my EQ settings

[PaulWarning]

did a gig last night and was told I was a bit boomy, played about with EQ on my Trace Elliot GP12, I normally cut the mids to get rid of 'boxyness' anyway I showed our guitarist the settings by the end of the night and he says "you ought to put that on basschat should give them a good laugh", so here they are.
No TE mid shape, and I use a B1on pedal with just bass drive effect on it, and a Precision bass, we were told how good the sound was at the end

Edited April 10, 2016 by PaulWarning

[Dave_the_bass]

I can see that would work really well in a full band mix and be nice and clear sounding.

That's not a laughable eq setting at all, it's the kind of setting we of the bass chat community advocate.

[JapanAxe]

Disclaimer: I don't like graphics!

Actually that would work for me - peaks in the lower mids and the presence band.

[xgsjx]

When playing live, it's down to what instruments there are, what genre of music & what should you're going for.
That EQ setting would probably have worked well in my old rock band too (& the new band), but then it might have needed something different for my acoustica band.

[Guest bassman7755]

I'd normally lay odds that such extreme settings would sound rubbish in a band mix but as your a BCer I'll give you benefit of the doubt . I would still be thinking though that if you need to do that to make it sound decent that its indicative of something else in the signal chain (e.g. the cab) being deficient in some way or that perhaps an inappropriate pickup config is being used (a 50/50 mix of dual pickups gives a natural mid cut).

[Hobbayne]

Bear in mind though, that the B1on has an amp model setting that can affect the tone.

[TimR]

What can are you playing through.

I like the cut below 120, bit extreme maybe an there's no top end at all so wonder what the definition was like.

If it works, it works.

[Lozz196]

Looks like an ideal eq matching for a Precision to me. No boom, no piercing cutting high end, and low-mids also tamed (as a Precision has plenty enough already imo).

[Twincam]

I'm less and less surprised at what can sometimes look an extreme setting can work very well. Sometimes I think people are scared to really crank the settings, like its a taboo, that's what they are there for and that's why the knobs or sliders have a wide range.

[Hobbayne]

You'll be surprised the amount of bassists who still use the smiley face setting.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1460282218' post='3024258']
What can are you playing through.

I like the cut below 120, bit extreme maybe an there's no top end at all so wonder what the definition was like.

If it works, it works.
[/quote]I presume you mean cab, I use a Fender Rumble 2 x 10 and a 1 x15 TE, I boosted the 2.6k hz for definition maybe I overcut the 1.3khz a bit, I started with less bottom end cut and less top end boost, got a bit extreme by the end of the night lol, funny room we were in a corner on a hard wood raised area, tricky sound check, lot of echo but by the time the room filled up it changed a lot, when I first got the GP12 I thought who the hell needs a 12 band graphic, changed my mind now although the extremes are a waste of time, I mean 15khz on a bass amp?

[colgraff]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1460282711' post='3024267']
You'll be surprised the amount of bassists who still use the smiley face setting.
[/quote]

I keep my EQ turned off on my amp. My bass EQ has the right half of this face and my EQ pedal has a frowny face on it (everyone knows that frowny faces are good for metal, right?)

[Dood]

Interestingly, it looks like your graphic is the mirror image of the EQ curve of the BDDI (which I believe is what the Bass Drive effect emulates) - So in a way both are cancelling each other out!

I appreciate in the real world it's not as simple as that, but you know... a bit of that might be going on!

[JTUK]

Wow.... not want I'd do at all.... but.... I'm not there to hear the final result.

I do hear quite a few wierd EQ stories though and the approach I'd start with is that you aren't
cancelling out another EQ set-up...
This is why I tend to set my basses up to sound 'neutral' as not contradictory to any other settings.

My amp is all around 12..and my active pre is a tad above the passive sound.

This way, I'm not getting into any EQ fights with extremes and I only have a to dial back/forward a pot or two at most.

Drastic changes just confuse where you are and where you started from...IMO.

The slight downside is all my basses sound the ball park same... but then I accept that as my 'sound' or thing.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1460284443' post='3024300']
Interestingly, it looks like your graphic is the mirror image of the EQ curve of the BDDI (which I believe is what the Bass Drive effect emulates) - So in a way both are cancelling each other out!

