5 Easy Tips for AWESOME Bass Tone - Online Bass Lessons
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Are you not happy with your tone? It’s a quicker fix than you might think! This lesson demonstrates five crucial tips for better tone that you can start implementing right this second. NOTE: Please listen to this lesson through a sound system or headphones to be able to hear the examples and tonal comparisons as optimally as possible, and download the free .PDF below for additional tone tips:
📊 FREE PDF DOWNLOAD: bit.ly/2HtQlQ2
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Messing up your pickup height sweet spot is true insanity. I hope everyone here appreciates such a commitment to the lesson.
Gotta take one for the team, sometimes. : )
Truth! On a stingray I guess it’s the sweet spot squared…
Great advice! I just wanna add a sixth one, and that is to consider where you choose to pluck/pick your strings; closer to the neck or closer to the bridge. It also makes a huge difference in the way your bass will sound.
Absolutely!
That has a huge impact. It does in guitar too. I tried to teach this to some former bandmates that always played near the neck and couldn't figure out why when I played guitar, I sounded better than them. I even demonstrated a sort of fake modulation effect my gradually moving my pick hand up and down the string as I played a repeating riff. They insisted I was using a flanger. Couldn't grasp that picking closer to the bridge gave brighter sounds and near the neck gave deeper sounds. 😂😂😂😂
New strings are like magic. Dramatic improvement for me, personally.
the 'start with the midrange' and then add the lows and highs is SUCH an amazing tip! THANK YOU
This was sincere, obviously as a result of tremendous experience and awesome in every way. Great things pointed out.
Thank you so much, Marko!
This is the best tutorial i've ever seen in my life! I've been playing bass now for about 30 years plus and people do like my sound, but there is still some way to go for me (btw. i also play a warwick). Thank you soooo much for this lesson .... priceless .... Take care
Same here marc. I'm not quite at the 30 yr but close. Im gonna try the gain boost over master volume
Great advise. Where were you 45 years ago? No one in the 70's was teaching "Tone" except the rare John Entwistle or Geddy Lee interview and gear videos. Good job!
Ya, and they werent many on demand in your pocket either. I feel you
The best bass guitarist of all time advocated setting high end on the bass first, then bringing in the low to get the right balance. On the amp, same deal, and include the midrange. Most bass amps don't have separate low and high midrange controls, unfortunately, but even just a single mid knob is helpful.
You taught me a valuable lessen. I don't record or play in a band, but i play for fun. i always wondered when I played along with music why I couldn't hear my bass the way I should. Even though it was prerecord music the bass didn't cut through. I did what you said with the mids. I boosted the low mids and the h mids leaving the bass and treble cut. I left the active electronics on my bass in the center position. played like that for about two hours. took a break, went back and started playing for another ten or fifteen minutes. you were right it stared sounding pretty good to me, so I started adding dome bass and treble, wow what a fuller sound! I did adjust the low mids and hi mids a touch, it's a nice full sound. If I need to add a touch of bass or treble, I do it on the active EQ on my basses. Thanks for the tips, I'm much happier with my sound.
Wow! Awesome to hear - a little EQ goes a long way! : )
I've been scooping mids since the 90s im learning to use them more. My basses are active aswell
I actually totally turned down/off the EQ on my active Status Graphite Bass, and use the EQ on my Preamp pedal.
Two things.
First, your speaker and cabinet may have a larger impact on your tone than many consider. DI signals, even patched to front of house PA systems can sound unimpressive because we are so used to hearing music recreated by a speaker pushing air. Can't get good EQ settings from an amp? It might be that you don't like your speakers. Thinking about changing your pickups to get better tone? Try using a different speaker cabinet, speaker size, and speaker combination. Even a speaker emulator can make a world of difference and improve the tone of the signal you send to the PA system.
Second, and as he says, the best bass tone is what fits in the mix...but, that does not mean the a scooped EQ is always bad. There may be cases where mid range on your bass signal chain may compete with other instruments. Depending on which instrument you begin recording, other instruments will need to be EQ adjusted accordingly. Here is a trick that I found to improve my bass tone in the mix:
-Find a tonal reference from a bassist who's tone you really like. Listen to how it fits in a mix, and try to determine if it is mid-focused, scooped, flat EQed, only low end, only upper mids and highs, etc. Try to achieve this tone with your bass, pedals and amp.
