Kustom bass amp

nude_hamster

i'v got a kustom bass bass, with all these equalisers nd **** on it,aswell as the norm bass,gain,............. can any1 help me set up the sound on it , to suit somtin like metallca??

D!ve^Bomb!

if you want your bass to sound like metallica then turn it off

Doctor J

Only put eq onto it if it needs it. Use your ears.

For a start, if it has input gain, set it at about 3/4 to get a decent signal running through the circuitry. Then subtly adjust the EQ to suit the sound you're looking for. Small changes to the EQ can make big changes to the sound so experiment.

What amp is it?

nude_hamster

D!ve^Bomb! wrote:

if you want your bass to sound like metallica then turn it off

good one , but if you listen VERY closely there is bass in the new metallica stuff, but im talkin bout ride the lightning and kill'em all album

nude_hamster

anyway its a kustom 100W bass amp, thats all i know, it has 6 equalizer knobs rangin from 63 to 5k, and i cant turn up the gain to even near 1/2 way without the overload light flashin!

It wasn't me!

Amps have overload lights nowadays?! Well that just takes all the fun out of it!

Doctor J

nude_hamster wrote:

anyway its a kustom 100W bass amp, thats all i know, it has 6 equalizer knobs rangin from 63 to 5k, and i cant turn up the gain to even near 1/2 way without the overload light flashin!

Is this with the EQ boosted? Try it with the EQ flat, boosted low end will make a bass amp clip a lot sooner than boosted highs. TBH, it's impossible to tell you how to get the sound without seeing how you play, what you're playing and what kind of tome the amp puts out. Take some of the mid frequencies out and boost the lows a little and you'll be in the general area but a lot of Cliff's tone came from his playing technique (fingers hitting the strings hard off the frets) and that can't be emulated by any amp.

Mr. CooL ICE

Doc would know better, but what id do is put all the eq low, turn the low end and high end to 1/2, and then start trying out stuff from there.

Doctor J

If you start off flat (graphic) or at 12 O'clock (knobs) you pretty much hear the instrument and amp uneffected. Every bass and amp is different so start neutral and take it from there, so you're pretty much on the right path, Chessington

thomas.oleary

Would u not just try your own stuff and stop trying to sound like Trujillo.

It wasn't me!

If you're doing covers getting a particular tone is a necessity, and it helps you shape your own tone anyway. Besides, I doubt he wants to sound like Trujillo. Burton is what Im thinking, though to get his tone he's going to have to hammer it out of the bass with his fingers.

feylya

thomas.oleary wrote:

Would u not just try your own stuff and stop trying to sound like Trujillo.

Maybe he just likes that tone? Maybe he's using it as somewhere to begin getting his own tone? And we don't like text talk around these parts.

Eoin Madsen

nude_hamster wrote:

anyway its a kustom 100W bass amp, thats all i know, it has 6 equalizer knobs rangin from 63 to 5k, and i cant turn up the gain to even near 1/2 way without the overload light flashin!

Turn up your gain (input or preamp volume) as high as you can without getting overload (play as hard as you're going to play with gtr volume as high as you plan to use to check it). The extra input gain is there for pickups with lower output levels, so don't worry if it seems low - as long as you don't overload the preamp your master volume can be turned the entire way up without any risk to the amp or electronic degradation of quality. The overload indicator will more than likely appear before the EQ, so EQ probably won't make a difference to it. If it does then make sure you flatten the eq when you're establishing your gain level - if the indicator is post EQ and you have signal reduced in the EQ, you could still be clipping the preamp without realising it. It's not bad for the amp as such, it just reduces the signal quality.

Regarding EQ, it's difficult to say really (I'm not very familiar with the tone you're looking for to begin with ). Be aware that every model guitar or amp differs, and they all contribute to the tonal qualities of the sound. You may need to do different EQ to achieve the same results as someone else with a different amp and/or guitar. The best way to get a feel for the EQ is to try it one range at a time, with everything else flat. Try both extremes, maximum and minimum, and play a little to see what it has changed about the sound. Then listen to what you want to make it sound like. Try getting closer one frequency band at a time. Getting it exact is not really possible without the same amp and guitar, so don't worry too much if it still seems a little different.