Back to basics!

[TomWIC]

I've been reather disheartened about bass playing recently. I'm running a Peavey Tour 700 with Ashdown ABM 410 and 210 cabs, so fairly midrange there, nothing special. Coupled with a couple of Epiphone Thunderbirds and an LTD 5-string, once again, fairly midrange to low range depending on your tastes.

In order to get a better tone out of my setup, I've been using a Sansamp Programmable BDDI for the speaker emulation aspect of things and I've gone through various overdrives, mainly the Boss ODB3 and Ibanez PD7. Recently took a plunge on a Darkglass B3K on here and was disappointed to find the pedal that's commonly regarded as one of the best overdrives out there, sounded like absolute crap with my setup.

So last night, studio time with the band rolled around. I had recently restrung my Thunderbird (the Classic IV with Gibson USA pickups) with D'Addario nickel rounds (120, 90, 67, 50) for CGCF tuning and they sounded flat and lifeless after just a few plays. I've had good experiences with stainless steel strings in the past for that punchy, aggressive tone I'm looking for so bought a set of heavy gauge Jim Dunlops (120, 100, 80, 60) and whacked them on before heading to the studio.

I got in, got set up, and decided to ignore my usual pedal switch on routine and just ran straight into the amp for a while. Little bit of EQ'ing and muted the bridge pickup on my Thunderbird. Already a lot better than I had experienced previously. Went to turn on my Sansamp, stopped, and decided to just put the B3K on instead. Blend up full, level up to about 3 o'clock to boost the lacklustre power of the amp, drive to about 8 o'clock. Wow. All of a sudden, I had a better tone with just one single pedal then in the past with my entire board. Sat well in the mix, you could hear the bite the harder I played with the pick, it sounded brilliant.

I was intending to downsize my pedalboard, but it looks like I'll be downsizing even more than I initially thought! Modulation effects that are fun to play around with but never used in a band situation and likely never will; time to go. The Boss and Ibanez overdrives that are okay but never quite worked for me; time to go. The Sansamp that I used to swear by and never, ever switched it off; didn't need it at all.

The only thing I wasn't happy about was the excessive boom from the low notes. Perhaps a good setup on my bass will help, or perhaps one of those Gamma pads I've read so much about, or maybe just a little bit more work on the EQ'ing of the amp. But overall, it's back to basics again, and just a single, great overdrive pedal on my board.

I'm a very happy bassist again!

[Mcgiver69]

Lackluster power from the amp? dude I'm running the 450 version of your amp through a BFM 2x10 cab and can play against 2 very loud guitar players and a loud drummer without pushing the amp. Maybe you should look into changing your cabs.

I'm using a BFM Omni 10 cab which is designed for sound projection.

I couldn't be happier with my setup, I'm even looking into getting one of those new Peavey MiniMax as a backup amp and maybe another Omni 10 if I can find one.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Mcgiver69

[discreet]

Less is more. More or less.

[TomWIC]

[quote name='Mcgiver69' timestamp='1407239204' post='2518605']
Lackluster power from the amp? dude I'm running the 450 version of your amp through a BFM 2x10 cab and can play against 2 very loud guitar players and a loud drummer without pushing the amp. Maybe you should look into changing your cabs.

I'm using a BFM Omni 10 cab which is designed for sound projection.

I couldn't be happier with my setup, I'm even looking into getting one of those new Peavey MiniMax as a backup amp and maybe another Omni 10 if I can find one.
[/quote]

I remember being advised a while ago that using a 210 with roughly half the power handling of the 410 may be causing the issue, thank for reminding me to look at the cabs. I'll take the 210 out of the equation next Monday and see how we do then.