Help! My combo sounds sh*te....

[stingrayfan]

So I've got a nice old-school Trace 300w combo. But recently, it's sounded terrible in rehearsal rooms.

This week, we rehearsed in a smallish retangular meeting room in a village hall (think primary school classroom: carpet flooring, painted brick walls, high ceiling) and no matter where I stood, my bass sound was awful. It was boomy and disconnected. It sounded like the amp was in another room, it was that bad. Tried EQ'ing it and the bass, tried standing across the room from it, and couldn't escape the mush. The amp was in the middle of the room, about 2 feet from the wall.

Question is: where can I put it, to get a better sound other than back in the car?!

Thanks

[rodl2005]

in the bin ;-) Nah.... Big HIGH ceilings , rooms with NO soft furnishings (i.e. people) WILL make almost any amp sound like this IME.
Try putting it on a crate- at least a foot high. EQ some bass OUT, compensating with mids to give U some clarity & punch.

If it DOESN'T sound cruddy in other rooms, it AINT the amp!

[chris_b]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='965148' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:07 AM']....where can I put it, to get a better sound other than back in the car?!....[/quote]
Up for sale. Time to move on!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='965148' date='Sep 22 2010, 07:07 PM']Question is: where can I put it, to get a better sound other than back in the car?!

Thanks[/quote]
In a room without bare brick walls.

[gafbass02]

What about an auralex gramma pad?

[Lozz196]

[quote name='rodl2005' post='965171' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:50 AM']in the bin ;-) Nah.... Big HIGH ceilings , rooms with NO soft furnishings (i.e. people) WILL make almost any amp sound like this IME.
Try putting it on a crate- at least a foot high. EQ some bass OUT, compensating with mids to give U some clarity & punch.

If it DOESN'T sound cruddy in other rooms, it AINT the amp![/quote]
+1 to the above.

Try setting all eq flat, when yr in that room, get yr volume right, then adjust eq accordingly til yr sound is to yr liking.

[bumnote]

[quote name='gafbass02' post='965217' date='Sep 23 2010, 07:40 AM']What about an auralex gramma pad?[/quote]


Weve had problems like this in a club we regulalrly play in. The new comittee decided to brighten up the stage by repainting it, and talking down the curtains at the back, and it now sounds awfull.

I tried a gramma and it doesnt help.

[ogrimark]

I have an old Trace rig, Combo with 15" cab and i had exactly the same when we did a gig in august up in Studley, the stage was quite big, wooden floor and very pretty looking but my bass sounded sh*te no matter where i stood. I have a couple of spare cables and used the longest cable i had and walked out into the middle of the hall and it sounded awsome. just where i was stood was pump. have you tried with the preshape on, compression set quite low and playing with the eq like rodl2005 says.
If it sounds good to the crowd then sometimes you have to put up with a poop on stage sound.

[BottomE]

[quote name='ogrimark' post='965261' date='Sep 23 2010, 08:43 AM']I have an old Trace rig, Combo with 15" cab and i had exactly the same when we did a gig in august up in Studley, the stage was quite big, wooden floor and very pretty looking but my bass sounded sh*te no matter where i stood. I have a couple of spare cables and used the longest cable i had and walked out into the middle of the hall and it sounded awsome. just where i was stood was pump. have you tried with the preshape on, compression set quite low and playing with the eq like rodl2005 says.
If it sounds good to the crowd then sometimes you have to put up with a poop on stage sound.[/quote]

+1 the number of times i have had an uncomfortable stage sound but a great sound to the audience...Bass is quite difficult to judge from an audience perspective - you either need someone you trust to let you know how you sound (not the guitarist) or a nice long lead to go hear for yourself. That said, i changed my amp and speakers and found it easier to dial in sounds for different venues. Start with a flat eq. Hopefully you won't have to change it too much. And the sound will always be different when there are a whole bunch of peeps in the room.