Learnt a lesson or two last night.

[azzyrazzy]

Last night I participated in and band-party of sorts. It was like a big party but rigged with a big stage with a decent backline. The arrangement was that each band performed 2 or three songs each. I think there were 10-12 bands in total. Mostly countryrock music was being played this night. I didn't know that beforehand.

For some reason I was unsure of what to expect and didn't want to bring my valuable Warwick to this gig. I just brought my Fender Japan jazz bass. This was the mistake.

The opening band had a bassist playing his own rig. He used an Eugen Custom bass and it sounded great. They probably had the sound check for this event.
Band number two, comes on, and the bassist has a FNA Jazzman and he sounded amazing through this rig and PA.

Then we were up. In short, I had the lower output of a Jazz, and the soundman was sleeping. I was way low. I turned up the stage amp so it helped me a little on stage at least. Afterwards I saw several Jazz basses, and they were all too low and weak in sound.

Moral of the story is; bring a high output bass to a multi band backlined rig. If it's an active Warwick, that's the best

Also, bring your own tuner. The backline had none, and there was little time to prepare before you had to start playing.

 

[sprocket]

Thanx for the lessons Azzy .

 

[Nachobassman]

I did not buy two ´wicks to keep them at home.

Remember, let the wookie win, I mean, let the Warwick play the gig.

 

[shaftbass]

When a place has good backline, the only things I don't bring are amp, speaker cable, and cab. I still bring everything else I'd bring to play.

Also, hell, bring your Warwick every time man! They don't confiscate your bass a the door; it stays in your possession the whole time so, bring the bass you really want to play.

 

[DiMarco]

Erm... The problem wasn't the jazz bass tbh. Those are excellent instruments.

The soundman was an asshole that's all. Besides that you want to use a D.I. that comes after the gain stage of the amplifier so you can adjust.

Don't let ANY soundguy tell you how to hook up your instrument. You make the rules.
30 years ago it was common practice to hook up a bass directly to the front of house system through D.I.

Nowadays a lot of your sound comes from effects caused by the bass amp (like tube overdrive etc.) and your stompboxes are tweaked for use through this rig so tell any soundguy who is stuck in the eighties or worse to go and ♣♣♣♣ himself.

Too many bass player's gigs are being screwed up by bad soundguys and their shortcuts. A Bassguitar is just important as any other instrument and deserves more attention.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Florin]

The Jazzbass is a great bass... However I do agree with azzy, the Wick has better frequencies to help the bass to cut through. (it is not about the output, but about the right mids IMHO) If the bass is boomy, the soundguy cannot mix it too loud in the mix, as it will hide other instruments.
And I agree about some soundguys being assholes, but this is the part of the game, I usually go to them and tell them what I want from my sound.
Anyway, thanks for sharing

 

[Augie]

I have hadthe opposite problem at a battle of the bands. Backline was an ampeg classic in one heat and a marshal all valve thingy. No pads for active basses on either. So high output basses could NOT get a clean tone out of the heads, and OD/fuzz/distortion pedals caused massive gain overloads and clipping. Couple guys with P basses soudned fat and warm. Unfortunately they were all rock metal bands so there were a couple wicks and active ibbys that sounded distorted, clipped and farty. And hideous if you even looked at an overdrive. After the first gig i just told the sound guy turn off the cab mic, 100% DI after my effects and pump the Di through the folds, even turned the amp down to zero during the gig as the flabby fart-mess coming from it wheever i used my OD was offputting and just went by the folds.

 

[sprocket]

Well does one needs to know in advance what equipement will be there ! We better have good luck .

 

[Florin]

From my experience, the best thing is to have a lower signal, not a hotter. If you are playing in a club, together with other bands, you might want to set the backline as quiet as possible, and the DI output not to clip the FOH input.
Going to the sound engineer before your set and telling him that you actually plan to set the backline volume, LOWER, and telling him that you want to be sure you don't clip his console, will make him feel like you respect him and his work, and he will probably do a good job with your bass.
"Hey, I want to be sure my signal is not too hot, please make me a sign if it is clipping"
A quiet backline volume will make him turn you louder on the PA. In a medium/ small club, the sound coming from a large amp will be enough. The problem is that that sound will not be heard the same all around the venue, so it is better to have the bass on the PA, and as little as possible on backline/ monitors. BTW, asking for bass in the monitor to compensate the lack of backline power is OK, as the monitor is facing you, not the audience.

Another trick is to avoid too much lows, a low cut below 40 - 60 hz is a great idea if you want a clean, cutting bass sound, with actually stronger low end and presence.

 

[DiMarco]

Indeed, the lower sub frequencies will swamp most speakers, making it sound less powerful.

 

[azzyrazzy]

Great replies. I think for the gig where you can choose monitor/stage rig volume, get a soundcheck and can talk to the soundman, is different from the chaos I was experiencing

 

[golem]

`




Fishman active DI. Various models, some
with fancy EQ, some not. About 80 - 130
$US in the States. Will get you the sound
you want [or at least pretty close] despite
sleeping/absent/stoned sound techs, etc.

 

[Stroud]

Flo is right. Ironically enough, whenever i engineer gigs, I always end up asking a lot of bassists to get rid of quite a lot of lows, if they want a powerful low end sound. Whacking up the bass makes cheap amps sound nice but as soon as you get the signal to the desk its useless. The best way to have a powerful bass sound is to be able to get the bass pretty loud through the PA and if you have too many lows...you just get a messy boom tone that has to be kept low in the mix.