I've got a Walter Woods that Walter built for me back in '85. It's at the end of the road. If I can reach him I may see about getting it fixed, but it may just be time to move on. He's not taking any new orders. Absolutely wonderful amplifier and has served me well all these years.
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Best amp for electric/upright doubling
- Thread starter jsherm
- Start date
Another one here for the Acoustic Image. Most probably, any two channel amp would do the work for you, but my experience with AI has been amazing in terms of the form factor (small and light), power and reliability. And top-notch customer service IME and IMO...
This is what I use as well, awesome amp and great feature set for making life easy with the upright in a live setting. Sad to sea EA go, but you might be able to find one used.
You have several options:
1. Two-channel amp
- GR Bass Dual800
- Acoustic Image Clarus
- Acoustic Image Clarus SL-2
- Euphonic Audio Doubler (II)
- Grace Design Felix
- EDB 2 HE
- Acoustic Image Flex Pre
- EBS Stanley Clarke Signature Acoustic Pre
- EBS MicroBass 3
- EBS MicroBass 2
- Radial PZ Pro
- Radial PZ Pre
- Radial Bassbone OD
- Radial Bassbone V2
- Trickfish Trilobite
Therefore, I consider it crucial to be able to send the signal of each instrument to FOH separately when doubling.
The trouble with the devices listed above is that most of them will send only one signal to FOH for both instruments. Exceptions are GR Bass Dual800 and Grace Felix.
The way I have been doing it recently constitutes another/third option which is, IMHO, the most practical:
3. Single channel preamp (plus single channel amp with paralel FX loop)
I plug my pasive electric upright into single-channel preamp (Broughton Messenger) and into my amp's FX return (Markbass Little Mark III). I plug my bass guitar into my amp's instrument input. I send the electric upright signal to FOH from the Messenger and the bass guitar signal either from separate DI box (Radial JDI) or from the amp's XLR output (set to "pre").
If you choose the third option, you need to make sure that your amp has paralel FX loop and allows both the instrument input and FX return being used at the same time.
Good luck!
I love the WW below. Tons of headroom. I recently purchased the TT 800 and love the versatility it offers. As stated earlier I believe Walter is not taking new orders.
The Bergantino B|Amp has hpf, lpf and 3 programmable channels. I've not used it for uprite yet, but many do
I don’t do pit work but I double quite frequently.
I’ve got three EA amps (Doubler, Doubler II, and Classic) an Acoustic Image Ten2, a Grace Felix, and a little buffered Y-type box that Goodwood audio built me a while back.
Euphonic Audio amps are my favorite. I originally had the Doubler, but was having problems with the phantom power section and my Remic Green mic. Talked to Gary about it and basically that older phantom power section wasn’t designed for the power needs of the Remic but could send me the amp and the mic and he could rework the power supply. However he also said they were getting ready to retire and was willing to make me a killer deal on a new amp. We finally worked out a deal for the Doubler II and the Classic. It was an amazing deal that I couldn’t pass up.
Someone mentioned earlier the Doublers were slightly underpowered. I’ve never ever noticed that. Even the 1st Gen doubler delivers… which is why I’ve still got it. They all have a single DI, so FOH might hate you switching back and forth.
The Acoustic Image Ten2 is great, compact, and clean. It’s two distinct channels. I don’t feel like it has the same oomph as the EA stuff but it sounds good. I just have to be careful with the downward firing woofer and feedback depending on the stage. It has a single DI as well.
The Goodwood Audio box is a simple little two input one output box they made for me a while back. Input A is buffered for the DB and input B is buffered for the electric. I used it with my Ampeg PF500 and I hold onto it just in case. Great little pedal. Simple and super effective. Used with any amp.
Finally… the Grace Felix. I love this thing. Can use it with any amp. Great controls. Clean phantom power. Two balanced outputs that can be separate channels or summed. Separate amp out. I can use it with any amp, or no amp. If you already have a setup you love then this is what I’d recommend. Add the threaded XLR adapter to the bottom and you can mount it to your music stand right about knee level. Or put it back by your amp and run the foot switch out for Mute and Channel Switching.
I’ve got three EA amps (Doubler, Doubler II, and Classic) an Acoustic Image Ten2, a Grace Felix, and a little buffered Y-type box that Goodwood audio built me a while back.
