ampeg baby bass compressor?

[sunita]

Hi, I bought an Ampeg Baby Bass 6 months ago and am having trouble with the low volume output. Also the bass has uneven volume on certain notes. Would a compressor and/or pre-amp help & if so, can anyone recommend one? Do they come in a single unit? Im also worried about having too much sustain from a compression pedal as I play latin and need the short, percussive 'thuddiness' to be retained!! Any advice would be much appreciated!

[bongomania]

A compressor can be used to even out string volume levels. I'd recommend something capable of a high ratio and an adjustable threshold, which will allow you to reduce the peaks of the stronger notes without compressing the higher notes so much. Check out the reviews linked in my sig; I think the Demeter and the modded CS3 are good bets for your purpose in pedal form, but a rack unit will typically give you more control over the compression.

Don't worry about sustain- when you mute the strings as normal with your fingers, the compressor does not keep sustaining. All a compressor does is reduce the higher spikes in the signal. They can "add sustain" when you turn up the overall signal level to compensate for the reduction in levels caused by the compression, but it only sustains a little bit more than usual, and only to the extent that you let the strings keep ringing.

A pre-amp will help with the low output levels overall, but it will not help with uneven levels from string to string. Most compressors contain a preamp circuit to raise the output levels, so again most comps can do both jobs.