Volume question

[freeridden]

Hi all,

I used to have a Fender Deluxe jazz bass that I used with my mxr compressor. The bass usually made the compressor light up at about 12 O Clock. Now that I am using a new Ibanez bass, I almost have to turn the compressor up to 4oclock to even light up. Is this a pickup set-up problem, or is it a normal occurrence? When I bought my Ibanez it was brand new. The person at the shop set it up.

 

[groove pump]

Different instruments can easily have different levels of signal strength going out the cord to our gizmos or amp. Especially if you were routinely boosting a frequency with the Fender, that can make the output "hotter" than something else.

If your Ibanez is active, you may want to look under the hood and see if the preamp has a control (trim pot?) that can be adjusted to get stronger output. If your Ibanez is passive, it's output might just have a little less oomph than what's typical with many active basses. Hard to say though - some passive basses can be big and bold without needing no stinkin' battery

Not a big deal though. You can get a signal booster or maybe a preamp pedal if you think you need it. I'm not familiar with those boosters, but I've been reading about them both here and elsewhere a lot lately. If your pickups look like they're a mile away from your strings, you could try raising them a little bit to see what that gives you. Just be careful to not go too close or you might get that unnatural sort of choral resonance - or your strings might start "clicking" against them.

Oops - I'm also not familiar with your compressor. Forgot to ask if it's the threshold control that you need to crank?

 

[freeridden]

It's just an MXR. My new bass is an Ibanaez Premium Sound gear. Very expensive so that's why I was wondering.

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Hi all,

I used to have a Fender Deluxe jazz bass that I used with my mxr compressor. The bass usually made the compressor light up at about 12 O Clock. Now that I am using a new Ibanez bass, I almost have to turn the compressor up to 4oclock to even light up. Is this a pickup set-up problem, or is it a normal occurrence? When I bought my Ibanez it was brand new. The person at the shop set it up.

I have 8 different passive basses here. If I plug them one after another into the amp, each one is going to have a different volume. Different pickups have different outputs.

Another factor is strings. Strings have varying levels of magnetic materials. Different strings will have different interactions with the pickup.

A new bass means tweak all your effect controls. There's nothing unusual there.

 

[freeridden]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[bigjames]

I have the same issue switching between two premium basses; my Sadowsky NYC PJ is considerably "hotter" than my Fbass AC6. When I play in my usual venue, the techs often comment on the difference in output and I notice the required changes on my amp to create comparable volume. Some of this is likely perception as the Fbass is fretless so has less attack, but regardless, it is just something to expect between two basses. I use a passive DI with the Sadowsky and will be trying either an active DI or use a Radial BassBone (literally made to compensate for differences between two basses) as a DI to bring up the Fbass signal on the way to the board.