amp control setting????

[smokeynichol]

i'm new to bass guitar playing-i'd like to know how to set my amp for just home playing country music(accompanying my wife on guitar)--my 20 watt Typhoon amp has the following GAIN, MASTER, TREBLE, MIDDLE, BASS and COUNTOUR.

[NoPicks]

Don't know that particular amp, but here's a general procedure that I use for all new-to-me amps:

Start with the volume and tone controls on the bass wide open (all the way up) and the amp EQ set flat (contour, treble, mid, and bass knobs @ the 12:00 position)

Master Volume on the amp will control the overall loudness that you hear in the room. Gain will have a strong influence on the amount of distortion: the higher the gain, the more "grit" you'll hear in the tone. Keep in mind that the two are interactive - raising the gain will also raise the overall volume level and vice versa

For most country styles, the desired target is a fairly clean tone, thus you very likely won't want the Gain control set to an extremly high position. High gain works well for Metallica tunes but not so well for Country. Experiment with the Gain control, with the object of having it as high as possible without the tone getting unpleasantly distorted. Also note that right-hand technique has an influence here. The harder you pluck (or pick, if you play that way) the easier it is to get a distorted tone with the same Gain setting. In any case, if the amp gets too loud or quiet for your purposes, adjust with the Master

Now we get to the wild card - the Contour control. The way these work in practice is usually something along the lines of a "master tone control", causing large changes in the overall EQ (which would normally be adjusted with the individual bass, mid, and treble controls) with a single knob. Once you have the Gain set to your liking, start experimenting with the Contour and note how certain frequencies are influenced by it. Each amp is different, but in general you will find that some settings will emphasize the mids (clarity of the individual notes) and other settings will "scoop" the mids (cut them back and emphasize the extreme highs and lows)

In practice, scooped mids can sound pleasing when you are playing by yourself, but the clarity and definition you need when playing with others tends to suffer. It becomes more difficult to tell one note from another - they all tend to mush together into a "thump", rather than a nice clear A, D, or whatever. This will be especially noticeable in the lower ranges (below the 5th fret), somewhat less so as you move up the neck. Try to find a Contour setting that is nice and full, yet not unpleasantly harsh, then use the individual Bass, Mid, and Treble controls to fine-tune the tone

Example 1: everything sounds good except the very bottom end is a bit weak. Boost the Bass control a little bit and try again

Example 2: everything sounds good except a few notes centered around the frequency of the open G string are noticeably weaker than the rest (very common with some basses BTW). Try adjusting the Mid control. If you can't zero in on the proper frequency with the Mid control, then take the Mid control back to flat and try adjusting the Contour instead. Sometimes you will need to play both against each other in order to get the desired result

Example 3: everything else sounds good but the right-hand attack is annoying and harsh - "click, click, click" with every note played. Back off the treble a bit and try again

There can be a lot more to it than this (we haven't even gotten to the tonal options available from the tone controls on the bass itself) but the above should be enough to get you started

Oh.....and one more thing:

There ain't no money above the 5th fret