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Double Bass Blending three inputs??

L

Lia_G

Oct 27, 2005
3,074
199
#1
Okay, I'm one of the probably rare individuals who wants both "my bass only louder" and fingerboard clickities ala rockabilly, etc. With my main band, I do a strange mix of blues, jazz, punk, and goth-ish sort of stuff. The acoustic sound is important to me, and to the band's sound, but so is percussive slap noises. I'm adding a mic to my Underwood, with a two channel preamp ... but I'm also thinking of adding a transducer under the fingerboard for the percussion section sounds. So how do I blend three sound sources? Do I put the pickup and mic into one two channel pre, then the output from that plus the fingerboard transducer into a second two channel pre, then into the amp??

Any advice is very welcome ...

Cheers
 
#2
Liam, I reckon what you outlined would work.

But before you do all that, see how much clickity you get when you add that new mic to your setup. I don't slap the big girl, but sometimes on a drummerless gig, I might slap the fingerboard w/ my rt. hand on 2 and 4 during a stop like a hi-hat would just to keep the pulse going. The slap comes through loud and clear (sometimes too loud) with my just my bridge wing mounted pickup and my mic.
 
#3
One thought is that only the bridge pickup needs a piezo preamp. The mic needs a mic preamp of course, but the fingerboard transducer could probably tolerate a less than ideal impedance, because it isn't reproducing low frequencies. Thus your existing preamp plus a small mic mixer might do the trick.

After you try bolo's suggestion, of course.
 
#4
I think you could pull it off with a D-Tar Solstice. It's a two channel pre-amp/mixer yes, but both channels have slots to plug in both a 1/4 inch cable , and a mic cable, so with it it's possible to blend 4 things at once into one amp I guess. I use mine for doubling, so I've never tried it for this type of an aplication. Both the 1/4 inch and the mic line on each channel have seperate volume controls, so it could be blended, but you would have to share the same EQ on whatever channel had two things going into it at once.
 
#5
Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'll see how much clickity stuff the Golden Bullet mic picks up before thinking more about a transducer, then.

FDeck, if you check back on this thread ... is there an impedance problem going from the K&K Golden Trinity two channel pre (which blends my Underwood and the mic) into your HPF/pre? I'd still like to use your phase switching and high pass filter ... just not sure what the effect of chaining preamps like this could be.

Thanks!
 
#6
Ned Okra said:
What's yer background son? How long have you been playing w/ big girls? Who taught ya how to slap, yer mom er your pa?

Three transdoozers? Man, what a durn mess. C'mon son. Sounds sloppy like a pigpen after a rainstorm.

Maybe y’all just don’t like get it yet, but it’z been my ‘sperience that problems with clickity sound all come back to how you slap the bugger. That is, fizical approach. Slap it like you mean it. Get mad durn it. That’s the only way your big girl and your youngin’s will click when you clack, and show’z you the respect you dezerve.
Click to expand...

:D
 
#7
The crazy hillbilly's is right, a good pickup should get the slap well enough with good technique. A mic plus two pickups sounds like too much to go wrong to me. Plus, I'd speculate that the mic would be liable to cause feedback in a loud setting.

You could accomplish this by running each pickup / mic separately into a tiny mixer, like a "Behringer UB1202". But I wouldn't bother.

I've fooled with neck clickys, wires, pre-amp mixers, etc... over the last year, in order to get more "clicky" from the slap. But I have gone back to my original setup, just one pickup, the Revolution Solo II. I found that my slap technique has improved to the point where I think the neck pickup is more hassle than it's worth, with extra gizmos and wires.
 
#8
Yeah, I think I'm going to just try the mic and pickup mix. I understand the feedback issues, but I can turn the mic off if needed. The acoustic sound really is an important element to our band sound, so I'm willing to try the mic to see what I can get. I'm not a typical slap player. Slap is a very minor component that just augments pizz and arco. I haven't been getting enough of the slap through just the Underwood, which made me post this thread. But we'll see how much sound the mic pics up.

Cheers
 
#9
Liam I hope you realize I wasn't trying to be critical of your slap technique. Not in the least. Nor was Ned Okra trying to downplay the importance or the accuracy of the sage advice that Ed Fuqua and others continue to offer to those that will listen re: the importance of a good acoustic sound as a starting point for a good amplified sound. Just a little self-deprecating humor.

Which reminds me. I saw a sign in a local restaurant here in Apex recently that I liked. It read:

"Country fried stake, 2 veggies, $5.95"​
 
#10
bolo said:
Liam I hope you realize I wasn't trying to be critical of your slap technique. Not in the least. Nor was Ned Okra trying to downplay the importance or the accuracy of the sage advice that Ed Fuqua and others continue to offer to those that will listen re: the importance of a good acoustic sound as a starting point for a good amplified sound. Just a little self-deprecating humor.

Which reminds me. I saw a sign in a local restaurant here in Apex recently that I liked. It read:

"Country fried stake, 2 veggies, $5.95"​
Click to expand...

Oh, hey, it's really easy to be critical of my slap technique, which is more accent oriented than anything else. Or my pizz technique, for that matter. ;) No, I didn't take your or "Ned's" words that way. I just wanted to clarify a bit. Many of the slap players I meet where I live really don't do anything *except* slap, and couldn't care less about acoustic tone. Actually, one of the reasons I got my current main gig is that I don't "just slap." I just wanted to be clear that I sort of want it all ... "my bass only louder", plus clickities. Louder clickities. ;)

Cheers
 
#12
liam_g said:
Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'll see how much clickity stuff the Golden Bullet mic picks up before thinking more about a transducer, then.

FDeck, if you check back on this thread ... is there an impedance problem going from the K&K Golden Trinity two channel pre (which blends my Underwood and the mic) into your HPF/pre? I'd still like to use your phase switching and high pass filter ... just not sure what the effect of chaining preamps like this could be.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The HPF-Pre can handle a low impedance source. Just make sure the K&K isn't adding a lot of gain, because the headroom of the HPF-Pre is fairly well matched to what I expect a typical pickup to put out.
 

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