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Double Bass Avalon U5 review

flatback

flatback

May 6, 2004
2,983
2,664
#1
I took the plunge and bought a U5. I did it cause of the knobs. Two big knarled silver knobs right on the front panel. What do they do? I haven't figured that out yet, but they are sure fun to twist.Like metal boobs, like metal FAKE boobs. I like to just run my fingers over them gently Also there are lights Blue lights and orange lights. I like the lights. A few buttons Too. Buttons are ok. But the knobs are really spectacular.
If it had a cuppla too tree lit VU meters, I'd be in heaven.
.....more later after I plug it in
 
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#2
flatback said:
I took the plunge and bought a U5. I did it cause of the knobs. Two big knarled silver knobs right on the front panel. What do they do? I haven't figured that out yet, but they are sure fun to twist.Like metal boobs, like metal FAKE boobs. I like to just run my fingers over them gently Also there are lights Blue lights and orange lights. I like the lights. A few buttons Too. Buttons are ok. But the knobs are really spectacular.
If it had a cuppla too tree lit VU meters, I'd be in heaven.
.....more later after I plug it in
Click to expand...
Superb!! That's enough of a review for me! I'm getting one too!:hyper:
 
#3
For along time I've been looking for the mythical preamp that perfectly matches the piezo pick ups on double basses. I'm a cheap mother****er so I always thought a preamp was something with a 9volt battery and a 2 band eq.
The Focus III I recently bought seems voiced really flat like a mixing board and not too well matched to the Full Circle or other Acoustic Bass pick ups and I had heard Marc Johnson playing thru the Avalon and sounding damn good.
Anyway I bought the monstrous thing the other day and I can say this much, I won't mind schleping it anywhere. this is the perfect match to both the Focus III and the Full Circle (and probably any piezo)
This box has basically, one instrument line in and a bunch of ways out, but in between it conditions the sound of a piezo like nothing I have heard (except its big brother the 737) I cant imagine getting a better sound out of this piezo, it thickens the sound and rolls off exactly what needs to be rolled off. $500 seems like a whole lot to spend on a preamp but it frees you up to plug into ANYTHING to power it: amps, boards, PA's, recording and it is finally a preamp that isn't "secretly voiced for guitar" but doubling as a bass preamp like the Solstice, Gigpro, Focus, etc. Its a huge box as preamps and Di's go, and there is a bunch of stuff in there (it says "Hi Voltage" on the front) and it just does this one thing (that I've always been looking for something to do) really really well.
The U5 into the Focus allows you to keep the Focus flat and just use the much better voiced eq curves in the U5. The first EQ curve sounded the best on my bass with a drummer: the most acoustic and thick with no nasal twang, no mid wirey mess. 3 and 4 sounded good too and I can see changing for different rooms and flat was beautiful.
Unfortunately the Focus and Avalon are designed in opposite configurations( one narrow and deep the other wide and shallow) they seem really awkward sitting on top of each other. I wish someone made half rack bags so I could mount them together.
 
#4
whew! I'm always talking up the U5 and I was afraid you might be disappointed.

Your response is exactly mine--the thing is big and awkward but it just flat out sounds good, all the time, no matter what you put into it or what you put it it through. The eq settings work--no fussing, no "contour" or "enhance" or hi this or low that, they just work, and they're just passive filters. No artificial sounding boosting or hyping. And whenever I ran a piezo pickup into it I could still tell it was a piezo but I didn't care, because the things I used to twiddle knobs to eliminate were't there. It was like the preamp equivalent of laughing gas.

I use mine with a focus sa, and they don't play well together, architecturally speaking though they work great sonically. I carry them both in a "big Mouth" tool bag

yeah, the knobs are knobalicious
 
#5
Here's the other thing I'm finding: It has more sonic possibilities, then I thought: If you plug your amp in via the front Thru jack it sounds different then using a mic cable out the back. I prefer the more full range sound of the balanced line out the back, but the front jack is what they designed to go to an amp and it has that high's rolled off double hi Z sound (I don't know what the hell that means other then on a lot of DI'd you can take a Hi Z 1/4 out to the amp.
This thing sounds so full and dynamic and phat without color ( I was previously using a Demeter Tube Direct box that sounded really good but tube colored)
Its just a huge difference between plugging the pick up directly into the amp and runnig it thru the Avalon.
It sounds really fantastic coupled with the Mic too, although the pick up sounds so good now that I don't know if I want to share any of my signal (bleed) with anyone else in the band. What I dig from the mic is the woody thickness at the beginning of notes and this box really has it.Its different from a mic, but no bleed. I'll keep the mic on there and experiment some more but....I'm tempted to let sound men deal with mics and for most smaller gigs just use the U5 and pick up.
 
