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Double Bass Any tips to help me love my Wav 4

Jared Houseman

Jared Houseman

Jul 5, 2018
738
793
#1
I have a Wav 4 but I don't really enjoy playing it. It's nice to have when I can't bring my upright, but in those cases currently, I'd rather just play BG.

I don't hate the tone but I don't love it either. I believe my main issue is not liking the neck. It feels big and clunky compared to my Englehardt, but I know there's not much I can do about that.

I still have on stock strings and I am not yet using a preamp.
I ordered a set of GHS crossovers and I'm going to build a Barcus Berry 3000AE Piezo Buffer Preamp for this bass. It'll eventually get a set Innovation super silvers next time I change my Englehardt.

Hopefully that'll help my tone enough for me to justify dealing with the neck.
I might try sanding down the neck to help with the stickyness but i'm not totally comfortable doing that.

Does anyone else have any advise?
I could take it to my luthier to see if he can shave down the neck, but that seems like a bit much
 
#2
Adding the preamp should help the sound.
I have crossovers on mine: they give it a nice, punchy focussed sound for pizz, but they sound terrible for arco. So as long as pizz is your thing, they should do well.
 
#3
Jared Houseman said:
I have a Wav 4 but I don't really enjoy playing it. It's nice to have when I can't bring my upright, but in those cases currently, I'd rather just play BG.

I don't hate the tone but I don't love it either. I believe my main issue is not liking the neck. It feels big and clunky compared to my Englehardt, but I know there's not much I can do about that.

I still have on stock strings and I am not yet using a preamp.
I ordered a set of GHS crossovers and I'm going to build a Barcus Berry 3000AE Piezo Buffer Preamp for this bass. It'll eventually get a set Innovation super silvers next time I change my Englehardt.

Hopefully that'll help my tone enough for me to justify dealing with the neck.
I might try sanding down the neck to help with the stickyness but i'm not totally comfortable doing that.

Does anyone else have any advise?
I could take it to my luthier to see if he can shave down the neck, but that seems like a bit much
Click to expand...


I have an EUB and much prefer my URB. I use it when I can't bring the URB or too lazy for a rehearsal perhaps. But I don't hate the EUB. I did buy URB stings and installed them on the EUB and I made sure the action matches the URB right at the beginning. That might help the feel and tone. The general advice I received if you have to do an EUB at least get URB strings and setup. Not sure about the big and clunky feel, maybe adjusting the setup might help with that.

My EUB has the side contraption to mimic the upper bout on the URB (Waist Extension) and while not perfect does help with the "feel". It stands on an endpin so with the upper bout stand in you also hold it more like an URB. I don't think you can do that part with the Wav-4, but at least the strings and setup might help.

I also use a Fishman pre-amp for both URB and EUB it really helps with the piezo pickups.
 
#4
what is a good input impedance for the Wav? I have an mxr M81 that is 2.2M but that seems a little lower than I want. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to build a preamp like i had hoped. A friend of mine has a Fishman platinum pro that I might be able to get my hands on to try.
 

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