eliminating the trebley clicking sound on my amp!

[Big Poppa]

see this is a great thread and i am not going to capitalize....hehehe

We usually get around to explaining the differences is active/passive and still it is amazing that we havent gotten the message across. THe two band StingRay is boost only. The three band is cut and boost. I know because it is one of the first things I commissioned when we bought the company

I guess the thing is natural to get excited by level. If you understand that you dont have to get it all out of your bass and that it is called an amplifier...it amplifies your bass.....you can start with it flat and also start with the volume about 80%....and if you want more level thats what gain is for on your amp.

THink about it.....if whispering is 1 on the knob and screaming is dimed or 10 would you scream all day.....first off it doesnt make sense in a musical context...you have nowhere to go if you already have the car floored and need more. secondly you are missing out on one of the benfits of an active instrument....the ability to reduce the instruments level without affecting the eq.

With a passive bass you really have to have it dimed to make it sound the best....(Please lets not argue about my Xerox PJ sounds best at 8.75) Generally speaking what Im saying is true.

Now to pickup height......Thanks Jonas for mentioning it...sort of! hehehe (more thanks for putting the later cavaet that you needed to see the bass to give accurate advice!...) WIth a passive bass and one that has tiny magnets (most) it is critical that you get the magnets as close to the strings without interference...with the Active bass and one that has HUGE magnets and two rows of them it is one of the single worst things and most common re adjustment we make. THe person gets the bass and says "This sounds good...just think how much better it would sound if I got those magnets closer to the strings!"

Now lets pair the person that has everything boosted the volume on 10 and has tweaked the set up so those magnets are almost touching.....His bass sounds like dog poop and it becomes our fault...thats ok...

One of the most important things to consider is that you want the magnet to "pickup" the vibration of the strings....with the big pole pieces you put them too close they not only pick up the strings vibration but the magnetic pull afftects the natural vibration of the string and will give you some really bad fundamentials especially as you shorten the scale length of the strings
epecially the low 'e'....(by shortening the scal length it means the higher the neck you play the shorter the scale)

Understand that that Clicky sound would have never existed if Leo Fender wasnt hard of hearing....he thought it was good...by accident or coincidence the coutry guys liked the 'pick click' and the slappers and poppers found nirvana...it was an accident...but because you can get all this eq means that you dont have to use it all the time and it has its place. Understanding this stuff makes playing a better experience...you play around your sound.....

I believe that threads thast talk about the proper applications of the stuff we make are fabulous and interesting. I think opportunities to discuss the science behind the art o making basses are powerful. I think asking strangers for diagnosis for a structural problem with your bass is futile and boring.



Kevins Thanks for the thread

happy Thanksgiving!

 

[five7]

+1

 

[oli@bass]

"This sounds good...just think how much better it would sound if I got those magnets closer to the strings!"

Hilarious!

And thanks for the rest of your post. Good reading. Once again, during the rehearsal yesterday evening, I enjoyed your wisdom of not diming the volume. And doing subtle adjustmenst on the EQ. It's really really a phantastic musical experience when an instrument is sensitive to the player's input and makes nuances of playing audible. But it is also a great challenge to master such an instrument. Thanks for making them!


Oh, and BTW, I am one of those who loves the StringRay for its clicky shiny sparkly top end.

 

[Hellboy]

THe two band StingRay is boost only. The three band is cut and boost. I know because it is one of the first things I commissioned when we bought the company

Is that so? lol I might get myself into deep trouble now but I´ve read that bass is boost only but treble is cut/boost but without the, hmmmmm what do you call it in english..... stop in the middle. 0 stop.... lol middle stop.....

My english is not as good as it used to......

I´m sure you´re right but I´ve read that in several places. And I used to have a vintage -76 Stingray and I´m rather sure that both bands are not boost only. But perhaps not.... lol I don´t know.....

Please correct me. Thrash my behind.

