Where do you begin to craft a sound, even a basic sound?

[Bassic_desires]

Likely a beginner question, but it's been bugging me for a few months. As per the heading - Where do you begin to craft a sound, even a basic sound?

The point I am making is that a bass guitar has controls that affect a sound, be it something as simple as tone controls or controls for L-M-H frequencies.

Bassists might then usually feed the bass guitar signal into one or more pedals, many of which also have controls for L-M-H frequencies (putting aside any other functions of the pedals).

Then, the pedals feed into an amp, which, you guessed it, also has controls for L-M-H frequencies.

So, my question, as a beginner, relates to where you start when you want to craft a sound, even a basic sound related to changes to L-M-H frequencies: Do you start at the bass guitar, at the pedals, at the amp, or is it some sort of iterate process? How do you do it? Why do you do it your way?

Thank you for you help

 

[C Stone]

If you are a begginer I wouldn't worry too much about finding your "tone" yet...Get comfortable with just playing your bass. I would suggest listening to some recordings that you like the bass sound/tone on. As far as eq you might just leave the amp pretty flat 12-12-12 or maybe 12-2-12 (slight mid boost) then just adjust the tone knob on the bass and play around. There are sooo many factors as you eluded too even with just picking the right strings.

It's a journey so...enjoy!

 

[JRA]

Do you start at the bass guitar, at the pedals, at the amp, or is it some sort of iterate process?

yep, lots of 'redundancy'. but C Stone covered it for you.

How do you do it? Why do you do it your way?

everyone can do it a little bit differently to suit themselves. i like to have my 'basics' covered by my amp and then tweak with the instrument controls. i don't use a lot of pedals, so for me: they're 'in the middle' of the signal chain and i tweak them to taste for that effect when i have the effect engaged.

if there was only one best/correct method = we'd all do the same thing the same way...we don't! we play with the knobs until we find something we like (and that is usable, say, in a band, or on a gig). good luck with your sound!

 

[JimmyM]

Hands first, always. Then I plug in and turn on the amp and try to match the sounds I hear in my head with the controls. By now I've got it down pretty well and don't have to think about it much. But there is a learning curve, and what works at home doesn't necessarily work for a band.

 

[dwizum]

If you're looking for a step by step thought process, here's what I do when starting from scratch. I set everything on the bass and amp to the dead center position (for active basses at least - for passive, tone on full). Then I tweak the amp if needed to get a baseline that I like. The amp doesn't get touched after that. I use the controls on the bass to adjust on the fly as needed, i.e. tweaks between songs for different styles, or tweaks to "correct" to other changes on the instrument (i.e. if you switch from the neck to the bridge you might adjust the EQ slightly at the same time to compensate for the neck pickup's weaknesses).

That's about it. Pedals do add some complexity, though. Especially effects like distortion, where it can make a big difference if you apply EQ before or after. But in those cases you just have to experiment. No real step by step thought process.

 

[Wissen]

I started playing as a teenager, and through my teens and 20s I didn't have any expendable income. My bass gear list was: Bass, whatever amp I could afford and was in working condition, and two guitar cables. First a cheap Jackson, then a cheap Yamaha, and finally an American Fender Jazz into a Carvin rig - that was my sound for fifteen years. I never once lost a gig because someone found my tone lacking. And I played every style of music.

My tone is in my hands, as is everyone else's. @JimmyM has wisdom for days. Your tone is in your hands. I will sound like me no matter what gear I play. You will sound like you, even if you came to my house and played my gear.

I will never own a $1400 rig, because I'll always have better things to spend that $1400, should I ever be able to scrape it together. So the amp and cab will never be a part of my sound. I only recently got into pedals because I started playing amplified acoustic instruments and I needed to learn a lot about preamps and EQ in a relatively short amount of time.

Naturally I applied all that new knowledge to bass pedals, and I just finalized my bass board (for now). I picked up a Sadowsky SBP-2 and fell in love with it, so now that is part of my sound. I didn't know what was possible until I had it, but I don't feel like I was missing out or anything.

Now that I DO have the resources to make decisions about my sound, I have decided that all of those decisions will take place on my pedalboard, because I am lazy. If I can use someone else's amp at a gig, I'm happy to not haul mine. It's not even heavy! I'm just seriously that lazy.

So to sum it up: tone is in your hands, but beyond that your decisions are resource-dependent. Use the resources you have at your disposal until you identify a limitation, and then figure out what gear will help you address that limitation.

Theory-wise? Every EQ control - bass on-board controls, pedals, the knobs on your amp - imparts its own character. If they all sounded the same, they wouldn't exist. So that's my big decision: Do I like the sound that thing makes? For my Sadowsky pedal it's a yes. For my passive jazz bass it's a "sometimes". For my Carvin amp its a "nope, but it makes my finger sounds louder." So given the resources at my disposal, I'm content. For now.