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Where to EQ

Journey55

Journey55

Jun 10, 2011
934
196
Orlando, Florida
#1
Forgive me if this is the wrong place...
Anyways, today in my schools jazz band I was playing bass and the conductor said it was too bassy so I just adjust the tone with the knob on my bass. It was then she said that a good jazz bassist (she said his name and a few of the other people in the class recognized it but all I remember is it started with an I) had said to just leave everything on the bass on full and EQ from the amp, to which there was a resounding support from the other bassist and the guitarist...this was kind of surprising because I usually leave the amp EQ flat and just adjust the tone knob and my hand position/whether or not to use my thumb etc. Is it really more common to use the amp EQ?
 
#2
Under those circumstances it's just better to nod your head in agreement and do exactly what is right for you.

I saw in an interview with Clapton once where he said that if he sees a guitarist that is constantly fiddling with the controls on his amp he's already lost the tone war.
 
#3
Electronic wise, for a passive bass, I find the teachers' suggestion to be very helpful. The tone knob on a passive bass just cuts, so best leave it full on and adjust the amp EQ. Then you have a decent 'base-line' (hee hee) sound for the bass, and can use the hands, fingers, tone knob to shape the sound based on music circumstance.

for example, in your case, the bass sounded too bassy, but your tone knob only cuts down the highs. So how will it adjusting it help? If you had it down, you could put it back full, but that just restores some highs, not lowers bass. It's not quite the same...

==

for active basses, however, usually there is an indent in the middle where the natural sound for the instrument is. Then the knobs can either cut or boost. But adjust the amp, with the knobs in the middle and then go from there. It's a good starting point.
 
#5
My bass doesn't even have a tone knob. At times I'll use an old sadowsky outboard preamp which has only two bands, but both of them just boost. No cut. Needless to say, I eq on the amp.
 

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