5 Easy Tips for AWESOME Bass Tone - Online Bass Lessons 

Messing up your pickup height sweet spot is true insanity. I hope everyone here appreciates such a commitment to the lesson.

New strings are like magic. Dramatic improvement for me, personally.

Great advice! I just wanna add a sixth one, and that is to consider where you choose to pluck/pick your strings; closer to the neck or closer to the bridge. It also makes a huge difference in the way your bass will sound.

the 'start with the midrange' and then add the lows and highs is SUCH an amazing tip! THANK YOU

This was sincere, obviously as a result of tremendous experience and awesome in every way. Great things pointed out.

This is the best tutorial i've ever seen in my life! I've been playing bass now for about 30 years plus and people do like my sound, but there is still some way to go for me (btw. i also play a warwick). Thank you soooo much for this lesson .... priceless .... Take care

Great advise. Where were you 45 years ago? No one in the 70's was teaching "Tone" except the rare John Entwistle or Geddy Lee interview and gear videos. Good job!

Even his bad tone sounds so pristine. It’s in the fingers!

Two things. First, your speaker and cabinet may have a larger impact on your tone than many consider. DI signals, even patched to front of house PA systems can sound unimpressive because we are so used to hearing music recreated by a speaker pushing air. Can't get good EQ settings from an amp? It might be that you don't like your speakers. Thinking about changing your pickups to get better tone? Try using a different speaker cabinet, speaker size, and speaker combination. Even a speaker emulator can make a world of difference and improve the tone of the signal you send to the PA system. Second, and as he says, the best bass tone is what fits in the mix...but, that does not mean the a scooped EQ is always bad. There may be cases where mid range on your bass signal chain may compete with other instruments. Depending on which instrument you begin recording, other instruments will need to be EQ adjusted accordingly. Here is a trick that I found to improve my bass tone in the mix: -Find a tonal reference from a bassist who's tone you really like. Listen to how it fits in a mix, and try to determine if it is mid-focused, scooped, flat EQed, only low end, only upper mids and highs, etc. Try to achieve this tone with your bass, pedals and amp. -Record a reference instrument track that is NOT bass (example, rhythm guitar). -Track your bass using the settings from step one and use a frequency analyzer in a DAW to see how your bass overlays, or competes, with the reference instrument. -Apply subtractive EQ to take away where the most sonic competition occurs to make space for each other. This reduction can be by changing your bass, pedal or amp settings. -Trust your ears while EQing to fit the mix, and find the space where your bass neither disappears nor overpowers the other instruments. Look to compliment instead of compete. Ultimately, the best bass tone is complimentary. It supports the other instruments, while having a space to be easily heard and differentiated, but this means fitting the mix. He is right that the best bass tone is rarely your solo bass tone when practicing at home, alone. Learn how to compliment by learning how to compromise your 'at home practice tone.'

One of the best lessons ever regarding this kind of "problems"! So helpful! Thanks, Mark!

You taught me a valuable lessen. I don't record or play in a band, but i play for fun. i always wondered when I played along with music why I couldn't hear my bass the way I should. Even though it was prerecord music the bass didn't cut through. I did what you said with the mids. I boosted the low mids and the h mids leaving the bass and treble cut. I left the active electronics on my bass in the center position. played like that for about two hours. took a break, went back and started playing for another ten or fifteen minutes. you were right it stared sounding pretty good to me, so I started adding dome bass and treble, wow what a fuller sound! I did adjust the low mids and hi mids a touch, it's a nice full sound. If I need to add a touch of bass or treble, I do it on the active EQ on my basses. Thanks for the tips, I'm much happier with my sound.

A lesson that I've been searching for so long, helped me a lot! Thank you.

Just did the grounding eq on my sansamp and you were right I was blown away with how little bass trebble and presence I actually needed once I got the mid dialed in.

"competing with the low end of the guitar" should be the other way around

just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to do this video. great info! very informative. you are a hell of a bass player.

Def gonna try the gain trick. Pretty much the only thing im doing thats not in line w this lesson is volume over gain. thank you

Just took up the bass (guitarist) and your teaching me a great deal thanks!

I always felt guilty of dealing with the mid tones when nobody see me, THANKS!!

This video took years for me too find. Now my search is finally complete. For someone to explain to me about the tones and eq’s. I want that consistent sound period. Thank you so much man.

This channel finally came up in my feed. The depth of information is spectacular. Subscribed here and now considering joining the site.

Great advice! I would add - check the neck/truss rod adjustment. The neck contour has a major impact on the tone of the bass.

Thank you for this excellent and educational video! I got so many good tips from this video! Many. Thank you for that!