-Record a reference instrument track that is NOT bass (example, rhythm guitar).
-Track your bass using the settings from step one and use a frequency analyzer in a DAW to see how your bass overlays, or competes, with the reference instrument.
-Apply subtractive EQ to take away where the most sonic competition occurs to make space for each other. This reduction can be by changing your bass, pedal or amp settings.
-Trust your ears while EQing to fit the mix, and find the space where your bass neither disappears nor overpowers the other instruments. Look to compliment instead of compete.
Ultimately, the best bass tone is complimentary. It supports the other instruments, while having a space to be easily heard and differentiated, but this means fitting the mix. He is right that the best bass tone is rarely your solo bass tone when practicing at home, alone. Learn how to compliment by learning how to compromise your 'at home practice tone.'
Totally agree. The part of the EQ is controvertial, especially if you’re using a pick or a particularly aggressive sound in general your mids may be devastating. Of course the mids give you presence but in some genres you may don’t necessarly want to hear every single attack, the bass is often appreciated the moment it stops playing and all of the sudden you feel the “hole” that is created!
I've always scooped my mids. With my active basses i run thru a mesa di though. Your rite about speakers. Alot of time thats what im wanting to hear rather than my headset causing me to adjust eq when i just want that push
*complementary, but yeah 🙂
Even his bad tone sounds so pristine. It’s in the fingers!
10% of it, is in the fingers :3
One of the best lessons ever regarding this kind of "problems"! So helpful! Thanks, Mark!
Glad it helped! Thanks so much!!
Def gonna try the gain trick. Pretty much the only thing im doing thats not in line w this lesson is volume over gain. thank you
Makes a huge difference! Thanks for watching!
Just did the grounding eq on my sansamp and you were right I was blown away with how little bass trebble and presence I actually needed once I got the mid dialed in.
Andrew Rudd yeah, it’s great!
A lesson that I've been searching for so long, helped me a lot! Thank you.
Just took up the bass (guitarist) and your teaching me a great deal thanks!
I’m in the same boat!
It's fine to adjust the blend to slightly favor one or the other pick-up, depending on how you want to fine-tune your tone.
Great lesson! I'm new to bass so this is very helpful.
Great advice! I would add - check the neck/truss rod adjustment. The neck contour has a major impact on the tone of the bass.
You're right!
"competing with the low end of the guitar" should be the other way around
I agree!
I hadn't thought of it but, yes. Guitar players set the sound they want and bass players have to work within it.
Thank you for this excellent and educational video! I got so many good tips from this video! Many. Thank you for that!
Glad it was helpful!
Subtractive EQ is the way. Especially in the recording studio.
I use fender PJ basses. The front and back PU’s are for fingers and the PJ together, is for a pick. P + J together produces a scoop which balances out with the attack of a pick. The front PU has the most signal so I use it for fingers; when I switch to the pick and the PJ combination, the signal output is even.
Great points! I love a P/J - infact, I've recreated that schematic on every bass I've owned for years now, even if it's in a soapbar format. Black Album and Appetite are some of my favorite tones, and both recorded with P/J mostly.
This video took years for me too find. Now my search is finally complete. For someone to explain to me about the tones and eq’s. I want that consistent sound period. Thank you so much man.
Glad it could help man!! Appreciate the kind words!
I always felt guilty of dealing with the mid tones when nobody see me, THANKS!!
just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to do this video. great info! very informative. you are a hell of a bass player.
I learned so much on this video thanks alot!
Awesome!!
Thank you so much for this information. I wish I had seen this years ago.
You are so welcome!
Low mids sound good on clean bass tone, but I find that when you add distortion it can get a bit muddy. That's why I generally scoop the low mids just a little and add more high mids.
That approach made me drop outta the mix of my bands last recording. Last time I let the engineer touch my EQ. One guitar metal bands need the bass player to have solid low mids when the guitar players tone is already scooped.
