So, you wanna know what I'm running right now, eh? Below is a block diagram of my current entire signal path. Feel free to scroll down below for an attempted rationale of why I do this. And remember, excruciatingly detailed information on each piece in the chain can be found by returning to the "for gearheads only" main page and clicking on the relevant sub-category.

For starters, I use the Mike Lull Custom 5 in the active setting, with the bass and midrange controls flat, and the treble slightly boosted. I mostly run the individual pickup volumes at maximum, but every once in a while I'll back off the front pickup control about 20% for the ever-popular "bridge-pickup" sound (something I've warmed to only recently). The Roland volume pedal is used for silent tuning and the infrequent volume swell. I run the Akai TuneLock Tuner on a side chain, as I have no desire to run my entire signal straight through it. It catches the low 'B' (and even low 'A') very quickly.

From there I go into the passive/active input on the SWR Mo' Bass. I run the preamp EQ mostly flat, save for a +5 db boost on the Bass control (and occasional midrange boost or cut depending on the room). Since the analog effects onboard the Mo' Bass are after the preamp EQ in the signal path, I do my best not to apply drastic amounts of EQ before the signal reaches those effects, as this isn't always desirable from a tonal standpoint. The Mo' Bass effects are controlled via the Mo' Control master footswitch, which runs a comfortable 25 feet out from the back of the amp to just below my happy feet. Once the signal has traveled past the effects section of the Mo' Bass, I use the Raven Labs True Blue EQ in the left side of the stereo effects loop, which gives me nearly limitless post-effects EQ capabilities. (Details on how I use specific Mo' Bass settings can be found in the dedicated Mo' Bass section in this corner of the site.)

Now for the power side of the equation. I'm a big believer in power amp headroom, and as such I try never to run power amps at 4 ohms, regardless of what the power rating might be. Some people believe in getting just as much power as they need, and then running their amp to its fullest potential on every gig they play (which usually means bridging the amplifier at 4 ohms). Can you do that? Sure, but I don't care what your amplifier manufacturer says (SWR or otherwise), the amp will run hotter, components will fail sooner, and unless you're running an all-tube power amp, there are noticeable losses in sound quality at high volumes. I believe in running everything at 8 ohms, and if you need more power than your amp can deliver at 8 ohms, the answer is to go out and make the investment in an additional power amp.

OK, now that you know that…I run the Mo' Bass power amp bridged at 8 ohms into one Goliath II 4x10, the bottom cabinet. Then I get audio outputs on the Mo' Bass from two locations: the ¼" Mo' Bass Out (a post-everything line out) and the Right Effects Send (a line out that's after the Mo' Bass preamp and effects but before the True Blue EQ). Both signals go through an Eb-Tech Hum Eliminator (I tend not to take chances with ground loops) and then into both channels of the Peavey DPC1000 Power Amp, which I run in stereo. The Mo' Bass Out goes to the DPC1000's Channel 1, which I run into the second (top) Goliath II 4x10 cabinet. The Right Effects Send goes to Channel 2, from which I run an extremely long speaker cable out to the Bass Monitor 12", which I use as a dedicated stage monitor regardless of what else happens to be in the monitor mix (if there even is one).

(If you only play gigs where your rig provides the bass for the entire room, and you never have to worry about sending your signal to a P.A., feel free to skip the rest of this already interminably long section.)

So what do I get from all this? A gigantic monitor. That's what bass rigs are, you know, and aside from keyboard rigs, it makes a bassist's lot on stage unique. In the case of guitar, drums and vocals, what you hear is then miked and reproduced as faithfully as possible in the front-of-house mix. A guitar amp may switch from clean to dirty, but either way the thing is miked and it goes straight out to the house, because a guitarist wants the sound of his amp in the mains no matter what. With bass, you may sometimes see a cabinet miked, but 99% of the time you're sending a direct signal to the house as the main audio source. This is because BASS IS DIFFERENT. The EQ settings on your amplifier that you want coming out of your rig on stage--with the bass boosted and whatnot--are nine times out of ten not the proper EQ for the front-of-house engineer to get your bass into the live mix. Instead, he wants the flattest signal possible (read: direct) to work with. And he's right. Some mixers will then take an additional channel for a miked cab, a post-EQ sound, or what have you.

I've spent a lot of time working on the best way to get bass effects into the house, especially distortion. I've heard audience recordings of Keneally/BFD, and in the past I lamented the fact that what I thought was the Best Overdriven Bass Sound On Earth was actually going no further than the edge of the stage most of the time. But now, with the Mo' Bass, I can get a killer overdrive in the house WITHOUT having to mike a cab. This is very important, because once you mike a bass cab, that sound is there for the whole show, not just when you want the overdrive on. (Unless you bring an extra cab and run a completely separate channel that you switch on and off…which I used to do in my older rig.) For clean bass, I don’t like the sound of a cab miked in live settings. I do like the sound of the Mike Lull direct, but since the effects are by definition post-direct on the Mo' Bass, you need to get those sounds to the house as well.

So it's simple: The Mo' Bass conveniently has two separate XLR outputs, and I use them both. The first, labeled Direct Out, is just like it sounds (the line/direct switch is set to the "direct" position). The second is called Mo' Bass Out, and it's post-everything. I instruct the front-of-house engineer to mix the two signals 50/50, and there you have it.

This does mean that the signal reaching the house only has half as much "affected" signal as does what's coming out of my onstage rig…and that's OK. There's nothing worse than being at a show where the bassist kicks on his effects and suddenly all the bass goes away. The way I have it set up, the front-of-house guy always has a direct signal to lean on (so he can resist the urge to screw around with the affected channel), and I have everything I need in terms of compensation for EQ, levels, etc. onstage with me in the name of my own rig.

And I'm happy to report that the current rig, which I debuted at NAMM in January of 2001, has passed the ultimate test with flying colors. Audience recordings from the May '01 Keneally/BFD "Dancing" Tour have left a smile on my face.