*updated w/ pics* church worship, muddy tone, some complaints bass is too loud @ volume < 4

Well, the problem most likely lays in the hands of the sound guy. The main problem with my church (as a whole) is that there is no one that knows what they're doing in the sound room. It never sounds good, never mixed right, and a couple people are always overbearingly loud. It completely changes every week too. I'm really thinking about quitting playing bass, and just running sound for them instead.

 

First things first... (before string experiments)
Try sending the dry signal from the bass >> DI box >> house board, then run a 1/4" parallel from the DI box into the front of your amp. That way the FOH tech can EQ your bass for the house, while you can EQ your amp for the stage separately.

 

With the XLR out, it's your settings most likely. Try putting it on post, or flipping the ground switch. For some reason my amps have always hummed crazy when on pre. Completely silent on post.

 

If moving the amp makes it better and your in a small or acoustically inferior room leads me to believe you're fighting the FOH which could be caused by your stage volume and/or the resonance of the room or stage.
I would find a place on stage where your amp acts as a decent monitor for the band and take the time to let the FOH eq you to the room.
I would also go bass - D.I. - out to FOH - thru to amp.

 

Sending the FOH a dry direct signal of your bass gives them the best chance to find its spot in the overall mix. What sounds good through a small 2x10 enclosure rarely works with a full range system.
Regardless of whether the send on your amp is wet or dry use the out of the D.I. - it's why it's there.

 

No. The fx loop send comes after the preamp section of the amp so the signal is already processed before being sent to the main board. That's part of the problem; the FOH tech is trying to EQ your bass after it's already been EQ'd by the amp.

 

We use IEMs at our church. A Noble DI has really helped at one campus, though the tech crew are volunteers and at the other campus there is a bit to be desired. I’m going to take my LMIII and one NY604 cab to do something to ad tone on the platform that I can control. So, it will be like bass >>>>dual output direct box >>>>> xlr out to board and output #2 to my little kickback amp turned down just enough to move some air (which I first got the ok from the WL to try). It’s a delicate balance keeping the worship team, sound techs, congregation, and yourself appeased. Being a worship bass player musician (in many ways) is a tough gig that takes a special person and much trial and error.

 

Room acoustics can be a big part of the problem, and pretty hard to eliminate.
A few things that have helped me are:
- get your amp up off the ground with a stand or box. This minimizes the floor boundary effect.
- avoid placing the amp in the corner, and get it away from the wall if you can. The problem with these places is the reflections add up and create bass peaks and nulls throughout the room.
- turn down the lows on your eq a touch, or lower your overall volume a bit and raise your mids to hear yourself.

The advice about going through the DI before the amp gives you a good place to start too.

 

since you kinda solved your problem by moving away from the wall ... try to fix that issue of the nearby space adding more bass ..!!

decouple the cab from the floor ... foam , tilt it back , put it up on something ...
maybe acoustic foam wedge behind the amp , or a piece of foam behind the amp ..

i always install humbucker ( split coil ) pups in my Jazz(s) ... then i can roll off the neck pup a bit with no single coil noise ..! or lower the neck pickup a bit , a little lower on the bass side & raise bridge pup a bit ...

turn Bass down on amp a tiny bit , keep treble down on bass ( clank )

i prefer play closer to the bridge ( less boomy )

use a high pass filter ... or high/low pass filter = no boom , no clank

 

You need to sculpt the signal with a high pass.. To control the bass..

 

I was having similar issues like yours a few years ago when I first started playing bass for our worship team. After I was able to convince the keyboardist to lay off the low left hand and getting a Gramma isolation pad it got better, but certain notes would bloom wildly no matter what we tried, hollow space under the platform. This was along with a DI and minimal stage volume. I eventually ended up with a pedal board that has a Korg Pitchblack pedal tuner, either a Tech21 BDDI/VTDI or my current is a Dug Pinnick DP3 preamp. Then into Zoom CDR 70 for effects as needed, followed by a Broughton LowPass/High Pass pedal, TC Electronic Sentry Noise Gate. And last a Radial JDI direct box. My bass is fed into the stage monitors for the team and myself. The Dug pedal is capable of much more than the Dug tone, I prefer it over my other Tech21 preamps. The most significant improvement, to where I no longer have issues no matter which volunteer is running sound, has been since I added the Broughton HP/LP pedal. No more blooming notes once I found the high pass cutoff frequency for our room, and the low pass is used to get rid of hiss and the annoying highs above 4k. I didn't want to give up my amplifier, but was very pleased after discovering that it was for the better. I get the important midrange from the stage monitors, and the omni directional lows I hear from the mains. I added the noise gate due to the sound persons forgetting to unmute my bass after whatever speaking or announcements are done between songs. This is what worked for me, and may work for you. Being part of an all volunteer worship ministry is quite the adventure. I have a couple of Fdeck HP3 high pass units I no longer use. DM me and I will send you one of them.

 

You can always try compression say like at rehearsals, what kinda size room are you playing in? As a matter of interest, Best Regards Steph

 

I forgot about compression since the Dug pedal has a compressor in it. So, @Steph Jackson brought up a valid point with compression. I believe with the compression and filtering my headaches were alleviated. There have been several excellent suggestions presented for you to consider and try. It may take a while with much experimentation, but you will eventually get to where you are satisfied with your tone. After six years of worship team service I realized you can't make everyone in the congregation happy. Besides you are not playing to the people, you are playing to the Father.
Do well in all of your endeavours.

 

'Bass is too loud'

What?!?

'Bass is too loud'

What?!?

'Bass is too loud'

What?!?

'Bass is too loud'

What?!?

. . . . . always worked for me . . . . .​

 

My experience has been the exact opposite. I recommend setting the DI to pre, so when you fiddle with your EQ it doesn't undo all the progress your incompetent audio tech has made .

 

I’m an incompetent audio tech and I approve this message.

 

IME, that's really not a good reason to give up trying to eq your rig to fit the room.

Another option is to put your rig in front of you (on its side and tilted back) so it becomes your monitor and does not fight with the FOH.

And, once you sound check, leave your controls alone.