Give up on SV for bass guitar?

Speculum Speculorum

Speculum Speculorum

Power User
I think I may be about ready to give up on the SV model, or maybe the Axe-II for bass altogether. I plugged my bass direct into my saffire pro 14 yesterday, and the sound was so much better than anything I've gotten so far with the Axe-II that I almost started laughing.

I think it might be time to just start experimenting with different amps like a rectifier or something else. I've tried biamping and running the SOLO 100 Rhythm next to it, which gives the bass a little more grit. The way to describe the SV sound I'm getting with it's matching cabinet is as though there is a sock on a microphone recording my bass. No matter what I do with the individual simple controls, I just can't get any definition, for better or worse, out of the damn thing. It's driving me crazy. I've tried adjusting the drive and the master controls, and sometimes I "almost" get to the bass tone that I'm really striving for, but altogether, it's like I never quite hit it.

Something interesting: I notice if I open the SV bass it sets the master to 10, but if I double click it in axe-edit, which is supposed to set it to it's standard place, it goes to 2.5. Is it more recommended to run either way? Anybody have any extreme success with this amp model? I'd appreciate some advice. I will post a clip in a couple of days to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
 
From what you describe it might be an issue with your bass'es pickups / electronics and the AxeII input or your settings?

As an experiment I would try bass -> saffire -> line in of the AxeII. That should give you the same tone as the interface alone + the AxeII amp sim.

Richard
 
That's a good suggestion from Richard. I have had the same issues with the ultra - always seemed so close yet so far away.
Here's some tips too, i use these and it gets me much closer.

Add a drive block or a tube pre or tape drive and see if it helps.
You might have to use 2 amps to get the sound you're after. Try the wrecker, dumble, USA clean, solo 100, hiwatt etc.
Try some EQ before AND after the amp, but having eq before really helps.
Try also running a parallel line with no blocks in it to the output.

I don't have a II yet, but I suspect these tips might help you still.
 
The Low-Down...

Speculum Speculorum said:
I think I may be about ready to give up on the SV model, or maybe the Axe-II for bass altogether. I plugged my bass direct into my saffire pro 14 yesterday, and the sound was so much better than anything I've gotten so far with the Axe-II that I almost started laughing.

I think it might be time to just start experimenting with different amps like a rectifier or something else. I've tried biamping and running the SOLO 100 Rhythm next to it, which gives the bass a little more grit. The way to describe the SV sound I'm getting with it's matching cabinet is as though there is a sock on a microphone recording my bass. No matter what I do with the individual simple controls, I just can't get any definition, for better or worse, out of the damn thing. It's driving me crazy. I've tried adjusting the drive and the master controls, and sometimes I "almost" get to the bass tone that I'm really striving for, but altogether, it's like I never quite hit it.

Something interesting: I notice if I open the SV bass it sets the master to 10, but if I double click it in axe-edit, which is supposed to set it to it's standard place, it goes to 2.5. Is it more recommended to run either way? Anybody have any extreme success with this amp model? I'd appreciate some advice. I will post a clip in a couple of days to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...

Hi Speculum Speculorum,

I guess the first couple of questions you'll be asked about (by those that can help you) are:

1.) What is your monitoring-system?

- FRFR w/neutral power-amp and full-range speaker cabs
- FRFR Studio-Monitors
- FRFR-Headphones
- NON-FRFR - Coloring power-amp and NON Full-Range Speakers - ex: Mesa Boogie Tube Bass-Head & 4x10 and/or 2x15 speaker-cab(s)

2.) What type of bass-sound are you seeking (stylistic bass-player comparison or preferred music-genre) NOTE: This can make a BIG difference!

BTW, I've personally heard Fractal (Ultra) User "jimfist" get excellent (classic-rock; prog-rock; Modern/T-40 Rock) results/tones from his Axe-FX Ultra/FRFR (solid-state amp and (2) co-axial 1x15" cabs. He has recently commented that the proper Cab-Sim selection/matching makes a huge difference! Perhaps he can chime-in with general (non Axe-FX II) advice?

Bill
 
I personally don't use cab sims on my bass patches. I've tried them repeatedly and I just don't care for them. Try making your presets without a cab sim and use filter blocks instead for any needed low or high end roll off.
 
