Onboard bass pre-amps - what turns your EQ on?

[Cuzzie]

Slow 👏🏿 

[Rich]

When I defretted my Yam RBX, I replaced the standard Yamaha 2 band with an Artec SE3P-A -- a 3 band eq with sweepable mid, featuring two concentric controls (bass/treb on one, mid freq/level on the other) so the whole thing fits into the existing 4 holes. For my money, a 3 band (especially with sweep mid) is the best eq for fretless, it allows you to really bring out the mwah and the swell. I know the Artec is a budget piece of kit, but I found it worked beautifully.

 

[krispn]

@Al Krow @CameronJ

Do you guys know where the BB734/5 has it’s eq points? I was asking earlier in the thread but not sure if it got lost? You guys seem to know yer Yamaha’s!

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, krispn said:

@Al Krow @CameronJ

Do you guys know where the BB734/5 has it’s eq points? I was asking earlier in the thread but not sure if it got lost? You guys seem to know yer Yamaha’s!

Short answer 'no'.

Seems to be the sort of information that Yammy (and pretty much all bass makers?) keep close to their chest!

And the boys that really know their Yammys e.g.@hookys6stringbass, @hypercarrots and @pete.young I don't believe have ventured into the x34/5 series.

At least with the Ibanez 3 band EQ you get to select the mids centre point - a welcome feature not available on the 734/5 as you know. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

IMO "dead air time" is far worse in an originals band where a lot of the songs might be unfamiliar to the audience and the band need to keep them engaged all the way through the performance without having a set list full of guaranteed crowd pleasers to fall back on. If I had my way, pauses between songs would be the minimum required for some applause, and a brief announcement of what the next song is called.

But surely you have to have the 2 minute pause for the guitarist to tune?

[krispn]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

At least with the Ibanez 3 band EQ you get to select the mids centre point - a welcome feature not available on the 734/5 as you know. 

If you know which position is for which setting

 

[Al Krow]

I do 😜

[gjones]

I really love the John East pre amp. I have a Fender Deluxe Jazz and a Fender Elite Precision. Compared to the John East pre amp, the Fender versions are pretty basic.

The thing I miss most with the Fenders, is a sweepable mid control. I'm tempted to buy the deluxe version, of the John East, for my jazz.

[Al Krow]

Just now, gjones said:

I really love the John East pre amp. I have a Fender Deluxe Jazz and a Fender Elite Precision. Compared to the John East pre amp, the Fender versions are pretty basic.

The thing I miss most with the Fenders, is a sweepable mid control. I'm tempted to buy the deluxe version, of the John East, for my jazz.

Another vote for John East pre and sweepable mids! What's the particular model name you're going for?

[BigRedX]

58 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

But surely you have to have the 2 minute pause for the guitarist to tune?

One band doesn't have a guitarist (although I play "guitar" parts on the Bass VI).

In the other band both guitarists tune up at the beginning of the set and that's it. I can't remember the last time they had to retune mid-set.

I must be lucky, although TBH I wouldn't tolerate being in a band with a guitarist who insisted on breaking the flow of the set for tuning, they would be sacked in pretty short order if it was anything to do with me. Just buy a guitar that stays in tune (all mine do).

Edited April 3, 2019 by BigRedX

[Al Krow]

Just now, BigRedX said:

I must be lucky, although TBH I wouldn't tolerate being in a band with a guitarist who insisted on pausing the flow of the set for tuning, they would be sacked in pretty short order if it was anything to do with me. Just buy a guitar that stays in tune (all mine do).

Can I send our guitarist your way please for summary execution? 😂

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

One band doesn't have a guitarist (although I play "guitar" parts on the Bass VI).

I kinda recall you (started?) a thread on Bass VI options and alternatives. Where did you end up landing on that front, squire?

Love to hear any recordings / clips you've done on your Bass VI - do you play the bass part as well as the guitar parts?

[BigRedX]

26 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I kinda recall you (started?) a thread on Bass VI options and alternatives. Where did you end up landing on that front, squire?

Love to hear any recordings / clips you've done on your Bass VI - do you play the bass part as well as the guitar parts?

I'm still looking for the perfect (for me) Bass VI and have come to the conclusion that it will have to be something custom made to get the neck width, string spacing and pickup routing that I need. I got Simon at Gus Guitars to price me up one based on the G3 6-string Baritone, but it is out of my price range for the moment. In the mean time I'm making do with the Burns Barracuda.

In the band where I use the Bass VI I alternate bass and melody parts with our synth player - the line up is vocals, synth, bass VI, and drums. We will have our debut single out very soon (hopefully before the end of the month) and then you'll be able to hear how it works.

[Al Krow]

29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I'm still looking for the perfect (for me) Bass VI and have come to the conclusion that it will have to be something custom made to get the neck width, string spacing and pickup routing that I need. I got Simon at Gus Guitars to price me up one based on the G3 6-string Baritone, but it is out of my price range for the moment. In the mean time I'm making do with the Burns Barracuda.

In the band where I use the Bass VI I alternate bass and melody parts with our synth player - the line up is vocals, synth, bass VI, and drums. We will have our debut single out very soon (hopefully before the end of the month) and then you'll be able to hear how it works.

How exciting - look forward to it!

(I may be about to take my plunge on my first Bass VI tomorrow, hence my asking, but that's definitely an 'off topic' for this thread ) 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Al Krow

[gjones]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Another vote for John East pre and sweepable mids! What's the particular model name you're going for?

I have the J Retro in my Jazz.