//J

 

[spencer]

Ugh, it's really not that big of a deal. If it's boost or a little cut.

People say it has a littlecut to the treble because to peoples ears it sounds like it has a little treble cut. But this is impossible to judge withhuman hearing. 2band is jut set it where it sounds good.

Human ears cannot tell what is perfectly flat and without that refrence point you cannot tell if it's a boost or a cut. Also even with the knobs on the stingray 3 band all set flat. IT'S STILL NOT PERFECTLY FLAT! You would have to plug you bass into a computer with a sound analizer, and levels will have to be all perfectly even tone flat. But it will never be.

 

[cellkirk74]

I hate to be picky...but is there any chance that we can use proper punctuation and capitalize words? I know kids don't bother anymore due to chat rooms and texting, but it would make posts easier to read.

I promise to try my best...but be patient with us non-natives...

 

[Powman]

I promise to try my best...but be patient with us non-natives...

Ah shucks, now I feel bad. I thought you were not using correct punctuation because you were a kid. I didn't see that you are from Frankfurt.

Meine aufrichtigen Entschuldigungen, mein Freund.

 

[kevins]

see this is a great thread and i am not going to capitalize....hehehe

We usually get around to explaining the differences is active/passive and still it is amazing that we havent gotten the message across. THe two band StingRay is boost only. The three band is cut and boost. I know because it is one of the first things I commissioned when we bought the company

I guess the thing is natural to get excited by level. If you understand that you dont have to get it all out of your bass and that it is called an amplifier...it amplifies your bass.....you can start with it flat and also start with the volume about 80%....and if you want more level thats what gain is for on your amp.

THink about it.....if whispering is 1 on the knob and screaming is dimed or 10 would you scream all day.....first off it doesnt make sense in a musical context...you have nowhere to go if you already have the car floored and need more. secondly you are missing out on one of the benfits of an active instrument....the ability to reduce the instruments level without affecting the eq.

With a passive bass you really have to have it dimed to make it sound the best....(Please lets not argue about my Xerox PJ sounds best at 8.75) Generally speaking what Im saying is true.

Now to pickup height......Thanks Jonas for mentioning it...sort of! hehehe (more thanks for putting the later cavaet that you needed to see the bass to give accurate advice!...) WIth a passive bass and one that has tiny magnets (most) it is critical that you get the magnets as close to the strings without interference...with the Active bass and one that has HUGE magnets and two rows of them it is one of the single worst things and most common re adjustment we make. THe person gets the bass and says "This sounds good...just think how much better it would sound if I got those magnets closer to the strings!"

Now lets pair the person that has everything boosted the volume on 10 and has tweaked the set up so those magnets are almost touching.....His bass sounds like dog poop and it becomes our fault...thats ok...

One of the most important things to consider is that you want the magnet to "pickup" the vibration of the strings....with the big pole pieces you put them too close they not only pick up the strings vibration but the magnetic pull afftects the natural vibration of the string and will give you some really bad fundamentials especially as you shorten the scale length of the strings
epecially the low 'e'....(by shortening the scal length it means the higher the neck you play the shorter the scale)

Understand that that Clicky sound would have never existed if Leo Fender wasnt hard of hearing....he thought it was good...by accident or coincidence the coutry guys liked the 'pick click' and the slappers and poppers found nirvana...it was an accident...but because you can get all this eq means that you dont have to use it all the time and it has its place. Understanding this stuff makes playing a better experience...you play around your sound.....

I believe that threads thast talk about the proper applications of the stuff we make are fabulous and interesting. I think opportunities to discuss the science behind the art o making basses are powerful. I think asking strangers for diagnosis for a structural problem with your bass is futile and boring.



Kevins Thanks for the thread

happy Thanksgiving!

that being said which is awesome, thanks for the information, is the factory settings allright for pickup height and all, amazingly enough, the pickups over the course of about 5 years of owning the thing have not shifted or anything and remain at factory height, i used to play using the pickups as a thumb rest long ago. so in all my quesiton is "is the factory setting a pretty good setting?" which im sure it probobly is right?

