Double Bass amp woes: high volume causes pitch distortion on stage

[jason_p]

I've searched the internet for this problem and can't find it:

I'm new to amplifying my upright. I use a Realist pickup on my 1948 Epiphone DB and have experienced this issue through several different amps- at lower volumes everything is fine. But once we add drums and the volume goes up, suddenly my ears are hearing frequencies that I'm not playing. Sometimes my tuner even picks those up. It's extremely disorienting and I have to play entirely by memory and ignore my ears. My DI going to front of house, however, is totally in tune.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[Pat Harris]

It's been my experience that every kick drum has a pitch. If the kick is going through the PA you are absolutely going to hear frequencies that you aren't playing and a tuner will pick those up, especially a clip on tuner.

In these situations, I typically roll off my low end (from 150hz on down) and bump the mids on the amp up a bit. At this point, don't worry about the lack of low end coming from your amp, if you're all going through a PA, that should be doing the heavy lifting anyway.

 

[Ric Vice]

I'm new to amplifying my upright. I use a Realist pickup on my 1948 Epiphone DB and have experienced this issue through several different amps- at lower volumes everything is fine. But once we add drums and the volume goes up, suddenly my ears are hearing frequencies that I'm not playing. Sometimes my tuner even picks those up. It's extremely disorienting and I have to play entirely by memory and ignore my ears. My DI going to front of house, however, is totally in tune.

Jason,
I used a Realist for nearly 10 years. It's a very nice pickup if you're going into an amplifier, playing gigs where the volume is lower. Unfortunately, when you have to turn the volume up, it's tone characteristics change, and it begins to emphasize the upper midrange making it virtually un useable. As a result, when I had a Realist, I always used an AMT mic to send the bass FOH.

When the timbre changes so drastically, it's very difficult to discerne pitch. At those times, you feel like you're fighting the instrument.

One thing to remember, is that a pickup installed on the top of the instrument, will act just like a microphone, when your bass is in close proximity to other instruments. If you have some one listen to the monitors while the band is playing, they will hear the other instruments coming through the pickup

Another thing that's probably going on is that the pickup is feeding back at certian frequiencies but never goes into a feedback loop. Other instruments, especially drums can actually cause this. If the bass tom, or bass drum strikes a pitch that's in the range of your instrument, it's going to come screaming through your
signal chain . We would be better to help you, if we knew what type of amplifier you use and what other signal processors you have on hand. You have to either isolate yourself from the drum kit, or compromise your on stage tone with EQ.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks!