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Double Bass Big Band Players...

B

bobbykokinos

Dec 2, 2004
1,882
4
#1
What are you using for an amp setup for big band gigs?? I'm currently running 2 Aguilar 12s off of a GK700RB but am looking at going smaller.

Just curious to see what others are using for big band gigs (without PA assistance)
 
#3
Walter Woods Green Light Electro Accoustic 450 watt amp with Euphonic Audio 10CLX. If the band is too loud for that, they're too loud to play in tune.
 
#9
I was using a WW LowPower (125w into 8 ohms) and a Polytone cabinet with a JBL 12 in it. For larger venues I would also mic the bass (not the amp) and put that through the same PA that the horns and vocalist was going through. That was plenty loud.

Remember what Rufus says....
 
#11
I just had the pleasure of playing with the Woody Herman Big Band and I used what I always use for big bands: my Acoustic Image Contra Series I (Haven't had the bread to upgrade yet). Usually They put the amp through the house when I do big band gigs with it, but for this gig, they didn't and it cut through just fine. Or so I'm told.
 
#12
I have had such a huge range of experiences from big bands. So much depends on the strength of the band. With one big band in my locale, my GK MB150E combo is overpowered.

On my two most recent big band gigs, both with a rather loud big band, I used my rig consisting of GK Backline 600 head and DIY 1x12 speaker using the new Eminence 2512-ii neo driver. It was more than enough, yet it was still a reasonably portable package.
 
#14
bobbykokinos said:
What are you using for an amp setup for big band gigs?? I'm currently running 2 Aguilar 12s off of a GK700RB but am looking at going smaller.

Just curious to see what others are using for big band gigs (without PA assistance)
Click to expand...

I used a GK MB150S combo and before that the SWR Workingman's 10 combo, with and without a Fishman Platinum Plus preamp, and nobody could ever hear me unless there was a house PA to go into. I tried a whole bunch of things (amp position, putting the amp up high on a stand, etc.), but other than the musician on my left and the musician on my right, nobody else could hear me.

I ended up getting an EUB for the Big Band and other Very Very Loud Situations, running it through the GK MB150 combo amp, and it's more than loud enough.

Thanks for posting the question, this is a useful thread.
 
#16
Hey Bobby, nice to chat with you today in B-ton!
I use an iAmp 800 and an Acme 2x10 cabinet. It can be extremely loud, which is good for certain types of big bands, but I find that no matter the band there's really no point in pushing the volume so that you're heard just as clearly in the shout chorus as you are under a soloist. As John Hollenbeck told me, "it's just not natural to have a string bass be so loud."
I've also had success in the past with just a lo-power Walter Woods and a 1x12 cabinet (Sonic, GK, or EA depending on the decade).
 
#17
I play in a "small big band" (4 sax, 4 brass, 4 rhythm, f vox) and use 50/50 EUB and bass guitar (mostly when I also sing, which I do on like 40% of the book) and I use a G-K MB 200 combo plus an old 15" JBL cabinet for some extra "ooomph". My vocals and the bass guitar go through wireless systems and the EUB is on a stand, for maximum mobility on stage. I´m also the MC on stage.

Mikael
 
#18
I'm of the opinion that most bass is overly loud in many of today's big bands. Then again it also depends on what you are playing. There's a difference between for example Ellington style big band and Stan Kenton style big band. In the old days before bass players used amps, the bassist would be right up front and not necessarily next to the drummer in the back. That's what I do now with my own big band although I'm amplified but I am only using a single 10" and don't have it turned up much at all and it's plenty enough. However I'm playing mostly Ellington sort of stuff and as Dave Berger says, the bass is not supposed to be as loud as a trumpet. As Johono5 says, it's just not natural. Having a bass too loud will screw up the balance. On the other hand if you're buried in the back behind all the horns or it's just damn loud all the time with no real dynamics other than everything being ff which seems to be the case with some big bands then you may need more to cut through. I tell all my guys that they have to hear the bass although it may get temporarily buried in really loud sections.
 
#19
In 1941, both the Kenton and Lunceford bands had EUBs, given to them by Rickenbacker. Howard Rumsey, Kenton´s bassist, has mentioned this in interviews. Neither he nor Lunceford´s bass ace Moses Allen seem to have liked them, but that was more due to the fact that the pickups also picked up police and cab radio, that the amps were crappy and you had the AC/DC problem depending on the location of the venue.

Saw the Basie band some time ago, with Cleveland Eaton playing a Clevinger.

Mikael
 
#20
mikjans said:
Saw the Basie band some time ago, with Cleveland Eaton playing a Clevinger.
Mikael
Click to expand...

You do understand that this was most likely NOT by choice; the expense and liklihood of damage while traveling with a real bass not to mention the refusal of many airline gate staff to even allow a double bass on the plane, has neccessitated a wide variety of responses by groups who travel.
 

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