Anyone use tone controls?

[4 Strings]

I know its horses for courses etc but I have still yet to play anywhere (from pubs to church halls to festivals to indoor parties) that's required me to use anything other than flat on the amp. I have been known to tweak the 'low pass' up a bit at home when at low volumes but that's about it.

There's graphic equalisers and all sorts of other knobs and sliders on amps but I always look for the bypass switch. Am I a purest or something or do people generally not use tone controls on amps? If so, maybe they could be made more simply and the money spent on tone control diverted to better capacitors or something.

[yorick]

Buy an Orange bass head..... Gain, bass, middle, treble, volume. One input. Simple.

[harvey1-8]

Or an LH500. I bypass the graphic EQ on my 400+.

[wateroftyne]

I tend to run amps flat, or thereabouts.

But then again... what IS flat? Is the amp really flat?

[Conan]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='861816' date='Jun 9 2010, 09:38 AM']I tend to run amps flat, or thereabouts.

But then again... what IS flat? Is the amp really flat?[/quote]

Certainly not if its a LH500! Anyway, even if the amp IS flat, there will be some tone-shaping taking place from the guitar and the leads!

Edited June 9, 2010 by Conan

[Wil]

I use a bit of bass boost, a bit of a high mid boost on the parametric mid and a treble cut on my Landmark 300. It's based on a Sansamp though so a mid boost of some sort is essential really, the flat tone of the amp is very scooped.

[Conan]

[quote name='4 Strings' post='861792' date='Jun 9 2010, 09:10 AM']Am I a purest or something or do people generally not use tone controls on amps?[/quote]

Depends on what you do I suppose. If you play in a covers band that have a wide repertoire, it may be necessary to make changes to your sound to match that on the original recordings - especially if you only use one bass.

BTW, before anyone jumps in with the old "tone is all in the fingers" caveat - there is a lot of truth in that! But it can't (IME) cover every eventuality.

Sometimes the tone controls can be used as a type of effect. After all, what is a wah-wah pedal but a foot-operated tone control?

Edited June 9, 2010 by Conan

[51m0n]

I use my ears.....

[cheddatom]

After putting graphic and parametric EQs, compressors, multi-band compressors, all kinds of effects etc onto my bass in the studio, it gets kind of boring playing live with only a tone control to play with.

[rmshaw37]

i have 2 preamps that i use, both are set to boost bass and treble to about 2 o clock, and boost the 2k to about 4 - 5 o clock, bit of tubey overdrive sound, then the rest really is in the fingers!!

i use a gene simmons punisher with active emg p pup i play hard over the pickup if i want my rocky tone, and pluck with my thumb nearer the neck for the ballady stuff and finger over the jazz pickup for if theres a bit of a lead break!

i've used this theory for our band for ages, even playing stupid versions of our song in a jazz or country or speed metal way! the only time i've had to use a pick is in the studio for a certain tone for fast root noting stuff!

so saying tone is all in the fingers is for the most part true, where you play with your left hand (if you're right handed) has such a massive variety on tone theres very little need for further amp eq-ing, that said i very rarely play slap, in which case (possibly down to my little experience slapping) so do tweek a bit then

ooh and i actually took the tone control out of my bass and used the hole for my jack input instead

[chris_b]

[quote]....Anyone use tone controls....[/quote]
I'm not an extreame player and to get my sound I hardly ever change the controls on the amp. They stay the same for every gig I do from the Led Zep tribute to the acoustic duo. I make any changes, which will be pretty minimal, via the tone controls on the bass. I have the volume on the amp set pretty high and control that from the bass as well. If I'm using the 12's I add some mid and top on the bass and I run the bass pretty flat if I'm using the 10's.

Also from Kings Of Leon to T Rex I never vary the tone for any of the cover band numbers. It's me playing the bass so all the numbers are played using my sound.

I've made sure that my combination of amp and speakers work very well together with minimal tweaking.

[casapete]

I generally use my amp set flat - only use the tone controls where room/stage dictates i.e. to get rid of boom etc.
Keeping it simple works for me.

[4 Strings]

I get the comments about the LH500, I noticed that at the Victor Wooten thing in Romford. A good direction for new amps, me thought.

Also I get the comments about 'what's flat' as bass amps, in general, have a scoopy sort of sound when the controls are flat. (Try putting a recorded track through and you'll hear). I accept my Hartke amp gives me a scoopy sound.

If we assume manufacturers get their amps tried out by bass players before launching into production does this mean that we (in general) like a rather scoopy sound to add a bot of life? Would we be dissatisfied with a REALLY flat sound, like by plugging straight into a PA type power amp?

[Dood]

I admit it - I am a gadget freak and have spent years twiddling multiband graphic equalisers and faffing with all sorts of flashing lights and buttons.

I am really enjoying plugging straight in to a head which sounds brilliant straight out of the box and has only three tone controls - yet, with the interactivity can cover all the 'bases' I require.

