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Too smooth?

basso_profundo

basso_profundo

Mar 12, 2012
250
306
Denver, CO
#1
Hiya,

I have a P-Bass with flats that I play fingerstyle running through a Genz-Benz Contour 500 (2x10"), with the eq set pretty flat and no effects. It generally sounds absolutely amazing, except when I'm playing with a drummer. It sounds ok with a drummer, people really like it, but not great to my ears - I think a lot of the smooth round tone gets washed out by the drums. Recently I played with a pro drummer who had me crank the amp a lot higher than I usually do, which was for an outdoor gig, so no walls to bounce off, and I couldn't really get a gauge on the overall sound - but he *really* liked how it sounded with his kick drum anyway.

Last night during practice with the full band and PA in a small room, I had the amp set at my usual volume and noticed that I had to pluck really really hard to cut through. But when I turned the amp volume up, the bass was a bit boomy and too loud in the overall mix.

So I'm looking for any ideas or suggestions on tweaks I can try to dial in a good sound. Oh, and we're talking a alt-country/americana/blues-ish kind of band - basically drinking tunes.

tl;dr; How to get flat strings and a smooth amp to cut through the mix?

Thanks!
 
#2
EQ with a band is totally different to EQ for practice. The "more bass at higher volumes" thing is part of how the human ear hears bass (ie it takes more energy to make us hear that lower register). I have found that rolling back my bass knob (which also brings more mids in) actually helped a lot, in a similar genre. But I also used round wounds, as I found flats, while thumpy, did not have enough "grr" to hang with overdriven guitars.

That was my last project. This project, I am finding my thumpy flatwound strung fretless to fit perfectly under lightly strummed electrics and a pedal steel, and have moved the bass EQ from ~9 o'clock to ~11 o'clock.

There is no one answer, its just what works for that specific circumstance.
 
#3
In a small and loud rehearsal room, the clear bass tones you want are likely clouded by room nodes and extra bass from boundary effects. And your amp won't be the only culprit.

Do what you can to get everyone's low end under control in the rehearsal room, and don't expect those gear settings to work on the gig.
 
#4
basso_profundo said:
Hiya,

I have a P-Bass with flats that I play fingerstyle running through a Genz-Benz Contour 500 (2x10"), with the eq set pretty flat and no effects. It generally sounds absolutely amazing, except when I'm playing with a drummer. It sounds ok with a drummer, people really like it, but not great to my ears - I think a lot of the smooth round tone gets washed out by the drums. Recently I played with a pro drummer who had me crank the amp a lot higher than I usually do, which was for an outdoor gig, so no walls to bounce off, and I couldn't really get a gauge on the overall sound - but he *really* liked how it sounded with his kick drum anyway.

Last night during practice with the full band and PA in a small room, I had the amp set at my usual volume and noticed that I had to pluck really really hard to cut through. But when I turned the amp volume up, the bass was a bit boomy and too loud in the overall mix.

So I'm looking for any ideas or suggestions on tweaks I can try to dial in a good sound. Oh, and we're talking a alt-country/americana/blues-ish kind of band - basically drinking tunes.

tl;dr; How to get flat strings and a smooth amp to cut through the mix?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Turn up the volume, turn down the low end.
 
#5
Anecdotal but true, FWIW:

At a gig one time I blew up a pair of JBL passive 3 way PA cabs rated at 1000W with a Peavy CS-400 amp in stereo mode that was clipping the whole gig. The low freq drivers were OK but both crossovers, both midrange drivers, and one of the high freq drivers were toast. The potting material in both crossovers was melted and running out of them, and the inductors were open circuit. That was an expensive lesson.
 
#6
I used to like as amooth and clean a sound as possible, but like you I have experienced that it not really is heard well in the mix. Remove the bass and you will notice, but it does not stand out. I now often add just a tiny bit of overdrive, and a little more mids, to make the sound less "nice", and I think the bass is now heard better without having to turn up the volume. In some rooms you also have to control the boominess, by reducing low end or even better using a parametric equalizer to hunt down the problematic frequency.
 
#8
FretNoMore said:
I now often add just a tiny bit of overdrive, and a little more mids, to make the sound less "nice", and I think the bass is now heard better without having to turn up the volume.
Click to expand...
+1, a little bit of "grit" on the front of the notes seems to help the bass find a spot in the mix.
 

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