Whether or not the bass tone is dry or overdriven.
Don't make that mistake kids!!!
I do the same. For me it's relatively small scoop (albeit with a Gallien Krueger). My drummer loves the tone because it leaves a "hole" for his toms.
So my only imputed for this vid is clipping on the amp can destroy the speakers if playing through a cab a dirty signal will damage the voice coils so what I would say is turn master to zero then turn the gain up till you see it clipping with heavy hits (slaps or pick strikes) and cut back till the clipping is minimal or gone. This gives you the best of best worlds as it's protects your amp and cab. Love the vids man
It really depends where the clipping occurres, preamp clipping is just overdrive, but poweramp clipping can indeed sometimes be harmful
This channel finally came up in my feed. The depth of information is spectacular. Subscribed here and now considering joining the site.
Thank you so much for that - glad the video was helpful! 🙏🏼
You may have just assumed this, or maybe I missed it, but I would add to the new string section a comment about tuning and intonation. Very basic, but I think it needs to be mentioned to both guitar players and bass players as well.
Good point!
Very very usefull tips and it's a 100% complete demonstration. And as always 'Less is More' the super secret of bassists.
The information you dropped on eqing was fantastic!
Glad it was helpful!
I change my strings every 3, 4, 5 months... regularly.
Clean your hands, don't sweat all over your strings IF you can help it (not for regular performers).
I play every day. I don't leave my basses laying around. They go in cases. I have only had dead strings after sweating on them. Don't stretch them when replacing them. Put them on, tune up and play. They will stretch to how you play. Very rarely do I have to tune up and it's by like half a cent.
Great insight!
Thanks for this video. I've been having the hardest time trying to figure out the eq settings. Always assumed mids were bad and always had a muddy tone because of it.
My main bass that I've been playing is a JS2 Concert and I've found that because the electronics are a bit cheaper (definitely gonna swap them out for probably EMGs because you can get pretty close to a direct upgrade of Jackson pickups) if I roll off the neck pickup to about 90-95, there's a sweet spot where the transient comes through a lot more in the neck pickup and gives a far more solid tone with more sustain.
Right now I'm playing a 5 string soundgear (low .150) for a band I recently joined that has passive single coil soap bar style pickups on the neck and bridge. They're wired to act as a single passive humbucker and it sounds awesome. It depends on the effects I'm using and how dirty the gain is, but with the neck at 0, it does get a lot of noise; I can however remedy it with a quick noise gate and a suppresion (tube compressors are a no no 😂)
P.S. Awesome video! I'm always looking for more and more things people use to justify different EQ moves and this was amazing!!
Nobody really talks much about pickup height, input gain vs masters, or how important fret choice can be. Definitely sharing this with some peeps.
Dude, that was the ultimate explanation for bass tone
Thank you so much! Glad it was helpful!
Incredible! The best overview of tone I've ever watched! Thanks for sharing!
Use the highest input gain you can get without clipping, or with the least clipping possible.
Sick guitar dude
You my friend are an amazing teacher thank you for your time and effort man I truly appreciate it. This video and your compression video have helped me immensely. Thanks again!!!!
Greeeeeat lesson!! Thank you!!!
Glad you liked it!
Context context context. It all depends the music context. Recording? Live? Practice room? EQ to suit
Yep!
Perfect tone
Very nice, just what I needed to get a better tone, thank you!
So many useful tips. Thank you
Great info!
I love the change between before and after. I cant wait to do that! Thanks, a big, big lot!
Now I clearly understand the mids and gain. Very helpful lesson, many thanks
Great advice
Thank you!
Wonderful video. I was under the impression you had a lot more views on this. So many things I never would've thought to do most of these tricks for helping my sound.
Found This extremely helpful. There are a lot of things in here I already do but now i know why and have a much understanding of how to set my Bass tone! I've looked for so long for an explanation like this, you have a new subscriber from it 😁
Thanks Shaun! That means a lot!
