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How low is too low?


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Google "Low Frequency Weapons" and you'll have your answer. 

 

Properly implemented, low frequencies can kill. Not easily done, transducers are not up to the task and every octave lower you go requires 10x or more wattage from amplifiers to achieve similar sound levels. 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I mostly only use anything lower than an "E" string in studio situations where a note here and there is part of a fluid phrase and needs to be played in the same take as the surrounding notes. Otherwise, for studio work, if a low note is at the end of the song for dramatic effect, I use a four-string bass and down-tune it to record that one note as an overdub.

 

I rarely use my Yamaha BB and may sell it, even though it's my only 5-string with round wound strings. I use my G&L Kiloton a bit more, but it has flats. Even when I use it, I try to avoid the low string. As the pickup is different from my Fenders, I don't find it a redundant bass (yet).

 

A few years ago, I made the decision to go back to 4-string basses after many years of 5-string and 6-string playing. I do not expect to ever revisit that decision, just as with the decision to swear off active basses after exclusively playing actives since the late 80's.

 

Studio work is what changed my view on any number of bass topics. But that has carried over to everything else as I am now more aware of how important it is in most genres for the bass guitar to leave the super low end for the bass drum.

 

Of course, there are other playing styles and music where the bass drum has little if any role and/or the bass is a "solo" instrument. I have also veered away from that sort of stuff in my later years, and no longer enjoy full-time soloists like Jaco the way I did in the 80's and 90's.

 

From a purely practical point of view, lower frequencies use up a lot of energy and can thus reduce bandwidth for clarity in the primary frequency range of most musical material.

 

Of course, pipe organ goes the lowest of any instrument, but the pipes can be a mile long or longer (once stretched out)! In other words, the acoustic challenges of sub-bass are dealt with very explicitly and separately for pipe organ and have no impact on the other notes due to dedicated pipes.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Just now, Mark Schmieder said:

I mostly only use anything lower than an "E" string in studio situations where a note here and there is part of a fluid phrase and needs to be played in the same take as the surrounding notes. Otherwise, for studio work, if a low note is at the end of the song for dramatic effect, I use a four-string bass and down-tune it to record that one note as an overdub.

 

I rarely use my Yamaha BB and may sell it, even though it's my only 5-string with round wound strings. I use my G&L Kiloton a bit more, but it has flats. Even when I use it, I try to avoid the low string. As the pickup is different from my Fenders, I don't find it a redundant bass (yet).

 

A few years ago, I made the decision to go back to 4-string basses after many years of 5-string and 6-string playing. I do not expect to ever revisit that decision, just as with the decision to swear off active basses after exclusively playing actives since the late 80's.

 

Studio work is what changed my view on any number of bass topics. But that has carried over to everything else as I am now more aware of how important it is in most genres for the bass guitar to leave the super low end for the bass drum.

 

Of course, there are other playing styles and music where the bass drum has little if any role and/or the bass is a "solo" instrument. I have also veered away from that sort of stuff in my later years, and no longer enjoy full-time soloists like Jaco the way I did in the 80's and 90's.

 

From a purely practical point of view, lower frequencies use up a lot of energy and can thus reduce bandwidth for clarity in the primary frequency range of most musical material.

I'm a 4 string guy. I've tried BEAD but I haven't found a B string that I like on a standard 34" scale bass. Too floppy. 

So I stick to EADG for now. I'm also a lead guitarist but bass is about groove, not about decorating. 

I have 2 basses, a Peavey Fury (fretted, older "Handcrafted in the USA" one). And a "screwdriver" P-Bass with a Warmoth Jazz neck (fretless w/ ebony fretboard and fret markers). Both use EMG P active pickups and both are strung with D'Addario Chromes - bright sounding flat wounds. 

 

My go-to secret weapon for recording bass is a Tech 21 Q/Strip DI. I use it running phantom power. 4 band EQ, the low and high mid controls are quasi parametric. 

I set the low mid at about 320hz and subtract it. That solves a lot of mix problems. I set the Low depending on the kick. 

AND, I almost always copy and paste the bass track, put a high pass filter on the second (dupe) track and run that down to around 200 hz. Then I add harmonic distortion (lately I've been using guitar amp plugins but not super distorted) and I mix that track in at a low level. On a full frequency playback system you barely notice the distortion (even if you put it there) and on a cell phone speaker or laptop speakers you can hear the bass clearly even though there is no substantial bass response from tiny speakers. 

 

That's been working very well for me for quite a while now. 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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