In praise of the HPF

Jeff Bonny

Jeff Bonny

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Nov 20, 2000
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#1
I just did a gig where I got stuck on a really awful sounding stage. No definition from a rig I know sounds fine. But being of the "I'd rather be prepared than surprised" school I always carry an FDeck HPF Pre and even if I rarely use it tonight it saved my ass.

So my question (and the reason this is posted in amps not effects) is why do you see adjustable HPF's onboard so few bass amps when it's something that should be built into every professional quality bass amp?
 
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#3
IME, fixed high pass filters are built into most consumer grade, and especially budget class amps.
I include in "consumer grade" such great amps like the GB shuttle 6.0, GK mb800, and most higher power micro heads.

Having a variable HPF is another kettle of fish... :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
 
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#4
I use the Micro Thumpinator and IMHO it added a lot of definition to my tone. I tend to play hard, and it will especially help with high-demand situations like that.

I think a lot of amp manufacturers probably account for the drop A and F# crowd, since kids playing metal make up a decent chunk of their sales. My 29hz high-pass wouldn't cut it in that situation.
 
#5
Jeff Bonny said:
So my question (and the reason this is posted in amps not effects) is why do you see HPF's onboard so few bass amps when it's something that should be built into every professional quality bass amp?
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Because the typical Basstard thinks that anything that cuts the low end is bad. GB amps in particular had wonderful HPF's built in but not adjustable enough for "fixing" rooms - even the limited adjustability was named something cryptic to pass Basstard muster LOL. Those were mostly for speaker protection and power optimization I think.
 
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#7
I always have one of my HPF-Pre Series 3 boxes with me and it has proved quite effective on many occasions. I imagine that many folks don't realize that something that cuts bass frequencies can be an extremely useful tool for a bass player. In fact I'm not sure I recognized that when I first started playing bass.
 
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#9
In one of my last jam sessions, I used my enabler pre to back out a bunch of lows from my signal before it hit any other pedals and the mix sounded better than usual.

I was just mixing a track and the drums were buried by the electro bass sound I was using. HPF fixed it easily.

I had a rack pre/power rig for a while. The power amp was a Crown XLS 1000 with an HPF built in. I found myself using it.

I believe I've seen posts saying Alex of Barefaced suggests avoiding a LPF with his cabs, but I can't recall the specifics of why. Something about the extras excursion caused by the lows helps cool the coil, I think.

I'm certainly of the mind that a HPF (and even an LPF) can be quite helpful. The question is, where in the chain do you want it. Building it into your amp limits you to having it at the end. I think someone on the forum mentioned running a pedal board with two HPF boxes; one at the beginning of his effects chain and one at the end.
 
#10
Downunderwonder said:
Most gear is not sold to professionals or even regularly working players.

Punter: "What's this section?" Sales Kid: "it cuts off the low bass". Punter: "show me something else".
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This, for sure. The amount of students I have had who dimed their bass knob would shock the average TBer. I also think most people in store wouldn't know how to use it, crank it, and think the amp is terrible.

Old man anecdote:
As a Markbass user, I know what the VLE and VPF knobs do. Most potential buyers, and probably floor salesman, do not. One knob scoops your mids and one knob rolls off your high, two very different tonal shifts. Nobody would ever possibly want to use both simultaneously, certainly not to a large degree. The last handful of times I have walked into my local Markbass dealer and tried an amp both knobs have been turned right up and in some cases cranked to the max. I would imagine every one of those players left the store thinking "this amp sounds terrible."
 
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#11
DiabolusInMusic said:
This, for sure. The amount of students I have had who dimed their bass knob would shock the average TBer. I also think most people in store wouldn't know how to use it, crank it, and think the amp is terrible.
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That's one reason why I made the variable HPF in my more recent DIY amps and preamps have max cut at full counterclockwise. That also allows using a much easier pot to source, which is definitely a bonus.

As far as signal chain location, I prefer just after the EFX/Aux return, so my DI send does not reflect my HPF setting and if I use an external tube preamp with huge lows I have the option of tempering that. My preamps are made up of modular building blocks though, so I could readily reconfigure the HPF location if I had a compelling reason to do so.
 
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#14
Professionals are probably 5% of the total bassist population. Also, we don't have Government regulations that mandate minimum requirements for amplifier features, past electrical interference.

At what frequency/ies would a built-in HPF be set to accommodate every different style of cab and instrument? There's way too many variables that make mandated features a no-go.

I'd like to see built-in quality tuners, with tuner-mute and more comprehensive mid controls on every amp as a standard features, but it's an illogical pipe dream.
 
#15
blubass said:
Professionals are probably 5% of the total bassist population. Also, we don't have Government regulations that mandate minimum requirements for amplifier features, past electrical interference.

At what frequency/ies would a built-in HPF be set to accommodate every different style of cab and instrument? There's way too many variables that make mandated features a no-go.

I'd like to see built-in quality tuners, with tuner-mute and more comprehensive mid controls on every amp as a standard features, but it's an illogical pipe dream.
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The invisible hand of the market will take us to the pinnacle of mediocrity :)
 
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#18
nutdog said:
If you're in a church with a digital board and no one else knows what the HPF is on each channel, someone that does know could use them to fix keyboardist with busy left hands and guitarists that crank their bass and bang on open chords. Speaking hypothetically of course.
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You are absolutely my kind of guy.

For exactly that purpose (church), I recommended a frequency for the HPF on the keyboard player at, say, 500Hz?
 
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