Double Bass Advice on rig for Punkabilly / Psychobilly

[RabbitMurphy]

Hi Guys,
Im new to the DB, I've played Guitar EB and Banjo in Punk bands for years so I'm not new to that side of things but I do need some advice regarding what pick ups/strings i should go for.

With the research I've done so far I've come to the conclusion i have two options pickup wise, Magentic or Piezo, Having played Banjo for many years in a Celtic Punk band i know Piezos can be a nightmare with high volume and feedback and something i really would rather avoid. I know some people say that mag pick ups will give me the sound of a EB but to be honest with the music i will be playing (Punkabilly/Psychobilly) i think the trade off of losing some "tone" compared to not having feedback issues is fair deal!

The problem is Mag picks ups need steel strings i understand, and to be honest i will be playing almost only Slap and the steel stings that come with my bass are really quite difficult to slap, they seem very high tension.

so my questions are.
1 - Am I doing the right thing opting for a Mag?
2 - Do Piezo pickups feedback easily at high volume?
3 - what strings are suited for slap playing & mag pickups? (also price is bit of a factor here, I know gone are the days of spending £5 on a pack of guitar strings but i can't be spending £150+ on strings alone)

Really appreciate any advice guys.

Liam

 

[Rebop]

Am I doing the right thing opting for a Mag?

I don't think so. The mag pickup will sound a lot like a P-Bass and the click won't be right for Psyco/Punk.

Do Piezo pickups feedback easily at high volume?

If you have everything setup correctly, fit of the pickup, setup of the bass, bridge sits perfect, soundpost perfect, then you shouldn't have any feedback issues. Look at Mark Robertson, Geoff Firebaugh, Jimbo Wallace and Kim Nekroman. All use piezo and they are LOUD!

what strings are suited for slap playing & mag pickups? (also price is bit of a factor here, I know gone are the days of spending £5 on a pack of guitar strings but i can't be spending £150+ on strings alone)

Your options are severely limited if you go for a mag pickup but a lot of people use solo tuning superflexibles or something similar tuned down to standard pitch with success. You can also "bump" a standard set of bass strings if you get a high C string. C tuned down to G, G down to D, D to A, and A to E. You're gonna spend over £100 most likely for decent strings if you go steel but they don't break and generally sound better as they age (to me). You also can't use any of the cool modern gut synthetics that are in the £50 or less range (i.e. Superior Bassworks) with a mag.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Get an Underwood pickup, and have a second soundpost fitted directly below the bridge foot and right up against the bass bar.

I doubted the second soundpost strategy for quite some time, but after seeing footage of Geoff Firebaugh standing directly in front of his ridiculous amplifier, and taking his hands off the strings without even a hint of feedback, I was convinced.

 

[rafrockabilly]

I'm probably going to echo a lot of what Rebop said... but I do have some different opinions about mags

I think mags are cool IF they are blended with piezos. Without piezos you won't get much click from the slap and the tone won't be very 'natural'. It definitely depends on what sound you want though. I really like steel strings and the mag can add in some things that piezos lack- best of both worlds so to speak. For examples of mags blended with piezos check out Heard Fall Hearts or the Blackjackits and others (The Living End, I think?). But pretty much all the big names in psychobilly like Nekromantix, Reverend Horton heat, koffin kats etc. only use piezos. Right now I use a normal bridge + neck K&K setup + I add in a tiny bit of a mag with a passive mixer for some added depth. The piezos are the main part of my sound though. Listen to and watch bass players that sound good to you and ask or see what they are using.

Piezos do feedback easily IF not setup right, and as a newbie- you're probably not going to be setup right, at least right off the bat. How tightly the pickup fits is key, plus general setup of your bass- bridge/soundpost. 2nd soundposts can help alot as also already mentioned. Also preamps. But the point is it IS totally possible to play blazing loud with piezo and no feedback- as mentioned, pretty much all the top names in the psychobilly genre just use only piezos. If you're willing to take time and experiment and ask questions you can get it setup so there's little to no feedback ever, but it might not happen overnight.

If you do decide to try the mag route, for cheap and easy strings, just try bumping the steels you already have over (use the A tuned down to E as your E string, D as A, G as D and then buy a cheap high C string like a corelli for $20 to use for G) and then you have a cheap and easy low tension steel set. Hell, just try the bottom 3 strings before you even buy a high C to see if you think you might like the tension and sound first. There are other steel options like solo tuning sets or light/weich sets and also some sets that are nylon wrapped steel core like eurosonics and labella black tape.

And of course without a mag you can use any damned string you want.

 

[Gaolee]

Here's my take on it, including the problems. My bass has a Fishman Full Circle piezo, and I run it into an Acoustic 360M amplifier. Substitute any absurdly large and loud stack for the Acoustic and it's going to be about the same. Feedback is an issue if I don't stand in between the amp and bass. That helps a whole lot, as does cutting the bass frequencies in the feedback range using the amp's eq. The specific frequency to cut is going to vary a bit, depending, but a DB isn't an earthmover like a BG is anyway. That's not the sound you are going to be after when you are slapping. It's the mids and higher frequencies that I emphasize in order to get the overtones and slap to come through. The root of the note does it's thing just fine with the lowest frequencies cut.

That said, one of these days, I would like to get a Fishman preamp to get a bit more control over feedback and the overall sound. And a smaller amp would be great for when I don't need to knock down walls. But that's later. In the mean time, the big amp does have a volume knob. Plus, it looks really serious.

For strings, I use Pirastro Evah Pirazzis. I play arco sometimes, pizz sometimes, and slap sometimes, and those strings are the most versatile I have found. It is all a compromise.

 

[Pocket Grub]

A decent preamp ( I run a Fishman) with a notch filter and phase reverse is huge to keep feedback at bay. FDeck HPfs work great too!