Because of the so named "internet wisdom" it is hard to find good advices about sound. Hard to find the right people, that are willing to share their experience.
Would you be so kind and share with us your experience?
Let's say you play with the Buzzard (it helps me have an ideea about the starting sound) How do you shape your sound? Where you boost, where you cut, where you leave?
How do you use the pickup blend?
Sorry if the question is too basic, but for me is very important to know
Thanks James!
Florin' my friend,
Over the years, I've used my Buzzards in a variety of ways (tonally that is)...
The one thing I've found about them is that it's really hard to disguise their inherent character. I have to tell you though as with most instruments, even the mighty buzzards vary in tone to a degree. I discovered this around 2005 when I was playing with the Black Label Society. You see I needed a backup to the black one I was using so I went down to Dana b. Goods who were distributing Warwick's in America at the time. They had 3 in stock. A black one like the one I had, a red one which actually looked "salmon" to me and a white one. Color wasn't so much a priority, I was interested in the tone and feel. We set up the three so I could grab them and plug them in and compare. I was astounded to find very subjective differences between the three. The Black one had a sort of a tighter Bottom then the other two. The Salmon had a more prominent upper mid register and the White one was the most neutral sounding of the three. They all possessed the same similar character but for me it had to do with how they pushed tonally through the amp. Ultimately I chose the black one to complement the black one I already owned. Sonically, the one I owned had more sibilant high's and more prominent subs.
This one seemed even more focused and actually became my #1 for the next year.
O.K so, how do I usually set my tone? On my amps, depending on which amp I'm using, I'll usually find a sweep on the midrange between 1 kHz and 2.5 kHz. What I'm looking for there is an attack frequency that embellishes the sound of my fingers hitting the strings or slamming down on the frets, think "bell sound". I may boost as little as 2db here or 6 db ...9 db if I'm feeling feisty. Treble comes in just over that and is is dependent on the Amps preset. It's usually in the 4kHz-5kHz range. I'll boost that till I see the guitar player getting pissed off, then I know I'm in the ball park. As for Bass, I like 40-50 Hz shelving over all. Maybe as much as 5-10 db. Get some air moving out of the boxes.
On the bass itself, depending on the style I'm emulating I'll go active or passive. Passive's great for a nostalgic older rock tone, I'll usually keep the balance mostly up on the Middle pick up and just add a hint of the back (bridge p/u). I'll find the "sweet spot" by hitting a middle A on the D string and listening for a prominent odd harmonic as I sweep the pickup selector knob, It's really cool when you get it right. I would normally set up like this during my Pride and Glory days. These days I like the active tone controls. I'll just add treble till the amp starts to suffer a bit and fill it out with bass if necessary.
Some of you may know I've developed my own distortion Pedal that sweeps the mids as I've described and filters this through a distortion circuit. This is the surest way to emulate what I do tonally and it's why I designed it in the first place. If you're interested it's called the "James LoMenzo Hyperdrive" by Ashdown. It's great to "light up" the mids on most basses and does a whole host of other distortion/overdrive tricks.
So that's the basic rundown of what I do, it's probably not every bass players cup of tea but I believe these Buzzards were meant to be exploited tonally so that's my approach.
Best,
James
