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Double Bass Amp in the pit?

T

tornadobass

Guest
Nov 20, 2000
1,741
113
#1
I'm doing another musical for our community theatre (King & I). In the past, the shows have had heavy pizz parts on bass and I've used my BugBass EUB successfully.

This time, there's a ton of arco and I've been asked to use my acoustic upright, an American Standard.

It's a 29 piece orchestra!

Will I be able to hold my own if most players are staying soft and I just play out? Or should I bring my GK combo and add a bit of amped volume as well?
 
#3
tornadobass said:
I'm doing another musical for our community theatre (King & I). In the past, the shows have had heavy pizz parts on bass and I've used my BugBass EUB successfully.

This time, there's a ton of arco and I've been asked to use my acoustic upright, an American Standard.

It's a 29 piece orchestra!

Will I be able to hold my own if most players are staying soft and I just play out? Or should I bring my GK combo and add a bit of amped volume as well?
Click to expand...

Tornado,
Well I've played shows without any amp years ago, when I did our local civic theater, but these day's I use an amp. Bowing with a pickup is a little problematic through an amp, especially when you have to switch between arco and pizz in the middle of a number. If you can get away with it I'd figure out a way to cut the volume on arco with a foot pedal. There's also the eq differences between arco and pizz. I don't know how you'll solve that one without two channel amp though?

Ric
 
#6
if you want to keep it simple just turn down the high end in the amp. a fat dark pizz sound usually works for shows like that & the arco stuff will not be scratchy. you can adjust your volume by simply playing louder or softer on the bass itself and not hassling with the amp. bowing through the amp makes it a new animal, but you'll adjust just fine. what kind of strings & pickup are you using.the GK combo is a good amp choice.
 
#8
peterpalmieri said:
You may also consider just bringing a mic and go to the house with it and let them worry about it.
Click to expand...

Dude, believe me, you DO NOT want an open mic in the pit. There's a great story about drummer Barrett Deems, he's playing some giant rich fancy NY bar mitzvah and suddenly his bass drum pedal breaks. He makes it through the next few tunes and then there's a big break for speeches and lighting candles and ****. He's down behind the kit working desperately to fix the beater strap , when somebody comes up to the stage and asks to borrow the mic, so the rabbi can pray over the bread. Deems says, under his breath, "**** the bread, somebody pray for my ****ing pedal".

All of which is picked up by the bass drum mic.
 
#9
Funny story about the drummer.

Everybody seems to be so concerned with "the sound guy" not just this thread but in general, I've used my AMT mic in a pit with no problems. If it is in the house it's usually so low compared to all the vocal mics, it helps fill in the low end in the room, has a nice arco sound and doesn't pickup other things going on around you.
 
#10
Ed Fuqua said:
Dude, believe me, you DO NOT want an open mic in the pit. There's a great story about drummer Barrett Deems, he's playing some giant rich fancy NY bar mitzvah and suddenly his bass drum pedal breaks. He makes it through the next few tunes and then there's a big break for speeches and lighting candles and ****. He's down behind the kit working desperately to fix the beater strap , when somebody comes up to the stage and asks to borrow the mic, so the rabbi can pray over the bread. Deems says, under his breath, "**** the bread, somebody pray for my ****ing pedal".

All of which is picked up by the bass drum mic.
Click to expand...

That Just made my day. :D
 
#11
Good ideas...I asked the music director and he suggests to allow an amp as an option but don't start there. I'd be using a Rev Solo 2 pickup with Permanents for strings.

The EQ and volume difference for arco/pizz is probably the biggest challenge. I thought of using the boost switch to manage this, but don't have one right now. Another idea was to use an A/B switch and send the bass to the amp with A and nowhere with B, just letting the bass handle its own arco.

None of the orchestra will be in the house sound system, so the mic isn't an option.
 

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