ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Hi all, My (cheaper end of the market) bass sounds ok acoustically, but when I plug in to my amp it sounds terrible. The amp is a very nice Peavey (my mates).... so Im thinking that it must be the pickup, which was about £20 quid on ebay.....and the fact that I dont have a pre-amp. Am I on the right track?? And which pickup and pre-amp would you guys recommend ?? I play rockabilly/punkabilly with some very loud guitarists ( how do you get a guitarist to turn it down??? ) and a drummer who would give Animal a run for his money cheers....Chris Edited February 9, 2013 by ChrisF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) [quote name='ChrisF' timestamp='1360427297' post='1970218'] Hi all, My (cheaper end of the market) bass sounds ok acoustically, but when I plug in to my amp it sounds terrible. The amp is a very nice Peavey (my mates).... so Im thinking that it must be the pickup, which was about £20 quid on ebay.....and the fact that I dont have a pre-amp. Am I on the right track?? And which pickup and pre-amp would you guys recommend ?? I play rockabilly/punkabilly with some very loud guitarists ( how do you get a guitarist to turn it down??? ) and a drummer who would give Animal a run for his money cheers....Chris [/quote] You could buy a Boss GEB-7 graphic equaliser which is much cheaper than most pre-amps but does the business. I have one and it allows me to tweak my sound exactly how I like it. They cost £80 new and £40 secondhand. Here's a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDA-kip-G8A Edited February 9, 2013 by gjones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 [quote name='gjones' timestamp='1360428723' post='1970271'] You could buy a Boss GEB-7 graphic equaliser which is much cheaper than most pre-amps but does the business. I have one and it allows me to tweak my sound exactly how I like it. They cost £80 new and £40 secondhand. [/quote] Youve got one of those on an upright bass ???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Most bass amps are not matched for the impedance of a piezo pickup which is why they sound horrible. Rare exceptions include Euphonic Audio, Acoustic Image and certain Markbass heads. A specialist acoustic bass preamp (like a Fishman Plat Pro or LR Baggs) will match the piezo with your amp and it will sound massively better. The better ones also have loads of other useful features like phase switching (helps killing feedback) and high pass filters (remove that awful boom you can get in some rooms or certain stages). They are a really worthwhile investment. Plat Pros's pop up from time to time for less than £100 on the DB for sale forum (new they are about £130-odd) PS, your pickp may be absolutely fine but you won't know until you have tried it through your amp with appropriate impedance matching between. So sort the preamp first! Edited February 9, 2013 by Clarky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 nice one clarky ..... Im off to buy a preamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 if you get a Plat Pro make sure its the bass version! Like this: http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fishman-pro-eq-platinum-bass-instrument-preamp-eq-di/2538 There's a non-bass version too If I were you I would try an items wanted post in the DB forum first, you may be able to pick one up for £80-odd and save yourself £40+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 hmmmm ....I was gonna buy one new, but your idea sounds better...especially to my missus lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 FYI, I would post this in the DB/EUB for sale forum as its more likely to be spotted by the DB players of BassChat than in the Items Wanted forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 now he tells me .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJ Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Hi Chris, I have a used one that I'll sell. I never got on with it on DB. Like all things DB, my bass sounds better with the Full Circle and an MXR80 of all things I bought it used and the XLR jack is a little loose but works fine. The rest of the unit works fine too. If you pm me your address, I'll send it to you to try. If it works for you we can work out a good price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 [quote name='ChrisF' timestamp='1360429979' post='1970320'] Youve got one of those on an upright bass ???? [/quote] It's the reason I bought it after getting advice on basschat. I no longer have the DB but comes in handy for electric too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 [quote name='TPJ' timestamp='1360434503' post='1970456'] Hi Chris, I have a used one that I'll sell. I never got on with it on DB. Like all things DB, my bass sounds better with the Full Circle and an MXR80 of all things I bought it used and the XLR jack is a little loose but works fine. The rest of the unit works fine too. If you pm me your address, I'll send it to you to try. If it works for you we can work out a good price. [/quote] nice one...I will pm my address tomorrow when Im a bit more sober...had too many beers...cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Hughes Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 If you have any Boss pedal handy, try it first before spending any money on a new preamp. Boss pedals have a high enough impedance that works well with piezo pickups, IMO. Worth a try. I used to run my pickups into a Fishman Dual Parametric DI first, because it had a really high, 10 Megohm impedance input - thinking that the higher the better - but it ended up resulting in too much low end coming thru. The lower impedance of 1 Megohm on the Boss pedals seems to filter out those nasty low's perfectly for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 If you don't get on with the Plat Pro (nice offer from TPJ to try it out first ) then another cheap but harder to find alternative is an Fdeck preamp. These just have a phase switch, high pass filter and impedance matching so they are much simpler than most double bass preamps. They effectively add DB functionality to your amp. Not sold outside the US but several BCers have one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisnameistaken Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 [quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1360446147' post='1970719']If you have any Boss pedal handy, try it first before spending any money on a new preamp. Boss pedals have a high enough impedance that works well with piezo pickups, IMO. Worth a try. I used to run my pickups into a Fishman Dual Parametric DI first, because it had a really high, 10 Megohm impedance input - thinking that the higher the better - but it ended up resulting in too much low end coming thru. The lower impedance of 1 Megohm on the Boss pedals seems to filter out those nasty low's perfectly for me.[/quote] Before I got a dedicated preamp I tried a couple of Boss pedals just to lower the input impedance at the amp as you describe, but it didn't work for me (I tried an OC-2 and an LS-2), the sound was still weedy and thin and horrid. That was a Bass Max at the input and going into a Hartke LH500. I bought a Fishman Plat Pro Bass and that worked. I still didn't like the sound but it wasn't because of the impedance mismatch, I just don't like piezos - I tried several with several different amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Went with the Fishman Plat Pro in the end....thanks TPJ Its a great bit of kit, and has improved the sound hugely. Not only does it sound better, but its much, much louder....infact our guitarist had to tell [i]me[/i] "to turn it down !!!" ...which is a first and at one point the crockery in his kitchen were rattling lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artisan Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 He told you to what !!!!! Just tell him to piss off & carry on regardless matey. God damned guitarist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisF Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 lol ....I know..the cheek of some people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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