Euphonic Audio amps are my favorite. I originally had the Doubler, but was having problems with the phantom power section and my Remic Green mic. Talked to Gary about it and basically that older phantom power section wasn’t designed for the power needs of the Remic but could send me the amp and the mic and he could rework the power supply. However he also said they were getting ready to retire and was willing to make me a killer deal on a new amp. We finally worked out a deal for the Doubler II and the Classic. It was an amazing deal that I couldn’t pass up.
Someone mentioned earlier the Doublers were slightly underpowered. I’ve never ever noticed that. Even the 1st Gen doubler delivers… which is why I’ve still got it. They all have a single DI, so FOH might hate you switching back and forth.
The Acoustic Image Ten2 is great, compact, and clean. It’s two distinct channels. I don’t feel like it has the same oomph as the EA stuff but it sounds good. I just have to be careful with the downward firing woofer and feedback depending on the stage. It has a single DI as well.
The Goodwood Audio box is a simple little two input one output box they made for me a while back. Input A is buffered for the DB and input B is buffered for the electric. I used it with my Ampeg PF500 and I hold onto it just in case. Great little pedal. Simple and super effective. Used with any amp.
Finally… the Grace Felix. I love this thing. Can use it with any amp. Great controls. Clean phantom power. Two balanced outputs that can be separate channels or summed. Separate amp out. I can use it with any amp, or no amp. If you already have a setup you love then this is what I’d recommend. Add the threaded XLR adapter to the bottom and you can mount it to your music stand right about knee level. Or put it back by your amp and run the foot switch out for Mute and Channel Switching.
Hoping not to derail the thread too much. In my experience, most of the professional regional theaters and some of the community theaters around here have already, or are in the process of, switching to IEMs. Schools, universities, churches and temples not so much, yet. For those, I still use an amp.
Here is the last of the three I had, going back to the early '80s. This one is from April 2001.
I double as well, using a one channel amp (Genzler Magellan). I found a simple solution - doesn't help if you need different eq settings, but for me the only issue was input level. Saturnworks, a small boutique pedal maker in CA, makes a AB pedal with volume controls for each input. Very good company to deal with, responsive and reasonably priced.
https://saturnworkspedals.com/product/ab-pedals/
What you'd want is the AB reversed with volume controls.
https://saturnworkspedals.com/product/ab-pedals/
What you'd want is the AB reversed with volume controls.
IME, if the gig is big enough to require PA support, you really want to have independent channels for EB and URB.
For a theater gig w/amp, I'd use a Grace Felix as my front end, send each channel to it's dedicated DI and send the blended signal to the amp for personal monitoring. The Felix is at your feet and gives you control of signal path/mute/tuning/etc. without having to move around much.
For bigger shows with the right space and resources, I'll dedicate the Felix to upright and give FOH separate channels for mic and piezo pickup, send the pickup to an ABY, then to the amp for personal monitoring. The EB goes through it's own signal chain to a Radial J48 > FOH, and to the ABY and on to the amp. That's a lot more gear and hassle, but the end result is better, IMO. And you have complete control over muting the full URB chain as needed.
If it's a much smaller show without any PA support and the bass amp is carrying the room, I'll generally just use my Trickfish BH1k and adjust for EB or URB as needed.
For a theater gig w/amp, I'd use a Grace Felix as my front end, send each channel to it's dedicated DI and send the blended signal to the amp for personal monitoring. The Felix is at your feet and gives you control of signal path/mute/tuning/etc. without having to move around much.
For bigger shows with the right space and resources, I'll dedicate the Felix to upright and give FOH separate channels for mic and piezo pickup, send the pickup to an ABY, then to the amp for personal monitoring. The EB goes through it's own signal chain to a Radial J48 > FOH, and to the ABY and on to the amp. That's a lot more gear and hassle, but the end result is better, IMO. And you have complete control over muting the full URB chain as needed.
If it's a much smaller show without any PA support and the bass amp is carrying the room, I'll generally just use my Trickfish BH1k and adjust for EB or URB as needed.
I feel like the Grace Felix has been the most useful sound investment I’ve made in a long long time.
I get around this by putting the electric bass through a DI box before it goes into the Doubler II - I know, another piece of gear to carry and set up, but it seemed like the easiest solution and I don't care about EQ-ing the electric before it hits front of house.
And the DI out from the Doubler is for upright only.
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I use the EBS switcher.
It is nice to have 2 separate eq.... I have a different signal chain for electric or upright
It is nice to have 2 separate eq.... I have a different signal chain for electric or upright
That’s actually a great idea. I always have a small DI in my bag that I picked up from LPB years ago that’s in a 1590B enclosure. I need to keep that in mind.
