Quote:
Originally posted by Davy0
I've been noticing how quiet the DB is arco, and with pizz, how it's barely audible (well you can hear it playing alone, but with a group?) |
QUIET
That certainly hasn't been *my* experience.
The bassist for Jim Cullum's Jazz Band doesn't plug in, and you have no trouble at all hearing him over the drums, piano, amplified guitar, piano, and Jim Cullum's trumpet. He mostly plays pizz, but uses a bow on some songs. No problem hearing the bass arco OR pizz from out in the audience.
From upstairs in the bathroom, the bass & trumpet are mostly what you can hear through the walls, about 60 feet away, upstairs, and through a well-insulated wall.
I play pizz exclusively, and recently had no problems keeping up with a 9-foot grand piano, with the top up and someone wailing Jerry Lee Lewis tunes into a microphone.
I often play with a Folk/Jazz group, and typically we use two amplified acoustic-electric guitars, three mic'd vocalists, a jazz drummer and URB. I generally don't even plug in, with that bunch, unless it's a big room.
When nobody else is plugged in, I usually have to hold back, to keep from overpowering the guitar, mandolin & vocals.
I've heard a Rockabilly buddy of mine playing his Korean plywood bass outdoors from 75 yards away, with plain-gut strings, everyone playing pure acoustic, and you couldn't hear anything but the bass from that distance. It sounded like he was giving a solo pizz bass recital.
Guitars, singers, and a mandolin were all inaudible, but I heard that bass just fine.
One thing about a bass is that they usually sound louder at 15 feet than they do to someone standing right next to it, or holding it. Even when I play Washtub Bass, it works that way.
Poor string technique can keep you from getting any meaningful volume.
Invairably, when a BG player walks up and wants to try my double bass, the first thing that happens is that he gets almost no sound out of it, due to trying to tickle the strings with his fingertips. You've got to "put some meat on the string", even when playing softly.
A soundpost that's too long can kill volume, and some basses simply aren't as loud as others.
Maybe you need to visit a Luthier and make sure there's nothing wrong with your setup.
If the soundpost isn't positioned right or isn't fitted well, or if the bridge-feet aren't contoured to exactly match the swell of the face, those can rob you of sound.
What *I* notice is that a drummer who isn't too good, and has to pound the drums full-strength to keep in time, will drown me out.
I keep up with a trumpet, but a Flugelhorn(coronet on steroids) has done it, a trombone has also.
Three weeks ago, I was playing with a Country band, using a Stratocaster, Martin A/E, URB, amplified fiddle, and pedal-steel guitar. The battery in my preamp died, suddenly and completely.
I kept asking two friends who were about 20 feet in front of us if they could hear the bass, because it didn't sound quite loud enough to me. They kept saying they could hear it fine.
After a while, I turned my volume all the way off, and when I heard no difference, I turned it all the way up, still hearing no difference. THAT showed me what had happened.
My particular bass, is not, by any stretch of the imagination, quiet, unless I deliberately play it quietly, and it's a cheapo-bass.
In addition, I play Celtic sometimes, and a set of Great Highland Bagpipes must have drowned me out, though I don't know, because I went to go listen from another room, like everyone else.
Great Highland Pipes are not an indoor instrument. Scottish pipes used to be used on battlefields, like bugles were used in America.
They passed orders to the troops with them, because they could be heard above cannons and small-arms fire. Also, they seem to have only two volume settings, "Off" and "Balls To The Wall". Irish pipes are more civilized.
What's the best way to tune a set of bagpipes?...With a penknife.
