Double Bass Acoustic Image Corus with a Piezo ABG?

[GrooverMcTube]

Hi All,

There is an Acoustic Image Corus on our local Craigslist equivalent at a very reasonable price ($650). I am thinking of pairing it with a Breedlove Studio ABG. I'm typically not a volume freak so I think the 400 watts should be more than adequate for the kind of coffeehouse/party gigs we normally do. Is there any kind of impedance correction that would need to be corrected between the ABG and the amp? Does anybody have any experience with an ABG and AI? I typically am also the lead vocalist so I am hoping to use the second input for vocals. Any experience using the AI for vocals?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark Gollihur]

The impedance should not be an issue; the preamp/front end on the Corus is identical to that of the comparable Coda/Contra/Clarus/etc. It has a 1 megohm input impedance, which is suitable for most purposes, even running direct from the piezo to the amp. The Breedlove, I'm pretty sure, has a built-in preamp, making the amp's input impedance a non-issue anyway.

You may find the bass response a little underwhelming. The genesis of the Corus was a "happy accident" - as the story was told to me, the AI folks were testing a new custom speaker which had much better efficiency (more volume per watt is the benefit) and tried it in the Coda combo. While it had a more "forward" sound, a bit more "in your face-ness", the tradeoff was that the bass response wasn't nearly as full or present (a common tradeoff with efficiency). So they realized that the new speaker was a no-go for replacing the Coda driver.

But then someone played a jazz guitar through it, and they were so impressed with how good it (and other higher-pitched instruments) sounded with the alternate speaker, a new model was born. They used the alternate driver, tweaked the crossover and a few other features, and there ya go.

But yeah, The Corus is definitely not quite as "big" sounding with bass. It'll do it, just not nearly as well as a Coda will. I'd strongly suggest trying to get an opportunity to play your bass through the amp before you take your wallet out.

As for using the second channel as a vocal amp, lots of coffeehouse/small venue players do exactly that - it's a clean, relatively uncolored amp so it should work fine in that regard.