First, just to clarify, EQ, means equalization - does this mean pretty much all of the dials, buttons, and knobs on your amp (or on your bass, if it is an active bass), or is it just referring to the Bass, Mid, and Treble knobs? Is any type of tone shaping the same as EQ? (For example, are pedals, part of EQ?)
I’m still pretty unsophisticated on this topic - in the beginning of B2B, Josh just recommends you set your amp to neutral, or, all dials, at “12 O’clock”, or about mid-way. So I did this in the beginning, then began experimenting recently. But, I guess my ears are still pretty untutored, so, my big question is: What EQ settings do you use on your amp?
To keep this somewhat simple, let’s just stick to a very basic bass amp, suppose it only had 3 dials: Bass, Mid, and Treble. If you were going to plug your bass into this amp, where would you set just these 3 dials? And why?
I’ve played around with the dials on my Rumble 25 amp, but mostly kept the bass at about 2:00 an the treble at 10:00. Turning the treble down seems to have solved much of my string scraping issues. I’m no expert, of course, but that’s how I roll. I’m sure you’ll get better advice from the more experienced people on this forum.
the equalization refers as the tone shaping in term of frequencies and not the other knobs like gain for example. an onboard preamp with bass/treble is a part of the equalization too, same things with pedals and obviously the amp.
the settings vary from one amp to another and one bass to another. what Josh said in the course is the right way to do when you don’t know an amp : everything in the middle, and then you can make some corrections if needed. I don’t know how to answer your question as my settings may greatly vary, depending on the context.
The settings also vary style to style. There is no end to this. Really, you just need to play with it a bit for any new combo of bass, amp, and style. Luckily over time some general rules will solidify for you.
A few general examples might be that turning the treble down a bit will tend towards a more classic sound, while modern bass usually has some high end to it as well. As @PamPurrs noticed, rolling the treble off a bit can help with noise (both preamp and string noise.)
Slap and some other styles sound better with a “mid scoop”, where the mids are slightly lowered while boosting treble and bass a bit (or not; the important part is lowering the mids.) Conversely, boosting the mids will give you a more “punchy” sound.
These are very broad and basic generalizations and don’t affect effects directly - they are kind of two different dimensions of sound you can control. For example, both scooped mids and boosted mids sound great with a compressor and benefit in different ways.
This is one of those those things where just playing with it and finding sounds you like is probably better than trying to read about it, except in very general terms. In other words, don’t expect to find recipes like “Set bass at 13:00, mid at 9:00, and treble at 13:00”. At most someone might just recommend to “scoop the mids” in that case.
yeah there is no end to this. I may add a funny thing : EQ can vary a lot on different places of the signal chain. for example I tend to set up my OD/preamp very bright and the amp much more bassy. the two EQ balance each other and this kind of settings allow me to have an agressive overdrive in the treble, and a much cleaner tone in the bass frequencies.
that’s just an example, it’s very personnal and you can do a lot with EQs.
Yeah it’s funny how much there is to this for control, especially if you’re like @terb and I and have a few preamp/EQs in your effects chain. For example, I tend to roll treble off a bit on my bass when it is active, to try and kill noise early in the chain, before it goes through three other preamps. It would be equally valid to filter it at the end.
Hey Joe, sorry to stray from the topic here for a minute, but I notice you have a Rumble 100. I’ve been thinking of upgrading my Rumble 25 to either a Rumble 40 or Rumble 100. My fear is that the Rumble 100 may be overkill for practicing in my house. What are your thoughts?
Hey, @PamPurrs . . . I upgraded from the Rumble 25 to the 100 a few months ago and have been very happy with my purchase! The 25 is fine for practicing, but the larger 100 is also capable of playing smaller venue gigs and has more versatility and features.
It’s about the same weight and is just slightly larger than the 25, so it is very easy to handle and transport. The 12" speaker vs the 8" sounds better, too.
If you are concerned that it may be too loud, don’t worry. All the Rumble knobs go from “off” (7 o’ clock) to full “on” at (5 o’ clock). As I mentioned above, I set my volume at 9 o’ clock which is plenty loud for practicing but not loud enough to cause complaints from the neighbors in my apartment complex.
I’ve been experimenting a lot with the different knob settings, and seem to have settled on the ones I mentioned above. Some settings I don’t like very much (contour and bright), and some I’m still testing, but they depend on personal taste and the settings on the particular bass guitar being used.
All in all, I’m very happy with this amp and would recommend it to anyone.
If you have any other questions, I would be happy to try and answer them.
to chip in, i also own a rumble 100 and it made a whole difference to my playing.
I have gain and master just the other way around as Joe, am using no filters other than for fun sometimes, and have he treble dialed down all the way and high mid around 10
than I will tweak the EQ on my bass for my preferred sound
only bummer about this amp is that the master volume controls the line out as well
Lol! It’s all good, and I don’t mind a good amp discussion, geared more towards beginners. I’ve been trying out amps for awhile myself, figuring out the different tone controls. I really like that Rumble series as well, and am considering that 100 or maybe the 200. I want something that is easily portable, but also powerful, and all-in-one, and those Rumbles nicely fit that bill. Something that can be cranked up at home, but maybe that can be taken to small venues, and do the job, one day, if I start looking for jam sessions, or a band at some point.
So, your inquiries are similar to mine with some of this gear
@fabiogrmelo First off, Welcome to the BassBuzz forums!
Also, don’t worry too much about the amp. We all have to start somewhere to learn what we really want and it doesn’t hurt to have an extra practice amp hanging around.
I upgraded from the Rumble 25 to the 100 a few months ago and have been very happy with my purchase! The 25 is fine for practicing, but the larger 100 is also capable of playing smaller venue gigs and has more versatility and features.
