I've been struggling with some component of my bass sound and not sure where in the chain the issue is. It could be the bass, the strings, the pickups, the amp, the cabinet, the venue...
It all sounds pretty good when I'm playing solo, but I think still the E-string is less present than the others.
I'm playing a Mike Lull P4 with flatwounds into an Eden WT550 head and either an Epifani 310 or an old Energy 115 (they were popular cabs in the early 90s in the grunge scene apparently).
Live, I just can't get my E string to produce any real noticeable tone. It's weird. All the other strings sound good. I can tweak the mids and get it to cut through, but when I play pretty much anything below the 5th fret on the E string it's just non existent. If I turn up the bass it either just gets muddy or clips the EQ on the amp. We've had a few gigs in a brewery/taproom with craptastic acoustics. It's basically a bunch of concrete, glass and steel.
I've really liked the Lindy Fralin vintage sounding spilt coil P-bass pickup. With flatwounds, it sits nicely in the mix, and is great for that vintage stuff, but there's not really much punch. I recently swapped in an active EMG pickup with active bass tone control. It also sounds great. A bit more present. But still totally lacked on that low-E string.
I'm realizing I've had this challenge in other situations with this rig too, so it may not just be a venue issue. I recently did some studio work with this bass, and running through a tube DI and a good sound engineer, the bass sounded fantastic!
I've adjusted pickup height and that hasn't really done much either.
I know I can experiment with different strings, I have other basses I can play to help identify if it's a bass thing or an amplification thing. I'll have to get started on the process of elimination, which will take some time...
I'm wondering if anyone has other thoughts?
It all sounds pretty good when I'm playing solo, but I think still the E-string is less present than the others.
I'm playing a Mike Lull P4 with flatwounds into an Eden WT550 head and either an Epifani 310 or an old Energy 115 (they were popular cabs in the early 90s in the grunge scene apparently).
Live, I just can't get my E string to produce any real noticeable tone. It's weird. All the other strings sound good. I can tweak the mids and get it to cut through, but when I play pretty much anything below the 5th fret on the E string it's just non existent. If I turn up the bass it either just gets muddy or clips the EQ on the amp. We've had a few gigs in a brewery/taproom with craptastic acoustics. It's basically a bunch of concrete, glass and steel.
I've really liked the Lindy Fralin vintage sounding spilt coil P-bass pickup. With flatwounds, it sits nicely in the mix, and is great for that vintage stuff, but there's not really much punch. I recently swapped in an active EMG pickup with active bass tone control. It also sounds great. A bit more present. But still totally lacked on that low-E string.
I'm realizing I've had this challenge in other situations with this rig too, so it may not just be a venue issue. I recently did some studio work with this bass, and running through a tube DI and a good sound engineer, the bass sounded fantastic!
I've adjusted pickup height and that hasn't really done much either.
I know I can experiment with different strings, I have other basses I can play to help identify if it's a bass thing or an amplification thing. I'll have to get started on the process of elimination, which will take some time...
I'm wondering if anyone has other thoughts?
