Rumble

A bit of both, but mainly my sound.

I completely agree. I had a play with the amp eq at the last practice and it was probably the first time I've touched it in months. The point is I was touching it because I couldn't quickly access the tonal variety on the bass. I know it sounds ridiculous given how much variety the preamp offers, but I emphasise the word quickly! As I've already said, there's no doubting it's an incredibly powerful pre, but... I don't particularly enjoy driving high performance sports cars for more than an hour or two, but it doesn't mean they aren't incredible machines that some folks would give their back teeth for one.

That's probably why I'm not a sound engineer!

Just to be clear, I'm not wanting to be disparaging of the eq03. I understand how the boosts and gains work, but the bottom line is that you can't boost frequencies that aren't there because they've been filtered out. I can really appreciate why some people would love to have the filter shaping capabilities, but I think I'm just one of those people who likes to hear all the frequencies. I also want to emphasise that the overall tone of the bass is still epic. It was also attracting numerous comments at a practice last night; two of the band just couldn't stop looking at it saying "that's just gorgeous"!

Using the MB F1 so shaping is slightly limited. Have left the preamp on but all filters wide open. I still can't get my head round only being able to remove elements of the tone instead of being able to emphasise them. Maybe the filter system just isn't for me.

After some excellent guidance from Luke, I've opened my mind to possible alternatives to the glockenklang. So what other preamps would leave the natural tone of the bass largely unaffected whilst giving me plenty of tonal shaping options?

Thanks for the tips, Luke. I've tried the tone setting for each pickup individually then blending, but I'm just struggling to get a tone I like without having everything wide open. I must admit the high filter adds some nice sizzle, but I can't get my head round controlling the mids. Why didn't you get on with the glockenklang?

TBH the glockenklang is based on recommendation and the fact that I already have a Delano which is apparently very similar and I love. Whatever the alternative, it just needs 5 knobs!

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate how versatile the eq is, but to my ears, I like to hear all the frequencies the bass is generating. It feels like every turn off a knob is dialling some of them out to the detriment of the overall tone.

Having got my hands on a beautiful ACG Recurve 6 a few weeks ago I've spent a lot of time playing with the very highly thought of preamp. The bass had a lovely natural time and as much as I try, messing with the preamp only seems to detract from it (to my ears). Consequently, I end up leaving everything wide open or running it passive. My question is whether there's any value in leaving the ACG preamp in situ or swapping it out for a traditional 3 band eq that will allow me to simply cut and boost the natural frequencies? (I've been looking at the Glockenklang preamp) Thanks in advance for your views and opinions.