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POLL: instrument volume knob settings
- Thread starter SLO Surfer
- Start date
I ride my volume and blend knobs all night and get a huge tonal range doing so. My normal setting is volume at 90%, with slightly more neck pickup than bridge. One band I work with is a "guitar straight to tube amp" kind of band, which tends to be a really dynamic situation since their clean vs dirt tone is just a simple volume boost. With a good amp you can really hear the difference a little volume tweak makes.
My main bass is an active PJ. I set all my levels for my pedals and amp in passive mode with the volume and tone wide open and the pickups panned in the middle.
The I get to playing and that pickup blend knob always seems to get turned clockwise. With the beefier signal, if it's too much, I back off the volume a bit. And lately I have been experimenting with "working" my compressor, which is always on. All may bass settings hit the circuit and affect how it works. Sometimes I hit active mode and turn up the bass and the volume down, depending on how much fatness or thump I want, I alter the settings. The output level is fairly consistent but the tone and note envelope can change.
The I get to playing and that pickup blend knob always seems to get turned clockwise. With the beefier signal, if it's too much, I back off the volume a bit. And lately I have been experimenting with "working" my compressor, which is always on. All may bass settings hit the circuit and affect how it works. Sometimes I hit active mode and turn up the bass and the volume down, depending on how much fatness or thump I want, I alter the settings. The output level is fairly consistent but the tone and note envelope can change.
Wide open. One less thing to think about.
Always 100% full on my bass. They'll have to find another way to quiet me down! And dammit, they will.
- Jan 26, 2014
- 1,525
- 1,946
- Disclosures
- I teach lessons and perform live music in and around San Diego CA. Sometimes I even make money doing it!
For passive instruments it matters a lot, as adjusting volume also adjusts EQ. For active, not so much.
All my traditional electric bass guitars are passive at the moment. I tune my basses for the room/stage with the pickup blend and then leave it once it’s dialed in, to be nice to the sound guy, and band mates for that matter. With 2 pickups, I start with both dimed and will roll one off to help fit the bass to the room if needed. On a p bass style, volume and tone are always cranked all the way. Passive volume knobs roll off highs as you attenuate volume, and that’s rarely a good thing for a passive bass in a band with rock drums, distorted guitars or horns. You’re asking for mud if you don’t have any bite to your tone, and good stage tone is often a lot crispier than good solo/practice tone.
My eub and abg are both active, with very strong preamps, so volume is much less a part of dialing in EQ. That’s not a hard and fast rule, some active magnetic pickup systems still have some EQ reactivity with rolling pickup volume off, but my current active basses are all piezo systems. Again, once i find my settings i try to keep them where they are, but the gigs where I use those instruments are often a lot more intimate, often don’t have a PA, and are conducive to me adjusting my own volume as needed. In general I will try to leave a little headroom, in case I need that extra little push over the cliff. My main acoustic electric Guitar has such a loud preamp my usual starting setting is around half volume. I still try to set it and forget it, but that is more of a necessity with passive instruments. There’s much more fluidity with active instrument settings, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, as sometimes I end up fiddling with tone settings all night in tough rooms.
All my traditional electric bass guitars are passive at the moment. I tune my basses for the room/stage with the pickup blend and then leave it once it’s dialed in, to be nice to the sound guy, and band mates for that matter. With 2 pickups, I start with both dimed and will roll one off to help fit the bass to the room if needed. On a p bass style, volume and tone are always cranked all the way. Passive volume knobs roll off highs as you attenuate volume, and that’s rarely a good thing for a passive bass in a band with rock drums, distorted guitars or horns. You’re asking for mud if you don’t have any bite to your tone, and good stage tone is often a lot crispier than good solo/practice tone.
