BenTunnicliffe Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hi everyone, I'm doing more and more work these days where I have more than one bass-y instrument on stage with me. The setups vary but the more common ones I'm having to employ are: 1 Pbass & 1 active 5 string 1 Pbass & 1 Double Bass 1 Active 5 String & 1 Synth (keys bass) I have an amp setup that I like (Aguilar DB751) but most of you will be aware that this amp only has one input. What I have been doing for the PBass & Double Bass gigs is plugging the PBass into the DB751 directly and sending the DI from that straight to the PA desk but separately plugging the double bass into an Acoustic Image head that I essentially just use as a DI and I then rely on getting some of that signal put back into a monitor wedge. The issue I have is that this seems relatively clumsy but more so that it leaves me in quite precarious situations if there is a small monitor not capable of pushing out a clean, bass-heavy sound or even worse off if there isn't enough monitors for me to have my own purely to hear the double bass. I'm sure that quite a few other people are playing 2+ basses on their gigs and I was wondering what you were using to bounce them down (Eventually) into one amp? A/B switching is no good to me due to the instruments all having different output levels. On top of that I actually find that the DB751 (like many bass guitar amps) doesn't sound particularly great with the double bas going into it so having the ability to do some basic EQ'ing before signal gets to my amp would be a bonus. I guess another nice feature would be to be able to mute the unused instrument too.... I seem to remember EBS (or someone similar?) used to make some kind of floor-based DI box/preamp that tried to tackle these issues? I've thought that a mixer would be a very simple fix but then to pass on a quiet, clean signal might require quite a nice mixer? Logistically a mixer would also mean that I'd have to dump the mixer on top of an already flight cased amp which is another headache..... On top of all of that there's also the issue that I would like to have the signal chain going: Instrument > DI Box of choice > Splitter/Mixer/Magical Device > Bass Amp > Ears And so I'm not sure what the simplest means is to shoehorn the DI stage into the chain! Needless to say there isn't any moments where I'm playing two instruments at exactly the same time in case someone was picturing some odd Michael Manring scenario going down. Really interested to hear people's thoughts! Cheers, B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franzbassist Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Radial Bassbone and Providence Bass Station would both give you two inputs with separate gain and eq. There are more options out there, such as the EBS you mention, but those are the two I have used with great success over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iiipopes Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 I use an old-fashioned passive A/B box that I purchased at least twenty years ago. If one instrument is active or has a preamp separately, like the double bass, then it probably wouldn't hurt to run the passive instrument through an adjustable gain buffer to match levels when switching between instruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 (edited) You should also check out the [email="3@1"]3@1[/email] pedal by Lehle - there's a clue in the name. Really good silent switching and two of the channels have trim knobs which allow you balance the (up to) three basses against each other and has two separate outputs should you want/need them. Used one of these for years when I was playing in covers bands with disparate basses of different output... Not cheap but brilliant and bomb proof. [url="http://lehle.com/EN/Lehle-3at1-SGoS"]http://lehle.com/EN/Lehle-3at1-SGoS[/url] Edited October 28, 2015 by TrevorR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 [quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1446051692' post='2896544'] You should also check out the 3@1 pedal by Lehle - there's a clue in the name. Really good silent switching and two of the channels have trim knobs which allow you balance the (up to) three basses against each other and has two separate outputs should you want/need them. Used one of these for years when I was playing in covers bands with disparate basses of different output... Not cheap but brilliant and bomb proof [/quote] Oh yes, and for the keys set up... All signal paths are mono/stereo if needs be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakester Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 I used a Radial Bigshot IO when I had one active and one passive bass: http://www.radialeng.com/bigshotio.php It lets you trim the levels of one instrument and has a separate output which can go to a tuner, or other amp etc. An alternative would be to get a line level mixer such as this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/racksized_mixers_19.html?oa=pra Though might be overkill for what you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenTunnicliffe Posted November 17, 2015 Author Share Posted November 17, 2015 Thanks for all the suggestions. My next question has been put to some engineers but I wondered if I was to be using two basses because they have distinctly different tones that some of the differences between them might be lost by sending them to the sound engineers mixer via one single DI built into my amp. Anyone know what I mean and had any experiences of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Just wondeared if you could give more detail on your question. You initially said... "Instrument > DI Box of choice > Splitter/Mixer/Magical Device > Bass Amp > Ears And so I'm not sure what the simplest means is to shoehorn the DI stage into the chain!" Are you thinking more like... Instrument > Splitter/Mixer/Magical Device > Bass Amp > Bass amp DI>PA If so then unless you're using a multi amp or switchable EQ setup then I guess that there may be some compromise in tone needed in terms of on stage sound. Unless you meant something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 [quote name='BenTunnicliffe' timestamp='1447791039' post='2910473'] Thanks for all the suggestions. My next question has been put to some engineers but I wondered if I was to be using two basses because they have distinctly different tones that some of the differences between them might be lost by sending them to the sound engineers mixer via one single DI built into my amp. [/quote] If this is for live sound, the chances are that those nuances will not be heard by 99% of the audience, and are likely to be lost by the PA anyway. An LS-2 can be used as an A/B box with gain control on each channel. Amongst many other things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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