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| Thunderfunk Bass Amplifiers Users Manual
Tone Revisited
How you set your EQ depends on style, equipment, the room, cabinet placement, audience
quantity, etc. When playing in different rooms, cabinet placement and room acoustics play a criti-
cal roll, for everyone but especially for bass. Many clubs, auditoriums, rehearsal halls, etc. tend
to naturally enhance the frequencies below 50Hz, while people in the room absorb the higher
frequencies. This is called Frequency Enhancement, and sometimes it is good, sometimes it causes
difficulties. Low frequencies do tend to be omni-directional – you can’t really tell where they are
coming from. Placing the cabinet on a raised wooden stage will acoustically couple it and signifi
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cantly boost fundamental frequencies. Setting it against the wall can couple the walls to your
speaker cone, and placement in a corner can add even more effect. Combine all these and exces-
sive “boominess” is a common result. It is not heard on stage, but often is at the back of the room.
To be felt as well as heard, try backing off the bass a little while boosting the upper-mids or treble
a bit.
When playing with other musicians, it is not unusual for instrument frequencies to interfere with
each other. This is Frequency Masking. EQ settings that once seemed so perfect, don’t work well
in a different room. While a Thunderfunk is often used “flat” with no additional EQ, the sound
next to the cabinet WILL be different than it is in other places in the room. This phenomena is
universal and is often more noticeable in the audience than on stage, and it is not uncommon for
the bass sound to seem a little thin on stage and the same time sound quite muddy at the back of
the room.
The good news is the Thunderfunk can be adjusted to nearly any tone imaginable. Ultimately it
boils down to experience, a good trained ear, and practice. If you get a sound check, or play the
same place often, move around to hear what it sounds like in different places. Try new things. Get
someone you trust to help, but remember: a little goes a long way, and a couple of dB’s of EQ, or
relocation of the cabinet, or a different cabinet may be all you need to solve these issues. One
other item: if you have guitar players in the band, ask them to follow the Les Paul rule. Les Paul’s
cardinal rule is this: point guitar speakers directly at the guitar player’s ear. Between us bass play-
ers, everyone will be glad when that happens.
Volume Control
Adjusts the overall amplifier output. The actual volume of your electro-acoustic system is deter
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mined by many elements, the most important being the sensitivity of the speakers. A speaker sys-
tem with a sensitivity that is 10 dB more than another speaker system will sound TWICE as loud.