Phil Lesh101 wrote:JonnyBoy wrote:Hey you Phil's out there, I am trying to help out our band to get our sound less muddy and get our frequencies in check. I was wondering if the bass players out there have any amp settings they would like to share to help out. For instance how much of what you use to get a good phil stage tone. Thanks!
hate to break your stones but Phil In the 80-90's use 10+ Amps at a time so the setting of his amps probley will never be replicated. I Am a Bass player my self and i just play it how it sonds with a few adjustments of my own. I do suggest taking the Musd out because your trying to be Phil Lesh Not Gene Simmons
Jason Lee?
I don't really know what you are talking about and I get the sense that you are probably not old enough to have been there in the 80s and 90s. Phil never used 10+ amps. His rigs have always been moderately sophisticated, but somewhat straightforward. I've seen him since 1976 and his rigs have never really been a mysterious affair. Over the years, the tone control setup has basically gone from Fender style (through the Alembic years as well) to SWR to Eden. He's used Meyer EQs, but mostly for room and stage equalization.
To get to the real bottom of this issue, in order to get big bottom with no mud, you need to use very clean gear with a lot of power and headroom. Getting a flat frequency response without the typical big low mid/upper bass humps that happen with most bass amps is key. Having distortion from lack of power or non-linear loudspeakers also creates muddiness. I've been playing through fEARful cabinets these days which have a heck of lot more real low end than any other cabinet I've used and it does not interfere with PA systems. Since I've gone with these cabs, I've been crazy loud on stage and every time I ask the FOH engineer how it works outside, they smile and say it works great.
And, seriously, Phil Lesh 101, use a spell check. Taking the extra 30 seconds to put together a coherent and well spelled post gives you a hell of a lot more credibility. It's like being able to play in tune, in time and in the right key. And we all need to do that as bass players, right?