[thodrik]

It depends on the bass and the amp and my ears. Generally I start with the amp flat, or at least what is considered flat for a particular amp, then work from that. I've found that I need to tweek the eq on the amp a fair if I'm using a passive Precision without any kind of additional pre amp. I understand that those with a Status, Wal or Fodera will not need to change settings as much (or at all) to get a great sound. I sometimes think its a bit of a badge of honour in these types of forums to claim that you always bypass or at least never touch the eq settings on your amp, but its still okay to go mad for any kind of eq/preamp pedal that comes on the market!

[KevB]

With my Trace GP7 combo I already had the 7 band EQ, compressor and 'shape' knobs to muck about with. Then I bought a Hartke Bass Attack pedal with various knobs to play with so I thought I wouldn't have to bother with anything on the amp any more but I've found I get the best sound for my current band by using all of them! I'm sure some will be cancelling out others but to go through all the possible permutations to figure which are absolutley essential would probably take days.

[escholl]

The short answer is yes, I use them all the time. Surely that's what they're there for?

Besides, it's not like my setup is flat anyway. The compressor's not flat, I don't think, at least it doesn't compress totally evenly, but it does sound good. My PBDDI is def not flat, and I use the eq and blend controls on there too to get each of the three presets sounding a bit different, and with different OD levels too. My amp's tone stack is flat? not flat? I would guess not. Then I boost a bit more at 330 and cut some 820 on the graphic, before driving two speakers which both have a massive sensitivity peak at 2k.

That never really changes however, if I want to change my sound I'll change how I play, how the pickups are blended, and where the tone control is on my bass. I never bother though because I only really need one sound, and some different drive levels.

[Prime_BASS]

I use my OTB flat, and let me and my bass do the eqing.

If I want more bass I'll play closer to the neck, if I want more treble I'll play closer to the bridge. More deep, go in series. Mid scoop, both pickups on full in parrallel. It means I got to change my style a bit but I don't have to keep arbitrarely turning knobs like one of doctor evils hench men.

[tauzero]

I use smiley face on my amp (Superfly 1000 through a Tech Soundsystems 4x10, so pretty hi-fi) but it's this



and not this

[Ian Savage]

I used to use the EQ footswitching on my amp a LOT - had it set on a 'slightly sad face' for the majority of gigging work, as there was more than enough 'oomph' from my P-bass and speaker setup, then EQ bypass on the footswitch for more quiet, mellow passages (i.e. when the guitarists went to their clean channels - on videos you could sometimes see all three of us hitting footswitches simultaniously, it was either really professional or a bit sad ).

And then I'd use the footswitchable preshape (smiley face EQ) when the lead guitarist started soloing, to fill a bit of the space he left.

I like EQ on bass amps, and I reckon that judiciously used it can 'lift' a whole set as unless you're AC/DC people start subconciously getting bored after half an hour or so if every instrument's making the same sound.

[ThomBassmonkey]

I have my thumb set to passive and my EQ flat most of the time. That being said though, my amp has a contour knob which scoops some that I have on about 5-6.

Generally though, I'll only touch the 4 band if I think the sound's suffering, last practice I turned down the bass a little because the room was quite boomy, that kinda thing.

[Dr.Dave]

[quote name='4 Strings' post='861792' date='Jun 9 2010, 09:10 AM']I know its horses for courses etc but I have still yet to play anywhere (from pubs to church halls to festivals to indoor parties) that's required me to use anything other than flat on the amp. I have been known to tweak the 'low pass' up a bit at home when at low volumes but that's about it.

There's graphic equalisers and all sorts of other knobs and sliders on amps but I always look for the bypass switch. Am I a purest or something or do people generally not use tone controls on amps? If so, maybe they could be made more simply and the money spent on tone control diverted to better capacitors or something.[/quote]

Seems pretty obvious to me that whatever it is you use is the right amp for you.

As a rule of thumb I try amps by setting everything at 12 oclock with all the bells and whistles switched off. If the basic tone I get pleases me I'm happy. If I have to swing on the knobs to get it somewhere like I'm not happy.
The only other things I want are a halfway decent DI out , a mute switch and a dedicated tuner out. (I do wish manfacturers would build useful things into amps like a tuner )

On stage I sometimes roll a little bass off if I'm playing the Status but other than that the only thing I touch is the gain. Down a bit for the Status , up a bit for the single coil Fender and up the middle for everything else.

I use the mute switch if I change basses but if you ever see me dicking with the knobs mid set it's because I just dropped a bollock and want to blame the amp!

[4 Strings]

"As a rule of thumb I try amps by setting everything at 12 oclock with all the bells and whistles switched off. If the basic tone I get pleases me I'm happy. If I have to swing on the knobs to get it somewhere like I'm not happy."

I remember in a band a long while ago the keyboardist was offered an old Marshall 50W guitar valve amp and thought it would be a cool thing to use. To get it sounding neutral he was wanting to use a graphic eq in the signal path otherwise it was boxy sounding. I told him that to change the signal so much meant it wasn't the right amp. He agreed and bought a 200W Frunt (remember those!) bass amp I was selling instead, much better all round!

(The Marshall was pre-master volume and so about a hundred quid, be ten times that now!)

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited February 15, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[cheddatom]

I've always had to use the graphic on my amp. I don't have a problem with that. If I had an amp that had my EQ built in i'd be pissed off because I like to change my sound. I need those controls!