DLM said:
I personally don't use cab sims on my bass patches. I've tried them repeatedly and I just don't care for them. Try making your presets without a cab sim and use filter blocks instead for any needed low or high end roll off.
Click to expand...

I never actually thought of that, tho in hindsight it seems pretty obvious lol
I'll also try that and give some feedback.
 
DLM said:
I personally don't use cab sims on my bass patches. I've tried them repeatedly and I just don't care for them. Try making your presets without a cab sim and use filter blocks instead for any needed low or high end roll off.
Click to expand...

This is a great suggestion - I off to try this now :)
 
billmeedog said:
Hi Speculum Speculorum,

I guess the first couple of questions you'll be asked about (by those that can help you) are:

1.) What is your monitoring-system?

- FRFR w/neutral power-amp and full-range speaker cabs
- FRFR Studio-Monitors
- FRFR-Headphones
- NON-FRFR - Coloring power-amp and NON Full-Range Speakers - ex: Mesa Boogie Tube Bass-Head & 4x10 and/or 2x15 speaker-cab(s)

2.) What type of bass-sound are you seeking (stylistic bass-player comparison or preferred music-genre) NOTE: This can make a BIG difference!

BTW, I've personally heard Fractal (Ultra) User "jimfist" get excellent (classic-rock; prog-rock; Modern/T-40 Rock) results/tones from his Axe-FX Ultra/FRFR (solid-state amp and (2) co-axial 1x15" cabs. He has recently commented that the proper Cab-Sim selection/matching makes a huge difference! Perhaps he can chime-in with general (non Axe-FX II) advice?

Bill
Click to expand...


Well, I will start off by answering your questions.

1. I am using FRFR Studio-Monitors. Adam-A7's, to be exact.
2. The bass sound I am seeking runs somewhere in the progressive hard-rock to metal category. I like bands like Tool, APC, Ashes Divide, Textures, etc. I like the bass tone of Chevelle, post Bernadini. However, my conscious ideal is the tone of Justin Chancellor. I understand that's a pretty tall order, and I am experimenting with blending 2 amps, one clean, and one driven.

I will try some of the comments posted above. I am going to first try removing the cab sims to see if that gets me closer.

I doubt it's a trouble with the I/O on the Axe, and I know I don't have any problems with the pickups on my bass. I've also played through an amp (in a store) and it sounded just fine. I have all of today to get some good presets, so I will be making up some files and giving it a go. Thanks again, guys. This means a lot to a guy who's struggling with it!
 
Oh, and personally on mine I keep the Drive at around 2.5 and the master, I've had good results between 5 and 8, but I wouldn't go higher than that. It loses its sweetness above 8 in my opinion and becomes less pleasant tone-wise.
 
Well, it worked! I am working with the SV Bass with no cab, and damn, it sounds a lot better. Thanks for all the advice guys. The only thing is after knob doodling for the last while I just don't feel like recording anything, so I'll post a recording when I get home from work tomorrow afternoon! Thanks a bunch, dudes of FAS - you're the best!
 
Happy to help man. Glad you found tone you're happy with. One last tip. If you want to get a tiny bit of the boominess of a cab without affecting the tone too much, you can add a resonator block at the end of the chain with the default settings (or play with them if you want) and mix it in at about 5-10% or to taste. I also like adding an enhancer block at the end set to either 25% inverted left or 100% inverted left, whichever you like better. It not only widens it out, but it seems to smooth out the tone and make it sound better.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad somebody else mentioned turning off cabs. I just read the opening post and thought "definitely doing something wrong" because I can get great bass tones out of the Axe II, especially with 3.x. However, I never use cabs on my clean bass tones--the only time I use them is if I'm going for a higher gain patch where I need to tame a lot of the lows and highs anyway.

I used to use SV Bass almost exclusively. It's very fat sounding. However, with the introduction of the new amp voicing parameter in 3.x, I'm really liking the 59 Bassguy (yes, for bass!) with Vintage amp voicing. I set Drive to 5 and Master ~9, and then bump up 63 Hz EQ by 2 dB (rather than reduce the low cutoff, which I think makes it sound muddy). I increase mid and treble to adjust for my warm pickups (Mid 7.10, Treble 6.50). If I need a bit more midrange bite, I add a Tape Dist Drive block in front (Drive 5, Tone 5.65, Level 5.90).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom