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Sweepable Mids: Yay or Nay?

#21
I adore sweepable mids on my bass. I like to be able to hit a sweetspot between 70s Geezer and enunciated notes. I struggle to bend down and mess with my pre-amp or amp on the fly with my non-sweepable basses. My favorite is the Vari-Mid on my Ibanez SoundGear. It sweeps so hard that I can get a wah effect.

But YES, I wish that knobs in general were labeled more often as it is difficult to go back to a specific tone.
 
#22
LiquidMidnight said:
I love sweepable mids on a mixing board. I find sweepable mids useful on an amp. Lately, however, I find myself not digging sweepable mids on a bass. I find that I prefer a very musical fixed mid tone over a sweepable setup. There seems to be more room for error to end up with something that sounds either thin or muddy with sweepable mids.

...or maybe I just need to try other preamps with sweepable mids. Anyways, when it comes to active preamps, do you prefer a sweepable mid system or a fixed point?
Click to expand...

I like the Bart system with three switchable midrange centers, and I've tweaked cap values to get three really useable choices in my primary bass.
 
#26
Big yay! I play in a cover band different songs call for different tones, and that sweepable mid together with the blendable pickup selector lets me make very quick/easy adjustments between songs without having to fiddle with my amp (which isn't always easily accessible).
 
#29
I should add that I will generally play anything I'm given and make it work, so I don't get thrown by basses that don't have a sweepable mid ;) And I generally leave my sweep on the 800hz range, so really, I could do without sweepable mids on the bass. But I love having that choice on my basses with sweepable mids, and with a little bit of practice turning the knob, I can hit my mark every single time without even listening,
 
#32
MoeTown1986 said:
Dang. I give up.

So, I say yay to sweepable mids and GK's EQ section. Haha!
Click to expand...

Just as an example, a semi parametric EQ would have two separate knobs for the mids. One knob would be to select the frequency you want and the second knob would be to set how much boost or cut of that frequency you would want.

On a GK the knobs are all fixed at a particular frequency, so all you can do is boost or cut.

Mesa Walkabout or an Eden WT800 are well known examples of amps with a semi parametric EQ.
 
#33
mjac, just because the equipment back then wasn't as good as what came along afterwards doesn't mean that a lot of thought wasn't put into the sounds. Back then, they not only had to make everything sound good, but they had to do it in one take with everyone playing and no chance to mix it after the fact. So it would be a mistake to assume that everyone just showed up and started playing.
 
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#35
While I prefer a passive bass 99.9% of the time, sweepable mids are certainly 'useful'. Some players more so than others.

Ultimately, it's just a tool that you either know how to use well, or you don't. If your sound is good & you start messing with the mids just to "twiddle", yeah- it's likely gonna start sounding worse than if you let it alone. Knowing when to use it to find troublesome frequencies, get a "special effect" eq, or manipulate downstream devices is the key.

Over eq'ing is the bane of many players!
 
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#36
Dave W said:
Just as an example, a semi parametric EQ would have two separate knobs for the mids. One knob would be to select the frequency you want and the second knob would be to set how much boost or cut of that frequency you would want.

On a GK the knobs are all fixed at a particular frequency, so all you can do is boost or cut.

Mesa Walkabout or an Eden WT800 are well known examples of amps with a semi parametric EQ.
Click to expand...

Gotcha!!! Thank you
 
#38
The great thing about a sweepable mid control for me is being able to push in a little something that makes the bass pop where the guitars and keys may be lacking on a certain night, or pulling something back where there's just too much going on. I'm using the EMG BQS and having control over 100Hz to 1kHz really seems to work nicely, especially when you need to find a little spot to get some definition across...
 
#39
JimmyM said:
mjac, just because the equipment back then wasn't as good as what came along afterwards doesn't mean that a lot of thought wasn't put into the sounds. Back then, they not only had to make everything sound good, but they had to do it in one take with everyone playing and no chance to mix it after the fact. So it would be a mistake to assume that everyone just showed up and started playing.
Click to expand...


I can name 3 classic players that were "picky" about their sound, to say the least.

John Entwistle, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee
 
#40
Guygrooves said:
It IS a cut or boost..center detente is flat and you can cut or boost rolling either left (cut) or right (boost)...I LOVE THIS FEATURE..
Click to expand...
But it's not parametric or sweepable, you don't get to choose what is boosted or cut, just whatever frequency the knob is set for. You cannot boost (or cut) and do a sweep with it, just change the level of boost or cut, the frequency is fixed at the factory.
 

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