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Double Bass Big Rig Suggestions-Stage Filling Sound

#21
I play pretty loud. My setup is a fishman full circle pickup through an aguilar solid state head (AG500) and an aguilar 212, sometimes a 112 if space is an issue. I think tube heads muddy up the already complex upright sound, so I steer clear of SVT's. I like GK heads pretty well when I have to use them for backline, and 15 cabs. Have fun! Great band.
 
#22
I've been using an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 and an SL112 for gigs with a drummer and that rig has been great. You can add a second SL112 for more volume if you need it. The amp and cabinet are really light, and because you'd have two cabs, the rig can be pared down to fit different gigs. I tend to get some high-end feedback when blending with a mic, but careful EQ'ing has always been able to take care of it.
 
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#23
Came to this forum (I'm usually on the other side) to ask a pickup question, then the thread title caught my eye. Saw and loved the Chocolate Drops a couple of years back. Cool cats to talk with, too. Serious congratulations on playing with them. Re. Mike's cabs, I've not used one with upright, but I had a 66 that slammed with electric (and have a 112 on the way).
 
#24
tyb507 said:
I love my 26/46 stack, and finally got to use it on a fairly large stage with a loud country band. No problem keeping up, and it carried the stage sound great. There's a 66 for a great price in the classifieds right now, as well as a newer 46: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/mas-66-in-good-condition-ver-2-w-upgrades.1104525/#post-16433467
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Oh! That was mine! It just sold, though.

Also, haven't used it with upright (and haven't played amplified upright since high-school jazz band), but the fDeck Series III HPF seems like it would do a good job of controlling/shaping the bottom end if that's a concern (I've found it handy with electric and my Mesa Walkabout).
 
#26
Actually all three. I've owned the puma and now .have the Demeter. If ihad the dough I'd keep both. They all work great. The Puma it's probably the best choice for upright. Easiest to eq asound which is really important if you're touring. The Demeter has a but more "pop" but the eq is less comprehensive. II use the Fishman dual parametric with it. Without the Fishman the Demeter would be less useful for upright ithink. The Glock is maybe abit more transparent than the puma but I'm not abig fan of the eq for upright. I'd have to use the Fishman with it and ilike the sound of the Demeter a bit better.
all the are great but the puma is MUCH easier to get a sound. And it's the smallest. I didn't need to bring the Fishman with the puma. I bet you wouldn't have a problem getting an endorsement.

I'm not touring right now. If I was it would be with the puma. It's also the smallest.
 
#30
Mike Arnopol knows a lot about amplified upright, so I'd take his advise very seriously! I haven't had the pleasure of trying his new cabs but I have no doubt they are very good. There are a few nice choices for cabs these days. AudioKinesis also have some terrific cabs for upright. All these cabs have their own sound, so do a little research and you'll be off to the races in no time :)

For amps (that I've heard or tried)-

Lots of upright players here in Nashville are using the Aggie TH500 and I like them quite a bit.

The new GK MB and MBF800's are getting a lot of love from the gut string slap style players. I've played a couple and liked them a lot.

As stated, the Puma 900 is really nice, clean and shapeable.

Genz Shuttle 9.2 is really good too!

I sometimes run a Mesa M9 which I like a lot, but my main rig these days is a Michael Pope MPP2 with a power amp. One of the best (if not THE best) upright pres I've ever heard. I keep a 31 band graphic eq in my rack for when a really tricky room shows up....and they show up all the time! You'd do well to at least have a quality parametric eq on hand (Empress is good).

Best of luck and congrats on your new gig!
 
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#31
You know--I'd played the GK MB800 through other cabs a few years ago and didn't like it for upright, but Clark Summers (great bassist) was over trying cabs. He brought a MB800. I though it didn't sound that great. But then I started seriously messing with the eq and was actually able to get a nice amplified upright sound. I just had to get a bit more extreme with the eq than I'm used to. But it actually sounded really good. Didn't like the Genz's for upright.

