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Double Bass Brief review - Carvin MB10 combo for EUB

mrpackerguy

mrpackerguy

Gold Supporting Member
Jul 3, 2004
4,694
3,191
Madison, Wisconsin
www.whozplaying.com
#1
Carvin just came out with these

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Last evening, I had a chance to try it out in a jazz trio situation with my NS WAV4 EUB in a medium sized room. First thing that was really noticeable is that for EUB, it was very hard to dial out the highs. The only way to tame them was to have the WAV4 tone control all the way to the bass, and the MB10 amp hi control all the way off. With that accomplished, I then used the following settings:

Drive 2:00
Contour scooped all the way
Low mid at 6 and frequency 300
Hi mid at 6 and frequency at 450
Low 2:00
Tweeter in the "dim" position switch

Regarding output, it was deceiving. With the drive fairly well engaged and the Master volume at about 4:00, I felt that I was really having to push this little combo to get decent output. However, when one of the band members stepped out front, he felt it was way too loud, though he said he thought the tone sounded good. So I backed off the master to 2:00 and still had plenty of volume to hear myself over the drums and keys and out front the singer felt the mix was good.

So I guess after one gig, I'm pleased. Not as punch though. Obviously this is not designed with the EUB player in mind, but it was tweakable and the little amp Carvin puts in the combo is certainly versatile. At 26#, haul in/load-out is a cinch. And $369 shipped is a great price.

At this point thumbs up. Next gig I'm going to put my K&K pure pre between the combo and the WAV4 to see if I can't improve the tone even more.
 
#3
Input impedance is 200 Kohm, according the specs on the net. That's the lowest I've ever seen and that tells that this amp was definitelly not intended for double bass... Of course, you can always use a preamp and it looks like it's the way to go with 90% of amps.
The manufactures just don't care about us - they either make electric bass amps or so called acoustic amps, which sound great for anything except the double bass. Accidentally, some of these amps sound O.K. with double bass, like GK (with 1Mohm input), or even Markbass (with 500Kohm input).
Two of the rare exceptions are the CAD audio combo and the Jesper Lundgaard combo, built for acoustic bass. Unfortunatelly I've never seen or heard any of these...
 
#5
I also purchased an MB10. My intended use was for both electric and upright bass. I checked the input impedance spec before ordering and realized a preamp would most likely be needed to get a decent upright tone. With a Fishman Full Circle PU on a plywood UB plugged directly into amp and all tone controls on 0 (bass, low and high mid, treble) and contour set to flat, the sound was harsh and scratchy...this I expected. I turned treble to -12, fully scooped the mids with the contour and it sounded a bit better. I then plugged into a Baggs Gigpro (belt-clip type preamp)with all tone controls on amp set flat (to 0) and the contour set to flat and tone controls on preamp set in middle of their range. With this I achieved a much more natural sound. I still need to experiment more with the tone controls on amp as well as trim and tone controls on preamp to further refine the overall tone, but I believe the Baggs preamp combined with the MB10 will be quite workable for use with UB.
 
#6
Bert W said:
I also purchased an MB10. My intended use was for both electric and upright bass. I checked the input impedance spec before ordering and realized a preamp would most likely be needed to get a decent upright tone. With a Fishman Full Circle PU on a plywood UB plugged directly into amp and all tone controls on 0 (bass, low and high mid, treble) and contour set to flat, the sound was harsh and scratchy...this I expected. I turned treble to -12, fully scooped the mids with the contour and it sounded a bit better. I then plugged into a Baggs Gigpro (belt-clip type preamp)with all tone controls on amp set flat (to 0) and the contour set to flat and tone controls on preamp set in middle of their range. With this I achieved a much more natural sound. I still need to experiment more with the tone controls on amp as well as trim and tone controls on preamp to further refine the overall tone, but I believe the Baggs preamp combined with the MB10 will be quite workable for use with UB.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear it! I actually need to spend a lot more time with my MB10 and K&K Pure preamp. Someone could give me a brief primer on how higher impedance inputs work better with piezo pickups like the one on my WAV4.
 
#8
Thanks for the report.

The web site says "The tweeter features a DIM switch to control the brightness of your sound." An on/off toggle for the tweeter perhaps? Did this help at all? Just curious. The EQ section looks kind of cool, w/ two sweepable parametrics.
 
#12
Jaromir said:
Input impedance is 200 Kohm, according the specs on the net. That's the lowest I've ever seen and that tells that this amp was definitelly not intended for double bass... Of course, you can always use a preamp and it looks like it's the way to go with 90% of amps.
The manufactures just don't care about us - they either make electric bass amps or so called acoustic amps, which sound great for anything except the double bass. Accidentally, some of these amps sound O.K. with double bass, like GK (with 1Mohm input), or even Markbass (with 500Kohm input).
Two of the rare exceptions are the CAD audio combo and the Jesper Lundgaard combo, built for acoustic bass. Unfortunatelly I've never seen or heard any of these...
Click to expand...

500Kohm is too low, but 1Mohm works well with most of the piezzo pickups.
 

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