At some point, a working musician will walk into a gig, amp in hand, and be stopped. They’ll be handed a DI and a set of iffy headphones, and be told that “this is your rig.” No questions, or arguments. Please take your amp back to your car. And believe it or not, this is starting to become a regular occurrence, to the point where I bring my own headphones and preamp/DI of choice. But enough about that.
What do you do? As a bassist, we put a lot of weight on the sound that we get from our speakers, amplifiers and effects (for those that use/enjoy them), opting to have them shape our sound over the EQ that is onboard on our bass. You know, the one where you either keep the passive tone knob dimed and have the volume for both pickups on full, or the 3-band active EQ is always kept flat. In this situation, the knowledge of your EQ – not just how it works, but how it works on YOUR BASS – is going to save your butt, and ensure that your tone is exactly what is going to be sent to the front of house.
In an effort to remedy this situation and make sure that if/when it does happen to you, you’re completely prepared, here’s what I do with every bass that I have on a somewhat regular basis. It can be as short/long as you want, but the idea is that you play around with those knobs on your bass in an effort to understand not only what they do, but what they do on YOUR bass, because as we all know, an STC-3a preamp will sound one way with a 6-string bass, and completely different with a five string that has jazz pickups.
To start this off, we’re going to stick with either two volume knobs, or the master volume, blend configuration (and for those guys rockin’ a P-Bass or any other single pickup system, hang tight; I’m not leaving you out. Just right now). I know a lot of guys that play their jazz bass with both pickups at full gain, not realizing the amount of tonal difference that is available to you with just a quick twist. They just assume that “this is what a jazz bass sounds like,” and while that’s true to a point, there are a lot of variables that are still waiting to be uncovered.
So, let’s hear what the bass really has. Plug into your amp, and run the EQ on the amp completely flat. That’s right, you heard me. This exercise is to see what you can shape, tonewise, on your bass and your bass only. Once that’s set, put both volumes at full gain and play something that you’re familiar with, that you can use as a “control” groove on tone. Once that’s set, I want you to start with the neck pickup and dial it back to about 75% (or more, if you prefer). Play that same groove you played earlier, but try to listen and hear what is different about your tone. Is it tighter? Punchier? Where has the low end fundamental gone, or what has it changed to? Once you do that, pull the neck pickup volume back to 50% and repeat with 25% and then to the neck volume rolled all the way off, and you’re playing only with the bridge pickup.
Once we’re set with that, put the neck pickup volume back at full gain. This time, repeat the process with the bridge pickup volume, going from 75% to 50% to 25% and completely off. Make mental notes (or write them down, if you like) as to what is happening with your tone and your sound.
For those guys that have a master volume and a blend knob, you can do the same thing. Instead of fiddling with the volume knob however, we’re going to start with the blend knob right at the indent, so both pickups are mixed together at a 50%-50% split. Now, play that control groove and then move the blend knob to favor the neck pickup, rinse and repeat. After that is done, bring it back to the middle indent and start to favor the bridge pickup.
I know, at this point you’re probably saying “What are we doing? I’m just playing with the volume!” Much like how an artist creates a vivid orange by mixing in different amounts of red and yellow, your neck and bridge pickup work in the same way, to mix in a tone that is either dry and punchy, or warm and mellow. Just using the volume knobs or blend knob, you have a LOT of tonal differences available at your immediate disposal that you may/may not have looked at. While you may find a lot of tones that you don’t particularly prefer, don’t immediately write those off. I’ve played in situations where that setting I didn’t like turned out to be the ideal sound that was needed.
Next time, we’ll go into the passive tone knob and how that fits into the equation, especially once you’ve started to unlock the tonal possibilities that the volume knobs have. My personal favorite is with the blend favoring the bridge pickup at about a quarter (25%) turn. It gives me a little more bite over just the regular tone. What volume/blend settings that you’ve found that you like?