Great video, thank you. My first thought in the beginning was "hey, that sounds like my bass!" Looking forward to playing with these tricks tonight
Thanks man! Hope it'll help!
@@LowEndUniversity it did. Thanks!
I use the warwick pickup height 2mm both side :)
Awesome!
@@LowEndUniversity i also feel like adjusting bass mid or treble also depends on the room or the size of the place u play in
Thank you for the tips!
You bet!
Fantastic tips here, thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
great lesson! thanks
Amp EQ should be close to flat, and adjusted to the space where you'll be playing.
Thanks man amazing tips to better my sound live !!
I certainly see the value of the tips presented in this video, and will definitely use them in my own playing.
Still though, I don't think the A-B clip at the end really did a great job of illustrating Mark's points. Sure, the tone was more consistent, but it was also way more clangy and bordering on obnoxious in the mix (to my ears). Way too much high mids, too much gain, and it just sounded distracting.
I get that bassists shouldn't be lost in the mix, but they don't need to "cut through" either. They should be the glue that holds everything else in place. Just my $.02.
Thanks for your input! Just remember, 10 different bass players will tell you 10 different tones sound best. Purely subjective, and this is my personal approach!
Great lesson. So much useful information. Thank you.
Usually best to not play above the fifth fret of a string, unless you're going for a specific sound.
This is great advice, thanks!
gonna try this eq approach on my next gig, thx!
NICE !!
Thank you for the good information ✌️😎
No problem 👍
Question; If believe that's an Active Bass, at what setting is the EQ on your Bass BEFORE you adjusting the Amp EQ?
Cleaning the strings EVERY AFTER you play is a great solution to not buying new strings everytime. Have string cleaning fluid at all times, strings will last quite a long time and keep their sound crisp.
I actually totally turn down/off the EQ on my active Status Graphite Bass, and use the EQ on my Preamp pedal.
Glad you talk about the "Ground Up EQ", coincidentally, that's very close to my standard setting on my Preamp pedal.
I run my on-board EQ (on the bass) flat 99% of the time usually. Many audio engineers have encouraged this since boosting EQ can really clip out the output with some preamps. I mostly use them to cut - never boost. For instance, on tour, with a fresh set of strings, I'd cut back the treble just a bit sometimes, or if it was a really boomy stage, roll back the bass.
Agreed on wiping down strings - even just a dry cloth to get some of the sweat off, which will start to erode the sound a bit.
Ground Up EQ is for sure important! Really helps to objectify your ear and remove any bias.
@@LowEndUniversity I usually roll off the Preamp on my Bass entirely and use the Preamp pedal EQ. At times I dial in the Bass and Mids just a touch at around 7 o'clock mark.
My Bass uses 18 volts, hitting the Bass at flat makes it very boomy.
Thanks awesome!
You bet!
Appr. 8:30 I would like a pedal for skinny string bass notes to slowly lose bass tone option.
What I like about that amp is, it doesn't just go to 11, it goes to 12!
Beautiful bass
Great Tutorial! What about the tone knob on bass? Do you have both pickups and tone all the way up every time? Can you explain your approach briefly about the bass knobs settings? Thanks!
Thank you! This bass has an active preamp, so I don't have any of those passive controls (tone knob or individual pickup volume). I'd recommend the tone knob all the way open and both pickups all the way on for a passive bass! Make small adjustments on the tone knob as you play.
For active controls, I keep everything flat!
@@LowEndUniversity Thanks a lot!
thanks for the great advices! :)
Wish I new this when I started
Tone starts in the fingers 😊
It absolutely does! However, these are some additional tweaks to help keep the tone honest and maximized. But I'm a firm believer about it all being in the hands!
Amazing video! Thanks man! :)
Super informative and lots of food for thought, thanks for the info man!
Nice tips bro
Thanks bro
What about the EQ’s on the bass? What do we do with those?
I always leave those flat, or at the center detent position. That way I have room to turn up or down if I need to on the fly. These are for quick, mid-song adjustments, for example, if the next song is a really soft ballad and I want to remove some high-end, I can just turn the on-board treble knob down versus walking over to my amp.
