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Double Bass Dead A string

A

Aristotlewot

Nov 14, 2009
3
0
SE England
#1
Hello,
I have recently purchased my first double bass - a 3/4 sized electric made from neck/bridge etc from an acoustic bass, fitted on a home-made solid body with Shadow bridge-mounted pick-ups.
The sound is wonderful - surprisingly acoustic in nature but there is one small annoyance:
The A string doesn't seem to have the full-bodied sound of the other strings - it is more hollow sounding with less bass & sustain/resonance.
I have modified the height of the action by shaving off about 1cm from the top of the bridge and re-filing notches for the strings, and suspect that it could be something to do with the shape of these at the point of contact.
Could anyone give me some advice as to improving the sound?
It is a brand new A string by the way - Spirocore, to match the others.
Many thanks from a complete novice.
 
#2
This is one of the caveats with EUBs.
Amplification can be pretty tricky.
Try this: use only one element of your Shadow pickup, assuming it's the double elements one, like the Underwood. Leave the other in the air.
I'm experimenting with pickups on EUBs since about 15 years.

It's not a string problem, it's the whole configuration of the pickup/bridge/instrument.

The best pickup I found so far, for my own setup, is an old Barcus-Berry from the 70s, the T-shaped one.
Just before I had (and still have in stock) a Shadow single-element.

You may have to try different things.

I also bought a second-hand magnetic pickup recently, which I'll try when i get it.
I have a small blender to mix it with the piezo.
 
#3
The first thing I'd do is determine if the A string is sounding even/balanced with the rest of the set acoustically , unplugged ect. Hopefully it is. As Francois said, it's not the string, it's the interaction of all of the parts of the bass. If the string is funky sounding unplugged, you could start checking out the instrument construction. For instance, the body/neck joint connection is just one aspect critical to the the acoustic sound.

I'd agree that trying just one element of your Shadow PU is a good idea.

Here's a great web page with some history on the development of transducers for musical instruments. Some of the earlier successful experiments were done with seismic sensors! And they give some credit where it's due to the early designers/inventors of acoustic/electric instruments.

Invalid Link Removed
 
#6
Hmm interesting - taking one pick-up out does seem to solve the problem, although at the expense of reducing output level.

I now seem to be getting a good sound by using both, but rotating one pick-up so that much less of it is in contact with the bridge.

Looks like it's one of those trial & error situations.
At least it's good to know my carpentry skills aren't to blame.

I wonder why Shadow use two pick-ups if these problems are so common?

Thanks for your help
 
#8
Are you using a preamp designed for use with piezo pu's? The input impedance of whatever you plug the pu into is critical to the pu performance. A proper preamp should give you all the gain you need as well.

A lot of the older pu's like the Barcus Berry Francois mentioned suffered performance wise for lack of a good preamp . With a good preamp, many of these older transducers offer great sound, and very different from the typical pu's being offered on the market now.
 
#9
MR PC said:
Are you using a preamp designed for use with piezo pu's? The input impedance of whatever you plug the pu into is critical to the pu performance. A proper preamp should give you all the gain you need as well.

A lot of the older pu's like the Barcus Berry Francois mentioned suffered performance wise for lack of a good preamp . With a good preamp, many of these older transducers offer great sound, and very different from the typical pu's being offered on the market now.
Click to expand...

You're right, but I don't think this is the problem here.
He wouldn't get bad performance on the A string alone, but on all strings.

As for old pickups, the very first bass pickup I bought was the model I presently used, and it didn't perform very well then.
The B-B preamp I had with it has been discontinued long ago.
No wonder why... :)
 

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