Metal bass EQ frequency settings

[Mushroo]

Not to sound snarky but do you take lessons? I think you would really benefit from an hour lesson sitting down with your pedalboard and a teacher who is a professional gigging rock bassist. They can teach you what all the knobs do, and give you advice for finding "your tone." No offense but right now you seem to be in the "throw money at the problem" mode, which I don't think is the solution. You should be able to get a great sound with the gear you have now. You do not need new pickups in your bass or a 20 band EQ, to solve this problem. Even just with your bass, the Quilter, and the 8x10 (no pedals) you should be able to achieve an earth-shattering rock tone.

The problem with us helping you is you haven't posted any audio clips of what you sound like. So we don't really know what's wrong with your tone, because we can't hear you. All we can really tell you is that "your knobs look weird" and that's not how any of us would set our EQ. But maybe those settings are necessary to your bass, or to your rehearsal room, or to the style of music you want to play. We can't know that, though, without hearing you. A teacher can sit there in the room with you and listen to you.

Who is the best-sounding metal bassist on your local "scene," whose tone you love when you go to their shows? Call them up and ask if they teach lessons!

 

[poochiecheeks]

No offense but right now you seem to be in the "throw money at the problem" mode, which I don't think is the solution.

That sounds about right, can't tell you how many times I've spent a TON of money on gear just to end up selling it a month or two later

The problem with us helping you is you haven't posted any audio clips of what you sound like. So we don't really know what's wrong with your tone, because we can't hear you.

I didn't even think of this- what's the best way to upload a clip of me playing, you need an audio interface or something right? I have a 1/4" to USB cable from that Rocksmith game so if I plugged that right into audacity would it be at the right level? Because I think you're right there's no way to tell for sure what I'm doing right or wrong here. I have an RC-2 but I don't know if there's any recording capability, maybe I could record onto one of the tracks with the metronome, then play back the recording with the tap tempo turned off and just record the output through the XLR out of the head.

I think you would really benefit from an hour lesson sitting down with your pedalboard and a teacher who is a professional gigging rock bassist.

The last lesson I took was years ago, most of the practice I've done has been completely independent so there's a chance I'm just reinforcing bad technique and screwing myself from the get go

You should be able to get a great sound with the gear you have now.

See the thing is when I have just the A/O or even with no pedals the bass sounds like *really* good, at least to me, but all the reading I'm doing says that the better your sound is in your living room then the worse it is live and vice versa.
I really need to figure out how to upload sound clips on here

Thank you for the detailed response

 

[poochiecheeks]

If i’m learning one thing about metal bass sounds after 20 years or so of gigging / recording, it’s that less is sometimes more. I’ve gone from using multiple preamps, overdrives in a blended parallel setup to currently using just a compressor and a single preamp with just a touch of drive. Not saying i won’t go back, but still...

I know what you mean and I think this is true at the end of the day- I have spent a lot of money on bass pedals, doing the LS-2 parallel processing thing, I've had a Bass Driver, Para Driver, VT Bass DI, even had a DG B7K V2 and sold it when I didn't really know how to play as well, and even recently I tried to stuff my board full of effects (as you can see from what's in my profile pic lol) and right now I'm selling a lot of them, mostly because they were drunk impulse purchases but also because gets very confusing. I think I've consistently had at least 3 EQ's at different points in the chain, which were probably exaggerating some bad tonal characteristics and really masking the tone of what I'm actually doing. And the super drastic EQ on the GEB-7 is definitely not what you want lol... keep forgetting that less is more with a graphic eq like that

I'm starting a new career basically in a few weeks so I've had to sell a TON of stuff to finance it which has actually been great, because I can evaluate each thing I have and see if it sounds good on it's own, rather than just adding to a big ol mediocre stew of noisy bass tone.

(i also remember reading that the LMB3 has a slight high frequency rolloff at higher comp settings. Not sure if this may be contributing?)