Consistency from 1 track to another track shouldn't matter. Example, on the album "Signals" by Rush, Geddy Lee used a Rickenbacker, Fender Jazz & a Steinberger. Now, if you're editing a track with a DAW i.e. Pro Tools or Logic, then yes, you should keep your bass consistent.
Of course the "before" bassline with open strings in first position is going to sound different than the "after" with fretted notes in 5th position. The pickup height was different, the string age was different, the eq was different, and the gain setting was different. You should have A-B'd 1st position and 5th position AFTER adjusting the first four tips.
Always start with a bit more high end than you need. You can always cut something, but you can't boost what's not there to begin with.
New strings for every studio recording.
You show how to set your amp, but if my bass has active eq on it, what should I do? Set the bass mid and treble on the instrument to 0 and adjust the amp, vice versa, adjust both? I’ve necer been able to find the sweet spot
I'm in the same position, because the bass I'm using in this video is also a 3-band active EQ. I always leave my on-board bass EQ completely flat, and use that for SMALL adjustments mid-song if I need them. It's a lot easier to make tiny adjustments 3 inches away on your bass versus running over to your amp in the middle of a gig and making changes. So use this video to get the perfect tone, and use your bass here and there for small adjustments. I usually find myself turning the treble up and down here and there to get the perfect amount of cut.
Amazing! Thanks for the reply🤘🏼
Thanks man! Awesome lesson! What about the guitars own sound level knob? How to use it?
Andriejus Radcenko Keep it all the way up! And thanks man, glad you enjoyed it!
Lower volume dimes off treble and mid highs, giving less sound for gain to work off of. Too low and it gets muddy or the volume won't come through. On regular guitar, I like to keep it around 6-8 for clean stuff and 1-4 for heavy distortion. My strat sounds quite jangly at 10, sometimes full volume is not always what the song calls for. Keeping it lower for heavy distortion "tames" the sound, not as prone to feedback and string / pick noise, plus it's easy to cut the volume if gets too loud. I like to get my distortion to a point where it'll feedback at 8-10 so I can get it on demand, not sure if it's a popular technique.
Bass guitar is the same idea, only 9 times out of 10, you WANT your sound to be fully represented. But if there's something that's not quite right about your tone, turn the volume knob down a couple notches without completely lowering it. You'll notice the difference between a slightly dimed volume knob and full 10 if you're looking for it, might just be that little bit of extra smoothing out you need.
Hi, got back here afet three years. 🎉😊 How do you set guitars eq? Thanks!
Nice tutorial
thank you!
31:33 what was that? Can I get that notes?
I just know about your "Gain higher than volume" technique. So if we want to control the loudness of our bass, should we control it from amplifier volume knob or our bass guitar amp volume knob?
If I’m understanding you correctly, to be overall “louder”, you want to use the LAST volume knob in the signal chain (the one on your bass being first). So, this is usually an amp’s ‘Master’ control.
For most basses, just leave it all the way up, all the time.
For “Gain” or the “Input” volume knob (first one on the amp) this determines how much signal is “let in” the amp. The signal goes from here, through a preamp / EQ, then out to the master. By turning the ‘Gain’ volume up, you are getting more color from the preamp, but you can distort it if you use too much (clipping). So you want to turn it up just enough to have a good clean signal (maybe drive the preamp a bit for some saturation - really depends on the amp here). Then, once you have a SOUND you like, turn the Master up to your desired volume.
@@LowEndUniversity What if I have multi effects pedal? Should I put the volume knob on the pedal all the way up too? I use Zoom B1 Four.
Thank you for the first explanation!
No problem! I looked up that pedal. Yeah, it can get tricky the more volume knobs you have, because correct gain staging is really important. Because it’s a purely digital pedal, there isn’t any benefit from “driving” anything for tone - this is just digital volume. Usually with pedals, even ones like yours, I always make sure pedals are at unity gain, meaning your signal is the same volume when the pedal is both on or off. Once you find that spot, leave it as is. And just make sure you aren’t clipping/distorting the signal. What’s your amp setup?