Mark is right about a parametric. Often times on the road rooms can be very tricky and a parametric is really useful. Bit of a learning curve but once you get your ears and brain trained it'd pretty easy. If you can find a used Fishman Dual Parametric buy it---fabulous for upright---electric, too.
 
#32
Mike Arnopol said:
You know--I'd played the GK MB800 through other cabs a few years ago and didn't like it for upright, but Clark Summers (great bassist) was over trying cabs. He brought a MB800. I though it didn't sound that great. But then I started seriously messing with the eq and was actually able to get a nice amplified upright sound. I just had to get a bit more extreme with the eq than I'm used to. But it actually sounded really good. Didn't like the Genz's for upright.

Mark is right about a parametric. Often times on the road rooms can be very tricky and a parametric is really useful. Bit of a learning curve but once you get your ears and brain trained it'd pretty easy. If you can find a used Fishman Dual Parametric buy it---fabulous for upright---electric, too.
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Regarding Genz for upright. I got a couple ShuttleMax amps maybe 5-6 years ago and though they were pretty good for upright, I never really loved them. The Shuttles actually sound better than the ShuttleMax's on upright. A great local upright player uses one and has really good tone live. My buddy, Kevin Smith (Willie Nelson, Haybale) swears by his and does have really great tone.
 
#38
A long session of TB searches finally led me to this thread, which is touching on nearly all the questions I have right now regarding my own stage sound, so I beg your forgiveness for bumping such an old thread!

Background:
I started doubling (60% UB, 40% BG) in a folk-rock/alt-country band earlier this year. In the past I've used my Chinese carved UB through a Genz-Benz Shuttle 9.0 into a Audiokinesis TC112 v1 (4 ohm) to great effect. Love the wide, open tone for upright at low-medium volumes. However, with this current band I just can't compete with the stage volume when on the upright. I run into feedback problems and find myself pushing the amp into overdrive, and eq-ing for crappy tone just to get the volume I need to hear myself.

This summer has been busy for us and I've played a number of shows where backline has been supplied, often including a 410 cab. What a difference it makes being able to move that much air! This last sunday I was supplied with an ampeg 410 which I ran with my Shuttle 9.0. It sounded great, and I got more volume with my amp turned down lower and was able to dial in a better tone on the Tonebone PZ-Pre I've been running the upright through.

My thinking at this point is that I need to have the option to move more air on stage, and a 410 will get me there. I've been reading up on the latest and greatest 410s of the day but haven't seen much about how they fair with upright. To be honest, I'm not too worried about getting the perfect tone out of the stage rig because FOH is going to be what people hear anyway. Down the line I plan to send separate DIs to the board for each instrument, and really just use the stage rig as monitoring (I too have suffered from ass-sounding monitors when the stage rig wasn't enough:vomit:).

TL/DR:
I'm looking for a cab that sounds good with UB, doesn't weigh a ton, and hopefully isn't too pricy, that I can use as my stage rig for loud gigs. To the OP, what did you end up getting for your run with the CCDs? I bow to the wisdom of the Jedi Council.
 
#39
Jason Sypher said:
I'm beginning to work with Rhiannon Giddens and The Carolina Chocolate Drops. We will soon be touring her new solo album produced by T-Bone Burnett. The CCD will be adding myself and a drummer with a big 28" bass drum. The band is heavy on the low end with a cello as well. I haven't had a big rig in years but I find I really need to push some air on stage. Monitors sound like ass so I don't want that to be my stage sound. I'd like most of the stage sound to come from my rig. For the next month and a half I'll rent back line on location. I asked for an SWR and a 4x10 just because I know the rig. But what other suggestions might you guys have? I tried a 2x10 last week at the Stoughton Opera House and it wasn't enough so we had to bring up the monitors which sounded horrible. Thoughts or suggestion? I'm running a gage pick up and a AMT mic to FOH. Love the Arnipol stuff but I'm not sure it's built for the big stage....I want my own rig when the bus tour kicks in come January. I guess I'm thinking Acoustic Image or GK head for clean simple power.
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For bigger stages I use my GK700rbII and a 6x10 Ampeg. I also always run my SansAmp as a pre so my sound is solid through my rig and the monitors.
 

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