Trying to get rid of a specific tone

[Leftybass12]

I have an Ibanez SR506 (a six string) and is running it through a Fender Rumble 100 watt practice amp. The EQ goes from -15 to +15.

The settings on the amp are Bass: 9 Low mid:9 High mid: 0 Treble:-2

The settings on the bass go from 0-10. The settings on the bass are Bass: +5 Mid: +2 Treble: +1

The pickups are bartolini.
I also just restrung it with D'Addarrio nickelwound strings.

When I play on the bass with all these settings the tone I hear makes it seem like an empty tone. This is especially hear on the B string. And as I go up the neck the tone just gets brighter and brighter. I like a semi-bright tone, but not too bright. What I like is a nice mid tone with a little bit of brightness to it, but also a good solid bass tone underneath it all. What can I do to fix this? Obviously I need to adjust my EQ, but to what?? Also, what strings should I use?

 

[standupright]

zero out everything and start from there.

 

[moles]

You're boosting far too much bass for a small practice amp. That coughing noise is your pre-amp/power amp/speaker overloading/farting out.

Try flattening everything out- both on the amp and the bass - and listening. It's easy to make the mistake that because you like lots of low end (or mids, or highs...), that you need to add at the eq controls. It's all there already.
So go back to listening flat. Slowly turn up the mid on the amp. Listen to what it does. Turn it back down to flat, and turn up the mid boost on your bass...is it the same? Is it different? How is it different....do you like one better than the other? Now try the same thing cutting both eq's one at a time...and then with the other freq's.
The simplest starting point IMO that I could suggest for what you're looking for is a slight boost in the highs on your bass, and a slight boost in the lows on your amp. Try that with a band and then move on from there.

 

[Leftybass12]

You're boosting far too much bass for a small practice amp. That coughing noise is your pre-amp/power amp/speaker overloading/farting out.

Try flattening everything out- both on the amp and the bass - and listening. It's easy to make the mistake that because you like lots of low end (or mids, or highs...), that you need to add at the eq controls. It's all there already.
So go back to listening flat. Slowly turn up the mid on the amp. Listen to what it does. Turn it back down to flat, and turn up the mid boost on your bass...is it the same? Is it different? How is it different....do you like one better than the other? Now try the same thing cutting both eq's one at a time...and then with the other freq's.
The simplest starting point IMO that I could suggest for what you're looking for is a slight boost in the highs on your bass, and a slight boost in the lows on your amp. Try that with a band and then move on from there.

This is excellent advice. Thank you. However, my amp is not "farting out" There is no big "fart" noise. I used a bad analogy. The tone sounds very empty is what I should have said. Thank you for that advice and providing the "steps" I should take.

 

[Leftybass12]

I have now edited this post.

 

[nutso42]

Balance the mids with each other (about 8), and turn the bass down lower than the mids.

 

[carlos840]

Without being an arse, can i say that your never going to get the most amazing tone from a fender rumble 100!
Also, iv never tried and SR506 but i used to have a TRB6 II and i found it really sterile sounding, especially with d addarrio strings!
Only thing that made it sound good was a fender bassman 10...
maybe you should try another brand of strings or another amp!

 

[EagleMoon]

That's one of the problems I had with the Ibanez SR basses. They sound really hollow. You really have to boost the mids to get a halfway decent tone out of them. The Bart pickups they come with are very scooped in the midde tones. My suggestion would be to put all your EQ on 0, boost the low mids and the high mids to about 1 or 2 and go from there.

 

[Leftybass12]

Without being an arse, can i say that your never going to get the most amazing tone from a fender rumble 100!
Also, iv never tried and SR506 but i used to have a TRB6 II and i found it really sterile sounding, especially with d addarrio strings!
Only thing that made it sound good was a fender bassman 10...
maybe you should try another brand of strings or another amp!

That is fine, I am going to be running it through either a Carvin bass cab or a Hartke cab, I forgot the model names though. And I'm going to be trying out new brands of strings....maybe some ernie ball or DR strings.

 

[gjones]

Strings make a big difference. I know what you mean by the 'hollow sound'. I never liked the sound of brand new Rotosound roundwounds until they get played in because of that exact characteristic. Ernie ball strings on the other hand don't seem to need that playing in period and don't have a 'hollow sound'. But I also agree with others on this thread that if changing strings doesn't work it's probably time to upgrade your amp.