Wiring Up a Double Bass

[Birtrum]

Can anyone advise me on what is the best way to amplify my double bass on a budget. There are so many makes of Transducers out there with one, two and four pickups and Rufu Reid talks about a microphone unit on his DVD. I'm a new convert to the upright bass and have not had the balls to play it in public yet. I play Jazz/Blues and not that slappy Rockerbilly stuff.

Thanks

Birty

[jakenewmanbass]

As you say yourself there is a lot of choice out there, have a troll through earlier threads in this section and you will find quite a bit of discussion about the various merits of the different options out there. I personally have tried mics, transducers and the stick strip type and found the transducer to be most reliable in the widest variety of settings.
Good luck.
Jake

[Birtrum]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='310349' date='Oct 20 2008, 12:35 PM']As you say yourself there is a lot of choice out there, have a troll through earlier threads in this section and you will find quite a bit of discussion about the various merits of the different options out there. I personally have tried mics, transducers and the stick strip type and found the transducer to be most reliable in the widest variety of settings.
Good luck.
Jake[/quote]

Thanks for the reply, do you use a two head transducer or a four head one?

[teej]

[quote name='Birtrum' post='310381' date='Oct 20 2008, 01:04 PM']Thanks for the reply, do you use a two head transducer or a four head one?[/quote]
I use the underwood pu, two transducers slotting into the bridge wings.
Used to have a sticky guitar bug under the neck for slap, but abandoned that ages ago, I get enough slap without it. If you can afford it, it's well worth shelling out for a pre-amp to boost your signal going into your amp/pa.

By the way - slap's not an exclusive rockabilly thing - all the blues guys would have played that way, Willie Dixon and Big Crawford certainly did ten years prior to Bill Black, and all the jazz guys in the '20s & '30s probably had to to get heard. Check out youtube vids of Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan et al. There's a slapped double bass in either Casablanca or To Have and Have Not, both early '40s.

Anyway - however you do it, get that bass out there and have yourself some fun...

[bassace]

+1 for the Underwood. You can get involved in all sorts of discussions as to which is the best transducer/mic setup but at the end of the day (or the start of the gig), and as a new convert you need something that'll get you reliably started and get good instant results. Only after a few years' of gigs will you need to start considering other options.

You may want to use your bass guitar amp initially to save you the cost of a more DB-oriented amp ( Gallien Krueger 150MBS is a very good place to start). If you use your bass guitar amp you will probably experience a mismatch in impedence (transducer is much higher than bass guitar pickup). So get a Fishman Pro eq, or better still a Platinum Pro eq, preamp. This will not only buffer the impedence but will shape the tone, reduce feedback by a phase inverter and in the case of the Platinum act as a DI and more besides.

Good luck.

[teej]

[quote name='bassace' post='310729' date='Oct 20 2008, 07:46 PM']...get a Fishman Pro eq, or better still a Platinum Pro eq, preamp. This will not only buffer the impedence but will shape the tone, reduce feedback by a phase inverter and in the case of the Platinum act as a DI and more besides.

Good luck.[/quote]
+1 back for Fishman Platinum Pro eq preamp! I use mine all the time, straight into the pa - don't bother with my amp anymore. Excellent bit of kit, truly one of those 'what did i do before?' things.

[Birtrum]

I'm intending to use my old Peavey 150 watt bass amp to start with, as I may end up back on my old electric bass if my first gig is a failure. The pre amp looks a good idea, as I could turn up on open mike evenings and use whatever amplification is there.

Thanks everyone for you input.

Birty

[steviedee]

I bought a K&K bass max which I'm quite pleased with, I was looking at using my sansamp bddi as a pre but it's a bit overkill I think, so I have just bought PJB Bass Briefcase which incorporates a bass buddy, so I was hoping I could DI at bigger gigs monitor with the briefcase , we shall see.....

[teej]

[quote name='steviedee' post='313033' date='Oct 23 2008, 03:30 PM']I bought a K&K bass max which I'm quite pleased with, I was looking at using my sansamp bddi as a pre but it's a bit overkill I think, so I have just bought PJB Bass Briefcase which incorporates a bass buddy, so I was hoping I could DI at bigger gigs monitor with the briefcase , we shall see.....[/quote]
ooh - looking forward to hearing how you get on with the briefcase, let us know please.