I've read the Ovnilab.com posts over quite a bit and everything he says about the LMB-3 (and the CS-3 for that matter) are absolutely right- there's a pretty massive mid scoop with the stupid enhance knob turned on and I would find it easy to believe that there's some high rolloff too, there's some weird stuff going on there. I never really invested in a good compressor aside from the Keely Compressor + some years ago which really ate up your low end no matter what I did.

Thank you for your input!

 

[poochiecheeks]

For a dense metal mix I found the A/Om lacklustre, I much prefer the B3K or X7. And as always, new strings make all the difference!

I never liked the two mode distortion on it, I always leaved it all the way to the left or at around 11:00. To me it always sounded best if you have the knobs pointed to form a counterclockwise circle, if that makes sense- so level at 10:00, blend at 2:00, mod at 10:00 and drive at 0. Kind of like a circle lol
The blend is really great on that pedal, I've never had a distortion where you set it as you said with the gain all the way up and blending the clean sound where it doesn't sound like two different signals at different volumes being thrown together- it just works

I know someone with a Microtubes X Ultra and it's really everything you could ever want in a box, but it's also $400 so maybe not worth it as a one stop solution, especially if I don't want to fall into the trap of buying a good tone as Mushroo pointed out, I am indeed very bad with that

For playing live, I wouldn't recommend a power amp

The only purpose of the amp is to drive the 8x10 cabinet on a stage and not so much to give a good tone for mixing or recording. I bought the quilter with the express purpose of bypassing the preamp and using it as a power amp basically, which you can do with the XLR in.

 

[poochiecheeks]

I saw this in the Eddie Jackson thread yesterday and found the EQ method to be an eye-opener. Maybe it'll be helpful to you as well.

I really like this guy and haven't gotten a chance to see this one yet, thanks. The metal bass mondays are super helpful for this exact question really, the DD Verni vid is one of my favorites

 

[Killing Floor]

Best advice thread for metal?

 

[poochiecheeks]

Disengage both the boss limiter and the boss driver. Darkglass should be able to get you there alone, with those EMGs when you get them. If you are going for the Webster percusive style you would probably want to also adjust your Boss EQ. Boost the lows instead of cutting them because strings barely get to oscillte when you play with that percussive style instead of stroking the string. Also that high boost on the EQ is also unnecessary, again - Darkglass should be able to get you that clank.
I find that compressors/limiters before the dirt pedal often tend to really neuter it completely and aren't all that necessary. Less is more in this case.

I've gone back and forth about where to put dirt pedals, would you suggest putting a compressor *after* the distortion? I always thought comp>dirt>eq sounded ok.

Still figuring out how to set up the bass properly, I think I still have too much resonance and high action to get the right sound, and I've been using cheap basses with fretwork that's so bad it's hard to get anything close to that without the strings touching the frets at some point. Kind of sick of cheap basses honestly, I'd rather have 1 or 2 good ones than 6 cheap ones

Definitely think that some of the Boss pedals don't play nice with each other, particularly the LMB-3. I still haven't figured out the BB-1x but it's been kind of underwhelming for the space it takes up on the board.

Thanks for the input

 

[poochiecheeks]

Best advice thread for metal?

That seems to be what this has turned into... lol

 

[Hypocrite]

I never liked the two mode distortion on it, I always leaved it all the way to the left or at around 11:00. To me it always sounded best if you have the knobs pointed to form a counterclockwise circle, if that makes sense- so level at 10:00, blend at 2:00, mod at 10:00 and drive at 0. Kind of like a circle lol
The blend is really great on that pedal, I've never had a distortion where you set it as you said with the gain all the way up and blending the clean sound where it doesn't sound like two different signals at different volumes being thrown together- it just works

I know someone with a Microtubes X Ultra and it's really everything you could ever want in a box, but it's also $400 so maybe not worth it as a one stop solution, especially if I don't want to fall into the trap of buying a good tone as Mushroo pointed out, I am indeed very bad with that


The only purpose of the amp is to drive the 8x10 cabinet on a stage and not so much to give a good tone for mixing or recording. I bought the quilter with the express purpose of bypassing the preamp and using it as a power amp basically, which you can do with the XLR in.

