Double Bass Amping my Doublebass - Pedals??

[richardeff]

I recently joined a funk band and want to play my doublebass in it. Initially I had a hard time balancing my tone to get clear distinguishable notes as well as that round and full tone (I would still love suggestions on how to accomplish this).

Now I'm trying to take the next step and start running my DB through some different pedals; distortion, wah, delay, chorus etc.. So far I've tried running it through a Boss Bass driver but I can't get any kind of volume out of the amp without triggering some earsplitting feedback. What can I do??

 

[LowG]

I do a bunch of hard-rock style playing with my upright and use all sorts of effects. My first suggestion is a magnetic-style pickup. I don't think any distortion is going to work well (at concert volumes) with any transducer-type pickup.

The good things about the magnetic pickups is that you'll be able to run any effect you'd be able to run on an electric bass guitar and you can play at very loud volumes without problematic feedback. The bad things are that your tone won't have the acoustic-type sound that you're used to and you have to use strings that have enough magnetic material in them.

A person could also use a dual pickup system with a blender box. Run your "normal" pickup that you have now clean and use it for "acoustic" sounds; then run a magnetic dirty with your effects. I've done this a bit but found it not to be for me. I now just accept that my "rock" bass will have an electric-y sound and make the most of it - I'm pretty happy with it actually and audience members are always shocked by the noise I can make with it. I use other basses if I want to get a more traditional upright sound.