Here’s an insightful 5-minute video from Joe Gilder on using EQ vs. compression when mixing your bass.
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Cuz I’m a dumb noob, this applies also to EQ on our instrument signal, too, right? Vs mixer fixing in post? On an amp it would be a targeted mid scoop?
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You’re not “scooping” with an EQ. You’re surgically cutting a narrow frequency band. That’s something you could possibly do with an EQ pedal if it offers a 12 dB/octave slope around 150 Hz. You’d just have to try it and see what it sounds like. I’m not sure how much benefit there would be in a live setting, with so many things like room acoustics affecting the entire band’s mix.
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Answers several questions, thanks!
Got it. I see amps and pedals with gobs of selectable frequencies and sweeps that I’m not real interested in, and wondered if this relates to all that knob twiddling.
And again here, I know mids affect presence and that a mid scoop is a common desire or approach, yet my amp has only one mid knob which is generally recommended to be up a bit rather than down.
My ears are learning 
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Thats just a normal second order filter, basically normal EQ; any EQ pedal would have this but it’s going to be cutting the better part of an octave at a time (which is probably fine enough really)
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Down low, an 80Hz shelf sets the thumb (30–60Hz of weight) and relatively tucks mid-bass. Four-string fundamentals are not mysterious. Low E is about 41Hz. A is 55. D is 73. G is 98. Five-string B0 sits around 31Hz. Kick drum is the same story: the floor is sub, the punch you recognize as a kick is more like 60–100Hz plus a beater click much higher. Toms live in mid-bass body. If that low fundamental was the whole instrument, a sub shelf would be a gift. It is not the whole instrument.
So depending on the songs and how you play it. If you want to incorporate your “skills” the you want to dial up your mid a bit, the upper bass and lower mid is where your skills live. If not then the Marcus Miller style Bass and Treble and scoop mid serves just fine.
Of course this is more Nerdy Sh!t, 
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high pass filtering everything at about 50Hz and trimming away the low end rumble will sound a little less awesome in isolation but about 100x better in the mix.
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