Ultimate amp for Upright Bass - Design it yourself!!

[Subculture13]

a.k.a. If you were offered your own signature amp, what is it?


If you were asked to develop your ultimate dream amp for Upright, one that would cover all styles and situations, what would it be?


Would a combo amp appeal to you even if you didn't have a pickup installed? In other words an XLR (with switchable Phantom Power) for Condenser Mics and the like?


What about an amp that had 3 input channels, one with an XLR/Phantom for a mic, and 2 more for your installed pickups?


Would it have tilt-back capability?
How many watts?
What size driver(s) would it have?
How many input channels?
How many and what type of inputs and channels?
What feaures would you want it to have? e.g. Phase switch on one channel? Phantom Power? Tube preamp for warmth? Pre/Post DI? etc
What about a voicing switch for different playing styles? What would they be for you? e.g. Bowed, Rockabilly, slap, finger-style?

Anything and everything you can think of, the sky is the limit. Tell me what the ultimate dream amp would be for you. Feel free to make references to existing amps… What makes them good? What would make them better? What makes them bad?

[Mike Crumpton]

I think you'e barking up the wrong tree for db - I'm not interested in how or what it is as long as it does what I want. In engineering terms I'm well aware that many of these are mutually exclusive.

The amp will be an all-in-one unit and easy to transport.

It will give me foldback that equates to the sound out front.

It will project the sound in a way that is entirely natural of course and does not create feedback in the bass.

I have designed this thing in my head and sometimes on paper many times and come up with large dipole drivers that can be parked alongside the bass giving cancellation around the area of basses body. Smaller speakers would have to face upward for foldback - bass frequencises would be heard anyway - but this thing is goona be huge by comparison with itsy bitsy amps we're used to so it needs wheels and an electric motor :-). I did think of a single 15 with circuitry to control the speaker movement at low frequencies. It wouln't be too powerful though. I'm affraid I gave up and bought an AI. I could do with a backup and might try again.

In the end it doesn't matter. I kow a guy who sounds great using this antique of a carlsboro trash thing - it works for him. The only thing that anoys me about my current set-up is that in the cramped enviornments I work in I'd like a bit of foldback going straight up and so lost to the ceiling and out of the way of my mic.

However, perhpas I'm being unintentionally disengenous. by the itme its pickuped, miced - put through a PA or whatever the DB is effectively and electric intsrument and we forget that sometimes - or try to.

[anonymous0726]

The pickup is the biggest fault in the chain. Improving the amp can't fix a crap signal. If you're off on an engineering bent, make us a pickup

Short of that, something like a Walter Woods with a light, small and tight sounding 12" speaker is best for my tastes. Thus I have a Walter Woods and an Ampeg PB112H.

I really don't care about hi-fi, or even so much how it sounds on stage, as long as it sounds good out front. If the sound is harsh on stage I simply stand off-axis to it. A two-piece deal is my preferred setup, as I can then use my preferred amp on the road with rented speakers, use different cabinets for different applications, and upgrade my rig a piece at a time as my taste/budget/needs/available-equipment changes.

[ImAGoodDuck]

[quote=Ray Parker]The pickup is the biggest fault in the chain. Improving the amp can't fix a crap signal. If you're off on an engineering bent, make us a pickup

AMEN Brotha Ray!