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The search for tighter bass?

#41
Bassmec said:
Well that's just cheating! but yeah that's sort of where I ended up after Rickenbacker, except mines a Doug Wilks copy with a sexy sliding Nordstrand pickup and an Aguillar pre.
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I had once worked out the mechanics of a sliding pickup positioner like that...even one for 2 pickups.......thinking I was really onto something new and revolutionary. :)
 
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#42
Consider a Carvin B1000 (600w @ 4 ohms) head with the Carvin BRX10.4 cab (4 ohms). It gets crazy loud and will do thick+fat as well as tight+punchy. Just great sound all around. The head actully goes down to 2 ohms so you could run your 2x15's with the 410 cab together for 900 watt super rig!
 
#43
Ric player here. 4003 with DR FatBeams, both pups full vol, tone all the way to bright, cap bypassed. BTW, when Geddy played a Ric, it had the cap. With the cap bypassed, I get huge low end. So huge, I have my FDeck HPF3 dialed up to around 50. My fEARful 15/6 has one port plugged as well. I have both a Demeter VTBPM800D and an Orange TB 1000H head. The Demeter two JJ 12AX7 tubes I believe, the Orange has a NOS RCA 5751 blackplate in v1, and a JJ 12AX7 in v2. Mids always full, never scooped. Cable is a Lava, capacitance is around 21pF/ft. Whew, those are all my secrets.

Cab-wise, I think the one you have may be too dark for a Ric. Ric players using Ampeg can best bring out the "Ric" tone with 410 or 810 sealed cabs. If you are into ported 15" cabs, at least one with a mid/tweet.
 
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#44
One thing that may be worthwhile to try is a High Pass Filter of some kind (like Coolhandjjl mentioned) such as the FDeck HPF or [sfx] Micro Thumpinator. By cutting out the extreme sub bass frequencies it effectively "tightens" up your tone. I have the FDeck HPF Series 3 and love that I can adjust the frequency of the cutoff, it helps tailor the tone from room to room.
 
#45
RawOrange said:
One thing that may be worthwhile to try is a High Pass Filter of some kind (like Coolhandjjl mentioned) such as the FDeck HPF or [sfx] Micro Thumpinator. By cutting out the extreme sub bass frequencies it effectively "tightens" up your tone. I have the FDeck HPF Series 3 and love that I can adjust the frequency of the cutoff, it helps tailor the tone from room to room.
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It's by far the best, most responsive, and most functional part of my EQ.
 
#46
You could theoretically tighten up the cab's low end by lowering the tuning frequency. Make a friction-fit plug to seal off one of the two slots. You might undersize the plug slightly and then use a few wraps of electrical tape to get the friction fit. Make sure to put a handle of some sort on the plug so you can pull it back out. With two such plugs, you could go all the way to a sealed box.

Test any of this in practice first and listen for fartout, as your cab's fartout threshold may well be reduced. Also listen for port chuffing when the one slot is plugged. The lowering of the tuning frequency into a region below most of your fundamentals should partially offset the reduced port area, but you may still get chuffing.
 
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#48
Wanna cheap easy solution? Play with a pick - preferrably a V-Pick.
As already pointed out, you need less lows and more mids and highs to give you more definition. I've never played through those cabs so I can't say if they have the sound you want
 
#50
Ahhh, how I LOVE power trios so much. I miss playing in them. I envy you, brother !!

As far as fast goes, I HIGHLY suggest the Mesa M6 Carbine or M3 Carbine. Super fast, and super thick, wooly tube tone, too. I have never owned a better sounding amp. The M6 Carbine is the PERFECT bass amp head. I am crazy about it. They are also starting to come down in price a little with the new Prodigy on the market. I've seen a few M6 Carbines asking price between $650 - $700 which is really reasonable. Very easy to get delivered to your home, too.
 
#54
Marc, you're the man! I'm actually in the lower Peninsula about an hour south of the bridge. That's the coolest thing though, thank you!
I do play with a pick and it does sound tighter, but I love playing with my fingers too and I don't think I should need to sacrifice that for tone.
I've been meaning to try the FatBeams as I love Sunbeams, but I also love bright strings.
I really need to try one of those HPF's though! That sounds like it would definitely help.
Yeah, I've been playing with the same dudes for 11 years. There's nothing better. I've never played a Mesa amp. It sounds like I most definitely need to!
 
#56
callofcthulhu said:
Push in the Ultra-Lo.

It's actually a low frequency shelf with a midrange boost, should give you a bit more immediateness on the low end.
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This is factually incorrect. The Ultra low, is a mid cut.

ric4682 said:
The Ultra-Lo seems to cut a decent amount of mids and boost highs and lows. I'll have to try it again though.
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It does cut the mids.

There is a lot of call here to change cabs, or your bass, or your amp. I think you can find a workable solution with the gear you have.

Try the compressor, also try shifting your pickup settings.
 
#57
Hey I haven't read through all these posts, but it sounds like your issue may be a combination of things. So, I'll offer a minor point, which could be working in conjunction with other relatively minor points, what is your pickup height like? In my experience, that as a surprising effect on punch.

Edit: I see CL400 beat me to it, and, I totally agree with them.
 
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#59
Raise em on up a little, can't hurt. You can always lower them back down. I was having punch problems for a while and for me, at least, the solution came down to a lot of smaller nuances in my signal chain, not any one main piece of gear as the culprit.
 
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#60
In my experience, moving from 15" cabs to 10s certainly tightened things up in the lows. My first 4x10 cab was a Crate (sealed), then I went to an Ampeg 8x10 (sealed), used a Peavey 410TX for a little while (ported and sounded GREAT, less punchy than sealed), now I'm back to two Ampeg 410HEN cabs. None have ever sounded "loose" in the low end, no matter what bass I was playing, or head I was powering them with. Power ranged from various black face and silver face Fender Bassman heads, Ampeg SVT, V2, V4, GK 400RB, various rack preamp/power amp rigs, and no telling what else I've forgotten.

Therefore, IMO it's all in the 10's. Preferably sealed cabs, at that. And please stay away from that Ultra-Low button... Those things are evil.
 

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