Keep it simple. Use the tools you already have in the toolbox you already have—the knobs on your bass and your amp. That will solve about 90% of the problem, and maybe 100% of it. All the other tools combined will solve the remaining 10%. Only once you’ve covered the 90% do you develop a budget for what you think will address the remaining 10%.
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You could try this jazz bass trick if you blend both pickups. Lower the bass side of the neck pickup and the treble side of the bridge pickup. Then your D and G strings send more signal through the neck pickup and less through the bridge.
This won't work if you prefer to solo your pickups, obviously.
This won't work if you prefer to solo your pickups, obviously.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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Well, both pickups on full scoops your sound. Accents the highs, and lowers your mids. Which makes you sound thin and over edgey on higher strings that don't get you as much low end. Knock back one pickup just a slight little bit. Just enough to cancel out the phasing. You'll have a much beefier tone.
I might give yourself some more mids on the amp. I generally put the mids up to 2:00 with my 350 or Micro VR. That 500 hz is a good frequency to add some fatness without getting tinny or boxy.
Love Broughton, but with a cab that only does 3k on the top end, an LPF really isn't necessary.
Agree with the ideas already offered above. Try to avoid the assumption that "this" will work or "that" won't work until you've tried it in a mix with the band.
High mids and low mids are tough to predict among all the different combinations of instruments, amps, and cabs. Since job #1 in the mix is actually making yourself heard (regardless of any specific tone), you may need to use a sound that seems more obnoxious to your ears than when you're playing alone.
Oh, and I like the idea of trying to play with the band while solo'ing your neck pickup. For much too long I was playing a passive Jazz with too much inherent mid-scoop when playing it with both pickups full open. I adored that sound by itself, but it couldn't cut through a mix too well like that, even if I turned way up. Eventually I started solo'ing the neck pickup and also picked up a nice passive P/J - both of those routes were much stronger for me in a mix.
When you're playing louder with the band, consider holding off on any eq'ing where you turn up your lows. Your lower notes already have some relative fatness, but bumping those when you're turned up could be making them too big where the higher notes can't compete. The higher notes don't have similar inherent lows, so your eq can't boost what isn't there and the imbalance might only be getting magnified by bumping your lows.
See if you get enough of the low fundamentals across the board just by turning up your volume and only reigning in some the zingy brighter frequencies you don't want by cutting them using either the preamp controls on your bass or the eq on your Ampeg.
This makes complete sense to me. I kept rolling the lows up higher but that only beefed up the notes that already sound great. The trick seem to be to get more lows by rolling the highs off and leaving the lows where they are. I’ll definitely try soloing the neck pick up. I don’t love that sound when playing alone, but as you said, it might work better when it’s surrounded by other instruments.
My Warwick Streamer Stage I has some baked-in brittleness that the onboard controls can’t quite overcome. I finally got it to sound all the way old-school with some amp controls. (Glockenklang Soul 5-band EQ got it thudding like a P-bass FWIW.)
On the technique side, I’ve been practicing a lot with my thumb plucking lately. Hopefully when the lockdown lifts I’ll have enough endurance & dexterity to use it for entire gigs if I want. IME the thumb can warm up even the raspiest of string responses.
On the technique side, I’ve been practicing a lot with my thumb plucking lately. Hopefully when the lockdown lifts I’ll have enough endurance & dexterity to use it for entire gigs if I want. IME the thumb can warm up even the raspiest of string responses.
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It's possible that your problem is not EQ-related. What gauge strings are you using? Heavier-gauge strings will definitely thicken up the higher notes. I think the G&L bass you have is one of the most tonally flexible basses you can buy, don't give up until you're sure it's not the right bass for you.
I’m currently using medium gauge GHS pressure wounds. I’m debating going back to my precision flats. I want to sound warm but I don’t want to be lost in the mix. The constant quest for most bass players lol.
I sometimes boost the mids a bit depending on the bass I'm using. My typical starting point is with the bass at 1 o'clock and the highs at 11 o'clock and mids set flat. Lowering the highs has a way of boosting the mids, but in a different way than just turning the knob. But for Old School R&B, I tend to lower both the highs and the mids. But as usual, depends on the song.
@DieTired I know they've been around forever, etc, etc but I honestly hate ampeg cabs. They sound way too one dimensional for me. But many people seem to love them.
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