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where are your volumes?

#21
wideyes said:
So the general consensus seems to be gain for tone, master for volume...

Can anyone speak to the effect of volume on the bass to their tone? Do you find lower volume on the bass leads to darker tone, etc?

Anyone have any little volume "tricks" they'd like to share that help them get the tone they want?
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I tend to get a great low end response from my bass' volumes being low. Sounds a lot more free and flat/even to me, especially considering that I play rotosound tapes.

When I set my bridge pickup as the main element of my sound and use my neck pickup to roll in low end, I get everything that I need from my bass.

My one complaint is that when I start cranking my volume I also love THAT tone and it is then really loud.

I go between quiet bass, boosted signal path and full-on bass, clean signal path.

If you're looking for 'tricks' then play around with your volume pots' friction point (the place just quieter than the volume jump at the end of the pot's travel).

This is where I tend to set my volume to get a good middle of the road volume/tone so I have added growl if I need it and a bigger bottom from the get go.

Wish I could have it all without having to manage my gain structure, but I'm too poor to install an Audere preamp just yet. Wish they'd make an outboard Preamp/DI.
 
#23
on all jazz basses, active or passive:

both pickups all the way up, then back off the bridge pickup just a hair. maybe going from "10" to "9." on bridge pickups backing off the volume a bit gives you more punch, and deeper low end. all the way up is a bit more nasal and mid rangey.

on amps-

turn the gain up untill your hardest playing clips the amp. either leave it there or back it off a hair, depending on weather you can hear the clipping or not. then adjust master as needed... my master on my LMII is never far past 10 oclock, even in big club gigs.
 
#28
newbold said:
For a jam night with various volume levels and styles of music, a varied gain structure will cover all the bases tonally.

...For all the tones to come from one amp and bass setting is a bit of a dream.
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Heh, tell me about it. There's the two approaches: the Victor Wooten approach (I've never seen him mess about with his knobs. It really is all in the fingers!) and then the Jimmy Page approach (multiple knob tweaks per note/chord).

I have to confess to being a set/forget kind of guy. I know there's a whole universe out there, but 99% of the gigs and practices I've been in I'll just find what's most usable in the room and band setting and then just try to match my playing style to the vibe. IMHO, once you dial in a good tone for the venue, it's not going to get any better unless tweaking is really part of your artistic expression. There's much distraction to be had in knobs, probably the reason I've never purchased an active :D
 
#29
P-bass: volume all the way up
J-bass: neck all the way up, bridge 1/2

I play all basses with the passive tone rolled back a bit. I don't know how far it is on the dial because I turn it 'till it sounds right.

SVT-CL gain at 12 o'clock, master between 9 and 10.

That pretty much does it for every room I play. The difference between the master at 9 and the master at 10 is a pretty massive range, so that gives me plenty of adjustment from relatively quiet at 9 to "getting kinda loud" at 10.
 
#30
I generally play on the bridge pickup of my bass, volume and tone all the way up all the time. Neck pickup I switch to for quieter bits because I've got its volume backed off a bit.

My amp doesn't really have a gain/master setup in the traditional sense. If I'm going for clean, I peg the master at 10 and adjust volume with the "Volume 2" knob. If I'm going for distorted, I adjust the "Volume 2" knob for how grindy I want it to be (usually about 5) and then adjust the master knob from 0-9 for loudness.
 
#31
Hey Wideyes - I hear that. I find myself playing too wide a range of songs with the people I play with at once (just songs a lot of the time, no set focus or 'sound') to be able to just set and forget.

I look forward to getting to the point where I can just have one amp/bass gain structure again, but I'm in no rush about it.

Glad to get what I want out of my rig, but without an audere in my bass it's pretty tricky.

I really like to roll in volume/pickup response to change my tone/feel but in time I'll probably just go to a blend control and tonestyler to save the hassles (fortunate that's my hassle) I get with my setup.
 
#32
Bassman18 said:
Depends what bass i'm playing.

I usually have my passive P all up, Jazz i tweak between bridge and neck P/Ups and my active basses i lay back a bit on the volume using the blend knobs to do most the tonal work. After all, thats what they are for.
I usally only play no louder then 2 on my Hartke HA3500. :|
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Depends on which bass and which amp I'm using. Typically run the volume knob on my P-basses at about 90%. I like the tone better with it rolled a little back from full on. One of my amps is a Hartke 3500 and run the tube pre at about 6 and the SS pre at about 3. At those settings, I don't run the master volume past 2 or 3. I continue to be amazed how much "loudness" this amp cranks out at 350 watts through a 4 ohm 2x15.

On my Carvin B800, I run the Drive (gain) at about 5 and control the volume from there. Since I'm running it at 2 ohms, I don't need much master volume on that one either. Turning up the gain gives it some "grit". I don't use distortion or overdrive type pedals.
 
#33
As far as on the bass itself, pretty much volume on at least one pickup, passive or active. On the amp my pedal is wired into the FX loop and part of my pedal programming is a compressor. Conventionally a compressor is something better to have before the input. However being an all in one pedal setup there are compromises one must make.

Anyway, for softer gigs it doesn't matter much, I generally set the master to about 12 o'clock and then the pre gain barely scratches up to 9 o'clock. However for my more regular LOUD gig. The master gets set between 1 and 3 o'clock which is round abouts where the hardest I could hit the compressor will just barely send me into the DDT circuit on the head.

I then use the gain to add more punch, however being the compressor happens after the gain what it in effect does is more flatten my dynamics.

Not exactly the most conventional setup but I have found for me it seems to work. The gain up brings the bass more into your face, and in that situation technique volume can very so squashing the bass sound to the high side works well enough.

Of course I have been back and forth with finding the sweet spot with my setup and have had on and off GAS about some rig changes.

Ken
 

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