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Bass guitar and mids - rules of thumb?

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  • Bass guitar and mids - rules of thumb?

    Hey all. So, I find myself playing my VM J-bass more often these days than I used, and I'm tinkering more with bass tones.

    Basically I've figure out there are two tones I seem to gravitate towards:
    1. Neck pickup on full, tone knob rolled back - Deep, growly sound
    2. Neck and bridge pickup on full, tone knob rolled back a bit - Deep, smoother sound

    So far so good. So then it comes to using the tone stack on my amp to shape the sound. With the bass control, I turn it up until things sound boomy and then back it off until it's more controllable. With the treble control, I turn it up until things sound clanky and then back it off until it's present but not overpowering. So far so good.

    There's also a mid control, and then a special knob for scooping mids. This is where I run into problems. What are some rules of thumb to use with these controls? Scooping the mids seems to give a nice hi-fi sound . . . and unlike with guitar you don't seem to immediately get lost in the mix with a band while doing this (but it's maybe harder to make out what notes are being played). Boosting the mids gets kinda honky and doesn't sound right to me. Flat mids makes it very clear to pick out the notes . . . but the bass doesn't sound as nice as with the mid cut. What do you guys use? In what situations do you prefer one mid setting over another? Are there rules of thumb that I should know?
    Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

    Originally posted by Douglas Adams
    This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

  • #2
    Re: Bass guitar and mids - rules of thumb?

    I like to cut the frequencies down around 250hz where things tend to get muddy. Or around 800hz where they can sound boxy.

    Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

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    • #3
      Re: Bass guitar and mids - rules of thumb?

      I don't have anything as precise as that to play with, just a knob on the amp. :P But thanks for the frequencies. I'll try playing around with a parametric EQ at those spots the next time I do a recording.

      More experimentation has shown that I like a little more mids when playing fingerstyle and a little less mids when slapping.
      Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

      Originally posted by Douglas Adams
      This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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      • #4
        Re: Bass guitar and mids - rules of thumb?

        Originally posted by GuitarStv View Post
        I don't have anything as precise as that to play with, just a knob on the amp. :P But thanks for the frequencies. I'll try playing around with a parametric EQ at those spots the next time I do a recording.

        More experimentation has shown that I like a little more mids when playing fingerstyle and a little less mids when slapping.
        It sounds like you're off to a good start. I tend to stick with the basic rule when it comes to how I EQ anything: "If it sounds good, it is good".

        Reverb posted a video recently where David Ellefson from Megadeth and Frank Bello from Anthrax discuss this issue (among other things). Their answers essentially boiled down to "Whatever you need to do to fit into the mix with the guitars and drums". Their personal approaches were different because Dave Mustaine and Scott Ian EQ their guitars rather differently. David Ellefson also plays with a pick almost exclusively while Frank Bello is the opposite.
        Originally posted by crusty philtrum
        And that's probably because most people with electric guitars seem more interested in their own performance rather than the effect on the listener ... in fact i don't think many people who own electric guitars even give a poop about the effect on a listener. Which is why many people play electric guitars but very very few of them are actually musicians.

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