[dannybuoy]

I haven't tried that many onboard preamps, but I do like the Darkglass Tone Capsule, since it has two mid bands and no treble. Get a 'vintage' tone by boosting low mids and cutting high mids, and vice versa for a 'modern' tone.

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I must be lucky, although TBH I wouldn't tolerate being in a band with a guitarist who insisted on breaking the flow of the set for tuning, they would be sacked in pretty short order if it was anything to do with me. Just buy a guitar that stays in tune (all mine do).

Pause the flow - he has stopped to tune in the middle of a song!

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, krispn said:

If you know which position is for which setting

 

I do - the knobs are the same on all my gigging basses. Althought the G&L doesn't have a mid, but the bass and treble are in the same place.

[Al Krow]

14 hours ago, krispn said:

If you know which position is for which setting

Hah! Just realised you were referring to the lack of position markers on the Yammy BB734/5A EQ knobs. 

The Ibby is much more considerate:

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Pause the flow - he has stopped to tune in the middle of a song!

Nothing wrong with tuning up mid-song provided that firstly you are audibly out of tune and secondly you aren't supposed to be actually playing something instead of tuning.

I suppose I have been lucky with most of the guitarists that I have played with in that don't have a compulsion to tune up at every available opportunity, especially when their guitar is not noticeably out of tune. The best was the last guitarist in The Terrortones, who at one gig broke a B or G string during the second song on a hollow-bodied, Bigsby equipped guitar. He was able retune on the fly during the song without interrupting the flow of the music, and played the rest of the set with only 5 strings, adapting what he did to compensate for the missing string.

Edited April 4, 2019 by BigRedX

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Nothing wrong with tuning up mid-song provided that firstly you are audibly out of tune and secondly you aren't supposed to be actually playing something instead of tuning.

One of those was true.

[hypercarrots]

On 03/04/2019 at 06:21, Al Krow said:

Short answer 'no'.

Seems to be the sort of information that Yammy (and pretty much all bass makers?) keep close to their chest!

And the boys that really know their Yammys e.g.@hookys6stringbass, @hypercarrots and @pete.young I don't believe have ventured into the x34/5 series.

At least with the Ibanez 3 band EQ you get to select the mids centre point - a welcome feature not available on the 734/5 as you know. 

i have had 2 bb734a. 

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, hypercarrots said:

i have had 2 bb734a. 

I stand corrected. Did you have any intel on the 3 band EQ f-mid-points?

Edited April 6, 2019 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

On 03/04/2019 at 19:05, BigRedX said:

I'm still looking for the perfect (for me) Bass VI and have come to the conclusion that it will have to be something custom made to get the neck width, string spacing and pickup routing that I need. I got Simon at Gus Guitars to price me up one based on the G3 6-string Baritone, but it is out of my price range for the moment. In the mean time I'm making do with the Burns Barracuda.

In the band where I use the Bass VI I alternate bass and melody parts with our synth player - the line up is vocals, synth, bass VI, and drums. We will have our debut single out very soon (hopefully before the end of the month) and then you'll be able to hear how it works.

Appreciate that this is a bit of a side track on this thread, but just picking up on our discussion: first impressions of my Squier Bass VI is that's it's "okay" but not going to blow me away. And I kinda get your point already about neck width and string spacing - I'd actually prefer the strings to be a little further apart, in fact, which I appreciate might make playing chords a little more difficult, but just feels more familiar / comfortable as a bass player. 

My initial 'home made' Bass VI approach was to take my Ibanez SR1206 and restring it E to E (which is actually fine on the top E string despite it being a 34" scale). That gives me the ability to use the lower 4 strings as a 'normal bass' with normal bass string and fret spacing and then add in the additional top two strings for Bass VI effect when I want. The more traditional Squier Bass VI format is obviously different and seems to me to have plusses and minuses, but isn't necessarily going to be 'better' for how I will be using it.

Just mentioning this in case the 'home made' Bass VI approach may give you a different angle to explore on your Bass VI journey. Very much looking forward to your debut single.

[Woodinblack]

I have a thing for the bass IV. I have had two squier bass IVs, and a SRC06 crossover and don't have any now. But every so often I get the urge for another bass VI. I think the problem is that I am not in the right type of group for one. It would help if the Squier was 'better', ie, fix the bridge, better nut, better other features, which yes is perfectly possible, to do but a lot of work.  The SRC06 is just a tuned down guitar and much more metal than anything else.

[mcnach]

On 01/04/2019 at 14:06, BigRedX said:

I can't see the point in having an on-board pre-amp that just duplicated what you should be able to do better on your amp. The only on-baord pre-amp that I actually use on any of my basses is the ACG EQ1 as not only does it do something that I can't replicate elsewhere in the signal chain, but it also allows me to EQ each pickup individually.

 

But not two preamps are the same. Some do one thing better, and others another... So I can see why people may want both.

I personally use the MMSR (3-band Stingray preamp) in a few basses, mostly because of the semiparametric mids, handy at my fingertips. I use it to get a bit more aggressive, or back off a bit, and even to control the drive level when using certain overdrives... I can also get a very musical controlled feedback effect when using overdrive and bringing the bass close to the speaker if I turn the mids up as I do it... and easy to back off to normal without taking my hands off the bass (I use that on the RATM band).

The J-Retro (or U-Retro) is a favourite for me on 2-pickup basses, again the semiparametric mids are the main reason, but not only. For me the bass amp controls are to set the 'baseline' sound to fit the stage/room. Onboard is where I vary the sound during the set depending on how I want to sound.