Cabling this set-up for upright

[66 Fender Jazz]

Someone hopefully might advise. Stick with me here.

Here are the bits: Upright bass with piezo pick-up, Fishman Pro Platinum EQ going into the power amp in jack of an Ampeg B1 combo amp (by-passing the Ampeg's pre-amp). Lastly, a Zoom B1XFour multi- effects processor. Should the Zoom be inserted first in the chain from the bass before the Fishman, before leading to the power amp in of the Ampeg? The pedal more commonly sits in the line between EB and combo amp like a conventional foot pedal but Fishnan is critical for piezo impedance matching here.

Ideas?

 

[BassKees]

I would start with the Fishman. Be sure to use a short cable (max 4 ft) between the piezo and the Fishman.

 

[Redbrangus]

You definitely want to have the preamp -- the Fishman -- first in the signal chain. The FX unit could go between the preamp and the amp input, but IIRC, the Fishman has an effects loop built in -- you could also insert the Zoom there. One advantage of that would be that your effects would be in the DI output of the Fishman.

 

[Wasnex]

I agree; Preamp first.

You can try it both ways, but I believe you will get the best result plugging the piezo pickup into the Fishman. Why? Piezo pickups benefit from being loaded with high impedance. Per the Zoom B1XFour Manual, the input impedance is only 470K. The bare minimum for a piezo is generally considered 1Meg. In comparison, the input impedance for the Fishman is 10Meg.

The optimal load varies by pickup design. Some piezos benefit from an even higher impedance than 10Meg, but I believe optimal for most piezos falls between 2 and 5Meg.

 

[66 Fender Jazz]

You definitely want to have the preamp -- the Fishman -- first in the signal chain. The FX unit could go between the preamp and the amp input, but IIRC, the Fishman has an effects loop built in -- you could also insert the Zoom there. One advantage of that would be that your effects would be in the DI output of the Fishman.

Out of my lane here, technically. The Zoom has an input and an output jack. The Fishman has effect send and return jacks. I am connecting the bass to the Fishman's 'input' and its 'amp output' is going into 'power amp in' of bass combo amp. How is the Zoom connected into this signal chain? Thank you for this help.

 

[Redbrangus]

The bass itself goes into the input of the Fishman; as mentioned, keep that cable as short as is practical. The Effect Send is connected to the Zoom input, and the Zoom output is connected back ("returned") to the Effects Return jack on the Fishman. Then the output of the Fisman is connected to the amp input. So you can see that the Zoom is inserted in a loop -- an effects loop -- in the internal signal path of the Fishman. This is very much like the effects loop on your amp; the signal from the amp's internal preamp is interrupted at the point where it enters the power amp section by an effects loop. You're using the 'return' path of that loop to input your external devices into the power amp section of the amplifier. In 'loop' situations, the 'Send' is an output and the 'Return' is an input -- the signal normally goes directly (internally) from the Send jack to the Return jack, but inserting a signal cable into the Return jack interrupts that 'normalled' connection.