 

[kevins]

annnnnnd a question on tweeters. i have a horn tweeter or whats it called on my ampeg 200 watt cabinet of four tens but not on the 15. the four ten has 3 settings "off, -6, and 0" i usually have it on -6 it sounds the best to me. but what exactly does that thing do?

 

[oli@bass]

It attenuates the level of the horn by 6dB or switches it off.

 

[cellkirk74]

Ah shucks, now I feel bad. I thought you were not using correct punctuation because you were a kid. I didn't see that you are from Frankfurt.

Meine aufrichtigen Entschuldigungen, mein Freund.

No problem. Just out of interrest: what did i do wrong? It has been a long time since school.

 

[Hellboy]

Ugh, it's really not that big of a deal. If it's boost or a little cut.

People say it has a littlecut to the treble because to peoples ears it sounds like it has a little treble cut. But this is impossible to judge withhuman hearing. 2band is jut set it where it sounds good.

Sorry to say but that is not accurate in my world. There is a BIG technical difference if boost only or cut/boost and I would say that it makes a great difference when using the controls. Read under "PRE-AMPS"/"Introduction" here:

PRE-AMPS AND PUPS - Musicmanbass.org, Music Man, Musicman, Music Man Bass, Musicman Bass, Music Man Guitar

"Although the Treble and Bass controls have no centre detent position, the pre-amps appear to be CUT and BOOST with respect to the treble control . On the other hand, the pre-amp is boost only with respect to the bass control".

This is how I remember that the eq on my old -76 Stingray worked. You use the eq very differently if it´s boost only or cut/boost with 0 dB in the centre. If you boost the hi end you´ll always add noise from the electronics for one thing. A boost only treble control is a very bad idea because of this. You don´t want to add noise. I do think that those old ones had boost/cut treble.

//J

 

[Powman]

No problem. Just out of interrest: what did i do wrong? It has been a long time since school.

In your rather long post (that's ok), you never used a capital letter when you started a sentence. You also forgot to capitalize "I". It just makes it harder to read, that's all.

Cheers my friend!

 

[kevins]

It attenuates the level of the horn by 6dB or switches it off.

could you please explain that a little more?

 

[DaddyFlip]

I am butting in to explain the tweeter settings:

off: no sound from the tweeter at all
0: full output of the tweeter
-6: tweeter output is six decibels lower output than 0

You probably like the -6 because there will be less hiss and less 'click'. You might even like off. Hope this helps

 

[bovinehost]

Tweeters are for guitar players.

 

[projectapollo]

In my limited experience -- I use a 1x15 speaker at home. Then my church bought an SVT 8x10 bass cab. The difference in sound was unreal. The 10s, while agressive and punchy, definately bring out all the string and finger sounds. If you have those 10s elevated off the floor and on-axis to your ear, it would be quite startling, I'm sure. Just a thought.

 

[Hellboy]

Tweeters are for guitar players.

Yes. And G-strings are for strippers.

 

[keko]

Tweeters are for guitar players.

Sorry my friend, but I disagree!

It's usually contrary!

Especially when we talking about further PA support and it all have kind of tweeters, horns, or other Hf drivers in system.
Any instrument should have features to radiate whole tonal spectrum in the air!
That's my professional opinion as an sound engineer, and every musician must have an option to make setup of his/hers own instrument, tune it a bit with some preamp EQ and respect suggestions from soundman in studio or live performance!

But, I must also respect Your vision of bass sound, that's the way it works!

 

[Powman]

Yes. And G-strings are for strippers.

+!

But seriously, I have been thinking about stringing up a bass BEAD. That is, get a set of 5 strings and throw out the G-string...

Anyone else try that?

(Sorry, I am hijacking this thread and sending it in a new direction).