Double Bass Bass amp or powered PA cab

[Jay Corwin]

I voted bass amp, but ultimately I think this depends on your gig and it's needs. I've tried a little bit of everything in my experience. It always comes back to can I hear myself? Can the band hear me? Can the crowd hear me? I need a rig adaptable enough to solve all of those problems in a wide variety of venues. A powered speaker could never do it for me. Mileage may vary.

 

[logdrum]

My Acoustic Image combos or head + Speaker is much better than a powered speaker. I do not know how long they will last but I'll keep on using them as long as possible

 

[james condino]

Don would say, "You dadgumn'd kidz get that amp off my lawn!"

In the end it is only me and two unemployed bass players in the room who will notice, so I come on as loud and strong as folks will let me on stage for myself and the rest of the band. It is useless if I can't hear myself. The front of the house sound is a different conversation, so I run a line out to the mains. The worst is when a sound guy does not know how to run an upright bass, so the first time vocals or guitar feedback, they take all of the bass out of the monitors, leaving me dead in the water.

I usually try to keep a consistent sound with a separate amp and then scale up the amount of cabs and speakers to meet the needs of the room.

Big outside festival stages with no back wall:

 

[oren]

My spring/summer calendar has at least one small club without PA/monitor support for bass, and I'm contemplating taking a 12" powered PA cab instead of the usual small bass amp.

I prefer to go direct to PA/mons without an amp, and have struggled with the sound of my bass through a bass amp.

Curious to hear your experience if you've dealt with this, which you prefer and why.

Deets of my frontend setup: David Gage realist copperhead -> fdeck HPF pre -> EQ -> DI and/or amp

Off topic: where are you going to be playing? I’m up in Portland relatively frequently and would come by and hear you at some point.

 

[Pings Bass]

Off topic: where are you going to be playing? I'm up in Portland relatively frequently and would come by and hear you at some point.

Haymaker is the one without decent PA support, also the Six, Laurelthirst, Hostel Cafe, and some festival. More to come, supposedly, but I'm just the bass player BL keeps the calendar updated here: https://theprairiebenders.com/shows

 

[Ric Vice]

Not trying to argue, but my experience has been different. I have used a number of different preamps in front of my K8 and have not had a problem driving it effectively. It handles both line level and mic level perfectly fine.

I can only speak to the K8 v1 not the v2 but I.M.E. the differences between the line out on a Grade Felix and Headway EDB-2 H.E. are pretty striking.
The Grace starts at 21 DB and goes out to 62 DB while the Headway EDB-2 H.E. Is only 0-32 DB . The K8 v1 had much better response with the Grace. Just my take however.

 

[Ric Vice]

Thanks for all the GR recs. I'm not in a position to buy more gear at the moment, but those little powered 10s look like the kind of thing I'd like.

For now my options are a GK mb200 into a GK neo 112 or a powered 12" PA cab. Both sound just ok to my ear. I'm going to try going into the effects return on the bass amp to see if I like it any better.


Yeah, I'm working on that! Trading that rich woody acoustic tone for the nasal piezzo honk and thump hurts my soul but the reality is audiences are used to hearing amplified double bass that way. I'm not going to get "my bass only louder" on a small club stage with drums and no PA support.

Esteban,
Exclusive of the amplifier, pickup, or powered speaker, the thing that has improved my sound the most is the RedEye Twin preamp from FireEye Development. It has the ability to smooth out the frequency response in three different bands making it easier to play and sound better regardless of the amp or powered speaker.

 

[neddyrow]

AI head > MAS 18 or RevSound 48 VT depending on the size of the gig. Great tone with either cab and with that AI head, I can just plug and play.

I made it through all last summer with my Broughton Messenger and In-Ears. This worked out nicely as we play old time fiddle music with two condensers and me going direct.

