Sounds like a lot of amp and a lot of cabinet for the attic/bedroom home practice....is it on the floor, against a wall,and in a corner???All three can cause a bit of boominess...in my opinion, of course!
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Need Help - Bass Rig sounds Boomy/dull/lifeless
- Thread starter HOTSPUR1992
- Start date
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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You are in an attic. I presume the only walls meeting the floor at 90 degrees are at the ends of the house under the peak of the roof. Boomy. No gamma pad or pedal is going to fix it until you reduce the amplitude of the bass and low mid frequencies.
Put the cabinet on a chair.
Turn the tweeter on full.
Ditch the effects.
Open pickup(s) and the tone control all the way.
Do not play over or near the fingerboard.
Roll off the bass on amp—start with it 100% off.
Boost treble and semi-parametric mid-range until the mud is gone.
Add a little bass back in if it sounds good to you.
Put the cabinet on a chair.
Turn the tweeter on full.
Ditch the effects.
Open pickup(s) and the tone control all the way.
Do not play over or near the fingerboard.
Roll off the bass on amp—start with it 100% off.
Boost treble and semi-parametric mid-range until the mud is gone.
Add a little bass back in if it sounds good to you.
I'll try this. Raising the amp up may prove difficult though as the cab is quite big.
What do you think about maybe getting a smaller cab and placing that on my desk? Could you recommend any good 112s or 210s that would pair well with the Shuttle 9.2?
I think it is a poor idea, and a waste of money. Until you figure out what is fussing up your tone, it is going to be there no matter what cab you use.
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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- fEARful Kool-Aid dispensing liberal academic card-carrying union member Musicians Local 72-147
Ok. Get help from a family member, and put it on a chair, end table, computer desk, WHATEVER.
Honestly, if you want to ditch the 410, go for it. But I advise you learn to solve this problem with the available gear, as there will be other issues like this awaiting you in the future. Shopping is not problem solving, it's only shopping.
There is nothing wrong with your gear, unless there is some undiagnosed hardware failure, which I doubt.
I hate to throw this part out there, but what are the SM 9.2's flat settings? I remember the Streamliner was really far off with everything at noon. Also, I'd have to agree that the OP should try to fix it with what he has and add that some rooms just make everything sound dead.
Start over. Set everything at 12:00 except your master volume and adjust from there. I've had to do that a few times when I adjusted for a gig, and then it practice it sounded like cr*p.
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
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You don't own a chair? If not, slant the cab back so it points at your head. See if the problem is that your speakers are beaming all of your mids down at your ankles rather than near your head, which houses your ears.
Watch your speakers move, make sure they're all moving in the same direction at the same time. They may be 'fine' but not wired correctly.
Just like you learned in math class; if you want to solve for your variables, you need to isolate them.
Adding more variables is seldom the right way to solve or simplify the problem.
(A guess: From the description, it sounds like an impedance mismatch or loading to me.)
Adding more variables is seldom the right way to solve or simplify the problem.
(A guess: From the description, it sounds like an impedance mismatch or loading to me.)
Big Hoss
Up note, down note, blue note, brown note...
- Sep 5, 2014
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Decouple your amp / cab from the floor. meaning physically separate the cab so that direct vibration doesn't resonate through the floor, as well as get it up at least 18" so that vibration through the air doesn't resonate through the floor. Try setting it up on a chair or something. At least that way you know if "stage coupling" is causing your problem or not.
I too think it's mostly the room's acoustic properties in addition to the cab sitting on the floor.
I Primarily play a P bass through my Shuttle 9.2 and 4x10 SWR Golight, but I have a Jazz bass with rounds too, and initially couldn't find that sound either. Everything was boomy/muddy/muffled. A couple responses up this thread someone mentioned the "flat settings" on the 9.2 being off, and I agree. FOR ME, I found it was all about the mids. Setting the "low" at about 10, the "mid" at about 3, and the "mid freq" at 3-5 worked WONDERS to get the right sound out of MY Jazz. So it might be another simple test if you will be leaving it in that room: get it off the floor, disconnect everything and go straight from bass to amp to cab, and crank those 9.2's mid knobs to the right.