If 400 bucks gets you where you want, then it's money well spent Seriously, I've spent so much on different dirt pedals, if the X7 came out ten years ago, I could have saved so much time and money.

Regarding the amp, I've gone the separate pre/power route, and it just didn't work. I get that it's "just" for stage monitoring, but if the sound isn't usable then you just dragged an 8x10 to the gig just to look cool. Been there, done that, got a decent 800W amp, now considering downsizing the cab or going in-ear

 

[micguy]

The best bass tone for....whatever genre isn't usually all that different than a good tone for another genre, save a few examples like Reggae. The EQ on your pedal looks a bit extreme - you shouldn't be thinking a specific curve on that thing is "metal eq". The best EQ for metal depends on what the bass sounds like to begin with. Sometimes it's more mids, sometimes it's less - it's not formulaic, you have to use your ears.

My suggestion: flatten the eq. Try playing with your band without it doing anything. Turn your bass up until it's a bit too loud. Then pull down a slider or two (not a lot) of whatever seems to be out of place - whatever is making itself a bit too known that you wish weren't. While experimenting, if you pull down a slider, and that isn't the right slider, put it back to the middle. My guess is you'll find a decent sound without a lot of EQ - assuming that happens, that's a good thing.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Disengage both the boss limiter and the boss driver. Darkglass should be able to get you there alone, with those EMGs when you get them. If you are going for the Webster percusive style you would probably want to also adjust your Boss EQ. Boost the lows instead of cutting them because strings barely get to oscillte when you play with that percussive style instead of stroking the string. Also that high boost on the EQ is also unnecessary, again - Darkglass should be able to get you that clank.
I find that compressors/limiters before the dirt pedal often tend to really neuter it completely and aren't all that necessary. Less is more in this case.

Yup. Pedals are responsive to touch just like amps. I put my compressor last before input. That way my pedals aren't affected by it, and my input is kept clean before gain.

 

[edthebass]

EQ, especially like the graphic you have there, should really only be used only for minor corrections to certain frequencies. Also, you'll have much clearer sound if you cut frequencies rather than boost. That's because boosting EQ slider induces phase cancellation.Finally, a graphic EQ has a fixed Q which is really not handy at all for overall tone shaping. If you threw that into a RTA, you'd see its just creating little bumps or cuts at certain points along the frequency spectrum, and muddying the original sound while it does that.

If the source tone isn't close to where you need to go to begin with, you'll never get there with an EQ or any other signal processing for that matter. IMO you're not going to get there with the source signal you're starting with (SR405 w stock pups).

Here's what you should do. Sell all your boss pedals (except I guess you might need the tuner), buy some fishman fluences pups (EMGs are decent but why not go for the ultimate?), you'll have plenty of options to sculpt the tone from the source and with your darkglass, you're there.

 

[drumvsbass]

I saw this briefly alluded to earlier in the thread, but what your recorded EQ winds up being will have to do with where you (and the engineer) decide to notch (or find where they are naturally "notched") other instruments in order to make room for the bass on the frequency spectrum. This is a major reason why solo'd bass tracks usually sound not-so-great (and, conversely, why great "bedroom" tone doesn't work at a gig or on a recording).

THIS!!!! If your bass sounds amazing on it's own, it will suck in a mix.

 

[poochiecheeks]

If the source tone isn't close to where you need to go to begin with, you'll never get there with an EQ or any other signal processing for that matter. IMO you're not going to get there with the source signal you're starting with (SR405 w stock pups).

Here's what you should do. Sell all your boss pedals (except I guess you might need the tuner), buy some fishman fluences pups (EMGs are decent but why not go for the ultimate?), you'll have plenty of options to sculpt the tone from the source and with your darkglass, you're there.