Very very usefull tips and it's a 100% complete demonstration. And as always 'Less is More' the super secret of bassists.

I use fender PJ basses. The front and back PU’s are for fingers and the PJ together, is for a pick. P + J together produces a scoop which balances out with the attack of a pick. The front PU has the most signal so I use it for fingers; when I switch to the pick and the PJ combination, the signal output is even.

I learned so much on this video thanks alot!

I change my strings every 3, 4, 5 months... regularly. Clean your hands, don't sweat all over your strings IF you can help it (not for regular performers). I play every day. I don't leave my basses laying around. They go in cases. I have only had dead strings after sweating on them. Don't stretch them when replacing them. Put them on, tune up and play. They will stretch to how you play. Very rarely do I have to tune up and it's by like half a cent.

Low mids sound good on clean bass tone, but I find that when you add distortion it can get a bit muddy. That's why I generally scoop the low mids just a little and add more high mids.

Incredible! The best overview of tone I've ever watched! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for this information. I wish I had seen this years ago.

The information you dropped on eqing was fantastic!

So my only imputed for this vid is clipping on the amp can destroy the speakers if playing through a cab a dirty signal will damage the voice coils so what I would say is turn master to zero then turn the gain up till you see it clipping with heavy hits (slaps or pick strikes) and cut back till the clipping is minimal or gone. This gives you the best of best worlds as it's protects your amp and cab. Love the vids man

You my friend are an amazing teacher thank you for your time and effort man I truly appreciate it. This video and your compression video have helped me immensely. Thanks again!!!!

Wonderful video. I was under the impression you had a lot more views on this. So many things I never would've thought to do most of these tricks for helping my sound.

Greeeeeat lesson!! Thank you!!!

My main bass that I've been playing is a JS2 Concert and I've found that because the electronics are a bit cheaper (definitely gonna swap them out for probably EMGs because you can get pretty close to a direct upgrade of Jackson pickups) if I roll off the neck pickup to about 90-95, there's a sweet spot where the transient comes through a lot more in the neck pickup and gives a far more solid tone with more sustain. Right now I'm playing a 5 string soundgear (low .150) for a band I recently joined that has passive single coil soap bar style pickups on the neck and bridge. They're wired to act as a single passive humbucker and it sounds awesome. It depends on the effects I'm using and how dirty the gain is, but with the neck at 0, it does get a lot of noise; I can however remedy it with a quick noise gate and a suppresion (tube compressors are a no no 😂) P.S. Awesome video! I'm always looking for more and more things people use to justify different EQ moves and this was amazing!! Nobody really talks much about pickup height, input gain vs masters, or how important fret choice can be. Definitely sharing this with some peeps.

You may have just assumed this, or maybe I missed it, but I would add to the new string section a comment about tuning and intonation. Very basic, but I think it needs to be mentioned to both guitar players and bass players as well.

Thanks for this video. I've been having the hardest time trying to figure out the eq settings. Always assumed mids were bad and always had a muddy tone because of it.

Very nice, just what I needed to get a better tone, thank you!

I love the change between before and after. I cant wait to do that! Thanks, a big, big lot!

Context context context. It all depends the music context. Recording? Live? Practice room? EQ to suit

Great info!

So many useful tips. Thank you

Dude, that was the ultimate explanation for bass tone

Found This extremely helpful. There are a lot of things in here I already do but now i know why and have a much understanding of how to set my Bass tone! I've looked for so long for an explanation like this, you have a new subscriber from it 😁

Sick guitar dude

Now I clearly understand the mids and gain. Very helpful lesson, many thanks

Great lesson. So much useful information. Thank you.

Perfect tone

great lesson! thanks

Fantastic tips here, thanks!

What I like about that amp is, it doesn't just go to 11, it goes to 12!

Great video, thank you. My first thought in the beginning was "hey, that sounds like my bass!" Looking forward to playing with these tricks tonight

Thank you for the tips!

Thanks man amazing tips to better my sound live !!

Excellent advice!

This is great advice, thanks!

I certainly see the value of the tips presented in this video, and will definitely use them in my own playing. Still though, I don't think the A-B clip at the end really did a great job of illustrating Mark's points. Sure, the tone was more consistent, but it was also way more clangy and bordering on obnoxious in the mix (to my ears). Way too much high mids, too much gain, and it just sounded distracting. I get that bassists shouldn't be lost in the mix, but they don't need to "cut through" either. They should be the glue that holds everything else in place. Just my $.02.

Thanks for sharing this wisdom!

Great advice

Super informative and lots of food for thought, thanks for the info man!

gonna try this eq approach on my next gig, thx!

