Active bass and amp tone controls

1

I you play an active bass do you then leave all the tone controls on the amp flat and just adjust on the bass instead? It seems quicker that way? :slight_smile:

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This is how I do it mostly. My amp is all 12 o’clock and I shape things through the EQ on my multi-pedal since I have more granular control that way. I further fine tune on my basses that have pre-amps.

Still, depending on the pre-amp, the amp itself might have more EQ control knobs than the guitar. My amp has low/mid/high-mid/treble knobs. My active basses only have low/treble or low/mid/treble. In that case, it’s probably better to set things at the amp and fine tune with the active bass.

But that’s just me. This being the internet, I’m sure someone will be along shortly to tell me I’m doing it wrong.

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I am citing/paraphrasing @howard, who once put it like this:

“pedal EQ is for defining your sound, bass EQ is for a particular song, amp EQ is for the room”

Makes a lot of sense to me :smile:

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Yep. Just call me " Nostradumbass".

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5

Yeah that’s the mental model I use:

Amp - use the EQ to correct for the room acoustics.
Pedalboard - use the EQ to tame (or warp!) the sound after effects.
Bass onboard EQ - use this to change the sound of your uneffected bass.

Keeps it clean and simple to separate the three.

I still use this mental model, except now it’s for plugins in the effects chain :slight_smile:

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6

This always cracks me up :joy::rofl:

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7

no lies detected :rofl:

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8

Lmao! Imma steal this one.

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9

An oldie but a goodie.

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I wouldn’t go there. Your solution was legitimate, particularly if not using pedals.

Howard’s presentation just simplifies perspective to help keep all the different EQ’ing spots in order.

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