JPJ

I’ve played a few venues with installed systems that double as nightclubs (often as soon as the gig has ended) and these systems are almost always ‘tuned’ for dance style music. That coupled with the house engineer’s need to run the rig flat out results in the bass and bass drum obliterating everything else, and the bass just sounding like mush. As the old adage goes, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Bit of a newbie question. Next weekend my little acoustic trio are opening the second stage on the third day of the Tyneside Americana festival. It will be my first double bass gig where someone else is responsible for the sound and only my second gig on acoustic double bass as against EUB, and I don’t know how experienced the engineer is with amplifying double bass. A conventional stage setup would have the monitors directly in front of you, but is this the best place for double bass? Would it be better to be off to one side or even behind me? I will be using an HPF on my bass signal, and I have F hole blockers to help control feedback. Or should I be a potential PITA and ditch monitors and request to use my IEM’S?

Just spotted this thread (I don’t lurk about the accessories sub-forum very often) and @Delberthot, if you are still in the market for a custom body, i can recommend James and the crew over at Guitar and Bass Builds UK I bought a 5 string Precision PJ bass body finished in clear from them a while ago and I’m very happy with the result.

About 25 years ago I had the chance to buy Rod Clements fretless Overwater original or ‘C’ bass. Unfortunately young children meant I didn’t go through with the purchase but in hindsight I wish I had.

I currently own four fretless basses. My no1 is my sunburst Fender Tony Franklin P bass (below). The others are a 1982 Ibanez RS940TV which I purchased new with money from my parents for my eighteenth birthday, a defretted Overwater Perception 5 string defretted and refinished by David Wilson, and a Warwick Rockbass Alien 5 string acoustic that i defretted myself. I have at no time ever had any of a pony, a pony tail, a tail, or a suede waistcoat nor do i have any association with Oxfordshire.

My two’penneth on the wired/wireless point. I went wireless for my bass connection probably 15 years ago, and whilst this gives you the freedom to move around, it is just as valid in those super tight pub gigs as you are not standing all over your cable all night. Same applies with wired vs wireless IEMs. On the mono/stereo debate, my Behringer XR18 has 6 aux outs, which means in a five piece band only one of us could have a stereo mix without going to the expense of Ultranet linked devices like @Bassmonkey2510 which would be an expensive upgrade with yet more gear/cables etc to setup/pack away at every gig. I’ve only ever known a mono mix in my IEMs so I can’t really comment on the benefits of stereo.

My experience is similarly positive. Like Warwickhunt, I found the KZ’s didn’t fit my ear shape (particularly the left ear for some reason). I’m also successfully using the Sennheiser 100’s coupled with the X-Vive U4 transmitter/receiver setup. As other have said, there is extensive information available on the IEM mega thread here, and I’ll add don’t expect to get your mix right first time out of the box. It takes time to get the eq right on your IEM feed, and the balance across all instruments. But stick with it, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Playing on a big stage, the ability to wander around taking your mix with you is revelational, and playing small gigs where you are stood on top of your amp crammed in next to the drummer work equally well and you’ll love the lack of tinnitus post-gig. Currently resisting the urge to splash the cash on custom moulded in-ears and a UHF-based transmitter receiver setup, surely overkill for my needs but my gear sluttery and GAS are a strong persuasive force.

You know what they say, blondes are more fun 😉

All part of the alchemy of ‘tone’

Great playing on both versions, but i prefer the double bass version. The electric bass sounds too clean and precise, whereas the double bass version is more organic and in keeping with the original composition.

I have a TC PolyTune Mini on my ‘board, a Snark clip on tuner in the gig bag, and the PolyTune app on my phone. All work great with double bass

Remember that you can run more than one sub from the same aux out as its not necessary to have your subs ‘in stereo’ as bass frequencies are omni-directional

On my desk I have the Behringer UMC202 2 channel interface which runs into GarageBand on my MacBook Pro and out through either KRK Rokit 5’s or Beyer DT770 headphones. For portability I have the iRig HD interface plugged jnto my iPad running Amplitude out into either Sennheiser IEM’s or the Beyer DT770’s.