How to get more low end from bass guitar

[BradM]

I’m pretty new to live sound, and I was hoping someone could share some wisdom on how to get a full bass guitar sound from a passive semi-hollow body bass guitar at my church. Right now it seems that we are boosting a lot of gain from his signal and adding a ton of EQ trying to make it sound better.

Are there things I can do at the source: some kind of active DI box, a bass pedal, or maybe a plugin in our SQ-6? I was looking at the Hypabass and thought it sounded promising. Our PA has 2 EV ET-X18SP subs. It appears their frequency response is somewhere around 33Hz – 150 Hz (spec sheet: https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/F01U276077_ETX-18SP_EDS.pdf )

Thanks!

[EJC]

It sounds from this description like you’re trying to get a sound that the instrument isn’t best suited to.

If you (and/or the bass player) are happy with the sound from the amp, then you can DI from the bass head (rather than a DI box in front), or mic the cab.

If neither of you are happy with the sound of the bass, then the solution would be to change the bass.

If the bassist/MD are happy, and you’re just trying to make it sound like something it isn’t, I’d say you need to rethink the mix and work out how that sound can work for you.

I hope that helps!

[Author]

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