Author Topic: "Honky" tone (Read 573 times)

mica · « **Reply #15 on:** November 25, 2003, 11:59:30 AM »

All the set neck Alembics will have a more midrange-y tone, which may be described as honk. You may want to cut some mids at the amp to counter this natural sound of the bass.

You're in good hands with these experts at the Club, so keep trying, you'll get there.

kungfusheriff · « **Reply #16 on:** November 25, 2003, 05:14:27 PM »

I agree...I'm a midrange freak but Alembics don't seem to need a lot of those frequencies to sound good.
I once teamed my Spoiler with my SWR Baby Blue, neither of which I own today for some reason, cut the mids most of the way out, then boosted the bass and treble frequencies with the bass control set on 40 hertz. The aural enhancer was probably set to 9 or 10 o'clock and I used the neck pickup only.
It was an ungodly noise that made my bandmates very uncomfortable. Tight, pounding lows, cutting highs, and a deliciously audible detail to every note.

kr4bass · « **Reply #17 on:** November 26, 2003, 03:57:12 PM »

Well,thanks so much for the continued input, Mica described the tone better than I did. Anyway, I've played the bass thru a friends older Gallien-Kruger 400RB and.....well, I gotta lose the SWR. Looks like I'll be test driving some amp heads in the near future.The G-K gave me a much fuller sound without using my SansAmp. So, on your recommendations I'll be checking out Mesas, G-Ks and Ampegs.
Thanks again!

oujeebass · « **Reply #18 on:** December 18, 2003, 07:51:53 PM »

I have always liked the idea of having to much(in this case mids)cause you can always take away,but never add to. On my Epic, when I cut the bass I get a rise in perceived mids and I get alot of in between sounds adjusting the blend. I also tend to cut the treble since it smooths out the highs nicely. I have a bocate top,so I am not sure truely how much that affects the tone.Only because I haven't tried other Epics with different tops. I also like the fact that the neck pickup is very bassy. I typically just lower the volume a bit to attenuate. It will relly get the speakers moving.

hifibassman · « **Reply #19 on:** December 19, 2003, 05:57:15 AM »

post error.

(Message edited by hifibassman on December 19, 2003)

hifibassman · « **Reply #20 on:** December 19, 2003, 06:46:56 AM »

kr4bass:

As most of the gentlemen said above, you should consider is that this honkin tone you are describing is the fact that most rigs out there are not capable of reproducing an even tone across the upper frequency spectrum that your Alembic is capable of putting out with unprecedented smoothness and precision. Your Alembic bass is not the problem- trust me. You were probably expecting to hear the typical balsy beefy muffled and muted tone that everyone else in the music world is used to coming from a bass- this un-natural bass sound seems to be in every type of media imagineable. Not saying that other bass guitars are inferior, but they seem to clone each other sound-wise if you know what I mean. Who wants this?? You bought an Alembic, which pretty much defines what natural bass tone is.

You just have to either play with your rig settings and find a happy medium or find a new rig that can handle the Alembic. I'm not trying to portray myself as an extreme Alembic fanatic, but, you have graduated into a very different, much larger world of absolute natural tone... you just don't know what these basses are capable of.

btw, that SWR workingman's setup will produce a midrange heavy sound with little or no highs. I played an alembic on one of these and I do remember that I did not like the tone. I found the Eden 4 x 10 combo to sound much better even though that one is still limited in frequency range.

(Message edited by hifibassman on December 19, 2003)