When should you use a input pad

[Twincam]

I bought a epiphone tbird classic from a fellow bc member and it has the gibson tb+ pickups. There probably the hottest passive pickups I've used. I really like them.
I've had to turn my gain down to about the 10 o'clock position to get a clean tone. Which is fair enough it sounds good and I have plenty of useable (and more) valve overdrive left.

Im wondering though at what point do you engage a pad switch?
I always assumed a pad is for an active bass with boosted settings and you can't get any clean tone from the pre amp.

[Twigman]

Has your amp got a clip light on the pre?
They're always a good guide.

[franzbassist]

If you have to set the gain control near the low end of the rotation in order to prevent distortion, activating the pad will reduce the input sensitivity and allow greater control range and freedom from overload.

[Twincam]

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1475849751' post='3149232']
Has your amp got a clip light on the pre?
They're always a good guide.
[/quote]

Yeah it has one a good one which has a variable brightness/frequency and I have found it very easy to use as well as using my ears of course.

[Twincam]

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1475850134' post='3149237']
If you have to set the gain control near the low end of the rotation in order to prevent distortion, activating the pad will reduce the input sensitivity and allow greater control range and freedom from overload.
[/quote]

Yeah but how low is too low on the gain knob? I'm guessing it varies greatly on amp to amp but is there a general rule.

Does it really allow greater control? I'm slightly confused as surely if you activate an input pad, sensitivity goes down so you put on more gain but you will only get as much gain as if you had a weaker pickup. I think I probably should do some reading on gain structure or something.

Does an input pad affect tone?

[Guest bassman7755]

Most gain knobs will be more sensitive to adjustment at the extreme lower range of operation to the point where if you had a really high input level and the gain turned right down it could be quite fiddly to adjust it. All the pad is doing is (hopefully) allowing you to use the gain knob in the higher part of its adjustment range where youve got easier control over the exact setting.

EDIT - Your basically right thought that at the end of the day the preamp has the same amount of headroom, so as long as your getting the volume/drive levels that you want it doesn't matter whether your using the pad or not. Its no different to turning the vol on your bass down and the input gain up to compensate (at least on a active bass, on a passive one there would probably be a tonal difference).

Edited October 8, 2016 by bassman7755

[Twincam]

I played around with the input pad.
Left it off in the end, I think if I was getting any less turn of the gain knob I would have it on.

[molan]

I never use the pad, always feel it's just putting another 'effect' in the signal chain that you don't really need - just turn the gain down

[mcnach]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1475968886' post='3150202']
I never use the pad, always feel it's just putting another 'effect' in the signal chain that you don't really need - just turn the gain down
[/quote]

that's my approach too. In many amps engaging the pad also feels like it's changing the sound (compared to simply turning gain down, or bass volume down), and not for the better...

[Painy]

The only time I would use a pad on an amp would be if the amp is still clipping with the input gain all the way down.
My compressor pedal however has a fixed threshold and is designed to give a lightly overdriven breakup at higher settings. I use the pad switch on that to stop it from getting too squashed and to keep it clean as it doesn't have an input level and it's too much faff trying to set the volume on my bass to the same level (other than just on full) everytime.