Good luck to you.
I Primarily play a P bass through my Shuttle 9.2 and 4x10 SWR Golight, but I have a Jazz bass with rounds too, and initially couldn't find that sound either. Everything was boomy/muddy/muffled. A couple responses up this thread someone mentioned the "flat settings" on the 9.2 being off, and I agree. FOR ME, I found it was all about the mids. Setting the "low" at about 10, the "mid" at about 3, and the "mid freq" at 3-5 worked WONDERS to get the right sound out of MY Jazz. So it might be another simple test if you will be leaving it in that room: get it off the floor, disconnect everything and go straight from bass to amp to cab, and crank those 9.2's mid knobs to the right.
Good luck to you.
Do all these without any effects in this order:
1) Have another player try your set up while you sit somewhere else in the room.
2) There's a headphone jack on the rear of that head. Get some studio quality headphones and see if you dig the tone.
3) Get (borrow) a good power amp or a good head that you can use to run the GB as a preamp and see if you like that sound.
4) Get (borrow) a 210 or 112 cabinet (a good one) and don't change anything else. don't get rid of the 410, but try a more compact cab.
5) Move the 410 into another room, basement, garage, outside, and try it there.
My hypothesis, after reading all the things you've tried, is that the room is impacting the sound and/or you don't dig the tone you're getting from a 410.
More compact cab may sound better. Or it may not, but you can more easily move it to a better rehearsal space.
1) Have another player try your set up while you sit somewhere else in the room.
2) There's a headphone jack on the rear of that head. Get some studio quality headphones and see if you dig the tone.
3) Get (borrow) a good power amp or a good head that you can use to run the GB as a preamp and see if you like that sound.
4) Get (borrow) a 210 or 112 cabinet (a good one) and don't change anything else. don't get rid of the 410, but try a more compact cab.
5) Move the 410 into another room, basement, garage, outside, and try it there.
My hypothesis, after reading all the things you've tried, is that the room is impacting the sound and/or you don't dig the tone you're getting from a 410.
More compact cab may sound better. Or it may not, but you can more easily move it to a better rehearsal space.
...Which suggests that your basses and amps probably aren't the cause of the problem.
In my last post, I said that you should isolate variables -- but I realized that it might not be obvious how to do so.
So here's what I'd suggest:
1) Check your basses. You said that when you plug them into other interfaces you're happy with the un-EQed tone, so the basses probably aren't the issue, but confirm this.
2) Check your cable using the previously-mentioned clear-sounding interface.
3) If bass and cable are OK, plug them straight into your amp. Without ANY pedals in line or in the effects loop. Disable any input pads and use the FET preamp to remove the possibility of tube issues.
4) Plug the direct out of your amp into your clear-sounding interface and listen via headphones.
5) Plug a 1/4" cable into your cab (please do NOT do this to the input jack on your AMP) and touch a 9v battery so that the tip of the cable touches positive and the sleeve of the cable touches negative. Your speakers' cones should all move outward -- it's OK if they move inward, the most important thing is that they all move in the SAME direction.
6) Plug your amp into your cab.
7) Put ONE pedal at a time into your signal chain.
At some point, the problem will probably re-appear; let us know where that point is.
you have everything you need to sound good.
not being a smart-ass, but how long have you been playing?
once a person gets to a certain level of proficiency, they can sound good through anything.
don't chase tone-it will make you miserable.
make tone chase you-put time into developing it in your hands.
not being a smart-ass, but how long have you been playing?
once a person gets to a certain level of proficiency, they can sound good through anything.
don't chase tone-it will make you miserable.
make tone chase you-put time into developing it in your hands.
Then you have no idea what the problem is or if you even have a problem.