My eub and abg are both active, with very strong preamps, so volume is much less a part of dialing in EQ. That’s not a hard and fast rule, some active magnetic pickup systems still have some EQ reactivity with rolling pickup volume off, but my current active basses are all piezo systems. Again, once i find my settings i try to keep them where they are, but the gigs where I use those instruments are often a lot more intimate, often don’t have a PA, and are conducive to me adjusting my own volume as needed. In general I will try to leave a little headroom, in case I need that extra little push over the cliff. My main acoustic electric Guitar has such a loud preamp my usual starting setting is around half volume. I still try to set it and forget it, but that is more of a necessity with passive instruments. There’s much more fluidity with active instrument settings, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, as sometimes I end up fiddling with tone settings all night in tough rooms.
I voted carrots just because...
But really I do mess with it from time to time. At gigs though, dimed and I never even think about it. Carrots are nice on the weekends.
But really I do mess with it from time to time. At gigs though, dimed and I never even think about it. Carrots are nice on the weekends.
I dont like the tone I get when I run my bass "Wide Open". It adds a bit too much treble to the attack of the notes and just sounds too clangy to my ears. I usually dial back to about 75-80% on my neck pickup and 90% on my bridge pickup. This also helps add a little more of that J bridge growl to the mix while keeping the punch of the neck pickup.
I play actives, down 10%, until my drummer gets "warmed up." Then I dime it.
@SLO Surfer your poll is missing "always maxed"
I used to be an always maxed player and relied on both finger dynamics and pedal settings, but I've learned that there's a lot of dynamic range lost by not sometimes bringing the bass' volume down to as low as 4-ish and still only lightly tickling the strings. I also bring it down there sometimes for whole songs so that the bass is only functioning as a small bit of density but leaves the audience ready to get smashed by a wall of BAAAASSS the following tune
I used to be an always maxed player and relied on both finger dynamics and pedal settings, but I've learned that there's a lot of dynamic range lost by not sometimes bringing the bass' volume down to as low as 4-ish and still only lightly tickling the strings. I also bring it down there sometimes for whole songs so that the bass is only functioning as a small bit of density but leaves the audience ready to get smashed by a wall of BAAAASSS the following tune
- Jun 6, 2012
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- 6,859
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- I don't wait 30 minutes after eating, to go swimming.
I'm down to just P bass (one pickup), so full open is best. When I've had 2 pickup basses (each with its own volume control), I had to consider phasing (even with humbuckers). As such, I would usually run the neck at 100% and the bridge at somewhere between 70% and 90%. I could hear when to stop and dial back a touch when bringing up the volume on the bridge as the output would drop and the sound would become thin. This is counterintuitive - you're increasing the volume, but the output suddenly drops off. I think things are a bit different for active basses, but again, not sure why you wouldn't go 100% there either.
I played with a guitarist who used to keep his guitar at less than 100%; we'd get the mix right but over time, he'd use the volume knob on his guitar to make himself louder in the mix, which was not a good thing. So annoying - don't do this.
I played with a guitarist who used to keep his guitar at less than 100%; we'd get the mix right but over time, he'd use the volume knob on his guitar to make himself louder in the mix, which was not a good thing. So annoying - don't do this.
I play in a church band through the house PA which is controlled by the sound team in the booth at the back of the sanctuary. My volume controls are always set at either 10 to give them a consistent level to work with or 0 when the bass needs to be silent. During the songs if I need to vary the level I do that by how hard I pluck the strings.
At home I set the volume to taste.
At home I set the volume to taste.
Passives always at 100% when finger playing. I roll the treble back playing with a pick or slapping.
Actives I run the throttle full volume as well. On my Spector I run the bass and treble up just a touch. It's my hottest preamp
Actives I run the throttle full volume as well. On my Spector I run the bass and treble up just a touch. It's my hottest preamp
Passives are dimed.
I don't think there are any tonal or dynamic advantages to running an active bass's volume fully open, but I'd be happy to learn more from someone who knows.
I don't think there are any tonal or dynamic advantages to running an active bass's volume fully open, but I'd be happy to learn more from someone who knows.
Signal to noise ratio, line driving.
