Revelation and question

[Nick Ioannucci]

SO last week was the first time i gigged with my amp(swr goliath jr and bass 350 pro) and it sounded real great with electric, but not so much with upright. So i tried what i though was turning the tweeter off. upon further inspection turn the tweeter control to 0 is actually full on, so now that im home and experimenting turning it off was step one. ok, better, but still not really my bass but louder. i go further, cutting treble, getting better but still not right. i cut bass high mids and treble, as well as playing with the gain knob and i finally found what was more or my bass but louder(at low volume it is jsut that but as you go higher its close but not quite the same). So that was my revelation, eq upright the complete opposite as i like to eq my electric. my question is, if i get a DTAR Solstice and run it throught the return path of my effects blend, will this give me a completely seperate EQ section? This will also give me the option of adding a mic to my setup which i had been thingingk on, as well as the ability to switch quickly between electric and upright with the turn of my effects from completely dry to full wet. Will this work? i guess what im asking is will turning my effects all the way on bypass my eq?

[Steve Boisen]

The short answer is yes, plugging a preamp into the effects return of your amp will bypass the SWR preamp and allow you to have a seperate EQ for your upright. If you plug your electric bass into the SWR's regular input, then you can use the Effects Blend knob to select between the two basses. This works well, but if you run a line to the PA there are some other things you must consider as I have recently discovered. Check out this recent thread here where I pose some similar questions regarding my SWR WM12 and a doubling gig.

Many electric bass amps (inlcuding SWR) have low impedance inputs and preamps that are not voiced with upright bass in mind. Using a preamp as a buffer will usually improve the tone and bypassing the SWR preamp by plugging the preamp into the effects return may help even more, although you may loose some headroom depending on the preamp you choose. The pickup you use is another factor. My Realist seems to tolerate most electric bass amps well, but my BassMax sounds much better through a preamp plugged into the effects return of either my SWR or GK. In fact, I never use the BassMax any other way.

Good luck, and let me know if you find something that works well.

- Steve

[Nick Ioannucci]

right now im using the revolution solo 2 on my 6 week old hawkes, so in a sense im still dialing it in. i noted that the impedance for the bass 350 was either 600 or 800k ohms, not 1 megohm as suggested, so that may be a factor as well. i probably wont be picking anything up till around christmas time unless i get a job before then. oh ande thanks for the link steve, thats just the answer i was looking for. ive only played one gig with PA so far, so as long as the DI on the back of the amp will work for both basses it should be fine since i almost never use it. its looking like ill be picking up a DTAR Solstice to at least get my doubling stuff going, and then maybe ill use the second chanel of the Solstice to add a mic to my upright... mmmmm.