Your preferred way to toneshape?

[gregmon79]

Btw, what I use for main tone shaping outside of my bass, amp and cab, are the following:

Onboard EQ on my Ibanez ATK300
Darkglass B7KU
Tronographic Rusty Box
DOD FX10
TC Spectracomp

Outside of that, I use the Damnation MBD1 into all that as my main dirt tone and a few others for various fuzz and dist. But the ones listed above are my main clean, base, bass tone. Everything else is built on top of all that.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Greetings all,
***SNIP***
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 =)

You don't put it through all those layers. You bypass the amp's preamp (amps EQ) by plugging your "DI box with preamp" directly into the "effects-return/in" of the amp you have to use.

That puts your DI box's built-in preamp directly into the power section of the amp. You can run it before or after your effects, whichever works best for you, but that box replaces the amp's own preamp and feeds your signal directly to the power section of your "host" amp.

I use a WTDI specifically for the times where I am required to plug into a backline or FOH and even for recording sessions. The WTDI is a DI box with an Eden preamp built in including adjustable compressor as well as gain, master, enhance (shape sweep) Bass, mids (toggle between 500Hz and 2KHz centers) and treble. Bought it for $149.99 new and that continues to be the street price. I've made GK, Peavey, acoustic, Markbass, and Ampeg amps sound like my Eden amp with it.

It's extremely versatile. Any changes in sound I need to make I can make from the WTDI, so why insert another layer of variables? I still prefer my own amp and cab, but this thing fits easily into my gig bag and I can pull it out at a moment's notice.

You don't want to plug one of these into the input of the host amp as the last thing you need is to be fighting the host amp's built in preamp. Just put it into the effects-return and play!

 

[Magthegrate]

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 =)

Welcome Omiloh! I also started with an Ibanez SR300 bass and I still use a TC head. I have the BH800. Imho, the toneprint is a fun toy to play with, but I find it a little gimmicky. I do love my TC head though, and I use it to push a TC RS212 and RS410.

My preferred tone shaping is done with a SansAmp Tech21 preamp pedal. I do most of my fiddling there. I keep my amp dials mostly at noon, with just the occasional tweak depending on what room I'm in.

Good luck!

 

[Seashore]

I love my setup and have no desire to change it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. I use an EQ pedal as a tone-shaping boost, and split the signal into both channels of an old tube head through a compressor on one side and distortion on the other. The end result is a big, aggressive blended dirty/clean sound that covers some of the guitar range in a complementary way.

I was lucky to have the gear on hand to make this rig work when I joined my current band, and it works great for what we do. I get exactly the sound I want with more volume than I'll ever need... but it's heavy, bulky, finicky, and not DI-friendly. If I was setting things up from scratch, I could find a lighter and simpler way to get the sound I want, and make it easier for myself to run into a PA on the rare occasions I might need to.

 

[arbiterusa]

Some people say they try to only dial in the EQ on the bass itself and flatten the amp.

I do just the opposite. I think jacking around the EQ before the preamp stage is a poor idea. My basses are all run dead flat and any tone shaping happens at the amplifier.

 

[Keger Jupit]

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 =)

(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.

Welcome to TB, @Omiloh! Welcome to bass, too!

Not knowing your experience level, I will say if you missed @Cave Puppy's post, take the time to go back & read it carefully. It is filled with all manner of excellent points & advice. Starting with a bunch of effects right away will hurt you in the long run, IMHO. Take a year or even two to find your tone, especially as a fingerstyle player. Like @Cave Puppy said, WHERE you play the strings (between the bridge & the neck) has a profound effect.

I had the same amp for a few months, & I liked it. The TonePrint is fun! Just don't let it distract you

 

[JimmyM]

I literally do not care how I tone shape. I do whatever it takes with what I have. Rules and conventional wisdom can suck it.

 

[jastacey]

In the years that I've, reading TB, I've gone from lot's of tone shaping tools to what I use now, a nice P-bass/J-bass, HPF, and learned how to use the EQ on the amp ( this requires, some time, and objective observations of what the resulted tone is, and based on the cabinet being used ), so with that said, tone is still an evolving end goal ... IMHO

 

[FranF]

Everything nearly flat. No effects or anything in the signal chain. Tone control on the bass, and my fingers, only. Seems to have kept me viable for the past 46 years. ;-)

 

[BAG]

I've been able to get close to the tone I want on just about any amp.

I start with everything flat.
Initially i'll drastically sweep the tone pots on the amp to see what frequencies they are affecting and by how much, starting with the high and high-mid range. This will usually get me close to the brightness I want on the D and E notes on the G string.
I'll then do the same with the Lows and low-mids to get the open E string and the G on that string sounding as deep and full as I like without booming or mud. I'll then run some scales from open E up two octaves back and forth tweaking all of the above and the mids till i'm happy with my sound.

That's it!

 

[kopio]

I use the tone knob on my P-bass and my fingers...pretty simple. A very large part of tone is in your technique.

 

[brett adams]

when playing alone, my preferred method is with my fingers. when playing with others and needing to fit into a sonic space, i use clean boost pedals, dirt from a ehx flatiron fuzz, and a yamaha ne-1 for eq.

 

[onamission]

I have the BH550 and start with everything flat, 12 o'clock, and tweak from there. The compressor is great but I haven't found to much else that's really useful for me.

 

[Kmonk]

Check out Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe. Much more versatile than the ones you mentioned.

 

[hieronymous]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you start using effects like distortion or envelope filter, then you want the controls on the amp set so that those sound good. In other words, you might want your clean sound to be dark, but the distortion might have more highs. If you adjust the amp so it's dark, then the highs won't come through, but if you turn the tone down on your bass, then you can set the amp to put through more high frequencies when necessary.

It's definitely a journey but it can be fun to experiment, especially with so much gear and information available now!

 

[Acoop]

"Less is more." ... If it's a great sounding bass, and why play anything but, then it shouldn't need much colouring. ... Live is different than studio but in both cases less is more. ... And, I prefer, running a pre through the effects in, but, if the amp doesn't have one it's straight in and use as little amp eq as possible. ...

 

[Spidey2112]

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

He's short and sweet... I mean, look at his avatar... he couldn't be more that two feet tall.

 

[GreyBeard]

I run everything flat and shape with my hands.

 

[Wasnex]

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 =)

My tone shaping strategy is dependent on the gear I am using. Normally I try to run my active bass flat and use the amp's EQ to get the tone I want. If the amp won't get me there, I'll tweak the bass's tone controls a bit.

Most of the time I don't use any sort of outboard EQ, but when I do, I get as close as I can with the amp and then use the outboard EQ to either solve problems are get the rest of the way there.

I think it's essential to start with the amp's EQ, unless it can be bypassed so the amp's response is essentially flat. Stacking a bunch of preamps and EQs can get messy, confusing, and also degrade the sound. Sometimes you need to stack, but in general I think less is more.

 

[somebrains]

I could plug my Spector into a potato and be fine. I never liked the way that bass sounded, everyone does. My attitude with it is "noise that in tune".