Amp Transparency

[cloudburst]

We all talk about the joys of an amp being transparent and not colouring the tone.

But how do we actually know what is the true tone of a particular bass, given that we only ever hear them through various amps.

This feels like a stupid question.

CB

[Truckstop]

I think when you can hear loads of mistakes and poor technique you've got a transparent amp! Amps that colour the tone tend to compress the signal and smooth a lot of the bumps that clean amps highlight.

That's why a lot of people love GK I guess!

Truckstop

[xgsjx]

I was expecting one of these...

[Prime_BASS]

If you hear your self and your bass through a decent set of desk monitors or listen to the straight DI sound through a FOH PA you can get a good idea of what your stuff really sounds like, then its a case of comparison.
TBF a lot of amps don't colour a great deal, its poor cabs.

[Phil Starr]

Play through headphones, it is relatively easy to have an accurate low powered amp and most headphone amps have a flat frequency response with very little other distortion. The headphones themselves also benefit from very light diaphragms and a very controlled environment and will have a flat response over the whole range of our hearing.

[chris_b]

DI your bass.... then your sound is only being coloured by the strings, your fingers and FOH.

All amps and cabs colour your sound to a degree. Some a little some a lot. That's good; all you have to do is get the sound that you like from the whole signal chain.

[Lozz196]

As Chris says, DI the bass through a PA or recording set-up, that`s when you get the real idea of the bass itself. I love hearing my Precision through a DI into a big PA - mm, mm, mmm.

[skychaserhigh]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1368173811' post='2073969']
DI your bass.... then your sound is only being coloured by the strings, your fingers and FOH.

All amps and cabs colour your sound to a degree. Some a little some a lot. That's good; all you have to do is get the sound that you like from the whole signal chain.
[/quote]

Through the PA it is then being 'coloured' by the PA rig , desk , crossovers , amps , compressors etc etc.
If you want to hear your bass totally uncoloured , don't plug it in !

[alexclaber]

[quote name='skychaserhigh' timestamp='1368177734' post='2074049']If you want to hear your bass totally uncoloured , don't plug it in ![/quote]

That's how I play my bass at home and how I test any new bass before I plug it in - if it sounds good unplugged then it will sound good plugged in as long as the pickups are decent. And if the pickups aren't decent they're pretty cheap and easy to change.

My big rig is an Avalon U5 into a QSC PLX into a Big Twin T. That's about as low colouration as is possible this side of very very expensive large studio monitors. Tells everyone when you're playing well - and not so well...

[Beer of the Bass]

When I've heard my bass DI'd through headphones or studio monitors with no EQ applied, a typical passive bass is surprisingly dull sounding IMO. It takes quite a bit of boost in the range of about 2-5KHz to get it close to the sort of amp sound I look for.