Your preferred way to toneshape?

[Omiloh]

Greetings all,

My first post here on TalkBass! Relatively new to the bass world and picked up an Ibanez SR305e a couple of months ago, along with a TC BG250 Combo amp I just got this past weekend.

The combo amp has TonePrint capabilities, but I have been having some very mixed experiences with them so far. The compression is decent enough though.

Looking at various DIs, specifically the Sansamp BDDI and the Ampeg SCR DI. My line of thinking is that if I can't get the TonePrint to work as I want, I'll just pull the trigger on one of those preamps when I find a good deal. Do all my tone shaping via that, so that I have a consistent sound no matter what actual amp I use. (I am planning on upgrading to an amp/cab at some point.)

Now my question....how do you folks go about EQ'ing with one of these swiss army knives? I figure the tone is going through three layers... the bass itself, the pedal, and then the amp's EQ.

I've read and watched a lot of different takes on this, and opinions seem to be very varied. Some people say they try to only dial in the EQ on the bass itself and flatten the amp.

Figured I would ask how experienced folks go about tackling this =)

 

[BLDavis]

First, welcome to TB. You'll probably get various ideas on tone shaping here so let's start by finding out what your goals are. Are you looking for live or recording sound? What style of music will you be playing? Slap, fingers or pick? Answering these first may help narrow down the variables.

As for me, in a live set and no matter what style music I'm doing that night, I start with all eq's set flat or as close as they can be with the controls at 12:00. A little tweak in the hi and low mids is usually all I need to find my happy place. If I have time during sound check, I'll walk around the stage and try to find a tone that works overall in different areas on the stage. The main thing I go for is a tone I'm comfortable with, a tone the sound crew can work with and most importantly, so I can hear myself. It may not be the "best" tone, but it's the one that works in that room on that night with that sound crew.

The last time I was in a studio the only thing digital was a clock on the wall, so I can't offer any advise there. But if I recall correctly, unless your name is going on the album cover, you're tone is at the mercy of the engineer/producer/artist anyway.

Good luck in your quest, B.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

My experience with the BG toneprint is that they're fine if the style of music I'm playing slides in with them, but so far they haven't.

I use a Zoom B3. I generally keep the BG EQ flat to start. I use my last slot on the B3 for an amp sim that gives me the profile and growl I want, I use the first slot to shape the bass tone with a 2 band eq (if the bass requires it), and then I use the BG EQ to shape at the venue if something seems funky (in the bad way).

This is for a Blondie tribute, I might do it differently if I was needing a more diverse tonal palette.

 

[Robertron]

I EQ with the my basses and with pedals and leave it at that.
If I'm unfamiliar with the amp I'll subtract EQ by ear according to the situation or leave the amp flat.
I adjust my bass EQ depending on whether I'm plucking, picking, or tapping. It too is usually set flat and I just roll between pickups. With my active bass I'll adjust my mids depending on what type of grit/growl response I want from my MBD-1 and other dirt.
My tone sculpting is mostly in my pedals. Some compression/boosting/evening with my comp. Some post dirt EQing/filtering per preset within my Aftershock.

I have a lot of points in my signal where I can EQ so I choose to keep most things flat most of the time and make small adjustments by ear, minus the Aftershock presets because the EQ in those presets is shaping that particular drive engine.
Too much EQing can get out of control quickly, I've learned, and it's easier to make meaningful adjustments when youre working with fewer tone shaping points.

 

[Kro]

Now my question....how do you folks go about EQ'ing with one of these swiss army knives? I figure the tone is going through three layers... the bass itself, the pedal, and then the amp's EQ.

I've read and watched a lot of different takes on this, and opinions seem to be very varied. Some people say they try to only dial in the EQ on the bass itself and flatten the amp.

I'm in the amp flat camp. I like my SansAmp to be in the driver's seat, and know how to set my amp to get it completely flat (not knobs at noon).

You can also just run the SansAmp into the FX return, but going into the input let's you keep your amp's EQ in the chain for stage monitoring adjustments if necessary: bass and SansAmp tone to FOH, and amp and cab for the stage.

I'm using a Precision primarily now, so I typically leave it wide open, but with my StingRay I usually just left the EQ centered, and again, let the SansAmp do the heavy tone lifting.