@@LowEndUniversity For the amp at home, I simply use Roland Cube 30 Bass amp (Because of your video, I put all of the EQ on this Cube amp at 12 O'clock). It's been used since my first time learning bass.
For live gigs, I mostly get GK amp from the band equipments provider or simply D.I without going through an amp - to the sound man. That's why I get Zoom B1 Four as "DI amp" because it has DI effect patch too that can be customised.
Thanks for letting me know! Again, because the Zoom is purely a digital processor, you won't have any benefit from driving it past it's peak point. Get that pedal to where the volume is the same when it's completely off to when it's being used. After that, adjust the amp for your desired volume level (again, Master on the amp). Let the sound person adjust from there!
You mention the video on setting P/U height, but i did not find under your videos. Can you share the link? I play a Warwick bass and have the same Warwick head as you. I do play flats, but have used other strings in the past as well. When I adjust P/U heights to Warwick's recommendations, low end it too potent, especially open A. Would love to hear your suggestions seeing that we use the same equipment. I play small venues in a 70's - 90's rock band.
Hey Bob, it's on my lessons website! www.LowEndUniversity.com
Great question, and that's definitely a thing. Pickup heights alone aren't going to get things perfectly even. The pickup height method is to just get them as close as possible, but there are always overtones with every bass, amp, signal chain, that will accentuate certain frequencies. Make sure you're measuring through a DAW as your ear can trick you, depending on even the room you're in. (DAW method is just another way to check - I didn't mention in this video).
If things are still uneven, this is where a little EQ and compression can come into play. You can find that annoying frequency and trim it a bit, or just apply some light compression to help equalize everything. Maybe a Ratio of 4:1-6:1, fast attack, slow release, and just adjust threshold up and down until you hear a difference (but before it sounds squashed). Just experiment a bit!
ooof this is a useful video
The Mid Range is where Vocals, Guitars and Piano's Sit Most, Adding too much Mids on the Bass, Lowers the Low End, and you will end up competing with vocals and losing your Lower Frequencies if not eq'd well... also Bass would Never compete with a cymbal, the high end on cymbals and Hi Hats is barely approached by the High end on some vocalists (the airy frequencies)
Completely depends on the genre and song, there really are no blanket/standard rules for EQ like that. Mids are extremely important on bass to support the energy in the guitars and snare, and you can certainly have both with the right tone and mix context.
@@LowEndUniversity Indeed, I'm not saying Mids are not needed in Bass, however using them to cut trough a mix isn't really a priority for a bass player not playing solo. I particularly didn't agree with the statement that there is space in the Mid Range when a full band might which has Snares, Guitars, sometimes two, a piano and synth sounds..., someone has to pump the low end in a band, make the music sound wholesome. Sure add the mids as needed without ruining your low end in the Process..
Very interesting lesson man. Is that a 6 string Thumb with 26 frets?
Every metal Bass mix I've seen says turn down the mid's, as guitar is the mid range instrument and having too much mid freq on the Bass Guitar (or too much bass freq on the Guitar) makes everything mushy, muddy and undefined.
Sleep good tonight knowing they're wrong!
Been playing 20 years and didn’t know a lot of this.
Glad it helped!! Cheers!
Wha- omg-.... hi I’m Sara I play bass in a tribute band to death, a proto punk Detroit based band from the 70s, and the original bassist had other a p bass or a Rickenbacker, and I have a Ibanez mezzo and am trying to get a more lower tone and I haven’t changed my strings since I started playing bass 😃 (about 8 months😳) and I’m confused as to what type of tone is best for me and how often I should change my strings. My instructor recommended changing it about every 6 months and I have a gig in about 3 weeks. Help 😃 (tone tips?
hi whats the link to your pick up height adjustment. thank you
www.LowEndUniversity.com
If I were to use a few pedals in my signal-chain before my amp that also have EQ-settings (Pre-Amp and B7k for example), would you use the same method on those aswell or just leave either the pedals or the amp flat?
Love your playing. Greetings from Germany
Alot closer to the pickups on both pickups
Got way too hype hearing Bob James during the pickup adjusting time lapse!