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Tone Thickener

Dec 26, 2007
10,314
1,375
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NY, NY
I want my bass tone to be fatter! So now I come here.:)

I play a P-Bass with flats through an Ashdown MAG300 (soon to upgrade to a Mesa 400+) and I want my tone to fatten up and become thicker.

The only effect I use with frequency is my Fulltone MOSFET bass driver.:)

So what'll giving more fundamental low end and just overall 'thickness'

This is probably a terrible word for it...

Maybe a graphic EQ pedal?
 
P-Bass...flats...Mesa 400+
I think you'll be fine once that 400+ shows up. ;)

I know a lot of tube dudes like to run clean boosts in front of tube amps, something I've never understood since distorting tube preamp just makes things sound brittle to me, but that's one way to go about it.

Also I think nowadays bass tube amps use solid state rectifiers, but I once had a Sunn Sorado that just dripped butter with a GZ34 tube in lieu of the solid state rectifier it came with. If possible, definitely try this.
 
I think you'll be fine once that 400+ shows up. ;)

I know a lot of tube dudes like to run clean boosts in front of tube amps, something I've never understood since distorting tube preamp just makes things sound brittle to me, but that's one way to go about it.

Also I think nowadays bass tube amps use solid state rectifiers, but I once had a Sunn Sorado that just dripped butter with a GZ34 tube in lieu of the solid state rectifier it came with. If possible, definitely try this.

I plan on picking up one used in the classifieds. After expenses I have $200 "free" dollars a week, so maybe I should see if I can work out a payment plan:smug:
 
The old Electro-Harmonix "Mole" or "Hogs Foot" bass booster is a cool effect to fatten up your bass tone. It's an easy to build circuit, and makes a great first time project. Schematics are widely available on the web.
 
I'm gonna say that if rolling off your tone, cutting highs, cranking the low mids, and boosting the bass isn't doing it on this amp, throwing an effect in the mix probably isn't going to solve the problem either... save the cash for the new amp.