 

[Ric Vice]

Good choices, while I’m not familiar with the Revsound I do know if you put a MAS 1/8 alongside a QSC K8 v1. IME The K8 pales by comparison for Double Bass. Just my take of course

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Esteban,
Exclusive of the amplifier, pickup, or powered speaker, the thing that has improved my sound the most is the RedEye Twin preamp from FireEye Development. It has the ability to smooth out the frequency response in three different bands making it easier to play and sound better regardless of the amp or powered speaker.View attachment 7196672

Ric, do you use this with your powered mas? How about the GR combo? Which input?

 

[Ric Vice]

Eric,
I use it in front of everything. The GR Bass AT Cube Acoustic, The Grace Felix MAS 1/8 combo, the Traynor SB 106
It’s the best preamp for the Realist Life Line or the Ehrlund EAP.

 

[Ryan in PDX]

Esteban,
Exclusive of the amplifier, pickup, or powered speaker, the thing that has improved my sound the most is the RedEye Twin preamp from FireEye Development. It has the ability to smooth out the frequency response in three different bands making it easier to play and sound better regardless of the amp or powered speaker.View attachment 7196672

I couldn't give it a fair shake when I had the demo unit, unfortunately. I wasn't sold, but only had it for home testing and two rehearsals. A year later, busier, and looking at some potential doubling gigs, I kinda wish that pass-around was still happening. Many here seem to like it.

 

[Ric Vice]

IME I can’t find any amp pickup combination that the RedEye Twin won’t improve. Just my take however.
It’s subtle but significant.

 

[Scott Lynch]

Most of my experience amplifying my DB has been with a bass amp rather than PA cab. I currently am using a Tonedexter into one of the Genzler Bass Array combos and I think it does a fine job. There seem to be a number of options for good PA cabs and neutral sounding bass amps out there and I'd probably be happy with many of them.

When I can get away with it, though, I prefer to be fully acoustic.

 

[Levin Hannaford]

I put a several hundred gigs the 12" Alto powered mains. After whatever preamp I had at the time (fishman, Noble, Redeye, etc) they always did the job. A bonus was they were cheap enough that I had zero worries when the rowdy drunks spilled their drinks on em

These days I take out some combo of a Quilter 800w head and a Barefaced 12 or Schroeder 2x12 depending on the venue and expectations.

In my experience, headroom is key and I’d always rather have the juice in reserve than not.

 

[Pings Bass]

hey thanks all for the responses. The poll is overwhelming "bass amp", which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. If I ever want to invest more in amplification, I'll definitely be checking out the GR stuff.

As for now, I A-B tested what I've got, and it's not even close (believe it or not ).

The test is plugging my front end (pre, hpf, eq) into an A-B switch and then into

• GK MB200/GK Neo 112 (amp set "flat"ish per recs elsewhere on TB to defeat the baked-in scoop)
• Harbinger (MF house brand) 12" powered PA top

Well... the Harbinger sucks, just a sloppy boomy mess The GK rig I think I can live with, and it's lighter, too.

Note that a big part of what I'm dealing with is getting used to the sound of my bass amplified via a piezzo, which is so far from "my bass only louder" it's making my brain glitch a little.

Esteban,
Exclusive of the amplifier, pickup, or powered speaker, the thing that has improved my sound the most is the RedEye Twin preamp from FireEye Development. It has the ability to smooth out the frequency response in three different bands making it easier to play and sound better regardless of the amp or powered speaker.View attachment 7196672

I want to get into preamps on another thread, because I'd love to hear more about this one and others.

Thanks all!

 

[Ric Vice]

I distinctly remember going to our local Guitar Center and having a salesperson tell me how great the “Harbinger” Powered Speakers were
when their rentals were all QSC K 12’s and 10’s. After listening to one I said to myself “you’ve got to be kidding me”. On the other “side of the fence”
are bass guitar amps that have EQ sections that can’t tackle the requirements of a Double Bass and cabinet’s that are voiced for Bass Guitar. I.M.E. well thought out bass amplifier will sound great with both instruments. Just this Sunday night, I heard a bassist play a Schoeps CMC 6/41 and Realist Lifeline into a Grace Felix through the Aguilar DB 751 and Cab. It sounded wonderful.! Not something I’d want to haul around however.