#7
flatback said:
What I dig from the mic is the woody thickness at the beginning of notes and this box really has it.Its different from a mic, but no bleed.
Click to expand...
I was curious about that. I did not like the L.R. Baggs Gigpro preamp w/ my RS pickup because I thought it smoothed out the initial hit too much on each pizz pluck.

And then in turn it seemed to lose a lot of that change in the envelope that immediately follows. To me, that's what forms the "boom" and then the "bloom" and decay that I dig so much about upright.

So you're sayin' it's all there w/ the Avalon U5, eh? A nice pluck and a nice string blossom?

Some of the piezo p/u's I've tried just don't quite capture all that, especially on the E string. But maybe the U5 helps some p/u's convey it more effectively.

Boy, I gotta hear one of these things myself. Using words to describe sound just gets a bit awkward sometimes. But I definitely trust your judgment (and PB+J's too), assuming I picked the right words to pose my question.

I guess I coulda said "Does it go 'boing' like it should? And does it bounce like it should? Okay, does it bounce like a real one or an implant?"
 
#8
flatback said:
Like metal boobs, like metal FAKE boobs. I like to just run my fingers over them gently
Click to expand...
Ahh. yes, I see the image...
fatback said:
This box has basically, one instrument line in and a bunch of ways out, but in between it conditions the sound of a piezo like nothing I have heard (except its big brother the 737) I cant imagine getting a better sound out of this piezo, it thickens the sound and rolls off exactly what needs to be rolled off.
Click to expand...
sacbut said:
It sounds really fantastic coupled with the Mic too, although the pick up sounds so good now that I don't know if I want to share any of my signal (bleed) with anyone else in the band. What I dig from the mic is the woody thickness at the beginning of notes and this box really has it.Its different from a mic, but no bleed. I'll keep the mic on there and experiment some more but....I'm tempted to let sound men deal with mics and for most smaller gigs just use the U5 and pick up.
Click to expand...
This all sounds very good. I've played several gigs lately with just the preamp, the pickup and a cable to the board. I like that loadin. I'm going to have to borrow one of those pups and compare it with my other favorite...
 
#10
Ray Parker said:
Knarled boobs? Yuck.

Knurled knobs? That makes mores sense....

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Thank you oh wise one...absolutely write!
(by the way that's some bad ass playin' on that other page...)
oh just the very thought of knarled boobs...stop already.
 
#11
youngheo said:
hello flatback..

one question..

what kind of cabinet are you using with U5?

thanks
Click to expand...
LDS 1x8, Kolbe 112, MAckie SRM 450 powered speaker. Sounds best thru the LDS or SRM 450. It really sounds great thru the PA speaker. I always liked that idea too except it was too big a schlep: just a great preamp into a powered bi amped speaker. I'd love to try a pub 260 with the U5
 
#13
Well, for starters, you'd have to get a blender for the IP112 in order to be able to use the U5 with a pickup and then still figure in the SM58 (but don't gas too hard for the 58 just yet - the Beta 57 is ahead of the pack through the amp for sure). Hell, as long as you have the U5, why not grab an Avalon 737 as a pre for the mic? It's only about $2K. After that, all you'd have to worry about would be a blender, and then how to carry all of that **** to the gig when you can no longer afford your car payment.
 
#19
Man whatever they do to make this box work it sure is musical. I'm not really sure what it is either. It cant be as simple as impedence matching cause I got a bunch of different ways of doing that, but thats definately part of it. It has a kind of presence and thickness that just sounds good. I tried the TD 100 but it was at Bananas and I didn't get the same pillowy sound.
I wonder if they have some kind of compressor in there, because it responds to dynamics in a really interesting way...seems like its always pushing from below or the fundimental or something. What I don't know about these things...But I've had a lot of gear and none of it made more of a difference to the sound then the U5.
One of the eq curves it has cuts the 100k freq. all the way back. They say its for electric bass but it takes a lot of the piezo uglyness away. The curves are really useful for dialing in or out midrange and I find I don't need the HP filter going on the Focus.
Seems like a box that rewards clean playing, that is, it won't magically make you sound better then you are, but definately inspires in the heat of battle.
 
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#20
Flatback, i also used that setting four for filtering out piezo quack. The thing about it for me is tta it's not good and getting someone else's sound, but it's really good and making you sound as good as possible. i don't know what it does either--what I here is just really string, present, rich fundamental. I've also never had a single piece of gear make such a big difference. If It was lost or stolen i'd be ordering anothe rone in a second
 

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