Your Favorite tone setting...

[frederic vidal]

Yes ken, a BT6 1992 with BT concentric 3 W circuit.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by frederic vidal

Yes ken, a BT6 1992 with BT concentric 3 W circuit.

To you and all the others I might add that tone settings on a bass will vary with the actual bass. If you have two Smith basses of the same model side by side but in different woods I can almost bet that you will set them differently even if only slightly.

When you play in various rooms, clubs, concert halls, different parts of the world or even different seasons in the same room, the sound traveling through the air will not be the same. You will probably adjust both your bass and your amp to get the sound closest to what's in your head or to please your ear.

How many of you agree on this?

[Anton Hasias]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

To you and all the others I might add that tone settings on a bass will vary with the actual bass. If you have two Smith basses of the same model side by side but in different woods I can almost bet that you will set them differently even if only slightly.

When you play in various rooms, clubs, concert halls, different parts of the world or even different seasons in the same room, the sound traveling through the air will not be the same. You will probably adjust both your bass and your amp to get the sound closest to what's in your head or to please your ear.

How many of you agree on this?

Absolutely agreed Ken, specially when we are speaking about a “Limited Edition" - lol

Best regards

[Bob Faulkner]

I agree, but I'll say that for any room I've never had to adjust any control more than maybe 1/8 turn.. At least on my Smith. it just sounds good in almost any environment =)

[frederic vidal]

I agree to, especialy when the weather is wet...

[Jose Bichoff]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

To you and all the others I might add that tone settings on a bass will vary with the actual bass. If you have two Smith basses of the same model side by side but in different woods I can almost bet that you will set them differently even if only slightly.

When you play in various rooms, clubs, concert halls, different parts of the world or even different seasons in the same room, the sound traveling through the air will not be the same. You will probably adjust both your bass and your amp to get the sound closest to what's in your head or to please your ear.

How many of you agree on this?

In my opinion everything changes every time I play... Distance from the amp, distance from another musicians, drum, brass section blowing your head out...
So, I leave my controls unchanged to send a flat tone to FOH, where a good sound engineer can shape my sound the way he wants, and I adjust the EQ in my amp to fit that specific room where I'm playing.
This makes sense to me since I like my bass flat.

[Amit Shtriker]

Same here...

If I don't get the sound I want with all EQ's flat (Including amp), I know that this is a result of a bad room, a mediocre amp or both... Then I will only play with the amp's EQ to get close to my sound, sending flat signal to FOH - most of the time I will not get exactly the sound I'm looking for from the amp..

Maybe for every situation and player there is the best bass/amp combination, but if I go through a good rig (ampeg SVT2Pro or SVT CL, paired with 8x10 or 2x15 are my favorites, also had good experience with Eden rigs and old fender BXR 400 heads with good cabs) all I need to do is to plug the bass, all EQ's flat, turn up the volume and this is my sound right there!

[Anton Hasias]

Hi everybody,

Runing the bass flat, to me it's like a hamburger without onions, mustard and ketchup.
On Smith basses we find one of the best bass 3 band eq ever and all the knobs are there to be tweaked in order to reach the best palette of sounds needed for the gigs or studio songs.
On amps like Ampeg or others, only the preamp section worth hundreds of $$ and I think it's a waiste of money to run these amps flat. (btw, if anybody knows how can we run an Ampeg SVT tube amp flat, please share, because I don't think it's possible - as only by the fact that you are playing a tube amp, the sound will be well coloured by the tubes)

So the eq board on Smith basses and amps is there to be utilised, and only our creativity must be the border line.
If not, a DI is largely enough...
It's just like some nice clothes; each time we wear something different we look a little different and generaly we wear for any occasion different closes (try to enter in your local Opera House dressed with your beloved rainbow coloured jogging sweat shirt...or better, nacked), but this will not change our personality.

Best regards

[Allan Padmore]

Originally Posted by Anton Hasias

Hi everybody,

Runing the bass flat, to me it's like a hamburger without onions, mustard and ketchup.
On Smith basses we find one of the best bass 3 band eq ever and all the knobs are there to be tweaked in order to reach the best palette of sounds needed for the gigs or studio songs.
On amps like Ampeg or others, only the preamp section worth hundreds of $$ and I think it's a waiste of money to run these amps flat. (btw, if anybody knows how can we run an Ampeg SVT tube amp flat, please share, because I don't think it's possible - as only by the fact that you are playing a tube amp, the sound will be well coloured by the tubes)

So the eq board on Smith basses and amps is there to be utilised, and only our creativity must be the border line.
If not, a DI is largely enough...
It's just like some nice clothes; each time we wear something different we look a little different and generaly we wear for any occasion different closes (try to enter in your local Opera House dressed with your beloved rainbow coloured jogging sweat shirt...or better, nacked), but this will not change our personality.

Best regards

Well said! I could never understand flat settings only regardless of room and speaker and all other components. Such a waste of high end electronics. If all a player needed was flat then cheaper would be better cost wise.

[Christopher Rhodes]

My favorite setting is ... well... a new set of Ken Smith Burner strings. The nickel type.

All the EQ settings cannot replace a fresh set of strings.

Secondly. A nice sounding cabinet seems to make the tone just pop out in the mix.

I know this is slightly off topic - but since the subject is "tone";
mentioning the basic ingredients wouldn't be too far off topic.

Bass (BMT or BSR) + New Strings (Burners) + Nice cabinet( a good one) = That sparkling Ken Smith Tone.

[Jose Bichoff]

Originally Posted by Allan Padmore

Well said! I could never understand flat settings only regardless of room and speaker and all other components. Such a waste of high end electronics. If all a player needed was flat then cheaper would be better cost wise.

Well, my point is that I do change EQs, but when I'm not in the studio I usually do that in my amp, not in the bass, so I can shape the sound to the room where I am and send the tone that I like from my bass to FOH.
Flat setting is just another one among infinite possibilities Ken's EQ provides. And I think it works just fine.

Best Regards