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Why does your bass sound like that?

blendermassacre

blendermassacre

May 28, 2009
4,242
371
kansas city, mo
#1
So at one of the venues we play at, the sound guy is a bassist in a bunch of cover bands. Apparently after our last gig there, and after I left, he was talking to our drummer about how my bass sounds. I use old dead flatwounds on my jack cassady bass, and get a dirty tone through my peavey TVX 412 and firebass head. Sort of Geezer meets Jack Bruce.

He suggested I boil my strings to get a better tone.

Anyone else get similar flack from sound guys about their tone? I know I'm not changing a damned thing on my bass. I love exactly how it sounds both live and in recording.
 
#9
I always get funny looks from sound guys when they here my band, and the bass actually being heard. They can't handle treble or grit coming from the bass usually. I guess I drive them crazy.

I'm sorry sir, we're a progressive/alternative styled band, not to mention a three piece....so I kind of have to fill up the room, and I like some punch, so please quit staring at me like I'm a martian or a guy from alabama with eleven toes and a missing tooth.

No disrespect to the sound man, they have lives too, and their job isn't exactly easy, but COME ON, for once, can they not stare every time I hit the E string?
 
#10
blendermassacre said:
DI. he's a good sound guy, I think the issue was that his sound is so different.
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i get that issue with soundmen who don't get what i'm trying to do from time to time. i just tell them i'm not trying to sound like marcus miller and don't mix me like i am (all respect to marcus but i have no desire to sound like him).
 
#11
Sometimes it's not the tone you need in the band mix, although it sounds great to you when playing alone. The tone you describe has never been an easy one to cope with in my experience. You can get lost easily. I don't think it's about your strings but the VT Bass is not good at cutting through the mix IMHO.
 
#12
It could also be that what you were hearing onstage didn't translate to FOH. The engineer's job is to consider your bass tone in the context of the entire mix as he hears it from the mix position.

And when an experienced, working bass player and engineer offers you advice, don't immediately take his comments as 'flack.' Thoughtfully consider them and thank him for the input whether you think it's useful or not. Or maybe start a dialog about how much you like your stage tone and ask what he's not hearing at the mix position. It could be a stage volume issue, or a DI vs Mic issue, a gain staging issue. And yes, it's very possible the engineer just has a personal preference for tone that's radically different from yours. The point is that the guy responsible for how the audience hears your band offered a suggestion for improvement. Most in-house engineers won't bother.

All that to say people skills win the day over threads on TB. Who knows, this guy could end up being a resource that leads to more gigs.

Cheers.
 
#14
old-fashioned said:
Sometimes it's not the tone you need in the band mix, although it sounds great to you when playing alone. The tone you describe has never been an easy one to cope with in my experience. You can get lost easily. I don't think it's about your strings but the VT Bass is not good at cutting through the mix IMHO.
Click to expand...
sure it is. i use one all the time and it's wonderful. and that type of tone isn't any harder to get sounding right in a mix than any other. it's all about slotting frequencies and finding the right range to fill.
 
#15
i actually get the opposite...our soundguy is always giving me the fish-eye when we play...I have a very mid punch sort of tone and can be heard and he wants me to be big and round and felt. I am switching to flats on my G&L for a while to see how that works in the mix with this band.
 
#16
testing1two said:
It could also be that what you were hearing onstage didn't translate to FOH. The engineer's job is to consider your bass tone in the context of the entire mix as he hears it from the mix position.

And when an experienced, working bass player and engineer offers you advice, don't immediately take his comments as 'flack.' Thoughtfully consider them and thank him for the input whether you think it's useful or not. Or maybe start a dialog about how much you like your stage tone and ask what he's not hearing at the mix position. It could be a stage volume issue, or a DI vs Mic issue, a gain staging issue. And yes, it's very possible the engineer just has a personal preference for tone that's radically different from yours. The point is that the guy responsible for how the audience hears your band offered a suggestion for improvement. Most in-house engineers won't bother.

All that to say people skills win the day over threads on TB. Who knows, this guy could end up being a resource that leads to more gigs.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I didn't get a chance to talk to him. This was all relayed to me via my drummer. I'm not saying it was bad per se, but just interesting.
 
#17
old-fashioned said:
Sometimes it's not the tone you need in the band mix, although it sounds great to you when playing alone. The tone you describe has never been an easy one to cope with in my experience. You can get lost easily. I don't think it's about your strings but the VT Bass is not good at cutting through the mix IMHO.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to disagree. Why on earth would the SVT be the backline of choice if it didn't cut through.

I'm with Jimmy on this one. I've spent a lot of time and money figuring out the tone I want to work with my band. I think he was just confused by the tone more than bitching about it. Hopefully in the future he'll know what I'm looking for and make the sound even better than it was.
 
#18
JimmyM said:
sure it is. i use one all the time and it's wonderful. and that type of tone isn't any harder to get sounding right in a mix than any other. it's all about slotting frequencies and finding the right range to fill.
Click to expand...

I've gotten nothing but compliments on my sound with a VT Bass. I guess it's only as good as the guy turning the knobs on it though.....

The problem using old flats (which I've done for many years) is that they don't produce as wide a frequency range as new rounds. Since it's a whole lot easier to get a good FOH mix by subtracting frequencies than trying to add what isn't there of course soundmen are gonna have a hard time especially if their rig is deficient in any way....and most PA rigs are when it comes to being able to dedicate a graph or parametric EQ to the bass.

I've never looked at my bass amp as my bass amp. Because it's what the audience hears he PA is my real bass amp. Sometimes you have to compromise your stage sound to get your sound to the audience. I'm not saying put on steel roundwounds. I'm saying when you play through a PA all the time and money you spent on the sound outta yer bass rig can be very far removed from what is possible for the PA to get to the audience....sometimes you gotta let go of certain ideas you've held dear. No easy or universal solutions but it's something you need to seriously consider if you give a sh!t what the audience hears.
 

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