Strings and amps

[romanytony]

Are there any double bass players around south west Wales?  I've been playing double bass for a couple of bands that play bluegrass and traditional music, and would like to advance my ability. Also I have the same strings on my bass from when I bought it, I would like to chat to other bass players re strings and amps. I'm thinking of buying a Roland Micro Cube amp, but £230 is a bit of a gamble if it doesn't make the sound I want, which is just to be heard above a banjo. 

[Dan Dare]

PJB cabs are good for DB. Not cheap, but you won't have to buy twice.

[Burns-bass]

6 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

PJB cabs are good for DB. Not cheap, but you won't have to buy twice.

I’d also second this. I’ve recently bought an armful of PJB gear and it’s immense. The quality of reproduction is amazing. Even the 150 Flightcase isn’t loud enough for me, but it’s amazing at home and perfect for playing with acoustic instruments like a ukelele I’m sure.

[TheRev]

I have a Roland micro cube which I bought for busking with my double bass.  While the ability to amp up on battery power is great, the cube struggles to deliver the low end without distortion. I found it more useful as a monitor for me while relying on getting the best acoustic projection (by using good right hand technique and 'loud' strings) to keep up with the other instruments.

[Bloopdad1]

I'm in Llantrisant if you want to have a go of my setups... 

I use Barefaced and Bergantino cabs coupled with Genz-Benz and Gallien-Krueger amps. All superb. 

I use pirastro Evah Pirazzi strings on 2 out of 3 of my basses (and a set of slap strings on my other bass) plus Evahs on my Yamaha SLB100 stick bass. 

Bass guitar - I use D'dario XL nichols on both my 5st elec basses, and a stinking old set of labella flats on my P bass. 

Covers all my gigs from Opera, Classical, Choral, jazz, theatre, big band, rock, pop, bluegrass etc etc. 

Let me know if you want to pop round. 

Cheers 

[romanytony]

Thank you all so much for your replies. So strike the Roland off my Christmas list, thanks for helping out on the that, I'll look at the PJB  cabs. And Bloopdad1, yes, I would like to meet up and have a chat. If it's ok with you, I'll have a look at the map and find out where Llantrisant is. My email is [email protected].

Thanks all. 

[Owen]

Go Bloopdad1 !

As an aside, if an amp is good for Bass Guitar, it is good for Double Bass as long as your pickup is looking at an impedance load it is happy with. A dedicated preamp is all that is needed. 

[Bloopdad1]

Pm sent. 

[NickA]

Plus one for PJB here. 

Great with double bass; with a good pickup you hardly know it's there. 

Bit 'hifi' and insufficient thump perhaps for electric and not very loud either.  My 150 flghtcase is nice at home, but even in a jazz sextet (2 saxes, guitar, electric piano, bass) I have to sit it on a pb300 to be loud enough.

Markbass seem good - one of these was the amp at a jazz session I went to http://www.markbass.it/product-detail/mini-cmd-121p/. sounded fine whatever bass was plugged into it . ..from a double bass through a fretless Wal to a fretted 6-string.

[Maude]

There's a PJB 100watt two speaker amp for sale in Bristol on here. 

I'll find the ad. 

[Maude]

Here you go. 

It won't be massively loud but probably enough to keep up with a banjo. 

That went wrong. Click the link and scroll down and there's another link to the PJB advert. 

Edited November 22, 2019 by Maude

[NickA]

The PJB bass cub is not loud at all.  It's a good thing for practicing electric bass at home, but hardly adds volume to a double bass unless you add a PB100 or PB300 (powered cabs), which kind of spoils the point.  I think the 4 speaker flightcase (or maybe the cheaper, heavier and slightly more lively sounding BG400) is the minimum in the PJB range for performance.  Though people have managed with the "briefcase" for playing in a trio (un-amped piano and light drums). 

By luck and perseverance, I found good priced PJB kit on this very site ... if I had to buy new I'd certainly be looking at the Markbass one too. 

PS:  At a gig last night, our baritone sax player kept saying he couldn't hear me very well; I kept turning the volume up, but it still seemed quiet.  When packing up I realised I hadn't turned the PB300 on, and had been playing though only the PJB flightcase.  So it will hold its own in a small venue!

Edited November 23, 2019 by NickA
typo

[ezbass]

4 minutes ago, NickA said:

The PJB bass cub is not loud at all.  It's a good thing for practicing electric bass at home, but hardly adds volume to a double bass unless you add a PB100 or PB300 (powered cabs), which kind of spoils the point.  I think the 4 speaker flightcase (or maybe the cheaper, heavier and slightly more lively sounding BG400) is the minimum in the PJB range for performance.  Though people have managed with the "briefcase" for playing in a trio (un-amped piano and light drums). 

By luck and perseverance, I found good priced PJB kit on this very site ... if I had to buy new I'd certainly be looking at the Markbass one too. 

PS:  At a gig last night, our baritone sax player kept saying he couldn't hear me very well; I kept turning the volume up, but it still seemed quiet.  When packing up I realised I hadn't turned the PB300 on, and had been playing though only the PJB flightcase.  So it will hold its own in a small venue!

As a PJB user I’d agree with this 100%. I have a Cub, Flightcase and PB300 and I use the Cub for home practice, the Flightcase for rehearsals/quiet gigs and the Flightcase or Cub + PB300 for full on gigs.

