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Double Bass Clevinger EUB megathread

#81
makaspar said:
I will, for sure.. Talked to him on the phone, and he seems like a good guy - he's on here too, so he's probably reading this - hey Dan! I'd imagine that an EUB would be pretty hard to move in SA/Central TX..

That being said, and with my limited experience with upright - what should I look for? Same as bass guitar?
Click to expand...

Yeah, most guys on here are pretty straight-shooters fo' sho'!

As far as what to look for, I'd throw that to the guys in the Upright forums.
 
#82
I had a nice acoustic concerto model. It sounded OK, the pickup was not in the same league as the instrument itself in terms of quality. My main problem was that there was virtually no support; Jennifer would return emails, but I had serious questions and really needed advice from the builder but I never was able to get any help from Martin. I finally gave up and sold the instrument mainly out of frustration. A little tweaking and that instrument could have been a real keeper.....pity.
JS
 
#83
Okay, finally getting back to this. I've tried an ADI21 with the bass and it got a little better. I think it is 4.7M imp. I've got an FDeck on order. Maybe the higher Imp. with the HPF will help more?

I also need to identify the strings.

stringsjpeg.jpg
 
#84
here's some pics of the bridge with the pickups installed. I tried the BassMax and it overdrives the ADI21, even with the presence
all of the way off. Not sure what's up with that yet. here is a pic of the bridge and PU's. the wires may look blue but, they are gray.
The notch you see in the bridge wing that is slightly larger is where it has been filed some to fit the BassMax. Does anyone have a guess what kind of PU's these are? Maybe Clevinger makes them? Thanks.

th_bridge1jpeg.jpg


pickup1jpeg.jpg


pickup2jpeg.jpg
 
#86
thanks Francois! You are the king of strings! Do you have any suggestions for strings on EUBs? Are you familiar with the Pizzacato's? They are old, but not used much and it's always been in the case.

Man, I'm getting closer! Just waitin on Francis. Looks like he's pretty busy with multiple orders right now. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for your patience.

Dan
 
#89
greenbass5 said:
I guess for now, I'm more concerned with the idea that the pizzicato's could be a part of the problem?
Click to expand...

They're not bad strings.
If the action is too low, you may get what you think is a problem, furthermore if you never played a carefully setuped upright.
Of course, if you get new, fresh ones, you could discard them of the equation.
You may want to look at Spiro Weichs.
There's often a set for sale on the Classifieds, sometimes almost new.
These strings last for years, and are kind of a reference for modern jazz pizz. (clear strong tone with sustain)
 
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#90
greenbass5 said:
Hello,
I'v trying to use an old Clevinger bass with what appears to be two Piezo's mounted in slits in the bridge. It has a volume and tone control on it. It sounded really bad until I ran it through my Demeter compulator. I'm assuming because of the 1 M impedence of the Demeter. It sounds pretty good but, I get a thump when I engage the string for the pluck and then another when my finger comes to rest on the adjacent string after the pluck. Not to mention my speakers look like they are going to jump out of the cabs! Is my technique that bad? Or, is this thump caused by a rogue frequency. I will say this, it's audible. Possibly bad technique and some sort of infrasonic that needs to be removed? I'm not sure what strings are on it perhaps someone here can identify them. I'll try to post some pics later today. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hello,
I actually own a Clevenger that's older than this one. It had the "Diamond Sonance" pickup that actually sounded nice. The Piezo's were mounted into a resonating chamber. For some reason Martin never dealt with the 1-10 meg ohm loading factor that would have made his older basses sound a lot better. I'm almost certain that if you add a HPF-Preamp of something like it between the bass and amp it will greatly improve the sound. I've used the Fishman Preamp and The Headway Preamp with my Clevenger and it really helped the sound.

Ric
 
#91
Thanks Ric. I'm hoping that the FDeck does it. I may be trying another HPF that actually has a steeper roll off than the FDeck. Another thing that has crossed my mind is bypassing the onboard vol/tone once the FDeck gets here. I can say that I really dig the neck on this bass! I can totally agree about the older Clev. basses needing help. I tried one of the new Concerto models and I can say that he's got those dialed in! Pricey but good.

Francois, I really like the strings that are on it. To me, they feel soft and supple and I like the way they feel on the bass.
Hopefully the increase in imped. and the right HPF will get me going without needing to change the strings.

Thanks again.

Dan
 
#92
I highly recommend you plug the pickup directly into the HPFPre unit!
If Martin put a low impedance (say 100Kohms) volume pot directly across the pickup, no wonder why it sounds awful. Same thing if there's an RC tone control there.
The front-end must not be passive with a piezo pickup.
(passive components are resistors, variable resistors (volume pot, tone pot), capacitors, inductors)
 
#94
Francois Blais said:
I highly recommend you plug the pickup directly into the HPFPre unit!
If Martin put a low impedance (say 100Kohms) volume pot directly across the pickup, no wonder why it sounds awful. Same thing if there's an RC tone control there.
The front-end must not be passive with a piezo pickup.
(passive components are resistors, variable resistors (volume pot, tone pot), capacitors, inductors)
Click to expand...

++1 My Clevenger had 100k pots, passive circuit. Terrible.


Edit: Same with the Azola Bug Bass (90's model) I have now. It was wired with low impedance pots, passive circuit. Bypassing them improved everything.

EDIT: Two Bass Max PU's (Azola)with a passive balance pot and master volume. I'm thinking seriously of trying to get one of fdecks units on board in the space where those controls are useless now. The Azola Bug is a wonderful instrument, BTW.
 
#98
I have an old Clevinger bass, I believe from around 84. I bought it used about 15 years ago. It is in rough shape, too many years on the road. I am considering rebuilding it. My question is if I repaint it and loose the Clevinger decal and installing a tom tom stand (I understand that is the best way) will I loose collectibility or is there any vintage value.
 

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