Stop buying stuff. Get all the gizmo's out of the way and plug straight in the amp. Play it in as many different places as you can. Different rooms in your house, outside, different friends houses, out in a barn, wherever.
Genz amps ain't exactly known for being muddy and dull, if anything, too much the opposite.
Flat is flat on that amp. It's a very clear amp with all set to noon.
I used to own the SM9.2 and I have a Berg 4x10. At normal "household" volumes, ANY rig that size is going to sound somewhat dull and lifeless. Crank it up and it'll start to come to life, but it will be unreasonably loud in a confined space. Not to mention the room itself being small will cause problems - especially on the low end.
I mostly use Phil Jones gear now and my C4 (4x5" drivers) sounds GREAT at home. It's tiny and looks good, but it also sounds just as good a low volumes as it does fully cranked. It's basically a 1x10", in terms of speaker area. I believe it would be a killer little cab with the SM9.2, having owned both (though not simultaneously).
I'm thinking along the same lines, that's a stadium gig worthy amp set up. You gotta feed those big dogs some real power or they don't light up.
You'll blow the windows out at it's
happy volume.
That rig would coasting at a bar gig. For bed room practice, it'll just get you evicted.
I've got a GK 1001 rb 2 and some fEarfuls, same thing, I wouldn't try to use this rig for low volume practice. It sounds terrible. Great fun at a gig, but it likes to be loud. Since I'd use a MXR m80 to warm it up at low volumes, I just started practicing going into a small mixer with headphones.
I'm a big fan of headphone practice, it keeps the peace on the home front.
Check out the Zoom B3 for a unit that can sit on your desk and gives you a huge tool box to practice with. Runs off a usb, interfaces for playback and recording, tuner, drum machine, metronome, looper, tons of amp and cab sims and tons of effects. Work it all from your screen with the free software editor.
Used, it'll set you back $150. And you can use it as a pre, di, or effect in front of the big rig. Or, since it runs on aa batteries, you could throw it in a gig bag with earphones and practice anywhere. ( I wish it had a mini stereo aux in, but you need usb for playback). Laptop will work.
You can get great sounds at low headphone volumes.
Perfect for bedroom, dorm room, living room practice.
You'll blow the windows out at it's
happy volume.
That rig would coasting at a bar gig. For bed room practice, it'll just get you evicted.
I've got a GK 1001 rb 2 and some fEarfuls, same thing, I wouldn't try to use this rig for low volume practice. It sounds terrible. Great fun at a gig, but it likes to be loud. Since I'd use a MXR m80 to warm it up at low volumes, I just started practicing going into a small mixer with headphones.
I'm a big fan of headphone practice, it keeps the peace on the home front.
Check out the Zoom B3 for a unit that can sit on your desk and gives you a huge tool box to practice with. Runs off a usb, interfaces for playback and recording, tuner, drum machine, metronome, looper, tons of amp and cab sims and tons of effects. Work it all from your screen with the free software editor.
Used, it'll set you back $150. And you can use it as a pre, di, or effect in front of the big rig. Or, since it runs on aa batteries, you could throw it in a gig bag with earphones and practice anywhere. ( I wish it had a mini stereo aux in, but you need usb for playback). Laptop will work.
You can get great sounds at low headphone volumes.
Perfect for bedroom, dorm room, living room practice.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
I have a GB S9.0 and 2 Berg HD112. I can tell you for a fact that one Berg HD112 can get WAY more boomy than 4x10 (all things equal).
Unless there is something physically wrong with your 4x10, just replacing the cab will not do anything for you except get even more boomy.
Lots of good suggestions in here.
I would check the 4x10 to make sure it is wired correctly internally and all the speakers are in good shape. Then...
Having a GB S9.0 and Jazz, from my experience I usually start with (bass: bridge full on, neck 8.5-9) amp everything flat (no signal shape), then pull down the treble, then bass to about 11. Then boost the mids to about 1-2 and the start a sweep of the mid freq until it sounds good.
Good luck.
(good suggestions on this thread)
