cheap double bass, amplifying advice

[Fenderjazz1]

i play in a band doing 50s rock and roll usually playing a precision. I recently acquired a cheap double bass (chinese) and last night stuck a cheap transducer pickup on. i play through a markbass lm2 and a phil jones 4b cab. it sounds ok if stick the 2 filters right up on the head and keep the input gain right down and rest of controls flat but havent tried it higher volumes. i wondered if any of you have any advice on amplifier settings as i fancy trying it a gig on friday as we are playing local. ok i know i probably need a better bass and pickup! cheers stu

[janmaat]

Preamp

[fatback]

[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1323900146' post='1468611']
Preamp
[/quote]

+1

And test for feedback at higher volumes. If you have a problem, raise the cab on a table or beer crate or something.

[TheRev]

Like the boys said, a decent preamp like the Fishman platinum pro will go a long way to sorting out your sound. Transducer pickups like a much higher impedance than most amp head inputs provide, so a dedicated double bass preamp is pretty essential to buffer the signal.

[Fenderjazz1]

thanks, guess ill get to the gig early and try it anyway but get a preamp in the new year, cheers

[rockabillybob1]

get a k&k bassmax pickup of ebay 72 quid from states wow what a good sound and dont feed back

[thisnameistaken]

Yeah sounds like your amp isn't coping very well with the piezo signal. A purpose-built double bass preamp like the Fishman Platinum Pro will sort it out for about £100, and you can continue to use your bass guitar amp.

[janmaat]

Seems fair to say the fishman is the more versatile piece of kit (xlr out ground shift etc) and great for getting the best possible sound, while the K&K is just amazing if your focus is more on the stage performance side of things since it's fixed to the belt & comes with an extra channel for the finger board to amplify the slap sounds. I'm using EBS microbass II which is also really cool IMO with the two channels and allows for some mad distorted sounds. In any case make sure you also get a tuner that mutes since you sometimes really need that mute / kill option in case of feedback.