JPJ

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.

No reason at all other than it uses up one of your aux outs. Did this for years before I got the DriveRack and it works great, and depending on how you set your sends (pre/post fader) can give you full independent control of the low end volume

Darkglass Harmonic Booster, bought on a whim to add some secret sauce to my fretless sound but never actually made it onto my board as it didn’t.

For me, it’s the SushiBoxFX Finally v2 ‘with bass in mind’ valve DI box. Calling it a DI does it a bit of a disservice as it also has a built-in fixed HPF and the ability to include or exclude the valve from the DI chain. It’s become a fixture on my meagre little board and just adds that valvy goodness to my otherwise quite sterile signal path.

Really depends on where the gig is. Smaller gigs the best single cab I had was a Schroeder 21012 (a 2x10 + 1x12 on a slanted baffle). For bigger gigs the best cab I’ve owned was the SWR Goliath Snr 6x10. That thing could rock hard all night and still come back for more.

I know my EV ZLX tops have a setting in their DSP where you tell them what sub you are using (or no sub at all) and I think the onboard DSP takes care of crossover filtering. This might explain why the EV bins put out a full range signal? Personally, I prefer using an outboard crossover or loudspeaker management such as the DriveRack, especially when mixing whilst playing. In this scenario I wouldn’t leave home without the DriveRack.

So, I am looking for an app that can pitch shift songs from either iTunes or Spotify that allows you to build a playlist with the song and your chosen key. My current method is to drag the iTunes Media into GarageBand and pitch shift in there, but it’s a bit clunky, device dependent (i.e. not really portable between my Mac and iPad), and you have effectively got two versions of the song on your storage (original, and the copy in GarageBand. I know I could be a little less lazy and export the songs back out of GarageBand in my chosen key, but surely in this day and age there’s an app that can do this? WARNING: iOS solutions only, Apple fanboi

For reference my X-Vive starts to clip if i push the aux master much beyond -18db on the meter (Behringer X-Air XR18) but it might go earlier if i have individual channels that are regularly ‘in the yellow’ gain-wise.

Distortion can be a result of pushing the gain too high on the IEM send. Using IEM’s on a conventional (ie none silent) combined with poor fitting ear pieces can lead you to turn up the desk out until you start clipping the transmitter.

Look out for a TC Electronics BG250 208, you’ll pick one up secondhand for about £150. Honestly it’ll blow you away.

As a long term Behringer X-Air user, and I suspect like many of us, I’ve basically been working with the same scene file since I got the unit, copying and modifying the file for different bands (I’ve been in three since i bought my XR18) on the principle that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Having recently been working in an acoustic trio, I decided to build a new scene file from the bottom up, using all the knowledge I’ve acquired from here and from other sources, and the results were a revelation. Obviously my old scene file had been tweaked and adjusted hundreds of times and the cumulative effect was a less than optimal. The new scene file sounds much better to my old ears and a lot more dynamic and live sounding. Bottom line, just because you’ve got eq, gate, compression, etc on every channel doesnt mean you have to use it. If you’re new to the digital world you will probably do the same as I did, but once you’re up to speed with your desk, I recommend a periodic rebuild of your scene file to make sure that you don’t carry that frankly bizarre eq cut you needed at the Dog and Duck forward to all of your future gigs.

My experience is that most piezo type pickups benefit from a preamp designed to cope with the high impedence. Once you have a good preamp, any bass amp or as some have suggested powered PA speaker will work fine. Again, from my experience (mostly EUB) smaller speakers seem to work best with double bass, and my own ‘go to’ gig amp is the little TC Electronics BG250 208 combo which you’ll often see pop up on here for around £150 second hand. I use the EBS Stanley Clarke preamp pedal because on most gigs I am doubling either db/EUB with fretless or fretted electric bass.

Our gig for our acoustic trio was in a pub made out of three separate but connected rooms arranged in an L shape, where we play in the corner of the L. I’d spent the afternoon uploading a new profile to my DriveRack for just the two EV ZLX15 tops (no subs required), and I also built a completely new scene file in the X-Air XR18 for the trio rather than using a cutdown scene from the now defunct electric band. Result was a back-to-basics cleaner sound without the layering of previous tweaks and adjustments. Overall, I was very happy with the FOH sound, and this was also both my first gig using an acoustic upright double bass, and my first playing without any form of backline. Relying on the FOH sound for monitoring my bass playing was in hindsight a mistake, and for future trio gigs I will use my in-ears for personal monitoring.

Just to close out on this thread, following the purchase of Lilly, we played our first gig together on Saturday night up in deepest darkest Northumberland. As I was bringing the PA, I left my amp at home so this was a gig of two firsts, first full gig on acoustic double bass, and first gig without any form of backline. Relying solely on the FOH for monitoring was possibly a leap too far, so I will be using my IEM’s for the next outing, but other than that it was a massively pleasing experience and Lilly received a lot of compliments from the crowd comprising of friends of the band, locals, and others who had travelled to see us.

Thanks Nick, By experimentation, I think the fault lies right where the cable disappears in to the rubbery gunk, so I think its probably a right off

Does anyone know of someone who repairs Piezo double bass pickups? My Underwood has developed a fault in the wiring on the bass side element just where the cable enters the piezo element and it causes the pickup to cut out completely so I’m sure it’s some kind of short.

Does anyone know of someone who repairs Piezo double bass pickups? My Underwood has developed a fault in the wiring on the bass side element just where the cable enters the piezo element and it causes the pickup to cut out completely so I’m sure it’s some kind of short.

A gig of two firsts for me, first gig on a proper acoustic double bass, and first gig without any form of backline. Our female fronted acoustic trio played up in the wilds of Wanney at the Queens Head in Glanton Northumberland. It’s a strange place to play, the pub is essentially three inter-connected rooms laid out in an L shape and you play in the corner of the L to effectively two separate rooms. We had an enthusiastic crowd made up of locals and friends of the band, some of who had brought their instruments with them (12 string guitar, 6 string guitars, cajon, and even a cello) so things got a little ‘off piste’ at times with the various guest spots. Playing without backline was ‘interesting’ and next time I will definitely use my in-ears as I was struggling to really hear the E string and as a result I have a lovely pair of blisters on my plucking fingers. For the gear sluts, here is the obligatory ‘office’ photo 😎

Yes, but check pickup dimensions before you buy, not all pickups (especially J bass pickups) are the same size.

Thanks for this, I’ve been playing Simple Man for over 14 years with our Southern Rock tribute. Ed King’s bass lines on both Simple Man and Freebird use similar licks, although I have been accused of over playing on Simple Man when playing the original bass line 🤷‍♂️