 

[Cave Puppy]

(40 years of playing here) Start SIMPLE - Bass into amp or headphones. Set all tone knobs on the bass and amp/headphones to flat, meaning no boost or cut of any bass or treble or mid frequencies. Start playing. Use your fingers, hands, fretting and plucking positions to find a tone. Trust me - WHERE you play on a bass has a big effect on the tone. Once you have a tone you can work with, THEN start messing with tone knobs. I rarely boost or cut and mostly run my amp flat, using tone knobs to EQ the what is happening in the room, how it sounds with other instruments, etc. I almost always cut treble, though. I can't stand the harsh, clacky sound. If you do find yourself knob twiddling, start with MID frequencies. MIDS can make or break a person's tone. And, lastly - a little goes a long way when it comes to EQ/Tone shaping.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I'm a tone chameleon. I love the way my basses and rig sound when run flat (that's why I own them) but I also love to add 'zazz' depending on the band I'm playing with, the styles of music I'm playing.

For rock I usually go for aggressive clanky/sizzly dirt tones -- I get those tones from overdrive pedals (Darkglass, Tech21, a bunch of others), and for harder rock I enjoy stacking multiple distortion pedals together for more complex tones.

For classic/traditional pop/blues/R&B/country/etc, I'll do milder overdrive, or just a compressor for tubey phatness. Changing the bass makes a huge difference, of course: for stuff like oldies or trad country I'll go P-bass strung with flats.

Sometimes I use no pedals, adding gentle overdrive/warmth from the tube preamp in my Reiner hybrid amp. I use the amp EQ to adjust for room acoustics first, but also to change up my tone: warmer for traditional bass tones, brighter for modern ones.

Just threw that in for reference... my usage may not be useful to you.



P.S. It's a great time to be a bass player: so many different tone-shaping options to choose from. Of course that's a double-edged sword because more options often leads to more indecision. Good luck.

 

[lz4005]

Now my question....how do you folks go about EQ'ing with one of these swiss army knives? I figure the tone is going through three layers... the bass itself, the pedal, and then the amp's EQ.

Onboard EQ is for fine tuning from one song to the next, or within a song. Pedals for instant on/off sudden changes, or for sending an always-on signal to the PA. Amp EQ is reserved for compensating for room acoustics in different venues.

 

[Kro]

Onboard EQ is for fine tuning from one song to the next, or within a song. Pedals for instant on/off sudden changes, or for sending an always-on signal to the PA. Amp EQ is reserved for compensating for room acoustics in different venues.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

[Robertron]

Onboard EQ is for fine tuning from one song to the next, or within a song. Pedals for instant on/off sudden changes, or for sending an always-on signal to the PA. Amp EQ is reserved for compensating for room acoustics in different venues.

The eloquent way to say what many of us will agree with and use too many words to describe.

 

[Omiloh]

Wow, lots of great feedback here, such a great community. Absolutely appreciated everyone, thank you!

For the most part, I am looking at finger picking. Would love to learn some slap, but I figure that is further down the road at some point when the time/need arises. My bass adventures snuck up on me unexpectedly, trying to learn as quickly as possible to help others out in their band. Trial by fire sort of situation. Not a bad thing, I'm loving every second of it!

Onboard EQ is for fine tuning from one song to the next, or within a song. Pedals for instant on/off sudden changes, or for sending an always-on signal to the PA. Amp EQ is reserved for compensating for room acoustics in different venues.

I really like how you explained this - I will use it as my rule of thumb going forward. =)

 

[lz4005]

I really like how you explained this - I will use it as my rule of thumb going forward. =)

It definitely isn't the only way to do it, but it works well in most situations.

 

[Aloe]

my choice of weapon is a 4-band EQ.
BG250 has a 3-band one, I've faced a condition when I didn't have enough control for mids in some rooms, but generally it's okay.

if you don't like how the amp sounds and you think you want to plug a preamp in it, ditch the combo. return it and take the one that you like how sounds with your bass.

this said, I often run a TC SpectraDrive preamp into BG250-115. main reason? well, I like compressor on the preamp better and I can make the clean tone to be louder. BG250 is a decent amp, but has some specific sounding, either you like it or not.

 

[MCS4]

Greetings all,
Looking at various DIs, specifically the Sansamp BDDI and the Ampeg SCR DI. My line of thinking is that if I can't get the TonePrint to work as I want, I'll just pull the trigger on one of those preamps when I find a good deal. Do all my tone shaping via that, so that I have a consistent sound no matter what actual amp I use. (I am planning on upgrading to an amp/cab at some point.)

Just as a point of clarification, a DI is mainly going to give you a consistent live sound if you are playing gigs where the PA is providing most of the volume for your bass and therefore the amp onstage is only for your own personal reference, so you are talking about being able to rely upon one specific DI going into the PA as establishing your basic tone for any gig.