As to the “PS” - 😂😂😂

[PaulKing]

I have a litlle tiny PJB 2x4  thing in my kitchen. (Its a lot of money for a tiny thing, but it does kick an impressive volume out for its size, great for practicing electric bass.) I dont LOVE its tone though, its a bit mid rangey, and when you kill the mid it gets wooly or scratchy depending on Bass and Treble setting. I use an EQ if want to dial in a really nice tone. I dont know if that's the same for bigger PJB stuff. 

It actually reproduces upright slightly better, and can definitely add a bit of volume in a small acoustic practice setting.

+1 for Markbass for gigging. I use Markbass CMD121P (with 121H extension for louder gigs). I've played pretty big hall venues with it and it is always way loud enough. Also needs a tiny bit of help with EQ for my taste, but overall, love it.. 

[NickA]

The bigger PJB stuff is very neutral.  The 5x eq knobs mostly stay at 12:00.  If the cabs aren't near a wall then the bottom two knobs need turning up a bit to get enough bass.  When I had a trace GP12SMX + 15" thing it always needed a smile EQ or sounded boxy and midrangey (to me).

I'd assumed that adding the PB300 to the flightcase would bring along more bass and add more heft to the sound ... but it's also neutral, just makes things louder - probably improves bass at a distance though as the wide total area of the extra 6 forward facing 5" speakers will suffer less dispersion. 

In some ways (for electric bass, especially my Warwick, which is rather "polite" sounding) I miss my old Trace rig.

[razze06]

For a long time I used a PJB Briefcase on double bass. At 100w of hifi sound it won't work in a loud band, but i've successfully used it for both DB and EB in a full band setting with no PA support. Strategic positioning and tilting helped, as well as sympathetic volume setting from the rest of the band. I changed to a bigger PJB rig because too often I didn't have the chance to set up as I needed to to be heard.

I miss the portability and form factor, so I bought a second hand Markbass minimark 602, which is louder and lighter than the PJB briefcase.

[aoktdi]

For my acoustic bass gigging in a jazz combo I own an Acoustic Image CODA Series 4plus Combo Amplifier. Fantastic!! 23 pounds. Two channels; effects; sturdily-constructed and warranted. You won't top this amp as long as your pickups are in order. Mine are old-school Fishman BP-100s.

[chyc]

10 hours ago, aoktdi said:

For my acoustic bass gigging in a jazz combo I own an Acoustic Image CODA Series 4plus Combo Amplifier. Fantastic!! 23 pounds. Two channels; effects; sturdily-constructed and warranted. You won't top this amp as long as your pickups are in order. Mine are old-school Fishman BP-100s.

Yeah, I'm going to be giving some Acoutic Image love on this thread. You just need to be prepared to tailor the sound to the room as it's very sensitive to room boundaries.

The support from Acoustic Image in times of need is staggeringly good. I stll get advice and probably spare parts on my 13 year++ coda. Many years ago some neanderthal "borrowed" my amp and blew my woofer. AI shipped out a new one no questions asked, no cost to me. The amp was around 5 years old by that stage.

The new ones are pricey but the old ones are still performant, and turn up second hand around the place. The warranty statement on their website seems to have changed since I last checked as it no longer covers second hand stuff, which is a shame but Rick at AI is a very nice and approachable person.

[NickA]

On 06/01/2020 at 11:40, aoktdi said:

For my acoustic bass gigging in a jazz combo I own an Acoustic Image CODA Series 4plus Combo Amplifier. Fantastic!! 23 pounds. Two channels; effects; sturdily-constructed and warranted. You won't top this amp as long as your pickups are in order. Mine are old-school Fishman BP-100s.

Phenomenal for double bass .. at a price (£1600). 

Someone brought one to the last double bass bash and it was hard to see how something that tiny could sound that good. 

Has quite a big amp (600W) and a 10" (down firing) speaker in it. Lots of knobs to twiddle too (useful stuff like high pass filters and phase reversers).

Never heard an electric bass through one though.

[philparker]

20 hours ago, NickA said:

Never heard an electric bass through one though.

Not quite as good for electric bass (still acceptable), but as you say, very good for DB. I have just the amp, which I can put through one or two Crazy 8s. Although with two channels, it can double up with EB, but I prefer an MB200/500 through the same speakers for EB.

[NickA]

Talking to the owner of bassbags about this thread today. 

He reckons pjb come out better overall than ai codas, even for just double bass ..so he's now stocking pjb almost exclusively ( has a good collection in the shop now ) - of course there will be a commercial element involved! 

Lower price point certainly and work well with electric ( gentle electric that is, doubt any metal heads or other valve lovers would be impressed).

On the other hand I've heard PJB's support is dreadful ( never needed it mind ).

Got to try both and see!

[philparker]

I can’t comment PJB’s as I’ve never tried them personally; I already have too much gear to continue  experimenting. However, there does seem to be a new trend of using powered FRFR PA speakers like the QSC K10.2 or Yamaha DZR 10/12 etc. Which is more appealing for versatility?!

[NickA]

Yes I'd noticed that.  Same thing I guess with DI into a PA system. If we're looking for a clean / accurate sound then just play through big HiFi!  

More kit to carry than a pjb flight case or an ai coda tho.😉