I appreciate in the real world it's not as simple as that, but you know... a bit of that might be going on!
[/quote]I'll have to check that out, I use the bass drive effect for a bit of overdrive, it certainly adds bottom end

[Dood]

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1460285413' post='3024313']
I'll have to check that out, I use the bass drive effect for a bit of overdrive, it certainly adds bottom end
[/quote]

I've been trying to find a response curve of an actual BDDI but haven't been successful yet, but according to the details I have been able to find, you EQ centres are different.

But what I tried to say, for the benefit of JTUK really, is that for example, if you had a pedal that had a steep cut at 800hz (Lets say -10dB) - by boosting that frequency elsewhere (say +10dB) then you'd go a certain distance to cancel out the effect that the cut was having in the pedal.

In the real world where we suffer from phase differences and varying 'Q', it doesn't quite happen perfectly. So not a perfect situation but certainly not a 'weird story'.

[Dood]

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1460285413' post='3024313']
I'll have to check that out, I use the bass drive effect for a bit of overdrive, it certainly adds bottom end
[/quote]

The BDDI does have a very steep EQ characteristic, both in boosting and cutting frequencies.

[Graham]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1460282711' post='3024267']
You'll be surprised the amount of bassists who still use the smiley face setting.
[/quote]

I was watching a live DVD of ISIS yesterday and was surprised to see Jeff Caxide had a smiley face on the graphic of the amp he was using. I really like his recorded tone, but couldn't really hear him a lot of the time on this DVD, that may have been why.

Conversely, it might be because he was using a Stingray and SVT 2, which I would think is a very mid-range focused set-up to start with.

[xgsjx]

The other thing to take into account (which I'm surprised no one mentioned, including me), is the venue itself.
I found that every venue I played, I had a slightly different EQ setting. Always tried to go as flat as possible, but at many venues, flat sounds crap.

[Muppet]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1460357043' post='3024826']
The other thing to take into account (which I'm surprised no one mentioned, including me), is the venue itself.
I found that every venue I played, I had a slightly different EQ setting. Always tried to go as flat as possible, but at many venues, flat sounds crap.
[/quote]

I agree with this. On it's own, I would say your settings are quite extreme but you just have to go with your ears to match the settings to the venue and if that's what sounds good then that's what sounds good, regardless of the eq shape.

[Truckstop]

Personally I'd cut everything under 100hz to start with.

With that 30hz equaliser flat you would have had a lot of boom and as such you had to really boost your hi mids to cut through it.

Try it next time; cut everything under 100hz, get a tone for the room and then gradually introduce a little bit of 60hz to taste.

It's a credit to TE though. I wish most amps were this flexible! I love my Rumble, but I wish there was an extra EQ knob or two.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1460357987' post='3024837']
Personally I'd cut everything under 100hz to start with.

With that 30hz equaliser flat you would have had a lot of boom and as such you had to really boost your hi mids to cut through it.

Try it next time; cut everything under 100hz, get a tone for the room and then gradually introduce a little bit of 60hz to taste.

It's a credit to TE though. I wish most amps were this flexible! I love my Rumble, but I wish there was an extra EQ knob or two
[/quote]I've found that most boom (and I hate boom) comes from around 60hz, 30 doesn't seem to have much effect at all that's why it was flat, but what you say here is more or less what I was doing, the high end boost is really down to personal taste. What I aim for is the TE mid shape sound but less extreme, that is boost around 100 to 400hz, cut between 500 and 1khz and then boost around 5khz
I've got a rumble and agree with you the EQ section is poor

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1460357043' post='3024826']
The other thing to take into account (which I'm surprised no one mentioned, including me), is the venue itself.
I found that every venue I played, I had a slightly different EQ setting. Always tried to go as flat as possible, but at many venues, flat sounds crap.
[/quote]I mentioned earlier it was a difficult venue sound wise

[SpondonBassed]

I think this is far too subjective a subject to attempt to comment on. The only thing I can take from this thread is that smilie faces are good for rock and frownie faces are good for metal!

I like it flat to start. Tweakage occurs during my warm up. Not a fan of presets.

[SH73]

If I could I`d help but all the figures in EQ settings mean nothing to me. I go by ear. But would be good to learn the technical side of it too.

[luckydog]

Here's a sort of rough rule of thumb of for how eq settings might generally map on to sounds

31Hz Chest/Gut
63Hz Bottom
125Hz Thump
250Hz Fullness
500Hz Honk
1kHz Whack
2kHz Pluck
4kHz Edge

I thought the OP settings looked plausible for a good band mix with a precision in a difficult room without mid preshape.....but much depends what one is aiming for in character of bass sound and one has to be guided by ears not by eyes.

LD