If you instead meant that your plan was to use the DI in front of an amp for purposes of tone-shaping in that amp, it probably is not going to give you consistency in the way you might be thinking of, because your tone is still likely to be highly colored by differences between individual amps and caps. In this context a DI is mainly only going to be useful for purposes of consistency in your basic tone if it has tone-shaping options or a distinctive baked-in sound that you like and want to make sure is always there (for example, an ability to emphasize or de-emphasize some specific frequency beyond what is available on your bass, a specific flavor of distortion, etc.). That isn't to say that it wouldn't be useful (lots of folks like additional EQ options, whether from a DI, EQ pedal, drive pedal, etc.), but it wouldn't really give you the "same sound" across multiple amps.

 

[micguy]

Tone shaping is done, in my rig, on the bass, and on a pedalboard (I'm ampless). I have some baked in tone done on the pedalboard - that's a bit of eq (not much, but it does make a difference) that I never turn off. I also have an overdrive, which is as much about eq as it is about overdrive - that's a second sound I engage on top of the eq in my eq/DI box for certain songs. All the other changes in tone I do on the bass, or with finger positioning, technique, etc. In a live setting, you don't want to have to turn knobs on the floor - besides being inconvenient, it detracts from the performance if you're leaning over or kneeling to turn knobs.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Greetings all,

My first post here on TalkBass! Relatively new to the bass world and picked up an Ibanez SR305e a couple of months ago, along with a TC BG250 Combo amp I just got this past weekend.

The combo amp has TonePrint capabilities, but I have been having some very mixed experiences with them so far. The compression is decent enough though.

Looking at various DIs, specifically the Sansamp BDDI and the Ampeg SCR DI. My line of thinking is that if I can't get the TonePrint to work as I want, I'll just pull the trigger on one of those preamps when I find a good deal. Do all my tone shaping via that, so that I have a consistent sound no matter what actual amp I use. (I am planning on upgrading to an amp/cab at some point.)

Now my question....how do you folks go about EQ'ing with one of these swiss army knives? I figure the tone is going through three layers... the bass itself, the pedal, and then the amp's EQ.

I've read and watched a lot of different takes on this, and opinions seem to be very varied. Some people say they try to only dial in the EQ on the bass itself and flatten the amp.

Figured I would ask how experienced folks go about tackling this =)

Tone at half, bass either flat or up a notch, mids even with that or down a notch, treble 9 o'clockish on amp dials. Nothing else involved.

 

[Kro]

but it wouldn't really give you the "same sound" across multiple amps.

Not 100%, but if you're presented with a less than fantastic backline situation, it can be better than nothing - especially if the amp/combo in question has an FX loop. or "power amp in" option.

 

[IamGroot]

Start with a flat amp. Adjust to where your fingers are comfortable. Add Sansamp for stomp options.
Elapsed time: < 1 minute.

 

[40Hz]

These days I’m doing most of my tone shaping by using various outboard preamps and going into either a power amp or the effects return on my bass amp with them. Otherwise I just use my bass amp as is.

 

[gregmon79]

Greetings all,

My first post here on TalkBass! Relatively new to the bass world and picked up an Ibanez SR305e a couple of months ago, along with a TC BG250 Combo amp I just got this past weekend.

The combo amp has TonePrint capabilities, but I have been having some very mixed experiences with them so far. The compression is decent enough though.

Looking at various DIs, specifically the Sansamp BDDI and the Ampeg SCR DI. My line of thinking is that if I can't get the TonePrint to work as I want, I'll just pull the trigger on one of those preamps when I find a good deal. Do all my tone shaping via that, so that I have a consistent sound no matter what actual amp I use. (I am planning on upgrading to an amp/cab at some point.)

Now my question....how do you folks go about EQ'ing with one of these swiss army knives? I figure the tone is going through three layers... the bass itself, the pedal, and then the amp's EQ.

I've read and watched a lot of different takes on this, and opinions seem to be very varied. Some people say they try to only dial in the EQ on the bass itself and flatten the amp.

Figured I would ask how experienced folks go about tackling this =)

The best answer to this question, which won't help you all that much, is experience. You're going to have to just try different things till you're happy with your tone. We've all chased tones based on demos, peoples opinions, feedback, statements made on social media and forums, hype...when it comes down to it, it's all about your own ear and taste. I've tried quite a lot of things for preamps and tone shaping and I finally pretty much settled on my current setup. But it took many a pedals and time. For me it was a few years before I settled.

I'm one of those guys that uses many layers. But really what will dictate your tone is your bands sound and the style of music you play. If you don't play with a band, do what you want. But once you get in with a band, remember this very important perspective, what worked in your room by yourself will most likely not work and or will sound very different in a band mix. But def read reviews, experience, demos and opinions of others and go from that when wanting to try something new. It helps you get pointed in the general direction most times. But again, in the end, it'll really only be your ear and own experience that will get the furthest unfortunately. So buy used if you can!!