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Working with Drop A#/Bb tuning live


osakasuperrescue
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Hello all, hoping to pick some brains here, on the subject of playing in a low tuning live and experiencing some tone issues that I'm trying to diagnose.

 

I'm playing in a sludge metal band on a Yamaha BB235 tuned to match the guitarist in Drop A# (A#-F-A#-D#-G#), so low B down a half step, E-A-D-G up a half step, usually going into a Laney DIgbeth 500w head set fairly conservatively on EQ, pushed by either a Laney Blackheath or Darkglass B3K v1 overdrive (after an Ampeg Opto-Comp).

 

I'm a guitarist by trade and have only been regularly on bass since the start of the year. What I've been finding is that in a few gigs now (so rooms of varying size), riffs on the low A# are getting super muddy, and I'm trying to tick off things I could do to improve this. So far I have:

 

  1. Go up a string gauge notch on the bottom string (so a .135), and down a notch on the rest (.105, .85, .70, .50 vs. the usual .100, .80, .65, .45) to try and balance tensions out and give the low A# more stabillity
  2. Better clean blend through pedalboard (I can employ a DSM Simplifier Bass Station which may help)
  3. Doing some pedal routing to process the high frequency bass distortion separately, leave the low frequencies as clean as possible (or just a lower gain setting in general)
  4. Compensating EQ on the amp (am I right in thinking cut some bass, boost some high mids?)
  5. Get a better bass for added performance all round

 

But are there other considerations? I understand from reading elsewhere that an issue with tuning so low is that PAs are going to pick up less of that lowest frequency, but that's starting to get into live sound engineering and a lot more over my head. Hopefully a few other metalheads in here can give me some pointers!

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I play progressive metal stuff in drop B, BF#BE, so similar but not the same.

 

A lot of it is down to personal preference.  I use a .125 on the B as if I go any heavier, I find it comes too dubby and loses high end harmonic content.   I doubt id change it for A#, as the tension is very similar.  Couple of bass set up tips; Get the neck as straight as it can be, even a tiny bit less relief will really help.  When stringing up a new A#, when you know where the string will break over the bridge saddle, take the string off and bend it slightly at that point.  The thicker the string, the more this helps get a clearer low string.

 

I personally wouldn't go to 105 for a F, I use a .95 for an F# and would think .100 would be fine.  As long as you're using some compression, which I'd definitely recommend, you don't need to worry too much about balancing things out.

 

I do keep lows clean, I think my crossover is somewhere around 120hz off memory, but again this is to taste.  Difficult to do with the gear you use, and can't really be duplicated with EQ'ing.  Considered swapping that B3K out for a Darkglass X?  It'll be a big upgrade and will allow that crossover.

 

Forget about FoH, the sound engineer would rather just use his tricks than undo yours first.

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Thanks Kev - super useful intel, especially on the thickness of that bottom string. I'm maybe coming at this from a guitarist perspective where you always go thicker gauge for lower, heavier tunings, but if my aim is to stop the low A# from getting too boomy, maybe I stick with a .130 for it. I always run my Opto-Comp first with a decent amount of squish on it, so sounds like that'll do the trick. Dub is great and all but there is a time and a place for it, and it's not in a sludge metal riff!

 

I think that managing low end distortion is the key thing here - I used the B3K live over the weekend and dialled it all down a notch, plus shaved some bass and low mids off my preamp (used the Laney Digbeth preamp pedal), and that seemed to help too. I'll investigate one of the bigger Darkglass options that allow for that crossover - the variety of their options plus the price always makes me a little nervous but research is all pointing me that direction.

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