I like this advice. Is it even worth it to put money into a midrange Ibanez like that? Should I just sell everything I have and buy a Spector or at least one of the Legend series, or maybe a Warwick Rockbass or something? The more I'm talking to you guys the more it seems like spending a ton on pedals won't get you anywhere.
Thanks

 

[poochiecheeks]

If 400 bucks gets you where you want, then it's money well spent Seriously, I've spent so much on different dirt pedals, if the X7 came out ten years ago, I could have saved so much time and money.

I feel you there, I really want to buy the one-and-done pedal and not worry about it. The X7 or the X ultra sounds like the ticket and I might just go all in on that

Regarding the amp, I've gone the separate pre/power route, and it just didn't work. I get that it's "just" for stage monitoring, but if the sound isn't usable then you just dragged an 8x10 to the gig just to look cool. Been there, done that, got a decent 800W amp, now considering downsizing the cab or going in-ear

Yeah I figured as much, k.i.s.s. right? It's fine for what I need it to do so no need to mess with it.
Thanks

 

[Medicine Man]

The gain on the Quiler adds a bunch of compression as you turn it up, so for starters play with a lower gain and higher master. Dont boost the bass on the amp (bass boost vs cut), if anything a slight cut. I would try to remove your Boss EQ and compresser from the chain and see what it gets you with just the Darkglass, tuner and Quilter.

 

[poochiecheeks]

THIS!!!! If your bass sounds amazing on it's own, it will suck in a mix.

The gain on the Quiler adds a bunch of compression as you turn it up, so for starters play with a lower gain and higher master. Dont boost the bass on the amp (bass boost vs cut), if anything a slight cut. I would try to remove your Boss EQ and compresser from the chain and see what it gets you with just the Darkglass, tuner and Quilter.

I tried it last night and there's definitely compression with the gain up. With that setup (tuner>DG>quilter) it sounds pretty good, much better with high master than with high gain. I try not to touch the tone controls there period, I'm gonna end up bypassing the preamp in it once this is all figured out and just use another preamp pedal that does everything in one box.
Thanks

 

[edthebass]

I like this advice. Is it even worth it to put money into a midrange Ibanez like that? Should I just sell everything I have and buy a Spector or at least one of the Legend series, or maybe a Warwick Rockbass or something? The more I'm talking to you guys the more it seems like spending a ton on pedals won't get you anywhere.
Thanks

If you're going to go down that path and you already like Ibby's, I've seen older used Ibanez Premium SR 5 strings selling for very cheap on Reverb lately. I own one of these and nothing cuts like the Nordstrand big singles. Just listen to this dude So you could potentially get a professional level piece ready to go for under $800.

IMO an SR405 with steels and new pups would play and sound better than those two basses you mention. Regardless, you must have top notch pups and electronics to compete and those stock models do not. Don't be fooled, even those coveted $2K+ Dingwalls would be clown without nordstrand designed pups and Darkglass pre.

 

[Mushroo]

I would imagine a Darkglass preamp, into the power section of a Quilter, into an 810 cab, would be a pretty amazing metal tone. Alpha*Omicron should have enough gain to drive a power amp, I would think? I forget the name of the specific 1/4" to XLR adapter cable you need, but the guys in the Quilter megathread can help you out, or just email Quilter support. Pat Quilter himself helped me out with a question one time!

Or if you don't have that adapter cable, you can get a very similar sound by bringing the Gain way down on the Quilter, and cranking the Master. That is almost the same sound, as bypassing the the preamp completely. (Opposite of how you had it in the original photo, which is the most "squashed" and "colored" setting.)

 

[Ellery]

I see a lot of good advice here and am taking notes. Assuming you're a finger player (I'm a Webster fan too), I would suggest experimenting with your right hand technique, picking closer or farther from the neck than you're used too. Helped me. Oh yeah, and ditch the Ibanez and find yourself a used Spector Euro. I don't care how long and hard you have to look for the right deal, it will be worth it.