Hard choice though as they are both awesome amps.
 
#77
I played around with the recommended settings again last night. For me, it seemed that cutting the hi-mids was the real key. Putting that at full or near full cut let the low-mid character of the head stand out much better; i.e., lots more punch. I tweaked the low and high knobs depending on the cab I used, but nothing too extreme there.

So I used to think that the low-mid center frequency was the problem with low-mid punch with this head, but now I'm not so sure. Just drastically cutting the high mids made the low-mids sound much better.

/rick
 
#78
RickC said:
I played around with the recommended settings again last night. For me, it seemed that cutting the hi-mids was the real key. Putting that at full or near full cut let the low-mid character of the head stand out much better; i.e., lots more punch. I tweaked the low and high knobs depending on the cab I used, but nothing too extreme there.

So I used to think that the low-mid center frequency was the problem with low-mid punch with this head, but now I'm not so sure. Just drastically cutting the high mids made the low-mids sound much better.

/rick
Click to expand...

I Tried cutting The high mids today at practice. Really loved it :) had Them almost rolled off and what a huge improvement. Thinking maybe high mids are there if you have a passive bass or something like that. I usually don't eq much, and just play around with the 2 filters. Now they are both off and high mids at like 8 oclock. Low mids at 1-1.30 rest noon. Really brings out my bass' sound. Seems like more fundementals, no mud or boom and no clank. Can't thank you guys enough for this thread :hyper:
 
#79
I know this thread is a year and a half old but just wanted to say thanks as well. Just picked up a CMD 102P combo with a 102p traveler from a kid that was over his head money wise and I was having a real hard time getting a good sound. Had all the freqs boosted and the two filters at noon and had a real sh!tty, muddy sound. Printed this thread out last night and went home and tried some of the settings on this thread: L - 10 LM, HM - 9, H -10, VLE - off VPF - 9. Night and day difference!! Much better, clearer sound. I also figured out how to set the gain on this rig from this thread. I didn't get any manuals with this set-up, but now I can't wait to gig with it now!! Thanks to all!!!
 

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