Amazing video! Thanks man! :)

Consistency from 1 track to another track shouldn't matter. Example, on the album "Signals" by Rush, Geddy Lee used a Rickenbacker, Fender Jazz & a Steinberger. Now, if you're editing a track with a DAW i.e. Pro Tools or Logic, then yes, you should keep your bass consistent.

Very informative! Thank you!

thanks for the great advices! :)

Question; If believe that's an Active Bass, at what setting is the EQ on your Bass BEFORE you adjusting the Amp EQ? Cleaning the strings EVERY AFTER you play is a great solution to not buying new strings everytime. Have string cleaning fluid at all times, strings will last quite a long time and keep their sound crisp. I actually totally turn down/off the EQ on my active Status Graphite Bass, and use the EQ on my Preamp pedal. Glad you talk about the "Ground Up EQ", coincidentally, that's very close to my standard setting on my Preamp pedal.

Tone starts in the fingers 😊

Thank you for the good information ✌️😎

Very helpful man cheers

NICE !!

Of course the "before" bassline with open strings in first position is going to sound different than the "after" with fretted notes in 5th position. The pickup height was different, the string age was different, the eq was different, and the gain setting was different. You should have A-B'd 1st position and 5th position AFTER adjusting the first four tips.

Appr. 8:30 I would like a pedal for skinny string bass notes to slowly lose bass tone option.

What about the EQ’s on the bass? What do we do with those?

Beautiful bass

I use the warwick pickup height 2mm both side :)

You show how to set your amp, but if my bass has active eq on it, what should I do? Set the bass mid and treble on the instrument to 0 and adjust the amp, vice versa, adjust both? I’ve necer been able to find the sweet spot

Thanks awesome!

Nice tips bro

Been playing 20 years and didn’t know a lot of this.

Wish I new this when I started

Great Tutorial! What about the tone knob on bass? Do you have both pickups and tone all the way up every time? Can you explain your approach briefly about the bass knobs settings? Thanks!

I just know about your "Gain higher than volume" technique. So if we want to control the loudness of our bass, should we control it from amplifier volume knob or our bass guitar amp volume knob?

Very interesting lesson man. Is that a 6 string Thumb with 26 frets?

31:33 what was that? Can I get that notes?

Every metal Bass mix I've seen says turn down the mid's, as guitar is the mid range instrument and having too much mid freq on the Bass Guitar (or too much bass freq on the Guitar) makes everything mushy, muddy and undefined.

"Use your ears" That's asking too much for some people.

Thanks man! Awesome lesson! What about the guitars own sound level knob? How to use it?

Got way too hype hearing Bob James during the pickup adjusting time lapse!

Wha- omg-.... hi I’m Sara I play bass in a tribute band to death, a proto punk Detroit based band from the 70s, and the original bassist had other a p bass or a Rickenbacker, and I have a Ibanez mezzo and am trying to get a more lower tone and I haven’t changed my strings since I started playing bass 😃 (about 8 months😳) and I’m confused as to what type of tone is best for me and how often I should change my strings. My instructor recommended changing it about every 6 months and I have a gig in about 3 weeks. Help 😃 (tone tips?

Nice tutorial

You mention the video on setting P/U height, but i did not find under your videos. Can you share the link? I play a Warwick bass and have the same Warwick head as you. I do play flats, but have used other strings in the past as well. When I adjust P/U heights to Warwick's recommendations, low end it too potent, especially open A. Would love to hear your suggestions seeing that we use the same equipment. I play small venues in a 70's - 90's rock band.

Alot closer to the pickups on both pickups

ooof this is a useful video

If I were to use a few pedals in my signal-chain before my amp that also have EQ-settings (Pre-Amp and B7k for example), would you use the same method on those aswell or just leave either the pedals or the amp flat? Love your playing. Greetings from Germany

Scooped mids are extremely popular in recordings. I'm not sure what you're talking about there. Most instruments sit in the 200 hz to 2000 hz range, so it makes sense to get out of the way of that. I agreed with your other advice, but I thought that particular piece of advice was bizarre and misguided.

One thing I’d like to ask: does the thing about amp settings apply to those that have a 3 band EQ? I use an Orange OB1 which has bass, mid and treble EQ settings so I’m just wondering if that would still work. Really insightful video though!

You forgot to discuss the Bass Guitar Tone Knobs mixed with the Amp EQ.

hi whats the link to your pick up height adjustment. thank you

If you increase gain and the clipping light is on does that matter?

I'm not sure about the no open strings advice though. When I play certain songs in the key of C, that sustained sound of the major 3rd and 6 sound fantastic on some songs. Check out the Gospel Song "Tremble" by Mosaic. that's a perfect example.