Amps speakers & god's basses(Alembics)

[terryc]

When I visited the factory four years ago..the lord of tone -  Ron Wickersham advised that a good quality power amp and speaker is suffice if you have good active tone circuits...now I put this to the test by setting all the controls on my peavey rig to neutral..no boost, no graphic..just use the input gain and master volume and you know the wizard of sound was right..you don't need any tone shaping at all from your amp.
 
terry capewell..UK

[flaxattack]

i knda agree. i have a line 6 pod that i play through. with all the shaping it allows, i find myself sticking to minimal effects, slight compression, drive

[harald_rost]

I'll second that. On my Eden WT-800 usualy all the parametric knobs are at 12 o'clock. This amp sounds without boosting any frequencies.  
 
Harald
 

[the_mule]

I couldn't agree more, my Orion and my EVH both sound absolutely fabulous with my Glockenklang in the bypass setting originally meant for amplifying double bass. I hardly use the EQ at all!
 
Wilfred

[palembic]

Weep-weep-weep and snodder ...oh my oh my  ...me with all those knobs on Tweak Peaks!
Hmmm... serious guys ...in a room -for instance at home- there is a more neutral setting. In higher volumes and in situations one have to play around the corner, cool down plush-and-wooden inns or warm up concrete dance-bunkers I do prefer my Tweak Peaks ...even WITH Bonnie (who has Series II electronics like you all know). Okay ...I admit ...lesser with Bonnie than with her sisters.
 
Paul the bad one

[dadabass2001]

My goal has always been to start at flat reponse in a new room, try to EQ the amp for deficiencies in the room acoustics, and then set MY tone on the bass.  
I noticed when I saw Jimmy Johnson playing with Chad Wackerman and Alan Holdsworth two weeks ago in Chicago that Jimmy had NO backline at all - just a tap (two?) off of his DS-5 into the PA and three floor wedges from the PA. His sound was extremely natural and full.
Mike

[gare]

Mike
You were at Durty Nellies for that too huh ?
 
Gary

[tom_z]

Durty Nellies?? That's a name from the past. If you mean the pub in Palatine, that is. I grew up about three blocks away.

[dadabass2001]

Yeah Gary,
 Were you there? I had never seen Jimmy live before (or with anyone but JT on videos). Durty Nellies was sweet. I sat about 20 feet in front of JJ. What a wonderful night. I stayed for the second set and loved it! I couldn't take my eyes off of Jimmy's bass (I LUV walnut!!) He's just sooo smoooth.
 
Mike

[gare]

Tom..yes,dats the place. Been completely rebuilt tho (thank God).
 
Mike, yup I were there, had to leave after 1st set tho..being a school night and all.
They were impressive.
 
But back to the subject (sorry we got sidetracked).
I've always started out with everything flat and worked out from there til I found the sound I liked,in the past I used a 31 band EQ to tune the amp to the room.
Still experimenting with my Excel,it has east meets west electronicals. Once the filter and amp are set it's nice to be able to tweak the sound with the treble and bass controls. I've also noticed that the settings on the amp are now turned way down from what I used with the Rickenbacker and the Spector. Also,I've turned off the graphic EQ on the head (Mesa 400+)  and recently patched in a parametric EQ in the effects loop. Got it,may as well try it..until I get around to an SF-2.  
G

[kungfusheriff]

Using the filters on my S2, run through a humble Amper B-100R, with my jazz trio yielded a cloudy sound that drove me nuts. I had both pups up full, both tone knobs at 50%, neck Q at about 5% and bridge Q at 75%. The amp was set flat with a bit of bass boost and the deep switch on. Whole frequency bands were disappearing..it was awful!
The sound cleared up marvelously with both filters off, and on the amp, having the deep switch off and the mid-cut switch on and backing off the low-mids a teeny bit.
A mid-shy sound is incredibly boring, almost painful, to listen to by itself but it sure mixes well under other instruments.

[adriaan]

Mid-shy sound mixes well - that depends on the amp and speakers. On SWR, a slight mid boost helps to cut through better, but when dialing in your sound on your own you probably would not add mid-boost as it sounds kind of annoying.

[ajdover]

I have to admit, I punch up all of my stuff on my SVT IV Pro.  My bass, mid,and treble knobs are pretty much maxed, and I adjust with the EQ.  I also have all the ultra hi and low switches engaged, and the bright switch as well.
 
It works for me.  And I use pretty much the same settings with a lot of different basses (two Alembics, two Fenders, two Gibsons, an original Musicman, a Pedulla, a Peavey, and a Rickenbacker).  Flat settings are just too .. boring, no balls, but that's my preference.  To each his own, as they say.  And an SF-2 in the mix doesn't hurt ....
 
Alan
 

[gare]

Alan
What speakers are you using. Sounds like you have a pretty BIG sound.
I player with a guitar once who used to walk over to his amp and roll his hand across the controls..putting everything at 10. When you got out away from the amp a bit where your hair wasnt standing straight out from the sound pressure it actually sounded great  

[ajdover]

Gare,
 
    I'm using whatever came stock in my Ampeg cabinets (BXT115HLF and BXT410HLF, 4 ohms).  They hold up well.  I don't know if my sound is big, as you say, but there's certainly no mistaking it for something else I think.  Like I said previously, it works for me pretty well.  I realize others probably wouldn't go that route, but hey, to each his/her own.
 
Alan