Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Charlie most flatwound users including me think that they cut through the mix better for three reasons:
1. They occupy their own sonic space, the majority of their sound is an octave lower than the guitar's fundamental tones so when you play you hear the bass as a separate sound from the guitars not as something competing with the them for the same tones (bass overtones are right in the guitars frequency range) and:
2. Because of this the guitarist's will maybe play a little softer haha! as they also hear it as something separate not competing with them.
3. You can set them trebly (with your amp's settings) and really hear them well and they still don't interfere with the guitars as much.

Punch is all about low midrange. But back when amps had only bass and treble and basses had one tone control, a friend turned me on to the secret of cutting through. Here are his rules.

1. Bass tone control wide open.
2. Amp tone controls: Bass at 3, treble at 10.

Using these settings, I never had trouble being heard, no matter what speaker combo I used. All the other bassists in my area cranked bass to 10 and wondered why it was sheer slog.

These days I run amp and bass virtually flat and use rounds, but the net result is pretty much the same as it was 40 years ago. I still hear most bassists using too much bass on their amps. Went to a guitar workshop Tuesday and the bassist -- a killer with monster chops -- was lost in the mix, as usual.

I really like the tone of the BA210SP, run with flat Eq, with the SVT effect on. With the flatwounds, it's exactly what I've been "looking" for! The bass is maxed (execept for backing off the neck vol a touch.

Setting tones to a room is an art. A small tweak one way or the other can have a huge difference sometimes. I like playing outside because you don't have to worry about the acoustics. Outside is the best place to set up a bass. I agree a lot of bass players use too much bottom in their sound and it becomes muddy.

Bob - I have found that it's tough to get TOO much bottom with 2x10. It's tight and punches through real nice IMHO.

I use a 1x12 with tweeter, but it has so much bottom my sound man won't let me turn that knob past flat. I tried sneaking it up ONE NOTCH on Sunday and he came up between services and said "A Little heavy on the 100, Dave." But it sounds great on stage, so I take his word for what it sounds like in the mains.

I use 8x10's and let the soundmen collect unemployment, haha! If I have to use a soundman he puts a mic on my cab only and I TELL HIM how I want the bass in the room to sound: exactly like the sound coming from my cab and I will make him listen for a few minutes onstage to my cab. They work for us, it's not the other way around.

Good tip Bob!

You have to remind them who is working for who and we are the reason they have a job in the first place, I do it in a very nice way though, haha! Most sound people I have worked with are very accomodating and eager to please but then once in a while one comes along who is going to do it his way and thinks the bands are just extensions of his system like a new subwoofer or something and that's when our troubles begin. The bossy ones one don't seem to last very long though.

I've tried Chromes, but always found the D string doesn't sound quite like the others.

The best flats I've used are LaBella Deep Talking Bass Stainless Steel. Great strings! They sound a lot like the original Ric flats. One set lasted three years... then I broke one of them!

TI's are similar in sound and feel to the original Ric flats to me also.

"I figured Jeffrey would have stopped by on this thread by now. Maybe he's got a gig!"

I just got back from driving down to Stuart, Florida. Long weekend!

I am glad you like the Chromes and got all your bugs worked out with all the help from this very fong threat. It took me a while to read through it.

As to the D string issue David brought up, I replace the D string in a Super Soft set with a .055 so I now have a set that is 40-55-75-95 which is nicely balanced.

I took the only ones they had. It's a medium set but that's what I'm used to on my other basses. It sounds great. I'll probably have to get my next set via the internet as I don't like driving all the way across the valley and then dodge the hordes at Guitar center on the weekend!

I buy all my strings from www.juststrings.com