'ray eq

[ou7shined]

Something has been bugging me. I read that the active eq on my 2 band is boost only. Does this mean that in theory I should really be running it with both controls rolled right back then adjust up?

I always play with both controls fully up and roll back the highs or lows to suit the occasion. This has always worked well for me. However the signal from this bass is relatively hot (certainly the hottest bass I've ever owned) and I've always just accepted this.

What's been playing on my mind is at a crappy pub gig we headlined at a while back where I was playing through the house amp (a very used Ashdown MAG 300 > 4x10) and it was obvious during soundcheck that it couldn't handle the hot signal from this bass. It distorted at all settings other than dead quiet. I told the sound guy and at first he thought that it was just the sound I was going for. I let him tweak the input signal until at least he was happy but half way through our set the amp died and for the rest of the gig I had to go direct to the desk for FOH and out my front monitor for me (very strange only hearing the top register of what you are playing). My own rig handles my 'ray with ease so it never occurred to me at the time that maybe I should have simply cut the eq's right back.... and maybe not kill the guys amp.

 

[Duarte]

I think the general opinion about the 2 band rays is to not concentrate on whether the circuit is bossted/cut and the technicalities of it, but to just twist the knobs to find the sound that works. If you roll your EQ right back, I think I remember reading, there is some 'cut' to those frequencies. If this is in fact the case, I would simply put them roughly iin the middle position and tweak from there. But then again I always use a bit (or a quite a bit) of boost on the bass...

And the Stingray IS a hot bass. The signal is far hotter than my passive basses, and is hotter than most other active basses I have owned. It's the nature of it...so just be careful with it!

 

[AznKenshin]

Something has been bugging me. I read that the active eq on my 2 band is boost only. Does this mean that in theory I should really be running it with both controls rolled right back then adjust up?

I always play with both controls fully up and roll back the highs or lows to suit the occasion. This has always worked well for me. However the signal from this bass is relatively hot (certainly the hottest bass I've ever owned) and I've always just accepted this.

What's been playing on my mind is at a crappy pub gig we headlined at a while back where I was playing through the house amp (a very used Ashdown MAG 300 > 4x10) and it was obvious during soundcheck that it couldn't handle the hot signal from this bass. It distorted at all settings other than dead quiet. I told the sound guy and at first he thought that it was just the sound I was going for. I let the him tweak the input signal until at least he was happy but half way through our set the amp died and for the rest of the gig I had to go direct to the desk for FOH and out my front monitor for me (very strange only hearing the top register of what you are playing). My own rig handles my 'ray with ease so it never occurred to me at the time that maybe I should have simply cut the eq's right back.... and maybe not kill the guys amp.

Side question, might 3-band active EQ encounter the same problems as you?

 

[Caca de Kick]

If the signal is too hot, you should be using the padded/active input on the amp. Or turn down your volume knob.

My 2eq basses are only set at about 70% open on the treble, and 75% open on the bass. And I do keep the volume knob down some.

 

[ou7shined]

Side question, might 3-band active EQ encounter the same problems as you?

I'm not sure. Don't they have a centre indent with boost and cut?

 

[Caca de Kick]

It doesn't matter which eq you use 3 or 2, if you keep all the knobs cranked up you're typically going to distort the input on the amp.

 

[mynan]

Found this...

Mixed up,

It actually is a boost and cut function. The thing that throws everyone off is
their is no center detente position to let you know when your at a flat response.(The point where you are not adding or deleting any frequency) Try turning your treble control all the way up and your bass all the way down(counterclockwise). It should sound very thin. This means you have "cut" all the bass out of the mix. If you turn the knob halfway in the middle
then you have added back what you took away and are close to some flat response. Anything added by turning the knob all the way(Clockwise) would be a boost function. I hope this make sense.

Thanks

Derek

 

[Powman]

I have an Ashdown 300W with 2 inputs...one for passive basses (thats the High Inpedance input) and one for active basses (Thats the Low Inpedance input).

I use the Low input for the MM basses.

They have since changed the labelling on the inputs to a less confusing Active and Passive.

Anyhow, using an active bass on a passive input sounds like poo. Could that have been your issue?

 

[ou7shined]

I have an Ashdown 300W with 2 inputs...one for passive basses (thats the High Inpedance input) and one for active basses (Thats the Low Inpedance input).

I use the Low input for the MM basses.

They have since changed the labelling on the inputs to a less confusing Active and Passive.

Anyhow, using an active bass on a passive input sounds like poo. Could that have been your issue?

'Fraid not. I used to have my own Ashdowns (before MarkBass came along) so I know my way around them pretty well. It was the first thing the sound guy tried too. In the end we settled for a combination of what Caca de Kick suggested earlier. But it was still over the limit of what the amp could handle while being heard above the band. It was the house rig after all so it was pretty well tanned and might have been on the way out anyway but I can't help feeling guilty that I may have prolonged it's life had I thought to cut back some.

 

[ou7shined]

Found this...

That quote is very helpful. Cheers.
And it goes to prove that there is a bit of cut too because I tried it out and it does cut the bass. Normally you wouldn't have anything to compare it to but it just so happens that I tried the pickup from this bass in a different bass... a passive one. And there was a lot more bass from it run passive than I get when I fully cut it active. Case closed!

So the answer to my question is? No. If you run it from zero on the dials you are cutting frequency. The job now is to know where the crossover point is.

 

[MrMusashi]

the job is to listen to where it sounds good

MrM

 

[orpheus55]

I've learned the hard way that playing with the controls more or less on the indents works best. I use a small practice amp at home, an Ampeg BA112 and don't need to use the padded input; however, I have a DI with a pad that I use with my main rig and have never had the problem you referred to.

 

[drTStingray]

What's been playing on my mind is at a crappy pub gig we headlined at a while back where I was playing through the house amp (a very used Ashdown MAG 300 > 4x10) and it was obvious during soundcheck that it couldn't handle the hot signal from this bass

My son has a left hand Ray 3 band with a very hot output (more powerful than any of my three basses) - he uses an Ashdown MAG300 and cannot have the input above about 9 o clock without the VU being in the red............so he uses an Aphex Punch Factory compressor. which lets him increase the input on the amp a lot, whilst getting the EQ setting he wants from the bass - his bass sound is excellent with this set up.

 

[oli@bass]

The StingRay has a volume pot. A very good one that runs smoothly and works nicely. Use it!!!

 

[ou7shined]

The StingRay has a volume pot. A very good one that runs smoothly and works nicely. Use it!!!

Absolutely. That's great when using your own rig but in the example I gave earlier, turning down the volume would have rendered the house amp silent on stage.

 

[oli@bass]

Absolutely. That's great when using your own rig but in the example I gave earlier, turning down the volume would have rendered the house amp silent on stage.

From your earlier post, I didn't understand that you had to run the bass at 100% volume to get any sound at all. But that has nothing to do with the rig... I've never ever encountered a bass amp where you couldn't use the volume pot of the bass to control the volume.

Now I'm pretty sure that the amp was going to die anyway. That's why it distorted in any setting in the first place. Your StingRay has most probably nothing to do with it.

 

[ou7shined]

Yeah we are quite a loud band and that MAG300 just couldn't cope with us all at full tilt (my LMII wouldn't have had that problem). I feel a bit better that it probably wasn't entirely my fault.