Amps like the B Amp sound like a good idea in theory but in practice I tend to spend a lot of time "delving into the system" with my back to the audience. The simplicity of the BB800 is why it's so appealing to me.
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In my case sorting out my sound ahead of time sounds better in theory than in practice. People who can use complex EQ systems to get a great sound on the fly have my respect. I can't. My work around has alway been to alter my tone with my touch. After years of working this way more than very basic EQ clutters the process and detracts from the actual making music part.
The BB800 is definitely easy to use to find a good tone. FWIW you don't have to dig deep into the frequency curves or really any other menu setting of the B amp. All I set is the compressor with flat EQ and just adjust the EQ to the room if needed. I still love my sound with the BB800, just not as much with my bass with flats on it.
That can be difficult... tweaks outside of a live environment often don't work live.
I can... and I'd still rather not. For example I'm well versed in fully parametric EQ with adjustable Q. Yay. I go for not having to address issues caused by my amplification/gear/me. I do this by using gear that doesn't require tweaks right off the bat.
At the second service this morning I decided to solo the bridge pickup on my Brubaker Xtreme 5. The complete opposite of not enough mids and I kept the Quilter flat.
I found that if I want to get silly with the mids:
As a general rule I use the passive input with all of my active basses. The only reason I wouldn't would be if I were overdriving the input, which was an issue I had with my Veyron. All of my Brubakers have Bartolini NTMB preamps and I set the internal boost control at around +10dB. That's hot... and the Quilter handles it perfectly.
1. the 2nd tone control: turn to around 2 or 3 o'clock. This rolls of some (not all) highs. If you have too much highs at the bass, address that too.
2. Pull back the Depth until the mids come forward.
3. Gains: Turn up the gain and/or master. Apologize later
. Keep the bass' volume up, lowering it is the easiest way to lose mids IME.I gave the band a beating second service... and they loved it. Welcome to punchtown, population me. It can easily be done with the BB800, just not in the usual way.
BTW I didn't do any of these tweaks with the setup I use to get more mids. Didn't boost them at the bass either. More volume with flat treble (which equals less perceived volume than with treble forward) gets it done for me. Favoring the bridge pickup does the trick.
I tried the B/amp, nice... but I don't have anything that needs that much fixing. My $150 Samick Greg Bennett Corsair kills with my BB800 set flat.
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At the second service this morning I decided to solo the bridge pickup on my Brubaker Xtreme 5. The complete opposite of not enough mids and I kept the Quilter flat.
I found that if I want to get silly with the mids:
As a general rule I use the passive input with all of my active basses. The only reason I wouldn't would be if I were overdriving the input, which was an issue I had with my Veyron. All of my Brubakers have Bartolini NTMB preamps and I set the internal boost control at around +10dB. That's hot... and the Quilter handles it perfectly.
1. the 2nd tone control: turn to around 2 or 3 o'clock. This rolls of some (not all) highs. If you have too much highs at the bass, address that too.
2. Pull back the Depth until the mids come forward.
3. Gains: Turn up the gain and/or master. Apologize later
I gave the band a beating second service... and they loved it. Welcome to punchtown, population me. It can easily be done with the BB800, just not in the usual way.
BTW I didn't do any of these tweaks with the setup I use to get more mids. Didn't boost them at the bass either. More volume with flat treble (which equals less perceived volume than with treble forward) gets it done for me. Favoring the bridge pickup does the trick.
I tried the B/amp, nice... but I don't have anything that needs that much fixing. My $150 Samick Greg Bennett Corsair kills with my BB800 set flat.
This was my EQ after the last gig I used the BB800 for with the gain rolled back from practicing at home. With my Kiesel ZB5 with flats on it just doesn't cut through. My Carvin LB75 with chromes on, it absolutely kills.
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People apparently found out that the $500 amp doesn't sound as good as the $1000 amp.
My Markbass 2x10" cabinet brought out the mids in everything, which I loved, but the downside was that it brought out the worst in some amps.
G-K's amps sounded awful with that cabinet.
When I took a G-K in to trade it for a Quilter the guy plugged it into a Aguilar 4x10" & it sounded great!
OTOH, if they only sound good scooped, I don't want them.
G-K's amps sounded awful with that cabinet.
When I took a G-K in to trade it for a Quilter the guy plugged it into a Aguilar 4x10" & it sounded great!
OTOH, if they only sound good scooped, I don't want them.
Really?
Most didn't find that out. I certainly didn't. I could be using the $1,000 amp. The main thing stopping me is that the $599 amp sounds better.
Sorry.
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Those tonal tweaks are pretty minor. If I were coming up short on mids I'd do what I suggested. I'd also use more gain and bring the master down.
I've never set my master that high on any gig.
As I stated my main bass has flats on it which makes a big difference with mids. I love the vintage tone I get from the BB800 with that bass but like I said before feedback from people in the crowd is what I heard about my cut through. I play through an Aguilar SL410x which has a horn that slams so I didn't think it would be an issue.
As far as the wattage knob vs gain knob, there really isn't a huge difference in volume between 200-800 watts. The gain knob becomes more sensitive. I prefer the master higher to put less stress on my cab because I'm driving real watts and not the preamp.
I'm in an alt/grunge band and use distortion and fuzz. I prefer flats to get that thick saturated effect to fill out our sound since we're a 3 piece band.
I can't say I really understand this but cool. IME a horn typically isn't really what cuts through in the mix. In fact it often makes a cab sound artificially loud at the expense of what does actually cut. And "real watts" is above my pay grade.
I cut through in every mix I find myself it. Extremely well. It's entirely possible to do with a Quilter IME. I also know how not to cut through. Sometimes the obvious culprit isn't.
It didn't make sense to me after 3 different gigs I was told by different people. I wouldn't say the horn helps cut through the mix, I like how it helps when I use distortion.I can't say I really understand this but cool. IME a horn typically isn't really what cuts through in the mix. In fact it often makes a cab sound artificially loud at the expense of what does actually cut. And "real watts" is above my pay grade.
I cut through in every mix I find myself it. Extremely well. It's entirely possible to do with a Quilter IME. I also know how not to cut through. Sometimes the obvious culprit isn't.
I just tried something else that has more eq capabilities and it's been great. I can't being myself to sell the BB800 yet, it's a fantastic amp.
Cool.
IME highs seem to get loud before the actual meat of your signal. That is not cutting through IMO. Not many horns that you can actually "feel"
. Just like having subwoofer type lows isn't cutting through either... they can obscure the brunt of your signal. The BB800 definitely takes a different approach to EQ, more of a pro sound approach IMO and those who've figured out how subtractive EQ works typically have success. Which is why I don't look at having more EQ knobs as automatically having more capabilities. If you think about it, unless you have variable centers most aren't that flexible. And tweaks that help one bass might make another suck. That's why I choose a robust platform vs. trying to fix every an amp for every bass I use. My SWR SM400 used to annoy the crap out of me because of all of the necessary tweaking I had to do.The biggest tweak I do is turn my amp up. That gives me more of everything without exaggerating a frequency area.
I meant knowing the amp and where everything is but I get what both of you are saying. I’ve never been so confounded live that I couldn’t make a quick tweak. Again, I get that it’s not for everyone.
I wasn't confounded with my SWR, I know how EQ works... it's just that it sounded so bad flat with most of my basses I didn't want to have to show up early to try and "fix it" on most gigs or grin and bear it. Sounded fine with my passive Fender Jazz. I fixed it for good when I bought my AMP BH-420.
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