Can someone help with my tone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can someone help with my tone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello again i need serious help again having trouble with my tone. Im currently playing through a gallien krueger 1 15 cab and when i turn up im losing serious tone, i know its from our tuning because we tune down to cgcf, when im in standard i dont lose anything but when dropped down it gets all muddy and crappy sounding. Now my question is since this cab is with out a horn could that be the problom and if it is, is it possible to get a horn put in? and how much would i be looking at to get this done, or is it cheaper to just add another cabinet to it, like a 210 or something please someone help me figure this out im not good at technical stuff, im basically looking for the best and cheapest way around this also if i go from the strings im using currently which are the thickest diameter gauge they had, to a smaller diameter will that fix it or no? thanks for your help everyone.
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bassist_25
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6815
- Joined: Monday Dec 09, 2002
- Location: Indiana
There's probably a number of reasons why you're not satisfied with your tone. I remember one of your posts from a while back and you talked about what head you were using. I forget what you exactly said it was, but if I recall correctly, it didn't have a lot of power, around 200 watts maybe? The low tones you are producing require a lot of head room. A hundred or so watts isn't going to cut it in a loud band situation when you're playing a low C.
The cabinet may be some source of your problem. 15 inch speakers are "slower" responding than 10's, 12's, and 8's, and may sound sluggish, especially in the low tunings. Your cab probably doesn't have a wide enough frequency range to reproduce the fundamental of the C. Which in this case, may be a good thing. I personally like cabinets that roll off before the fundamental of such low notes. It makes them "punch" more than "boom". Also, if your cabinet is rear-ported, make sure that you don't have it pressed up flux against a wall. Covering the ports will make things muddy, and may even cause speaker over-excushion. Your cabinet's probably a good cab. The GK stuff is quality. Even the Backline series is good stuff for being a budget line.
A horn uses a cross-over to produce frequencies that would otherwise sound "honky" through speakers. A horn can really make slapping, chording, and pick playing cut through a mix better, but adding a horn won't automatically take a crappy tone and make it sound awesome.
As Mitch mentioned, EQing could be a serious problem. Too many lows may create nothing but rumble. Make sure you have those mids EQed in.
If you're tuning down to C, your bass probably may not be properly set up to play in that register. For those low notes, you need a heavy guage string. Basses aren't set up stock to handle those tunings. I would take it to a skilled tech to have the action, intonatation, truss rod, and nut adjusted for that tuning. Most people probably already knew that I was going to say this, but if you are playing down in C, then I would definitely recommend a 5 string. They are made to be used with a low B.
Try some of these ideas and let us know how they work. I know that you said you wanted a cheap solution to good tone, but without taking technique into consideration (which is where the majority of a player's sound comes from), cheap and good are usually not one and the same. There's a reason why a Beheringer cabinet costs $300 and an Eden cabinet costs $1000. But that doesn't mean that you can't find a middle ground. Good luck in your search for tone.
The cabinet may be some source of your problem. 15 inch speakers are "slower" responding than 10's, 12's, and 8's, and may sound sluggish, especially in the low tunings. Your cab probably doesn't have a wide enough frequency range to reproduce the fundamental of the C. Which in this case, may be a good thing. I personally like cabinets that roll off before the fundamental of such low notes. It makes them "punch" more than "boom". Also, if your cabinet is rear-ported, make sure that you don't have it pressed up flux against a wall. Covering the ports will make things muddy, and may even cause speaker over-excushion. Your cabinet's probably a good cab. The GK stuff is quality. Even the Backline series is good stuff for being a budget line.
A horn uses a cross-over to produce frequencies that would otherwise sound "honky" through speakers. A horn can really make slapping, chording, and pick playing cut through a mix better, but adding a horn won't automatically take a crappy tone and make it sound awesome.
As Mitch mentioned, EQing could be a serious problem. Too many lows may create nothing but rumble. Make sure you have those mids EQed in.
If you're tuning down to C, your bass probably may not be properly set up to play in that register. For those low notes, you need a heavy guage string. Basses aren't set up stock to handle those tunings. I would take it to a skilled tech to have the action, intonatation, truss rod, and nut adjusted for that tuning. Most people probably already knew that I was going to say this, but if you are playing down in C, then I would definitely recommend a 5 string. They are made to be used with a low B.
Try some of these ideas and let us know how they work. I know that you said you wanted a cheap solution to good tone, but without taking technique into consideration (which is where the majority of a player's sound comes from), cheap and good are usually not one and the same. There's a reason why a Beheringer cabinet costs $300 and an Eden cabinet costs $1000. But that doesn't mean that you can't find a middle ground. Good luck in your search for tone.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.